The $24 million renovation of the Nuyorican Poets Café is officially underway

ICYMI: Last week, officials announced the start of the three-year, city-funded $24.1 million renovation project for the Nuyorican Poets Café on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

The Nuyorican Poets Café, a space steeped in history and cultural significance, closed its doors this past fall after its 50th-anniversary celebration. The NYC Department of Design and Construction is now overseeing the project for the Department of Cultural Affairs that will not only renovate but also expand this iconic space, ensuring its legacy continues to thrive. 

About the work being done:

This project will renovate and expand the Café, with a new main lobby and performance space on the first floor, an additional dedicated performance space on the fourth floor, and a “flex” space on the second floor, which can be used as a classroom or rehearsal space. 

The project will also add a new elevator to the four-story building and office space for staff. These improvements will allow the organization to reach a wider audience by hosting multiple performances concurrently and providing local students with masterclasses and workshop opportunities. 

The project will also entail exterior work, including a new roof, extensive building envelope rehabilitation and waterproofing, a new ADA ramp for public access from the sidewalk level into the facility, new fire exit stairs as well as renovations to the plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems. 

Here's a look at two renderings (Rice+Lipka Architects is designing the project)...

The expected completion date is spring 2026.

Puerto Rican writer and poet Miguel Algarín founded Nuyorican in 1973 as a living-room salon on Sixth Street along with Lucky CienFuegos, Bimbo Rivas, Pedro Pietri and Miguel Piñero. Algarín died in December 2020 at age 79.

The programming here has included poetry slams, open mics, Latin and contemporary jazz and hip-hop shows, theatrical performances, educational programs, and visual art exhibits.

During the renovation, the Nuyorican staff is staging pop-ups and collaborating with other New York institutions. For updates, check Instagram or the Café website.

East Village cultural landmark Nuyorican Poets Café now closed for a 3-year renovation

Photos by Stacie Joy

After celebrating its 50th anniversary this past month, the Nuyorican Poets Café has closed for a long-awaited $24 million, three-year renovation project. 

This so-called "Nuyoricanstruction" phase will usher the organization into into the next 50 years, leadership says.

Here's more about the extensive renovation at the iconic space on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C, as reported by The City:

There will be new elevators, a new first-floor performance space, a green room and changing area in the basement, and more offices and performance spaces on the second, third, and fourth floors, according to a spokesperson for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, which is partially funding the renovation along with the City Council and borough president's office. The electrical and mechanical systems will also be completely overhauled. 

And...

The space at 236 East 3rd Street was an abandoned tenement building, built more than 100 years ago, when it was purchased in 1971 by the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. The Poets Café founders bought it in 1981 after starting off in an East Village living room eight years earlier. 

The Café owns the building, but has had a restrictive covenant on its deed since 2013, which is a requirement for all city-funded capital projects on private property.

Through the years, the Café has been a venue for for underrepresented artists through weekly Latin jazz, slam poetry, theatrical performances and open mic events.

The staff is planning on staging pop-ups and collaborating with other New York institutions during the three-year renovation. You can check Instagram or the Café website for updates.

Puerto Rican writer and poet Miguel Algarín founded Nuyorican in 1973 as a living room salon on Sixth Street along with Lucky CienFuegos, Bimbo Rivas, Pedro Pietri and Miguel Piñero. Algarín died in December 2020 at age 79.

RIP Miguel Algarín

Miguel Algarín, who founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in his Sixth Street apartment in 1973, died on Sunday. He was 79. A cause of  death was not revealed.

The Nuyorican website has more on the the poet, activist and educator:

In his Lower East Side apartment, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe was born as an outspoken and passionate collective of poets, musicians, theater artists and activists.

Miguel was a brilliant poet, an influential professor and leader, and a supportive mentor who inspired and guided generations of artists.

He edited popular anthologies of poetry and theater, including "Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe" and "Action"; he helped launch the Nuyorican Literary movement; and he played an instrumental role in popularizing spoken word and performance poetry across the United States and around the world.

Miguel and the Cafe's co-founders amplified the voices and championed the work of Latinx, Black, LGBTQ+ and immigrant artists who were not accepted by the academic, entertainment or publishing industries.

Thanks to their pioneering work, and thanks to our community of friends and supporters, the Cafe has remained a vibrant home for creative expression since 1973.

The literary world owes Miguel a debt of gratitude. He will be greatly missed.

In a December 2018 feature, the Times provided some history of the Cafe, which is now temporarily closed during the pandemic on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C:

In the early 1970s, Algarín ... began inviting other Nuyorican poets to his apartment on East Sixth Street for readings and performances. Algarín and his contemporaries, including Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri and Lucky CienFuegos, were part of a growing artistic scene in what was then a primarily Puerto Rican neighborhood, drawing on their identities and daily struggles for their work. 

The salon quickly outgrew Algarín’s living room, so he and a few other artists began renting an Irish bar down the street to fit more people. In 1981, they bought their current building on East Third Street and, after a lengthy renovation process, formally opened it to the public in 1990 as a space for Nuyorican poets to experiment and hone their craft.

Algarín was born in Puerto Rico in 1941. His family moved to the Lower East Side in 1950.

According to his official bio, he was Professor Emeritus for his more than 30 years of service to Rutgers University. He also received three American Book Awards.

There were many tributes yesterday on Twitter, including...

Miguel Algarin has died and I’m heartbroken. Long live The Nuyorican Poets. QEPD. 😢😢😢😢

— Maria Hinojosa (@Maria_Hinojosa) December 1, 2020

We offer our deepest love, thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Miguel Algarin. Founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe, his work continues to influence and inspire poets, and artists alike, across the diaspora. pic.twitter.com/xsifZXj9eX

— CantoMundo (@CantoMundo) December 1, 2020

Since the start, our monthly poetry slam has been inspired by the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Miguel Algarín imbued the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with joy, soul and a deep sense of community that reverberated for generations. May our work be a small honoring of his legacy.

— The Philly Pigeon (@ThePhillyPigeon) December 1, 2020

Mother of Pearl and Honey Bee's close to make way for a larger Amor y Amargo on Avenue A

Changes are afoot at 95 Avenue A, East Village restaurateur Ravi DeRossi's complex of eating and dining establishments in the corner space on Sixth Street.

No. 95 housed three businesses: Honey Bee's, Amor y Amargo and Mother of Pearl. However, according to materials on file with Community Board 3, the spaces will be converted to accommodate a larger Amor y Amargo.

DeRossi is on CB3's SLA virtual docket tonight for the following changes at No. 95:

• Honey Bee's, Amor y Amargo and Mother of Pearl Room (Cien Fuegos LLC), 95 Ave A (op/alt/change method of operation: change current concepts of Honeybee's, a vegan Texas barbeque whiskey bar, and Mother of Pearl, a vegan tiki bar, to Amor y Amargo, a bitters bar).

A rep for Derossi Global confirmed the restructuring, and confirmed that Mother of Pearl and Honey Bee's have closed.



The expanded Amor y Amargo operation will now also include a full food menu.

Amor y Amargo debuted in 2011 with just a handful of seats, and quickly became celebrated as the country's first bitters-based bar.

Mother of Pearl opened here in July 2015, replacing another DeRossi venture, Gin Palace. Honey Bee's opened in May 2019 in the space that was Cienfuegos for 10 years.

DeRossi is known for switching up concepts in his restaurants either after a successful run or more quickly if the space doesn't pan out. In this case, the DeRossi rep said that the restructuring was "in response to COVID-19 and the new world we’re entering."

And 95 Avenue A is not the only DeRossi restaurant on tonight's CB3 agenda: He's changing the menu at Night Music:

• Night Music (Derossi Asia LLC), 111 E 7th St (b/alt/change method of operation: from a vegan Indian restaurant to a vegan Mexican restaurant)

Night Music, on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, opened last September.

At the beginning of the pandemic in NYC, Mother of Pearl distributed free school lunches during the week. DeRossi also distributed free vegan meals from Avant Garden on Seventh Street.

Honeybee's debuts on Avenue A

Honeybee's is up and running now — as of Wednesday — at 95 Avenue A.

The restaurant, specializing in plant-based Texas BBQ and bourbon and rye, takes the place of Cienfuegos here at Sixth Street.

As we first reported back in November, restaurateur Ravi DeRossi said that it was time to change up concepts at Cienfuegos, which closed in January after nearly a 10-year run.

Time Out has a quick preview/review:

[T]he second-floor walk-up is made to look like a saloon from the Wild West meets a burlesque bar. The resulting effect is an environment that comes off a bit tacky, but with some damn good plant-based smoky dishes that are just as delicious and convincing as when made with real meat. The offerings which span "ribs," pulled "pork," and burnt ends (made from alternatives like seitan and mushrooms) are prepared with traditional BBQ techniques: brining, marinating, smoke-infusion and roasting.

Food & Wine also has a preview/review, only with more adjectives:

[Chef Amira] Gharib — who spent the last six months at chef Daniel Boulud Upper West Side Mediterranean fixture Boulud Sud, and before that two years at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s lauded Matador Room in Miami — prepares bites like crispy cauliflower hot wings and queso chorizo dip to pair beside longtime New York bar vet Sother Teague’s bourbon and rye-soaked libations.

And...

“I tried to keep my [barbecue] methods as traditional as possible,” says Gharib, who says that she’s conjuring flavors of the American South with a low temperature smoker, a stove top cooker, and a cold smoker. Her menu is built from a balance between vegetables and protein replacements made from soy or gluten, and enriched with house-made, plant-based takes on staple Southern ingredients like heavy cream, buttermilk, and sour cream — each made from a soy milk base.

The corner space on Avenue A and Sixth Street also houses two other DeRossi operations — Mother of Pearl and Amor y Amargo.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A concept revamp for the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A

Ravi DeRossi plans vegan diner in former Bar Virage space

Ravi DeRossi is looking to expand his vegan empire with a new concept — the Dollface Diner.

The East Village-based restaurateur is on the February CB3-SLA committee docket (the meeting is Feb. 11) for a new liquor license for the former Bar Virage space on the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street.

To date, just the preliminary application is on file at the CB3 website, so there aren't many details yet on what to expect.

We reached out to DeRossi for more details on the concept, which was first mentioned during a #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias podcast in the fall of 2017.

At that time, DeRossi described Dollface as a 24/7 vegan diner, a "family-friendly space" with pastries, ice cream, milk shakes and egg creams. (In the same podcast, he discussed plans to take this concept, along with Avant Garden Sandwich Co., a plant-based sub-sandwich shop, national.)

If the Dollface application gets approval, then this will make DeRossi's fourth establishment along Seventh Street, joining Ladybird, Fire & Water and Avant Garden.

Meanwhile, he's currently changing concepts at Cienfuegos, which is undergoing a revamp to a plant-based Texas BBQ joint called called Honeybee's at 95 Avenue A and Sixth Street.

Bar Virage closed in late December after 20-plus years in business. No reason was cited for the closure.

Photo by Steven

Week in Grieview

[Photo on Avenue A last Sunday by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2018 (Monday)

Cuomo calls off full L-train shutdown (Thursday) Reactions and questions over Gov. Cuomo's surprise subway announcement (Friday)

A visit to Rossy's Bakery & Café on 3rd Street (Thursday)

East Village in Images 2018 (Tuesday)

Webster Hall returns this spring (Thursday)

Metropolis Vintage is on the move to a larger space nearby on Broadway (Wednesday)

Report: Suspect arrested in connection with sexual assaults in the East Village dating to 2014 (Saturday)

The Continental has likely closed for good on 3rd Avenue (Wednesday)

Sushi by M opens on 4th Street (Wednesday)

Juicy Lucy's 1st Street outpost is on a winter break (Thursday)

New tenant for 37 St. Mark's Place — REVEALED (Friday)

Cienfuegos bows out to make way for Honeybee's on Avenue A (Friday)

This 12th Street penthouse includes a home gym, screening room and 1,600sf guest apartment (Wednesday)

The art of Sir Shadow and the remaining residents of the Whitehouse Hotel on the Bowery (Monday)

... and checking in on the New Year's Resolution on 14th Street...



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Cienfuegos bows out to make way for Honeybee's on Avenue A

As expected, Cienfuegos wrapped up its nine-plus-year run on the second floor at 95 Avenue A on New Year's Eve.

Back in November, owner Ravi DeRossi told me that it was time to change up concepts at the space. This spring, Honeybee's, specializing in plant-based Texas BBQ and bourbon and rye, will make its debut.

Like his other restaurants — LadyBird and Avant Garden, among them — the menu will be all vegan.

DeRossi told Eater that he's experimenting with a blend of mushrooms and other vegetables to create his own "meat" patties.

He says he wants to avoid “fake meat” products like seitan — instead honing in on vegetable dishes with barbecue flavors.

DeRossi brought on chef Amira Gharib to helm the kitchen. She’s spent time in fine-dining kitchens like Daniel Boulud’s Boulud Sud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Matador Room in Miami.

At Honeybee’s, drinks will center almost exclusively on whiskey, specifically rye and bourbon, a first for the cocktail bar owner. All-American craft beers will also be served, he says.

The corner space on Avenue A and Sixth Street also houses two other DeRossi operations — Mother of Pearl and Amor y Amargo.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A concept revamp for the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A

Week in Grieview

[Thanksgiving on 9th Street]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

RIP Jimi Zhivago (Tuesday)

Report: NYCHA tenants on Avenue C have been without heat and hot water since Nov. 15 (Wednesday)

Report of a fire at 204 E. 13th St. (Friday)

RIP Chile (Saturday)

A concept revamp for the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A (Monday)

This week's NY See (Friday)

Scenes from a (re)marriage: Comedy classics at the Anthology Film Archives (Tuesday)

Take a Stand at this holiday market on 7th and C (Friday)

Green paint arrives on the new 12th Street bike lane (Friday)

Space Mabi closes 1 year in on 1st Avenue (Monday)

Ichibantei vying for 20 St. Mark's Place, and an update on the former Grassroots Tavern space (Monday)

New building permits pre-filed for the (slightly larger) tech hub on Union Square (Monday)

At Leah Tinari's book signing for 'Limitless' at an.mé on 9th Street (Sunday)

Dua Kafe, serving Albanian-American cuisine, now open on 14th Street (Tuesday)


[Photo from Tompkins Square Park this morning]

Ummburger has closed on 1st Avenue (Monday)

What lies beneath 9th Street and 3rd Avenue? (Monday)

Biga NYC debuts on Clinton and Houston (Monday)

Despite its mediocre food, Panna II is a line-waiting smash thanks to Instagram and those twinkling lights (Tuesday)

Three Seat Espresso increases the seats for espresso on Avenue A (Monday)

... and a new mural arrived earlier in the week on Houston at the Bowery via Brazilian artist Tito Ferrara...



... which joins the recently arrived "Imagination of Alice" by @aluckyrabbit ...



Thanks to East Village Walls...

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A concept revamp for the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A

Ravi DeRossi is changing concepts at Cienfuegos, his Cuban-inspired rum bar-restaurant upstairs that opened nine-plus years ago at 95 Avenue A and Sixth Street.

The new space will be Honeybee's, specializing in plant-based Texas BBQ and bourbon and rye.

"It's been almost 10 years since I opened Cienfuegos," DeRossi said in an email. "It's still one of my favorite places, but it's time for a revamp. I was either going to update the decor, menu, etc., or completely change the concept. In the end I decided it would be a lot more fun to change the concept."

Like his other restaurants — LadyBird and Avant Garden, among them — the menu will be all vegan. He's still finalizing the food-and-drinks lineup and design.

Honeybee's is named after his dog, whom DeRossi said was a big influence on him removing the meat and dairy items from the menus in his establishments. (DeRossi started going meat free in early 2016 and launched BEAST Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ending animal cruelty.)

The change from Cienfuegos to Honeybee's is on the agenda at tonight's CB3-SLA meeting. You can find a PDF of the application at the CB3 website.

The corner space on Avenue A and Sixth Street also houses two other DeRossi operations — Mother of Pearl and Amor y Amargo.

Report: Ravi DeRossi bringing Fire & Water to 7th Street

[EVG file photo]

East Village-based restaurateur Ravi DeRossi is adding to his vegan empire later this year with the opening of Fire & Water at 111 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue — next door to his tapas cafe Ladybird.

Eater reported yesterday that DeRossi will "veganize two cuisines at once — sushi and dim sum" with Fire & Water.

A Japanese sushi counter with 16 seats and minimalist design will occupy one part of the space, offering a vegan omakase menu and a sake list. The price for the omakase has not been set yet.

On the other side of a dividing glass wall, there will be Chinese dim sum cart service in a 36-seat, flashier space with neon lights and red decor. Vegan small plates are on the menu in the dim sum portion. There will also be beer, wine, and no-abv cocktails.

DeRossi's executive chef, Tony Mongeluzzi, who oversees the kitchens at Ladybird, Mother of Pearl, Cienfuegos and Avant Garden, will reportedly have similar duties at Fire & Water.

The new home for Fire & Water was previously a showroom for furniture designer Todd Hase. That venture lasted one year. Village Style Vintage Shop, the previous tenant here, moved out to Brooklyn in October 2016.

Ravi DeRossi's Coup opens tonight; profits go to organizations threatened by Trump White House

[Photo from the other day]

Ravi DeRossi debuts his latest bar tonight on Astor Place.

Coup joins his local bar-restaurant empire that includes Death & Company, Mother of Pearl, Avant Garden and Cienfuegos.

The idea for Coup came about in the wake of Election 2016.

Per The New York Times:

“For the few weeks after the election, I couldn’t get out of bed,” he said. “It was all I could do to read the news.”

So, to snap himself out of it, he did what he does best: open a bar.

And...

“One-hundred percent of the profits are going to organizations that are either being defunded by the current administration or need money to fight the current administration, like Planned Parenthood and the A.C.L.U.,” he said.

Gothamist has more on how all this will work:

The space features two bars, one of which will host a rotating lineup of the city's best bar talent, who will choose a cause of their choice to which that evening's bar sales will be donated. The list of signed on talent is impressive, including Best American Bartender of the Year for 2015 Ivy Mix of Leyenda, Jim Meehan of PDT, Joaquin Simo from Pouring Ribbons and Alton "Good Eats" Brown himself. Each will create specialty cocktails for their shifts.

At the other bar, guests are given a wooden token with each beverage purchased, which they'll drop into jars bearing the names of different charitable organizations. The donation groups will rotate on a day-to-day basis. The dollar amount from the tokens in each jar will be calculated, the total of which will be donated to said charity by Coup.

Cocktails and glasses of wine are $20 each; beer and cocktails are $15. Coup is also gratuity free. You can find the drink menu at the Coup website here.

The space at 64 Cooper Square was previously home to DeRossi's Bergen Hill.

Avant Garden is now open on East 7th Street

[EVG file photo]

Team Ravi DeRossi (Death & Co., Cienfuegos, Proletariat, etc.) opened Avant Garden, their vegan restaurant/wine bar at 130 E. Seventh St., last night, per Eater.

The chef is Andrew D'Ambrosi, who ran the kitchen at DeRossi's Carroll Gardens seafood restaurant Bergen Hill.

As DeRossi told Eater back in the spring:

D'Ambrosi put a hen of the woods mushroom dish on the menu that DeRossi, who "always hated mushrooms," loved. That dish turned out to be vegan, and so from there DeRossi had the chef begin experimenting with other vegan dishes, offering them as specials at Bergen Hill. Two years later, they've pulled together a list of about 20 that will make up Avant Garden's vegan menu. Those include things like charred onion with chimichurri and seasoned breadcrumbs, and roasted carrots with orange, honey, pumpkin seeds and quinoa, as well as that hen of the woods dish.

Here's a look at their menu…





The opening of Avant Garden coincides with DeRossi's new nonprofit, BEAST (Benefits to End Animal Suffering Today), which will host regular fundraisers for animal rights organizations.

Avant Garden takes over the storefront here just west of Avenue A from Gingersnap's Organic, who decamped to the West Village in January.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Veggie friendly Avant Garden in the works for former Gingersnap's space on East 7th Street

Mother of Pearl softly opens on Avenue A and East 6th Street

Several EVG readers have pointed out that the northwest corner of Avenue A and Sixth Street has a new look with the (soft) opening tonight of Mother of Pearl.

Owner Ravi Derossi's tiki-influenced bar replaces Gin Palace, one of the three bars (along with Cienfuegos and Amor y Amargo) that make up 95 Avenue A. The Gin Palace space was reportedly gutted during building repairs in late 2014 and early 2015.

Mother of Pearl officially opens tomorrow night. You can read previews of the place at Zagat and Eater.



Here is the menu via Eater...

Mother of Pearl

Previously on EV Grieve:
The 'Postmodern Polynesian' of Mother of Pearl replacing Gin Palace on Avenue A

Avant Garden signage now up on East 7th Street

The sign has arrived at 130 E. Seventh St. … where Team Ravi DeRossi (Death & Co., Cienfuegos, Proletariat, etc.) is opening an upscale vegan restaurant here just west of Avenue A.

DeRossi told Eater more about the project last month:

DeRossi says that this is something he's been wanting to do for 10 or 20 years, but finding a good vegan chef has always been the "biggest obstacle." Now, however, he's found that chef in Andrew D'Ambrosi, who currently runs the kitchen at DeRossi's Carroll Gardens seafood restaurant, Bergen Hill.

The way he tells it, D'Ambrosi put a hen of the woods mushroom dish on the menu that DeRossi, who "always hated mushrooms," loved. That dish turned out to be vegan, and so from there DeRossi had the chef begin experimenting with other vegan dishes, offering them as specials at Bergen Hill. Two years later, they've pulled together a list of about 20 that will make up Avant Garden's vegan menu. Those include things like charred onion with chimichurri and seasoned breadcrumbs, and roasted carrots with orange, honey, pumpkin seeds and quinoa, as well as that hen of the woods dish.

In addition to Avant Garden, DeRossi is launching a nonprofit, BEAST (Benefits to End Animal Suffering Today), which will host regular fundraisers for animal rights organizations, per Eater.

No word on an official opening date just yet.

As we first reported on May 5, Avant Garden takes over the storefront from Gingersnap's Organic, who decamped to the West Village in January.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Veggie friendly Avant Garden in the works for former Gingersnap's space on East 7th Street

Veggie friendly Avant Garden in the works for former Gingersnap's space on East 7th Street

[EVG file photo]

Here's more information about what's being proposed for the former Gingersnap's Organic space at 130 E. Seventh St. just west of Avenue A.

According to materials on file (PDF!) at the CB3 website ahead of this month's SLA committee meeting, the space will house Avant Garden (an homage to Courtney Barnett's "Avant Gardener"?), a restaurant serving vegan cuisine.

Avant Garden is seeking to serve vegan wine and beer to "accompany the seasonal cuisine selections carefully selected by our in house sommelier." 

The proposed hours are 5 p.m. to midnight daily.

If approved, then this will be the latest East Village entry from Ravi DeRossi (the paperwork lists him as Ravi Lalchandani), who owns Death & Co., Cienfuegos and Proletariat, among several other bars/restaurants.

Here are the sample menus included with the CB3 materials…





CB3 watchers are curious about this application. Back in October 2012, "DeRossi and his surrogates got a civic lashing ... for converting the shuttered Jane's Sweet Buns pastry shop into the beer bar Proletariat without providing a 30-day notice to the board," according to Grub Street.

In the fall of 2011, CB3 OK'd a wine-beer license for Jane's Sweet Buns on St. Mark's Place. At the time, DeRossi assured the skeptics about the concept of a bakery serving alcohol. All just to pair wine with the buns and desserts.

"It was never intended to be a bar," he said of Jane's, according to coverage in The Local. "It's completely innocuous and an asset to the community."

Gingersnap's left this space back in January for a new West Village location.

The SLA committee meeting is May 18 at the CB3 office (BYOB), 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

95 Avenue A now free of construction netting and sidewalk bridge

Workers today removed the rest of the construction and sidewalk bridge that has encased 95 Avenue A for several months.

Apparently the structural repairs (sinking building???) here at East Sixth have been made.

During the rehab, Gin Palace, one of the three bars (along with Cienfuegos and Amor y Amargo) that make up the retail component of the building, closed for service last November.

As the Times reported last week, work gutted the Gin Palace interior. So co-owner Ravi Derossi is taking the opportunity to re-imagine the space, opening a "tiki-influenced" bar later next month called Mother of Pearl.

The 'Postmodern Polynesian' of Mother of Pearl replacing Gin Palace on Avenue A

Structural repairs are ongoing at 95 Avenue A at East Sixth Street.

During the rehab, Gin Palace, one of the three bars (along with Cienfuegos and Amor y Amargo) that make up the retail component of the building, closed for service last November.

Now, as the Times reports, the bar is getting an overhaul too.

Ravi Derossi, an owner, said construction on the building so completely gutted the interior of the bar that he decided to start over with a “tiki-influenced” bar called Mother of Pearl.

Hmm. And!

Mr. Derossi and [co-beverage director Thomas] Chadwick said they didn’t want Mother of Pearl to be pigeonholed as a tiki bar. “Postmodern Polynesian,” they called it.

Per Derossi, "The idea for this was like sitting in a fancy hotel in Hawaii or somewhere."

Mother of Pearl is expected to open in late May or early June.

Holding up 95 Avenue A

Just looking at the structural repairs underway at 95 Avenue A at East Sixth Street.

Ravi DeRossi told Eater last month that the building housing his bars Cienfuegos, Amor y Amargo and Gin Palace is sinking into the ground.

Gin Palace closed on Nov. 6 and is expected to be out of commission for at least two months. (The other two bars remain open.)

Looks like a pretty serious operation...



The repair costs are estimated at $100,000.

95 Avenue A, home of Gin Palace, is apparently sinking

That's the word from owner Ravi DeRossi, who told Eater that the building that houses Cienfuegos, Amor y Amargo and Gin Palace is currently sinking into the ground.

To remedy the situation at 95 Avenue A (at East Sixth Street), Gin Palace will close after service this evening while crews address the structural issues. (The other two bars will somehow remain open.)

The Gin Palace Facebook page estimates they will be closed for two months.