SantaCon announces 2021 route; East Village in the crosshairs once again

After a year off with the pandemic in 2020, SantaCon returns for in-person binging and bar crawling at the expense of the rest of the city this Saturday. (First reported here.) 

Yesterday, SantaCon organizers unveiled the 2021 route, which starts at 10 a.m. at 40th and Broadway. Per the SantaCon website: "We will be dancing in the streets and will unleash a holiday celebration NYC has never imagined possible!" 

A $13 donation gets your Santa Badge and access to participating bars, mainly in Midtown West and East. Six of the bars are in the East Village: The Grayson, 16 First Ave., Amsterdam Billiards & Bar, 110 E. 11th St., Doc Holliday's, 141 Avenue A, Horseshoe Bar/7B, 108 Avenue B, the Phoenix, 447 E. 13th St., and Solas, 232 E. Ninth St. 

However, as we've seen in previous Cons, bars not on the official list are often all too happy to participate, including the 13th Step.  (The SantaCon website states that participants must have proof of COVID vaccination.)

Meanwhile, ahead of the 2021 bar list, someone launched a Cancel SantaCon petition...

Per the petition: 

SantaCon is the worst day of the year in New York City. Each year thousands of belligerent drunk people in Santa costumes flood New York City streets, leaving behind a trail of fistfights, vomit, urine and garbage. John Oliver did a segment on the event which highlighted the faux-charitable nature of the pub crawl. He stated that each SantaCon participant only raises $1.66 for charity, which is hardly enough to excuse the violent and inappropriate behavior. The evidence is crystal clear: Santacon does more bad than good. 

This year New York City residents have had enough! We are calling for Mayor Bill de Blasio to show leadership and order the cancelation of Santacon. We believe that this is an issue that unites New Yorkers of all races, religions, and political beliefs. 

Please sign this petition so we can end SantaCon in New York City once and for all. 

You can find the petition here. 

And the petition garnered some support via Twitter...

Dare I say that I’m aligned? https://t.co/u7cybp4GDL pic.twitter.com/x9Twdjp67x

— Gossip Girl (@gossipgirl) December 5, 2021

Oh, and here's the John Oliver segment from December 2019 mentioned in the petition ...

 

Reader report: 'Vomit situation' on Avenue B (aka noted)

From the EVG inbox... location: West side of Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street...

"The smell came Friday. There was a large industrial black trash bag that was leaking vomit. It was terrible and stunk up the whole block all weekend."

Mmmm. And this morning?

"Now it appears the trash bag has disappeared and all that is left is an industrial amount of vomit."

The reader signed the email: ?????????

Illegal hotel row mural defaced again in First Street Green Art Park

Someone has twice vandalized the illegal hotel row mural since its arrival in First Street Green Art Park back in May.

The folks at the Cooper Square Committee shared this with me on Monday:

On June 27, tenants from East 1st Street rallied alongside affordable housing activists and elected officials to celebrate the completion of a community mural project, which called attention to the high concentration and negative effects of commercially operated, short-term apartment rentals facilitated by platforms like VRBO and Airbnb. These amateur muralists were shocked, but not surprised, to find that their project had been vandalized for the second time since they had begun work on the mural in early May.

On both occasions their mural was the only artwork in the First Street Green Art Park to be hit by the vandal, and the muralists allege that their messaging about the negative impact of short-term rentals on the community, as well as information on what tenants can do if they believe an illegal hotel is being operated in their building, were intentionally obscured.

A report issued in May 2018 by City Comptroller Scott Stringer notes that Chinatown and the Lower East Side are home to a high concentration of short-term rentals. Tenants living in buildings where illegal hotel operations are common allege that illegal hotels reduce affordable housing options and compromise tenant safety and quality of life — the lucrative prices that short-term rentals fetch contribute to displacement pressure on long-term tenants, and tenants' lives are often grossly disrupted by the influx of tourists and strangers who are able to access their building.

Residents in buildings where these operations are common claim they are routinely woken up in the middle of the night by confused guests ringing their buzzers and travelers carrying luggage up and down their stairs at all hours of the night. Others have woken up to find vomit in building common areas.

The tenants who worked on the mural are currently planning their response, and are looking for support from members of the community who are also concerned about illegal hotels' detrimental effects on the community.

Here's a video about the mural project...

`


[Photo from late June]

Report: Ariel Palitz named NYC's first Night Mayor

The newly established NYC Office of Nightlife has named its first director (aka Night Mayor) — Ariel Palitz.

Palitz is well-known in the East Village/Lower East Side as a bar owner (the former Sutra Lounge on First Avenue) and as a member of Community Board 3's Liquor Authority & Department of Consumer Affairs Licensing committee.

As The Lo-Down noted: "Her clashes with local residents fighting new liquor licenses were fairly legendary."

In recently years she has helmed Venue Advisors, "a full-service hospitality consulting company with integrated licensed real estate services."

Mayor de Blasio is to officially make her announcement official later today. Her official title is senior executive director of the Office of Nightlife.

Meanwhile, the Times has a very Times-ian feature with the news.

Since September, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was forming an Office of Nightlife to promote the industry and soothe the strained relations between the city’s night spots and the neighborhoods that complain about their merriment, the local demimonde has been wondering who might nab the glamorous position. Would Mr. de Blasio appoint a modern-day Tex Guinan, someone who would quaff champagne in the small hours of the morning under the trapezes of the erotic circus scene?

In her first interview since accepting the post, Ms. Palitz suggested that her stint as the Nightlife Mayor would be slightly more sober and focus less on carousing than on conflict mediation. In today’s New York, gentrification has pitted partygoers against the settled residents of neighborhoods like the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. In her first official act, Ms. Palitz promised to hold a series of listening tours and entertain the gripes of those who are bothered by the vomit on their streets or the noise at 3 a.m.

The article notes that Palitz is a fifth-generation New Yorker who has lived in the East Village since 1996.

And more from the Times...

Now in charge of a mayoral office with a 12-person advisory board, a $300,000 budget and a salary of $130,000 a year, Ms. Palitz seems to have realized that even a doyenne of New York night life must make a few concessions when joining city government. On her Tuesday evening drink, she was accompanied, for instance, by a minder from City Hall. While she admits that there were times in her career when she personified “what the no-bar movement rejected,” she also claimed that she has always tried “to find solutions that work for everyone.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ariel Palitz responds to Daily News article, 'ripe for picking' comment

ICYMI — Mayor forms Office of Nightlife

In search of drunk-brunch answers at the Post

This past week, East Village resident Robert Halpern sued the State Liquor Authority over a loophole in the 1999 law that allows bottomless brunches.

Steve Cuozzo uses that as a jumping off point in a column at the Post. Drunk brunch, and drinking in general among the millennial set, is a citywide scourge, he writes.

There’s never been as much binge boozing as there is today. It stretches far beyond the Lower East Side’s infamous “Hell Zone” to Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg and Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side. In the Meatpacking District, vomit on the pavement makes me cringe more than smelly carcasses once did. Even hotel rooftops and high-end restaurants are affected: Top chef Michael White actually employs a bouncer to stand on Lafayette Street to protect his Italian trattoria Osteria Morini from “young, affluent, intoxicated people stumbling from one place to the next,” a manager explained to me.

Any explanations?

A few causes of this drunken oblivion are obvious. Affluent young singles cluster in neighborhoods oversaturated with saloons. Restaurants promote “beverage programs” more than food.

Some media outlets seem bent on driving half the youthful population into AA. Time Out New York’s September issue feature on the craft-beer scene is blurbed on the magazine’s cover as “67% information, 33% inebriation.”

Also! Citing stats that show Manhattan is home to 38 percent more women than men among recent college graduates, Cuozzo believes the imbalance is driving this demographic to drink.

What’s that got to do with binge drinking? When gender expectations are wildly out of sync, anxiety is soothed with alcohol’s fast-acting flood of relief.

In case you were thinking of taking this carpet back home

Second Avenue and Fifth Street this morning... a discarded carpet with a PSA... discovered by EVG reader Sam Teichman ...

"This is not one of those cool furniture street finds. To be clear it's a carpet riddled with dog poop & vomit. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS unless you particularly enjoy those scents, which to be clear, you shouldn't.

Also, the carpet was really ugly & in shit shape. Godspeed! X"

Residents, 9th Precinct meeting tonight about excessive partying at 56 St. Mark's Place

[Rear view of No. 56]

Residents who live near 56 St. Mark's Place, aka The Saint, have organized a community meeting tonight at 7 with Capt. Vincent Greany, commanding officer of the 9th Precinct, to discuss what they say has been non-stop partying at the 8-story rental built in 2005. The meeting will be outside No. 56, which is between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The organizer of the meeting shared this background:

It has turned into a partying rental building, filled with fresh-out-of-college kids ... partying non-stop and terrorizing neighboring residents only several yards away from it.

The main noise issues stem from rooftop and some units with patios larger than their apartments. On the rooftop, tenants party till 3-4 am with DJs, climb onto the building's water tower, throw beer bottles and puke down to lower levels.

Large terraces are located on the level equal to the 2nd floor. Surrounded by buildings, sound vibrates like an amphitheater. The patios are hidden and only accessible through apartment entrances. It's not visible from the street and the tenants, knowing these issues, have been jeopardizing the quality of life of about 60 residents surrounding 56 St. Mark's Place. They watch movies with outdoor projectors, play music with outdoor speakers and have over 30 people getting drunk and hollering till early morning.

According to the organizer, the Saint is managed by Helm Management, who have "dodged efforts by several neighbors to speak to them about this issue."

Nearly a dozen other nearby residents shared horror stories about the Saint. Here's a sampling from one (edited for length):

First, let me say this — THE SAINT is an unholy nightmare that should be renamed THE SINNER.

Since the beginning of March 2016 there have been 28 parties or gatherings that have gone beyond 12:30 at night. Many have carried on until 3 am, or 4 am, or even later. All of them massively disturb the peace, prevent me from sleeping, disrupt work routines and cause aggravation and ill will. I feel psychologically and emotionally attacked, disturbed and drained. It has ruined the peace in my home and neighborhood.

I have to deal with:

• Almost daily noise, disruption and intrusion — way above normal levels.

• Roof parties — often with DJs and up to 60 or more drunk, rowdy, sometime belligerent guests — inevitably every weekend (sometimes both Friday and Saturday nights). Parties and gatherings also often occur on Sundays and during weeknights.

• We live inside an enormous fishbowl and every sound that is made on the roof or terraces it is magnified, reverberates off the walls of the other buildings. Sitting in my bedroom sometimes sounds like I am in the middle of a nightclub.

• Shrill, infantile screams of “Dude”, “Fuck yeah!”, “Oh my fucking god”, “Pass me a beer”, “Wow, I’m shitfaced”, “I would fuck him”, “Wahoooooooo!!!!!” etc., etc., at all hours of the night.

• Tenants screaming insults when I ask them to be quiet, or to turn down the noise, or to shut the music off. Insults have included, “Suck my cock”, “Fuck you”, “Eat shit”, “You sound foreign, why don’t you fucking go home?“

• Feeling as though the only solution is to move.

Of particular concern is the building's water tower. Per a neighbor:

Tenants have also taken a particular liking to climbing a tower located on the roof, accessed by a narrow ladder, and turned it into their “sky lounge”. They (and non residents, including minors) sit on top of it and drink alcohol, smoke marijuana, flash lights, scream at the tops of their lungs, play music, throw bottles and vomit over the edge, etc., etc.



People use the tower at any and ALL times of the night and morning.

The dangers are SIGNIFICANT. There is no railing on top of it, there is a 35 foot drop to the roof, girls in heels and formal dresses often climb on top of it then scream “How do I get down”. At times as many as 20 kids (usually drunk) have packed on top of it — a space that is no more than 7ftx10ft. If one of these kids falls (odds are one of them will one day) they will SERIOUSLY injure themselves.

Kafkaesque construction delays cause anger at The Neighborhood School on 3rd Street

[EVG photo from Monday evening]

The three-year renovation of The Neighborhood School and PS 63 on East Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue has reached a boiling point with parents and nearby residents.

And now the aptly named Kafka Construction, the company behind the renovations, which include asbestos removal, have been removed from the job.

Members of The Neighborhood School’s Health and Safety Committee issued a statement dated today:

After parents of The Neighborhood School (PS363) and The Star Academy (PS63) elementary schools gathered 600 signatures in just two days on a petition alleging three years of health hazards at their schools created by ongoing construction work — including rodent infestation in classrooms, homeless encampments at fire exits and drug paraphernalia and human waste at the school’s entrance — the NYC School Construction Authority (SCA), on June 13, terminated Kafka Construction’s contract. The company’s completion date over the three-year period had been postponed twice, and they showed no signs of intending to complete the work or caring about the ramifications.

The co-located elementary schools ... have been covered in scaffolding for three years, blocking all sunlight into classrooms and creating a neighborhood eyesore. Local politicians and DOE officials who toured the schools in early June were shocked by what they found. It was enough to compel the SCA to take “drastic actions,” firing Kafka and bringing in an emergency contractor to complete the work, ostensibly by the beginning of next school year.

Parents could no longer keep silent when they discovered that each morning before school started, school administration had been forced to clean hypodermic needles, vomit and feces, found on the premises, before the children’s arrival. This was a problem created by the ongoing scaffolding surrounding the building which created conditions for all kinds of undesirable behavior after school hours.

The school’s cleaning efforts didn’t prevent used syringes from being found during a daytime fire drill or by an after-school group playing in what is left of the school’s yard, which is largely covered by construction equipment.

The flower boxes in front of the school, which once housed beautiful plants, are now rat infested, as is the area behind the school where construction equipment is stored. The entire building now has a problem with vermin, and children have been known to shriek when they see a rodent scamper across the room during class.

Parents are relieved that Kafka has been fired, but remain concerned and skeptical that their kids will have a facility that is safe and an appropriate learning environment by September.

And here are some photos supplied by the parents...








[Syringes found against school wall during a fire drill]

A Kafka rep declined to comment to the Daily News.

Meanwhile, a resident who lives adjacent to the school sent along a few photos and commentary...





"We have had our lives turned upside down by this nightmare. It's been going on for over three years now and every year we're told the same thing. It will be done in August," the resident said. "We've called Kafka numerous times to complain. One particular instance...Kafka told us the project was delayed because they had to order a special kind of terracotta and it was only made by one company in California! They also told us to think of what a beautiful building it's going to be once it is completed. I'm sure the terracotta cost more than the teachers got in raises in the past 10 years or so.

"They could have build three new schools in the time it's taken them to renovate this one."

In early May, the artist JR and his Inside Out Project visited the school. The portraits of the students from Inside Out were then used to liven up the plywood on East Third Street...


[EVG photo]


[EVG photo]

The Kafka workers recently tore down the photos and tossed them in the dumpster. [Updated: The school had to remove the posters. The Department of Sanitation was going to levy fines for every poster, according to a parent. "Obviously frustrating but for an entirely different reason," per a parent.]



Per the resident: "You can name the post 'Dumpster full of children's tattered dreams of this project ever getting completed.'"

According to the Daily News, Department of Education officials are looking to secure a new construction company to finish the job. Officials are banning the Queens-based Kafka from taking new jobs with the city School Construction Authority for at least two years.

Kanye West News Hour

The News Cycle on the aborted early-morning Kanye West show at Webster Hall shows no sign of cycling out... local news crew are camped out outside the venue on East 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...



There are all sorts of first-person accounts from the Kanyefest/Pablo Mob, including at The New Yorker and Los Angeles Times.

And a passage from DNAinfo's reporting...

Neighbors who woke up to find their cars had been used as bleachers overnight were not amused.

"I thought it was going to be a quiet evening, a quiet day, and it was going to be safe," said optician Michael Gomez, 55, who parked his Chrysler and Impala in front of Webster Hall, and came back to find both had dents in the roofs and vomit on the ground nearby.

He estimated it will cost him thousands to fix his cars and says he cannot afford to make the repairs.

"I'm in shock. I'm stunned. I know I'm never going to park here again."

H/T EVG Pablo Mob correspondent Christine Champagne

[Updated] The Cock is heading to the former Lit Lounge space on Thursday

After a battle with residents and Community Board 3, it looks as if The Cock is still packing up and moving several blocks up Second Avenue to the former Lit Lounge space.

As an EVG reader noted, the bar has taken to social media with the announcements... noting a Thursday opening date...

You should tell everyone you know that we're moving on Thursday to 93 2nd Avenue. #nyc #gay #eastvillagenyc #homo

A photo posted by The Cock Bar (@thecock.nyc) on Nov 30, 2015 at 6:57pm PST

In August, the CB3 SLA committee voted against owner Allan Mannarelli's application to move the Cock from its current Second Avenue home to the Lit space between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street.

The application was heard again before CB3 last month. According to the minutes (PDF) of that meeting:

Community Board #3 denied its application [in August] for a new full on-premise liquor license, in part, because 1) there was substantial opposition from area residents, citing the already overwhelming conditions on this block of Second Avenue from the existing thirteen (13) full on-premise liquor licenses, which include crowds of people on both sides of the street so big that residents have to walk in the sidewalk, drunken people, noise from people, noise emanating from the open facades of businesses, trash and vomit on the street, 2) there were resident complaints of noise and crowds from people in front of the existing business located at 93 Second Avenue and the sometimes impassable conditions from patrons at night in front of this storefront, which is situated behind a bus kiosk, making the available sidewalk significantly narrower for pedestrians, 3) the principal made misrepresentations about its business to Community Board #3 when it applied for its full on-premise liquor license at 29 Second Avenue, for The Cock when it was located at 198 Avenue A, and for Superdive, located at 200 Avenue A, 4) there is a substantial difference in residential character between the block of Second Avenue where its business is presently located, which is comprised of mixed low and medium rise commercial and residential buildings on one side of the street and commercial lots and buildings on the opposite side of the street, and 93 Second Avenue, between East 5th Street and East 6th Street, which is densely populated with five (5) and six (6) story residential tenement buildings ...

And...

BE IT RESOLVED that Community Board #3 asks that the SLA not consider the alteration of the full on-premise liquor license, for 93 Art LLC, by majority principal Allan Manarelli for the premise located at 93 Second Avenue, between East 5th Street and East 6th Street, to wit decreasing its size by one (1) floor and reducing its certificate of occupancy to one hundred fifty-seven (157) people until this principle has appeared before Community Board #3 for the hearing of this application.

Keep in mind that the Community Board's decisions are only advisory. The State Liquor Authority has the final say in these matters.

Lit first closed at the end of July after 13 years. There was talk of a relocation to Brooklyn, but those plans never materialized.

In July, according to multiple published reports, police arrested a teacher and coach at Leman Manhattan Preparatory School for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl inside the bathroom at Lit Lounge.

Updated 5:23 p.m.

An EVG reader passed along this photo of the Cock sign now up at the old Lit space...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Confirmed: Lit Lounge is closing on 2nd Avenue

New, confusing signs up at the former Lit Lounge space

Reports: Prep school teacher arrested for having sex with 16-year-old girl in bathroom at Lit Lounge

Noted

Tweets arriving now ahead of the blessed event this Saturday...

Fighting, vandalism, littering, or public urination will SHUT DOWN SANTACON. Don’t be that Santa. #dontscroogesantacon

— santacon (@santacon) December 8, 2014

Santa is a GUEST in NYC. Respect all neighborhoods and the people who live there. http://t.co/bg8vMtGAC6 #dontscroogesantacon

— santacon (@santacon) December 8, 2014

Love Santacon? Then don’t Scrooge it up with piss, trash, violence, or vomit. #dontscroogesantacon

— santacon (@santacon) December 8, 2014

Details on the SantaCon 2014 destination will be released Friday.

Report: SantaCon isn't coming to this part of town in 2014

[SantaCon 2013 via EVG reader Steven Sonnenblick]

SantaCon, the annual charity event beloved by all save for a few curmudgeons who don't like to have fun, is apparently bypassing the East Village/Lower East Side this year.

This year's destination on Dec. 13? Bushwick, as Bushwick Daily first reported today.

So far, it looks like bar owners there are psyched, as they should be.

One bartender told Bushwick Daily:

“I’ve worked on SantaCon while bartending in the East Village. It’s the absolute worst thing ever. Worse than Saint Patrick’s Day! I literally can’t believe it’s coming to Bushwick!” he continued. “I can’t think of anyone that would let drunk vomiting Santas into their bars in this hood. I’m guessing they will be aimlessly walking around.”

As you know, most of the Santa-clad revelers are on their best behavior… of course there are always one or two bad apples as you'd expect in any crowd. (Good God! That Armory Show last year!)



Woo!

Anyway, Christmas came early here.

Per Jessica Roy at Daily Intelligencer:

East Village bars, which have long fought to ban the daytime bar crawl and will be spared this year's vomit puddles, must have made Santa's Nice List this year.

Today in photos of mysterious, gross-looking splatter on First Avenue

EVG reader Peter Hale spotted this today on First Avenue between East 11th Street and East 12th Street... Per Tony: "Juice pulp? Tomato pulp? Cab vomit?"

And, oh good — someone has already driven through it...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[East Seventh Street. Photo by Bobby Williams]

If you happen to be in Echo Park: Dee Dee Ramone will have a posthumous gallery exhibit of his artwork via Shepard Fairey (The Los Angeles Times)

Long live El Faro (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

NYPD says suspect in fatal stabbing near Union Square left for Mexico (The New York Times)

Macaron Parlour opens tomorrow on St. Mark's Place (BoweryBoogie)

Brooklyn Flea's Smorgasburg popping up shop at the Whole Foods Bowery (Gothamist)

Cafe Katja reopens tonight on Orchard Street (The Lo-Down)

And at The Awl today, Choire Sicha weighs in on the new East Village/Lower East Side Historic District in a post titled "The Permanent East Village: A Fascist Swamp of Crappy Buildings Now Historic."

An excerpt!

The district stretches down Second Avenue, which is now referred to as "Little Dartmouth Gangsta's Paradise," due to the habits of the khaki-clad worthies who clog its congested sidewalks of an evening, alternately issuing mating shrieks and vomit.

Finally, please put your stickers somewhere else besides Joe Strummer's sunglasses...

[This morning]

On the December CB3/SLA docket: Beer and wine for Curly's; something called Je'bon Public House; more!

Community Board 3 released its roster of December meetings on Wednesday afternoon, including the SLA docket. The usual time and place. SLA & DCA Licensing Committee, Monday, December 12 at 6:30 pm — JASA/Green Residence - 200 East 5th Street at Bowery

And now, here's a look at some of the agenda items ...

Renewal with Complaint History

• Klimat (7th Street Sushi Park Inc), 77 E 7th St (wb)

• Blue Owl (Global Cocktail Rooms LLC), 301 E 12th St (op)



Never been here. Plenty of positive Yelp reviews of this cocktail lounge... but the 1-star reviews are more entertaining: "I think the Blue Owl is a better fit for frat-tastic Murray Hill than it's current location in the East Village. Maybe this bar isn't the worst of the worst. Maybe this bar isn't terrible beyond terrible. Maybe this bar doesn't smell like shit, piss, and vomit. But it is overcrowded. There are drunk girls attempting to grind of drunk guys who are fortunate enough to use the wall to keep their balance as their groins are gyrated in drunken swirls."

Applications within Resolution Areas

• Japadog Inc, 30 St Marks Pl (wb)

A scratch from last month's agenda. As we first reported last month, Japadog, the crazy popular Vancouver-based artisanal hot dog stands, is opening its first NYC outpost here.

• Keybar (GHD Inc), 14 Ave B (op/removal)

Hmm. There's a Keybar on 13th Street. The aspiring East Village Brewery & Beer Shop wanted this space ... (Remember that they posted the menu from Brooklyn's Prime Meats?) Anyone know anything about this?

• NY Tofu House (6 St Mars Restaurant Inc), 6 St Marks Pl (wb)

Beer to pair with your tofu.

• Yuca Bar and Restaurant Inc, 111 Ave A (alt/op)

?????

• Nublu, 151 Ave C (op)

A scratch from last month's agenda. Nublu temporarily moved to under Lucky Cheng's back in August ... as the Nublu blog said during the summer, "last week we got our liquor license taken away due to an anonymous complaint that we are too close to a House of Worship." You can read about it all here.

• To be Determined, 116 Ave C (op)

A scratch from last month's agenda. The former Lava Gina space.

Alterations/Upgrades

• Death & Co (Little Hands Playcafe Inc), 433 E 6th St (alt/op)

??????

New Liquor License Applications

• Ugly Kitchen, 103 1st Ave (op)

One of the new entries on Restaurant (turnover) Row ... formerly the space of Veloce Pizzeria. Anyone been here?

• Honey Rider LLC, 147 2nd Ave 2nd Fl (op)

[Image via]

This is the former home of Holy Basil, which closed in October after "technical difficulties." Dunno much about this applicant just yet. Well, Ursula Andress played Honey Rider in "Dr. No." Perhaps a James Bond theme then?

• Je'bon Public House (903 Jaw Inc), 90 3rd Ave (op)


This was last Montein Thai Cuisine near 12th Street... the DOH closed them in January, and they never reopened. Maybe this is a bar companion to Je'Bon Noodle House on St. Mark's Place?

• Curly's Vegetarian Lunch (Garbas Restaurants Inc), 328 E 14th St (wb)

• Nevada Smiths (92 Nunz Walk Inc), 100 3rd Avenue (op)

Back on the docket at their new home up the block.

[EVG Flashback] Why people move away

Originally posted on Feb. 4, 2009...



I've noticed a few more people than usual moving from the neighborhood. (Perhaps there's a reason for so many more men with vans signs.) Given the drop in some rentals, maybe these people are just moving a few blocks away to a building with better deals. Or maybe they lost everything and have to go bunk with a relative. Or maybe they came here during the heady days of, say, 2005 and figured to become the next Carrie Bradshaw. (Or at least have the chance to sit on her stoop!) I wish I could go up to these people and conduct exit interviews. Why are you moving? What will you miss about the neighborhood? What are you glad to be leaving behind? I'm always curious about this.

Luckily, I came across a blog written by a young professional living on the LES. After one year here, she is moving to another undisclosed neighborhood. Almost in answer to my questions, she provided a list of things she will miss and not miss about her apartment and the LES. Among the items:

Things I will miss:
--The gym. I hope I can still force myself to go to the gym when it isn’t in my building!
--My stainless steel stove
--Dry cleaning in the building
--The statue of Vladimir Lenin on top of the Red Square building. I can see him from my bed so I wake up to him with his right arm in the air every single morning.

Things I will not miss:
--The girls who scream, “Where’s my boyfriend!?” at 4 a.m. while leaving the Lower East Side bars on any given day
--The symphony of honking on Houston Street that forces me to sleep with earplugs
--The fresh vomit that I sometimes step over while leaving for [work] on any given day
--The smell of pickles from Katz Deli that I am forced to inhale when walking home every day
--The fact that there is not a close enough Starbucks
--The mural of Kiss on the brick wall on the bar across from my apartment

I guess that says it all.

Early word on the new-look Phoenix on East 13th Street

The Phoenix, the gay bar on East 13th Street, is under new ownership. We discussed that here. One of the owners told us that they intended to clean the place up a bit while still catering the the local gay and lesbian community. Earlier in the month, the new owners closed the bar for a few days for some revamping. Phoenix regular Lux Living stopped by the new-look bar and filed this report.

I went to the Phoenix Friday night for the first time since their new makeover and though the changes aren’t dramatic, it feels like the cast of "Trading Spaces" has been hard at work. Frank, not Hildi.

They took out the Galaga arcade machine and the jukebox — genius move taking control of the music away from the patrons. They painted the front of the bar a sky blue and plastered the walls with all of the clichéd and junky signs the Catskills has to offer. New tables include two milk jugs with a board on top (?) and an old-fashioned sewing machine (??). Gone are the peanut/candy machines and the ledges that held the HX magazines and postcards for gay-related events and such. On the plus side they refinished the floor so it no longer smells like vomit and beer and the pool table is still there.

I wasn’t there long enough to use the loo so I don’t know if they painted over the shark in the bathroom. If they did, I’d be bitter.

The bottom line is that one of the area’s last remaining gay bars has been transformed into a lesbian brunch fantasy that probably should have been left in Cherry Grove or possibly in the dorm room of the Sarah Lawrence fantasy from whence it came. Gone are the blood red walls and dark orange ambient lighting. Here to stay are the finest eBay deals on authentic set pieces from Ted Danson’s personal collection from "Cheers." If ever there were a Jersey Turnpike Bennigans patiently awaiting its passport to the Isle of Lesbos, the new Phoenix is undoubtedly it.

[The old bathroom shark, which may or may not still be here]

A CB3/SLA recap: 'Everyone wants a piece of the EV gold rush'

Here's a little more on Monday night's CB3/SLA meeting... We heard that the whole thing ran eight hours... and a good crowd was present.

"The place was packed," East Village Dale Goodson told me later. "So many applicants. Everyone wants a piece of the EV gold rush."

Indeed. Meanwhile, EV Grieve reader Mike sent along his account from the four hours or so that he spent there...

1) Team New Superdive showed up, but they didn’t have a representative so they had to wait a while. When they finally did come up, they decided to define the word “salon” and talk about how they were an art gallery that just needed to stay open really late at night for no apparent reason. They gave endless introductions about who they were, to the great non-interest of the audience, and then were asked, by both the Community Board and the audience why they were presenting the same plan they presented five months ago with no modifications after making no effort to communicate with the community about their concerns. They responded that they were “advised not to.” Their lawyer did some quick backpedaling about how he had certainly not suggested such a thing, and then they were forced to withdraw their application. The audience, who was out for blood, was disappointed, but victorious.

2) Tiny’s Giant Sandwich Shop at 129 Rivington St. brought along a bunch of supporters who talked about how much they liked to eat sandwiches after work and wished they could have a glass of wine. After a bit of wrangling, it was granted, with restrictions on the hours it could be open.

3) Percy's Tavern (210 Ave A) was requesting an outdoor cafe. There was significant community opposition because Percy's has apparently not kept its promises to the residents of the community about reducing the noise level. Its owner kept saying the noise was not his fault and talking about how he moved the stage, but neither the neighbors or the Board were impressed. They were denied, and told to try again when they’d proven themselves to the community.

4) A restaurant whose corporate name is “133 Essex Restaurant LLC” wants to take over the Mason Dixon space that apparently houses a bunch of frat boys and a mechanical bull. The budding restaurateurs wouldn’t accept a midnight closing time during the week and a 2 a.m. closing time on the weekends. They told the community members that if they didn’t let them operate later into the night, the community would continue to be saddled with Mason Dixon (which is apparently closed right now for some sort of violation) and that there would be vomit everywhere. So in any case, that was a bit ugly, but they withdrew.

5) Angels and Kings is closing so that a restaurant can open. But wait, Angels and Kings has a kitchen? Apparently they even have a menu. Who knew? They are going to hire the chef from the troubled Forbidden City on Avenue A that is now called the Fat Buddha. The neighbors opposed the transfer because there wasn't any community outreach. Neighbors also complained about their proposed hours (4 p.m. - 3:30 am sounds a lot like bar hours) and one Community Board member questioned why they planned on having one security guard inside and another outside, which sounds like bar security, not restaurant security. One also wonders why a small restaurant needs a full liquor license anyway, but that’s another story. Anyway, they withdrew to go meet with community members.

6) Finally, the owners of the Tonda space wanted to get the stipulations about closing time and a coffee window taken off their license (a transfer). They got their coffee window (they will now apparently have pastries and coffee starting at 7:30 a.m.), but the residents of East 4th Street won the hours battle: 12 p.m. closing on weekdays, 1 a.m. on weekends.

One further note on Angels and Kings. Another attendee told me about a letter from a social worker who works with the elderly residents of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Apartments that face the bar on 11th Street. The social worker said that some of the residents are feeling depressed and anxious — aided in part by sleepless nights courtesy of noisy nearby bars.

Also, a few weeks ago we mentioned that South Brooklyn Pizza is expanding to open a restaurant — serving beer and wine — next door at 122 First Ave. in the former Ruben's space. The South Brooklyn folks have been collecting signatures in support of the move, and showed up at the meeting with more than 2,000 signatures.

As Eater's Jackie Goldstein reported, the owner started his presentation by saying that South Brooklyn Pizza was known as the "best pizza place in New York City right now." To Jackie's recap:

Then someone mentioned "Fondle Parties," an event that has occurred at South Brooklyn Pizza which basically sounds like a grope fest. But it was okay, one committee member even said "nothing's wrong with a little fondling as long as it's consensual." The board voted to deny unless they agreed to stop serving booze at 1 a.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. on weekends.

No word on whether the EV location will host Fondle parties. You can read more about them here.

Find more recaps at Eater and The Lo-Down.

Tompkins Square Park red-tailed hawk is 'much more cool than a hipster'

I totally missed Stephanie Cohen's piece in the Post today of the red-tailed hawk of Tompkins Square Park.... An excerpt!

" ... this Tompkins Square chick boasts something just as important: downtown street cred. Call her the hipster hawk.

So it’s only fitting that Jonathan Ames, the indie writer behind the HBO hit 'Bored to Death,' is a fan.

“I was thrilled to see such a proud and fierce raptor in Tompkins Square Park,” says the Brooklyn-based Ames.

“Right after seeing the hawk, I saw a young man projectile-vomit, so it was quite the full outing.”

Per a Post commenter: "Please, she's no hipster. She kills rats and pigeons and lives off of them. She's much more cool than a hipster."

Many thanks to BaHa for the two photos...

Headline of the day: 'Show-Tune-Singing NYU Pukers Make Neighbor's Life a Living Hell'

That comes courtesy of Curbed, who has a piece on an Eighth Street apartment owner near NYU. Oh, the regret of picking this spot!

Not all New Yorkers have to deal with drunken drama students screaming show tunes at the top of their lungs at 4 a.m. ... And then there’s the vomit. It’s more of a weekend phenomenon, especially around the bars in Washington Square.

Show tunes? I'll sing show tunes!