Signage alert: L&L Hawaiian Barbeque and Tōka Chef Kitchen on Allen Street

Photos: top by EVG, 2nd by Stacie Joy 

Signage went up last week for two new dining options on Allen Street just south of Houston. 

Tōka Chef Kitchen is coming soon to 205 Allen St., a long-vacant space whose last full-time tenant was Domino's. We don't know anything about Tōka Chef Kitchen at the moment. 

Meanwhile, Meat + Bread closed next door on Sept. 24 ... after a January 2021 debut. 

L&L Hawaiian Barbeque, specializing in plate lunches, is the new tenant...

The business started 50-plus years ago in Hawaii. It expanded stateside in 1999 and continues to franchise.

 

This is the first latest Manhattan outpost (see the comments about a previous Fulton Street location), and one is coming to Bushwick, too.

Signage alert: Waiting on a Friend on Avenue A

Signage recently arrived for Waiting on a Friend, an establishment opening later next week at 206 Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street. 

A grand opening is set for Sept. 13. Per the invite: 

That new cocktail bar in the East Village is finally open & it's everything you wanted it to be. Waiting on Friend is emerging with the intention of creating a fun space for everyone and a guaranteed good time. 

The bar is the perfect go-to destination for all your nightlife needs — amazing cocktails, fun music for dancing, and living room-like lounge areas for catching up with friends. 

Waiting on a Friend is a strict 23+ venue. 

We're not sure who's behind the concept. There's still an active liquor license for the space, and public records list Adam Fulton, Kyle O'Brien and Gavin Moseley as the principals via Den Hospitality/Garret East. 

Garret East and Borrachito Taqueria & Spirits switched places inside 206 Avenue A in the summer of 2020. Borrachito went dark in January without any notice to patrons. 

And this is the second Waiting on a Friend to give the East Village a try. 

The first Waiting on a Friend opened at 132 First Ave. at St. Mark's Place in September 2018. It didn't last too long.

The bars are named for the song by the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. The "Waiting on a Friend" video was shot on St. Mark's Place. 

 The 2024 Waiting on a Friend's Instagram account also references the video.

 

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Buka bringing Nigerian cuisine to 1st Avenue

Photos by Steven

The Brooklyn-based Buka is bringing its homestyle Nigerian cuisine to 137 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street ... 

This will be a second outpost for Buka, which has a new location on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy after launching in 2010. (This piece at Eater offers more details about what to expect from Buka.)

Per the Buka Instagram account, this East Village spot is expected to open on Oct. 1 with hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. You can find a menu here.

The space was previously home to Drunken Dumpling, which debuted in the fall of 2016 and received favorable press for its gigantic soup dumplings created by the mother-son team here. The restaurant was closed for a good part of the pandemic, reopening back in November before going dark again in the spring. 

Reader report: Cheap-eats fave Papaya Dog looks done on 14th Street

Several EVG readers noted that Papaya Dog has been dark recently on the northwest corner of 14th Street and First Avenue ... and yesterday, KT spotted a worker cleaning out the space. He confirmed that the closure is permanent. (All pics here by KT.)

Later yesterday, some furniture and other PD items were placed on the curb...

A look inside shows that many of the fixtures have been removed...

Papaya Dog seems as if it was here forever. However, Manhattan Sideways listed its opening in 2005. 

There's a Papaya Dog still in business on Sixth Avenue (and on Fulton Street?), though other quick-serve hot dog joints have dwindled in numbers in recent years. (The circa-1932 Papaya King is still serving up the grilled franks and papaya drinks on the UES.)

While prices here inched up lately, you could still get two hot dogs, fries and a drink for $7.99 late into the night. 

This corner also seems primed for development. But at this point, there's nothing official about anything coming to this corner ... for now.

East Village-based activist curates BLM art displays in Brooklyn

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

East Village artist/activist Holli Porreca and the team at J&M Special Effects collaborated with NYC-based black artists to project their work onto public spaces, including, recently, the Washington Square Arch.


[Holli Porreca]


[J&M special effects team]

This action, the one I am documenting, is projecting onto two spaces in DUMBO — the walls of St. Ann’s Warehouse and the side of a building near Old Fulton Street and Everit.

Artists selected for this installation are street photographer Kobie Proctor, whose images include several shots from recent Union Square and Astor Place-based peaceful protests. His slideshow is shown on the St. Ann’s Warehouse walls, with permission from the performance space.


[Kobie Proctor]













A few blocks away, the collage work of Patrick Dougher and graphic illustrations of Kiriakos "Yako 440" Prodis are shown...













The team expects to do more site-based Black Lives Matter installations in the days and weeks to come.

Hardware store-replacing hardware store now open on 4th Avenue

Union Square Supply is now open at 130 Fourth Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street.

The store is owned by the folks behind Fulton Supply Hardware, which opened down on Fulton and Gold in 1970.

Services here including locksmithing, key cutting, tool renting, pipe threading, paint matching and wood cutting, among other -ing things.

The Ace Hardware outpost here closed back in April. The retail space was on the market for several months before the Union Square Supply signs arrived in early September.

Hardware store replacing hardware store on 4th Avenue

The Ace Hardware outpost at 130 Fourth Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street closed back in April.

After being on the rental market for several months, the storefront has a new tenant — Union Square Supply, as this photo via EVG reader Doug shows...



This will be a sister store for Fulton Supply Hardware, which opened down on Fulton and Gold in 1970.

The Two Boots on Nassau Street no longer appears to be happening

EVG reader Carl Bentsen shared this photo from Nassau Street near Fulton in the Financial District ... showing a for rent sign on what was to be the next location of Two Boots, the East Village-based pizzeria.

The folks at Two Boots were also going to keep and restore that Loft's Candies neon signage that workers uncovered during renovations at the address.

No word on what happened to this multi-level location for Two Boots. (They didn't respond to an email for comment.) The Two Boots website still lists this location as coming soon in the spring of 2017.

Two Boots, which got its start on Avenue A (different location than its current home) in 1987, has 13 locations in multiple states.

Previously on EV Grieve:
This post has nothing to do with the East Village, except for the part about 2 Boots Pizza

This post still has nothing to do with the East Village, except for the part about 2 Boots Pizza

Car Seat Headrest and the 4Knots Music Festival set times

Car Seat Headrest, shown here with a video for "Vincent," is one of the bands on the bill tomorrow for the sixth annual (free) 4Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport hosted by The Village Voice.

The set times are below... head to the 4Knots site for more band info and festival details...

PIER 16 STAGE
1:00pm - Promised Land Sound
1:50pm - Kirk Knight
2:40pm - Mothers
3:40pm - Car Seat Headrest
4:40pm - Protomartyr
5:40pm - The Strumbellas
7:00pm - Guided By Voices

FULTON STAGE
1:30pm - Boulevards
2:30pm - Bayonne
3:30pm - Diane Coffee
4:30pm - Mile High Club
5:30pm - Girlpool

Community acupuncture in the East Village

By Carol Porteous

East Village resident Donna Nield is excited to bring something new (and old) to her community. In April, she opened a community acupuncture clinic, City Acupuncture East Village, on the ground floor of an HDFC co-op building at 155 E. Second St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Although community acupuncture is new to the East Village, it is an ancient Chinese practice.

“In China, acupuncture is usually conducted in a big group setting where people all receive acupuncture together,” says Nield, who went to China to observe this firsthand while studying at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), where she earned, with honors, a Master of Science degree in Traditional Oriental Medicine.

Since the acupuncturist circulates among patients and can treat several at once, community acupuncture costs less and so is a feasible route to healing for more folks in the community. But the intention reaches much deeper.

“The sense of community that is created by having acupuncture in a room with other people is beneficial for everybody in many ways,” says Nield. “New Yorkers hold onto a lot of stress from living in the city; we really guard ourselves. When you walk into a community acupuncture clinic, you can hear the relaxed breathing. It’s amazing to me that in New York people can be relaxed enough in a room with other people that they can actually fall asleep.”

The clinic’s large treatment room is not completely open. Screens separate patients, who are treated on massage tables and zero gravity reclining chairs.



“It’s not super new-agey. It’s a medical clinic. We take our patients’ health very seriously.” That message comes through in the clinic’s tagline: “Making Acupuncture a Little Less ‘Alternative.’”

Nield has practiced acupuncture in traditional Western medical clinics at NYU Langone and Beth Israel, and in her own private practice. She says her training at PCOM positioned her to straddle the worlds of Chinese and Western medicine.

“We studied a lot of Western medicine so that we can understand people’s conditions and look for red flags, know when a patient needs to be referred to an MD, and be able to have conversations with doctors if we need to.”

Patients have a choice of three acupuncturists at City Acupuncture East Village: Leo Bierman and Carmichael Monaco, who both have degrees from Tri-State College of Acupuncture, and Nield. All are licensed in New York State and certified in clean needle technique.

Nield is partnering with Robbie Benhuri, the founder of the first City Acupuncture, which opened eight years ago and provides some 1,200 treatments a month downtown on Fulton Street. A third City Acupuncture clinic will open in Bed Stuy later this month. According to Nield, “we see the City Acupuncture affiliation as a community for clinic owners. We are pooling our resources so that we don’t have to figure it all out on our own.”

Feeling a connection

Nield has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and her new office is a few blocks from her family’s apartment.

“I wouldn’t have imagined doing this anywhere else. I feel really connected to this neighborhood. One of the things I like about it is that even though there are so many sad postings about local businesses closing, and we do see the neighborhood changing, we all really care and work hard to maintain a sense of community," she says. "I feel very inspired by this.

“I will consider the clinic a success when it’s serving the neighborhood and improving people’s lives. That’s what it’s all about, really. We want to deliver what the community needs.”

It is fitting that the official opening of Nield’s clinic is on Mother’s Day, as her interest in community acupuncture was sparked by her mother’s experience in Ottawa, Canada, many years ago.

“My mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was referred to an acupuncturist who saw people in a large house. There were beds everywhere," Nield says. "She went to see him every day. It didn’t cure her cancer, but it really helped her handle the pain of the cancer and its treatment. It also gave her a connection to others, kind of a support group in a way; she’d see the same people there every day. So while it was a really sad situation, there was such a positive aspect to it.”

-----

City Acupuncture East Village's opening party is Sunday afternoon from 1-4. Find more details at Facebook.

The office is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Appointments can be booked online here.

-----

About the author, Carol Porteous

I’ve been involved in East Village communities of all kinds for the last few decades (public and private schools, the Boys Club, playgrounds, community gardens, East Yoga Center as karmi and curator of the Facebook page, etc.). I met Donna Nield many years ago at East Yoga, and recently got an acupuncture treatment for the first time.

The mission of community acupuncture is to bring an important healing opportunity to the entire community in an affordable way. This taps into my love for community, so I have jumped onboard for the first few months to help get this clinic started and connected.

That's it for the New Amsterdam Market at the South Street Seaport

This is outside our usual coverage zone. However, we know several East Village residents who used to frequent the market at the South Street Seaport. The following letter is via the EVG inbox...

I am sorry to announce that New Amsterdam Market has ended, and will no longer take place on South Street.

Founded in 2005, New Amsterdam Market was first staged at the site of the Old Fulton Fish Market in Lower Manhattan on December 16, 2007. Over the ensuing seven years, the market grew in frequency and scope while nurturing an evolving community of small businesses dedicated to sustainable food production, regional economies, and fair trade.

Through our steadfast presence under every adversity, we also championed the preservation of New York City's oldest commons, where public trade has been conducted since 1642. We held a total 88 markets and numerous innovative celebrations of our region's bounty; supported nearly 500 food entrepreneurs; and contributed to the creation of more than 350 jobs.

However, I was never able to raise the funding or attract the influential backers needed for our organization to thrive. Furthermore, we were dealt a mortal blow in 2013 when Council Member Chin, who had long professed to support our cause, betrayed the community in favor of a suburban shopping mall developer, Howard Hughes.

As a result, Lower Manhattan has already lost more than one acre of beloved and irreplaceable public space and is now seeing its most precious public asset ruined by inappropriate programming and terrible waterfront design.

Our last market at this location was held on Saturday, June 21, 2014.

I thank all of you who supported this endeavor.

Sincerely,

Robert LaValva, Founder
New Amsterdam Market

Bait & Hook opens today on 14th Street and Second Avenue

Signs went up for Bait & Hook here at East 14th Street and Second Avenue back on Aug. 29, as we first noted. ... taking over for the short-lived Meatball Factory ... (which took over from the Pizza Hut-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo).

Anyway, Bait & Hook opens today... and here is the official news release, cut-and-paste for your pleasure and my laziness...

On Wednesday, September 12th, the East Village will welcome its newest eatery in the form of Bait & Hook, located at 231 2nd avenue on the corner of 14th street. Bait & Hook will serve comfort seafood classics including: the signature Lobster Roll, smokey New England Clam Chowder and Lobster Mac & Cheese as well as original dishes like the Crab Chorizo Corn Pizza, Chicken Waffle Sandwich, bacon-topped Scallop Roll, White Clam Pizza and Shrimp Scampi Pizza, along with a fresh Raw Bar selection. Executive Chef Joe Bachman developed the no-nonsense menu for Bait & Hook, incorporating fresh, local ingredients to dish.

Bait & Hook offers a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere where seafood is the star. Diners can enjoy a reasonably priced meal without compromising high-end, quality cuisine and service. Bait & Hook provides the perfect destination for a quick bite, affordable date or a group gathering, with something on the menu to please everyone in your party. Including non-seafood items as well as vegetarian options.

"We wanted to open a place that offered New Yorkers an affordable, casual dining experience, with the feel of a seafood shack but the taste of an ocean-side eatery," said Executive Chef Joe Bachman.

With Labor Day behind us, Bait & Hook gives New Yorkers a chance to experience a summer treat all year long. The nautical-themed restaurant will transform the corner of 14th and 2nd into a New England hang out with a 23-foot bar serving 10-12 local craft beers and wines.

After stints at Park Avenue Café, Fulton and Neuman's Catering, where he created menus for high-profile clients like Angelina Jolie, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bill Clinton and Richard Branson, Executive Chef Joe Bachman was brought on to head the kitchen at Bait & Hook. Bachman brings his knack for creative dishes and high quality cuisine to the restaurant.

Bait & Hook will be both a neighborhood classic as well as popular New York City destination. Open seven days a week, serving lunch from 12PM-4PM and dinner from 5PM until late, Bait & Hook is an ideal spot to grab lunch on the go or a bite to eat after a long day of work with daily lunch and happy hour specials. The East Village location seats over 50 guests, allowing guests to enjoy the luxury of comfort-style seafood.

You can find the menu via the Bait & Hook website here.

Old-timer Blarney Stone becoming a gastropub with 35 plasma TVs in the Financial District

Every so often we wander away from the neighborhood...

We've written before about our fondness for The Blarney Stone on Fulton Street near Nassau in the Financial District ... a fine place for some beers and affordable quality food from the steam table by the front door. And they open at 8 a.m. A good crowd. Office workers. Construction workers. Horse players. A few people working on a scheme.

[Photo by IrishNYC via Flickr]

The place closed for good in March 2010.

Now, a reader sends along the following item from UrbanDaddy with news of what this space is becoming...

Welcome to The Fulton, a 4,300-square-foot gastropub where the menu looks like it’s from a steakhouse and the flat-screens are invisible (except when they’re not), opening Saturday in FiDi.

This place feels like a long-lost executive’s lounge from the 1920s. There are diamond-tufted leather banquettes everywhere. Herringbone wood walls. Hanger steak frites. Old framed photos of Fulton Street (circa horse-and-buggy era). And a slew of cracking antique mirrors... that happen to conceal 35 state-of-the-art invisible plasmas.

So when a game isn’t on, and the TVs are off, every set will be hidden behind two-way glass. Perfect for when you want to quietly sip on a Ginger Inn (that’s vodka with guava, lime, raspberry and ginger) while splitting short ribs and cheddar grits with that comely market analyst.

Like the sound of the "old framed photos of Fulton Street." A little history for the lifeless.

Neon still burns brightly at the Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone, an EV Grieve favorite down on Fulton Street, closed nearly one year ago... And the neon still has it going back on the former bar's Ann Street entrance...

"For lease" signs still adorn the front gate.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A fond farewell to the Blarney Stone

Window shopping on Fulton Street

At the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge (aka, RIP)

In his post yesterday on the documentary "New York Dive," Jeremiah linked to a Brownstoner item that the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn had recently been shuttered and gutted.

This was news to me.

Sure enough, the Times had an item about it on Sunday:

The Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge, a dive at Flushing and Washington Avenues opposite an entrance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was a bastion of grit. Scantily clad dancers would gyrate for tips as patrons sipped inexpensive drinks and shot pool. But the area has become more upscale, and when the building with the bar was sold, said Steve Frankel, who owned the bar for 11 years, the lounge’s days were over. “That bar was a real-deal place, built in 1907, and now they’ve gutted it,” he said. “All that history down the drain.”

I've heard about the bar through the years — in rather mythical proportions, too. Sketchy! Dangerous! Anything goes! Quite the legend. In any event, I had never taken the time to go. Navy Yard had been on the endangered list since the building first hit the market in February 2009, as Grub Street reported.

I did make it out there a few times this year with the long-lost Intern of EV Grieve. I planned to write about it one of these days, though never got around to it seeing as it was far off the usual EVG beat. Didn't realize that the post would be an obituary.

The first thing I remember seeing walking up to the bar — just across the street.



Anyway, at first glance inside the Navy Yard, the place seems like your average rundown neighborhood bar. A few regulars are milling about, playing pool. The bartender is cordial. (I'm sort of blending the different trips into one post here....it was always the same.) WBLS is on a little too loudly on the radio. The TV is also on seemingly just as loud — one of those CBS shows that I've never watched on Thursday nights. (CSINCS?)

Eventually around 10 p.m., a lot more women are suddenly in the bar... they walk in, talk with the bartender, spend a lot of time in the women's room. Soon, there are anywhere from five to 10 women va-va-va-vooming around in lingerie, bikinis, etc. Oh! They're all very outgoing, especially when there are just two of you in the bar.

Every few minutes Delicious or Cinnamon or Diamond walks up and asks again if you'd like a dance. No thanks! Two minutes later... There's not much of a chance of sitting here for, say, a few hours drinking without purchasing a $10 dance. (And they don't have change for a $20, oddly enough.) So just sit there in your stool at the bar for the lapdance and wonder why Laurence Fishburne decided to do CSINCS.

There's steady drinking. No one is smashed. It's not amateur hour. There's a no-nonsense, studied drinking going on. I always expect it to get fratastic, though that never happens these nights.

I wanted to take some photos of the dancers, though thought better of it. I think Steve is giving me funny looks down the way. I did take some more innocuous photos.





















I asked the Intern of EV Grieve for his notes too:

• The drink list: Thug Passion, Incredible Hulk (which a dancer told me is "sweet")
• The old school kitchen refrigerators
• Approximately 8 security monitors
• Pool table, punching bag machine and the stage that they only use for "special occasions"
• A sign behind the bar that listed prices for top, middle and bottom shelves, literally
• The bathroom has a super-long corridor with mirror in the corner, I guess so you can see if you're about to be stabbed or raided by the cops
• There was a posted time limit on the bathroom doors. Two minutes? And I think a no-gambling sign.
• 23 and over to enter... two-drink minimum.
• The tile floor
• The wood paneling

"God that place is great," the intern said.

Yes, was.

Incidentally, the item on the Navy Yard from the Sunday Times ran with a piece on The Fetch Club, "a haven for pampered pooches, fills a space where Fulton Fish Market smells once wafted. There is certainly no odor in this deluxe dormitory for dogs — the air is ionized and purified. The water is filtered, and the food is organic."

In the paper's Chronicle of a Changing City feature. Changing, indeed.