Posts this past week included (with a photo of St. Brigid-St Emeric on Eighth and B)...
• Buyer found for long-vacant Second Avenue development site (Aug. 5)
• Another location of the Bean closes, leaving 1 East Village outpost (Aug. 6)
• Repairs continue after water main break at 14th Street and 1st Avenue (Aug. 4) … Water main break floods section of 14th Street and 1st Avenue (Aug. 3) … update (Aug. 8)
• 12 injured in early-morning subway work train fire at Astor Place station (Aug. 4)
• NY Copy Print & Ship Center has closed after 34 years on 7th Street (Aug. 3)
• 9 Bleecker St. returns to market with a $6.5 million ask (Aug. 3)
• At Night Club 101 with Pop Music Fever Dream (Aug. 7)
At approximately 2:15 a.m. Tuesday, the FDNY responded to reports of a fire involving a four-car MTA work train at the Astor Place subway station in Manhattan.
Upon arrival, firefighters encountered heavy smoke at both street and station level from the fully involved vacuum… pic.twitter.com/NxxG3I0KOG
The following info comes via the @FDNY X account...
Twelve people were injured early this morning after a fire involving a four-car MTA work train at the Astor Place station, according to the FDNY.
The FDNY said firefighters responded to the station at about 2:15 a.m., where they encountered heavy smoke from a fully involved vacuum train operating below ground.
A northbound passenger train entered the station during the fire... and was evacuated as crews battled what the FDNY described as a stubborn fire inside one of the vacuum train's filter compartments.
Officials said, 12 people were injured, including five firefighters and seven civilians.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The 4, 5 and 6 trains are now running without delays, per the MTA.
It was a much different mood at Mee Noodle Shop & Grill this afternoon.
Just days after staff told us the longtime Chinese restaurant at 223 First Ave. between 13th and 14th Streets would close on July 15, there was reason to celebrate.
Joyce Tang (below), the restaurant's de facto manager, rushed over to greet us, excitedly sharing a Chinese translation of EV Grieve's story from Wednesday about the planned closure, which she had prepared for Huang, Mee's owner.
"The boss says thanks to your story, we can keep going!" Tang said. "The landlord agreed to lower the rent by $3,000 a month, and so we continue to operate. We don't know how long, but for now, we are going forward."
According to Tang, after discussing Mee's financial challenges, the two sides reached an agreement allowing Mee Noodle Shop to remain open.
Huang, the owner — affectionately known as "the boss" — was on hand overseeing the lunch rush and beaming as orders streamed into the kitchen.
Earlier this week, staff told us the restaurant was being forced to close due to rising food and supply costs, steep delivery-app fees, and a decline in business. (Rent was NOT cited as a reason.)
The news comes as a welcome surprise for Mee's loyal customers.
Since opening on the northwest corner of First Avenue and 13th Street in 1993, the restaurant has become a neighborhood institution known for its generous portions and affordable prices. The restaurant closed after a fire damaged the building in 2006, then returned to First Avenue in December 2013, just a few doors from its original location.
Tang also thanked neighbors who stopped in after reading about the restaurant's situation.
"We were going to close, and now we can stay longer," she said. "Thank you to everyone who read the story and came to eat here. Please keep coming. We can cook for you.
"We are working things out to stay open," she added. "Your news made people help. We are grateful."
A happy update: Mee Noodle Shop is no longer closing. According to staff, after this post, the owner and landlord reached an agreement to lower the monthly rent, allowing the longtime restaurant to remain open. Read the update here.
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Mee Noodle Shop & Grill, the longtime Chinese restaurant at 223 First Ave. between 13th and 14th Streets, is closing.
According to staff, Wednesday, July 15, will be Mee's last day.
The reasons, they say, are familiar ones.
"Things cost too much. We pay more money for everything — food, supplies — but we cannot raise the cost of the food."
They also pointed to the growing cost of delivery apps.
"Uber Eats takes 30 to 35 dollars of every hundred."
And, simply:
Business is down. "The owner says we are forced to close."
The original Mee Noodle Shop opened on the NW corner of First Avenue and 13th Street in 1993, becoming a neighborhood favorite known for generous portions and affordable prices. Among its early regulars was Allen Ginsberg, whose favorite dish was the steamed flounder with ginger sauce.
The restaurant closed after a fire damaged the building in 2006.
Following the renovation of the residential building, which later included a Starbucks, Mee Noodle Shop made a much-celebrated return to First Avenue in December 2013, just a few doors from its original home.
Staff members — some of whom said they've worked there for more than a decade — told us they're saddened by the closure and uncertain about what comes next. They hope neighbors will stop by for one last meal before the final day. (There was a Mee Noodle on Ninth Avenue that closed a few years ago, though it was owned by different people.)
When we stopped by this week, several diners were visibly surprised to learn the restaurant was closing. One regular kept asking the waitstaff, "You're joking, right?" before finally asking, "Why?" When they explained that business had fallen off, he glanced around the nearly full dining room.
"Now it is," a waitress said. "We've been here all day."
As always, the portions were generous, and the kitchen was happy to accommodate substitutions and special requests.
The closure also comes as another chapter of First Avenue dining begins across the street, where Dim Sum Bloom is preparing to open with a kitchen that includes an automated stir-fry robot.
For many East Villagers, though, Mee Noodle Shop represented something increasingly difficult to find: a reliable, affordable neighborhood restaurant that endured through changing times.
A two-day pop-up exhibition at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) celebrates the work of longtime C-Squat resident Masae Satouchi, who is relocating to Kyoto, Japan, later this summer after two decades in New York.
We stopped by the opening last night of "My Ritual of Becoming," a multimedia exhibition featuring Satouchi's photography, performance art, kimono creations, fire dancing, burlesque, and color art therapy.
The show reflects on her 20 years in New York while looking ahead to what's next.
"My Ritual of Becoming is not the end of a journey," Satouchi says. "It is an invitation. If my work helps even one person remember who they were before the world told them who to become, then these twenty years have found their meaning."
Satouchi describes the exhibition as "a love letter to New York and to all the people who made it my home," while marking the beginning of a new chapter in Japan.
If you missed last night's opening, today (Wednesday) is your final chance to see the exhibition. It's on view from 1-6 p.m. at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
And scenes from last evening, including host-special guest Chris Flambeaux ...
A two-day pop-up exhibition opening this week at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), 155 Avenue C, celebrates the work of longtime C-Squat resident Masae Satouchi before she moves to Kyoto, Japan, later this summer.
Titled "My Ritual of Becoming," the solo exhibition explores Satouchi's two decades in New York through photography, performance, kimono creation, fire dancing, burlesque and color art therapy.
The exhibition, curated by Satouchi, also serves as a farewell to the city she has called home for the past 20 years.
"This exhibition is a love letter to New York and to all the people who made it my home, while marking the beginning of a new chapter in Japan," she writes in the show's description.
According to organizers, the exhibit showcases the many creative communities Satouchi has been part of during her years in the East Village and beyond.
The exhibition is on view for Tuesday and Wednesday only at MoRUS. Admission is by donation. The opening is 6-9 on Tuesday night ... and available to view from 1-6 p.m. on Wednesday. More info here.
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
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)
... 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)...
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).
Never miss an EVG post with the weekly EVG newsletter. Free right here.
• 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.
