A piece of East Village art history is back on the market ... with a luxury twist.
According to Robb Report, the circa-1853 Greek Revival townhouse at 313 E. Sixth St. — where Mark Rothko once lived and worked — has been converted into a two-unit boutique condominium dubbed the "Rothko House," in case you didn't get it.
Rothko and his first wife, Edith Sachar, lived in a small apartment here in the 1930s. During that time, he created the painting "Thru the Window," even inscribing the back with the address, "313 E 6th."
The building between First Avenue and Second Avenue was later sold for $45,000 (!!!!) in the 1970s to filmmaker Emile de Antonio, known for his documentaries on the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War. Artist Alfred Leslie also used the garden level as a studio.
After a 2022 fire destroyed the top floor, the long-held property hit the market for the first time in decades. It was purchased in 2023 for nearly $3.7 million by a retired consultant, who undertook a full-scale renovation.
Now, the property has returned as a pair of high-end condo offerings.
The triplex penthouse is asking $6.2 million ... with a garden space for sale for $5.8 million.
You can find pics and more info at the Corcoran listing.
Citing strong customer demand, a rep told EVG that the vegan pizza spot has reopened at 65 Second Ave. at Fourth Street. Consultant chef Matthew Kenney has also returned.
As previously reported, Double Zero and Bar Verde merged in early 2025 to form Plant Made, which served a mix of vegan pizzas and Mexican fare.
Now, Double Zero is once again operating under its original name in the storefront next to its original space.
Post this past week included (with an FDNY lunch break in Tompkins by Jose Garcia)...
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• 'He looked out for absolutely everyone here': Friends and neighbors discuss slain deli worker Abdul Saleh (April 28) … Candlelight vigil on 13th and B honors Abdul Saleh (May 1)
• A 3rd Street staple, Rossy's Bakery & Café, closes after 16 years (April 27)
• Report: Rushed shelter shift tied to death, raises questions about East Village Intake plan (April 29)
• Former St. Brigid School on 7th and B hits the market as a development site (April 28)
... and CJ Tattoo has decamped from Fourth and C for a new space in Greenpoint ... gone, too, is the Love Zakka Mini Mart that shared the storefront ... (photo by Stacie Joy)...
Fire Escape, a licensed cannabis dispensary, debuted earlier this month at 103 Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
The family-run shop is led by Max, Clay, Mark and Ash — a mix of longtime New Yorkers with ties to the neighborhood.
Inside, there are plenty of East Village touches, from local books and an EV Cookbook to a built-out fire escape installation that doubles as décor. There's also a chess table and space for film screenings and other events.
The team says they're hiring locally and working with people who have faced barriers to employment, including Diesel (below), their head of security.
A few notes: ID is required to enter, there's no on-site consumption and there's a pick-up window out front (you can order ahead online).
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, with a midnight close Thursday to Saturday.
From the past week, in which we had three different seasons over seven days. Photo in Tompkins by Stacie Joy
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• Judge pauses the City's East Village intake shelter plan (April 22) … Lawsuit filed to block East Village shelter plan; residents launch petition (April 21)
• For Two Boots Pizza on Avenue A, a tough slice of reality (April 24)
• First look at the condoplex that replaced a former synagogue on 4th Street (April 20)
• Landlord: STIK's 'Liberty' mural will remain on 9th Street and Avenue A (April 24)
• Around the clock again: Veselka's weekend overnight service is back (April 20)
• The Lower East Side Film Festival returns for its 16th edition (April 22)
• Shut out of Washington Square Park, 4/20 celebration descends on Tompkins (April 20)
• Report of a roof fire at 433 E. 13th St. (April 21)
• This car has made the city nearly $10,000 (April 20)
• The owner of Corner Bistro is opening a licensed cannabis dispensary on 9th Street (April 21)
• Report: SantaCon fraud charges met with a collective 'shocking, said no one' (April 19)
• MoRUS is screening films about squatting and housing activism on the Lower East Side (April 21) • Art returns to a familiar wall on Avenue C (April 21)
• New Italian restaurant Prosciutto coming to 9th Street (April 22)
• From the 1980s to today: Daniel Root's East Village in focus (April 24)
• Openings: Teriyaki One Japanese Grill on 1st Avenue (April 20)
• Noted: Please take your rooftop shenanigans elsewhere (April 25)
• Swap at this St. Mark's Place M8 stop: bench replaces leaning bar (April 22)
... and walking off with a Delancey Street sunset from Friday...
Just after 6 p.m., the FDNY responded to a report of a roof-deck fire at 433 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
According to a Citizen app, "firefighters quickly contained a fire involving trees on the roof... preventing the blaze from spreading to other areas."
That report was corroborated by witnesses.
The fire response drew a big crowd... luckily there weren't any reports of injuries.
The amenities at the newish building (at the site of the former Peter Stuyvesant PO), EVE East Village, include a "sunny roof deck, complete with a grassy lawn, a sizable BBQ area, and an outdoor TV with sound system," per its website.
A restored slice of pre-gentrification East Village life is returning to the big screen this month.
Phil Hartman's "No Picnic" — a black-and-white, downtown-set neo-noir from 1986 — runs in a new 4K restoration for a week at the Film Forum starting on Friday.
Hartman wrote the script and directed; Doris Kornish produced; and Wim Wenders' company, Grey City, served as executive producers.
The film premiered at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival, where Peter Hutton won the Best Cinematography award.
"No Picnic" follows down-and-out jukebox operator Macabee Cohn (David Brisbin), who drifts through tenements, dive bars and derelict East Village streets in search of a mysterious woman in a striped dress.
The cast also includes Myoshin, Anne D'Agnillo and Luis Guzmán, with appearances by Steve Buscemi, Richard Hell and other downtown fixtures.
The film screened at Anthology Film Archives in 1990 but was largely unseen until a new restoration debuted earlier this year at MoMA's To Save and Project festival.
We caught up with Hartman, the co-founder of the Two Boots Pizza empire, to talk about the film, the era it captured, and what it's like to see it resurface nearly 40 years later.
You've said you were trying to capture places that were "vanishing before your eyes." Did you have a sense in 1985 of just how much would disappear?
Yes! Some of my fave places were already in danger of extinction, like the Orchidia, Hy and Lil's, Kiev Restaurant; plus El Bohio [CHARAS] — our home base — was already feeling threatened. New "hot spots" were starting to appear, but we always loved the places that were not hot, like Pete's Bar on East 5th, which no one but a few cops went to.
And I still mourn the loss of the hoop courts in the NW corner of Tompkins Square Park, where once upon a time, my friends and I whupped [Jim] Jarmusch, [Richard] Edson and [John] Lurie in 3-on-3!
David Brisbin in "No Picnic"
Were you following any particular indie formula when you set out to make it?
The standard formula for a low-budget indie is to pick an insular location, like a house ("Return of the Secaucus 7") or a bar ("Last Night at the Alamo"), and invite a group of actor friends to hang out for a few long weekends.
But "No Picnic" has 100-plus characters and 100-plus locations, because we didn't want to miss anyone or anything. That required not just an amazing cast and crew, but the buy-in of the community, who not only tolerated us running around with our 16mm camera but also actively participated, like the kids with the sparklers, the lady with her chihuahua, and the amazing meringue band at the street fair.
We were truly blessed to capture a time and place that deserve to be celebrated, not forgotten.
When you watch "No Picnic" now, what details of the neighborhood jump out most, the ones people today might not even notice?
Well, the "bones" of the neighborhood are intact — the five-story tenements with gorgeous cornices and window pediments so intricate you can't believe they were put on poor people's houses. I've also been noticing how important fire escapes are in "No Picnic" — reflecting how important they've always been in the East Village: a place to hang out when it's hot, to go visit your neighbors, to decorate with rocking horses or houseplants, and to hang a banner, whether it's "rent strike," "speculators beware!" or "Black Lives Matter!"
There's clearly a strong interest in the film — the MoMA screening sold out this past January. Why do you think this moment in the neighborhood is resonating today?
I think the bad old days of the East Village represent a time of authenticity and affordability, but let's not forget it was also dangerous and dirty, and you had to stop your toddler from picking up hypodermic needles in the park.
However, the creative energy was amazing — especially the music: seven or eight times in "No Picnic" characters break into song ... melodies seemed to be in the air back then!
Does the film feel like a time capsule to you, or something more immediate?
Well, some of the most colorful folks in the film are gone — Princess Pamela, Rafik, Santa Claus, Pete Rose; and some of the most iconic places are, too — Adam Purple's garden, St. Marks Cinema, CHARAS, Shea Stadium, etc. — all thankfully immortalized.
But I still love the East Village, no matter how much it's changed, because giants walked these streets: [Allen] Ginsberg, [Carolee] Schneemann, [Ed] Sanders, [Jonas] Mekas, Lady Bunny, Hettie Jones ... and their spirit forever fills the air for me!
Posts this past week included (with an early Father's Day scene on Avenue A via Derek Berg).
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• Remembering longtime East Village artist and activist Agosto Machado (March 25)
• Two Boots' longtime Avenue A home listed for the first time in 30 years as lease talks continue (March 24) ... Checking in with Phil Hartman on Two Boots' future on Avenue A — and the East Village (March 26)
• 11 years after the deadly Second Avenue gas explosion (March 26)
• DOT plans bike and pedestrian changes around Astor Place and the East Village (March 26)
• Commemorating the 115th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (March 25)
• The CityBench that baffled residents on 3rd Street has been removed (March 26)
• A timely discussion on Iran at the Francis Kite Club (March 27)
• Inside the New Museum's reopening on the Bowery (March 23)
• A cold Spring night with the waxing Moon (and a reminder the Earth keeps moving) (March 25)
• Photos by Francesca Magnani: ImillaSkate at Ninth Street Espresso (March 27)
• A surreal sendoff to winter at Parkside Lounge (March 24)
• Signage alert: JoJu on St. Mark's Place (March 25) … Wine Art Laboratory on Avenue B (March 24) … Fire Escape on Avenue A (March 23) … Whits on St. Mark’s Place (March 23)
• And now, your Paulie Gee's East Village Slice Shop signage (March 27)
• $1 slices mark Emmy Squared’s East Village return (March 23)
• Pizza Hub's run on 1st Avenue appears to be over (March 24)
We mentioned that Tropic Berry had quietly shuttered at 45 First Ave. ... EVG reader Taz Urnov shared this pic showing that the for-rent sign has arrived...
On Wednesday afternoon, there was a sizable FDNY response to a report of a fire on the SW corner of Avenue A and Fourth Street.
Multiple fire trucks and emergency vehicles lined Avenue A and Fourth Street during the response, drawing a crowd of onlookers on a sunny spring afternoon.
According to FDNY sources, facade work sparked a small fire involving a resident's AC unit. The blaze was quickly extinguished, with no injuries. There were reports of broken windows and water damage in several apartments.
Among the responding units was MERV-1 (Major Emergency Response Vehicle), a large-scale ambulance typically deployed for mass-casualty incidents, building collapses or major fires.
Per the FDNY, it serves as a mobile treatment unit capable of handling multiple patients on-site.
Given the initial report of a high-alarm fire, MERV-1 was dispatched as a precaution.
Once it was clear the situation was under control, I asked for a look inside — and a crew member was kind enough to give a quick tour.
As always, we appreciate the FDNY response — and it was much better to see MERV-1 parked than in use.
As part of the annual remembrance, volunteers again took part in the Street Pictures chalking project, writing the names and ages of the victims — most of them young women — outside the Lower East Side buildings where they once lived...
A commemoration marking the 115th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire will take place today at the site of the tragedy.
The annual ceremony honors the 146 garment workers — mostly young immigrant women who lived on the Lower East Side — who died in the 1911 fire, an event that led to major reforms in labor and fire safety laws.
During the program, attendees — including family members, labor leaders and elected officials — will read the names of the victims as a bell tolls. Flowers will be placed at the site, and a fire truck ladder will be raised to the sixth floor, the highest point firefighters could reach at the time. The fire engulfed the 8th, 9th and 10th floors.
The gathering begins at 11:30 a.m. with music, followed by the program at noon, on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square Park.
As in the past 20-plus years, volunteers today will participate in a chalking project (organized by Street Pictures), writing the names and ages of the victims where they lived.
For more details on the fire and its lasting impact, visit the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website.
Signage arrived on Friday for Fire Escape at 103 Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
This has been a long time coming for the licensed (and family-owned) cannabis dispensary, as the gut renovations of the space took longer than expected. (They've documented the build-out on the entertaining Fire Escape Instagram account.)
One resident suffered minor burns during a fire late this afternoon at 619 E. Fifth St., on the cul-de-sac behind Earth School-P.S. 364.
A reader shared the above photo showing a large FDNY presence on Avenue C at Fifth Street. According to Citizen reports, the fire in the six-story building was contained to the first floor and basement.
The fire was first reported at 4:14 p.m.
Medical teams treated one resident at the scene.
There is no word yet on the cause of the fire or the extent of the damage.
Posts this week included (with a photo from St. Mark's and 3rd Avenue)
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• D.A. Bragg announces guilty plea in fatal East Village stabbing spree on 14th Street (Jan. 23)
• Most Holy Redeemer hit with DOB ‘failure to maintain’ violation (Jan. 19) … Most Holy Redeemer briefly reopens for Mass honoring longtime parishioner (Jan. 18)
• A visit to Afterword Bookshop on 6th Street (Jan. 21)
• Paulie Gee tells us more about his slice shop opening on 1st Avenue in the East Village (Jan. 20)
Two people were treated for minor burns last night during a fire on the fifth floor at 325 E. 12th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, according to the Citizen app.
The fire was reported at 9 p.m., as passersby reported a significant FDNY presence.
Just before midnight, a Citizen user posted that residents were back inside the building.
Citizen quoted FDNY officials as saying the two people were treated for burns from scalding water.
No injuries were reported after a vehicle caught fire this morning on 14th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, directly across from FDNY Engine 5.
An EVG reader shared these photos. According to information from the scene, the driver was waiting for a family member to exit the post office on the west side of the street when the vehicle suddenly caught fire.
A nearby building super attempted to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher before the FDNY quickly extinguished the blaze.
Nearly 19 months after changing hands, there's now some activity at 110 Second Ave., between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
In May 2024, the landmarked Isaac T. Hopper House had a new owner for the first time in 150 years.
At the time, Self Reliance New York Federal Credit, which owns the building next door, announced that it was expanding by purchasing No. 110 for $7.4 million.
The credit union, which provides financial services to the Ukrainian American community, plans to renovate and adapt the building for administrative and community needs.
The Women's Prison Association (WPA) had owned the property since 1874. The Hopper House most recently served as a 38-bed transitional shelter dedicated to formerly incarcerated and at-risk women and their children.
In December 2020, the townhouse sustained significant physical damage from a six-alarm fire on the SE corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street. The fire destroyed the neighboring Middle Collegiate Church and displaced the shelter's residents and staff.
Following a review of the damaged property, "WPA determined that a sale of the property would be most conducive to the building's restoration and the organization's programmatic continuity." No. 110 arrived on the market in February 2023 with a $7.1 million ask.
The property is also on the National Register of Historic Places. You can find more history of the address at Village Preservation.
Meanwhile, with 70 employees and 50 volunteers, WPA continues to operate from its other community sites in New York City, as well as from jail-based offices on Rikers Island and the Taconic and Bedford Hills State Correctional Facilities.
