Tompkins Square Bar opens at 110 Avenue A

Tompkins Square Bar is now up and running at 110 Avenue A near Seventh Street ... in the space that had been Sister Midnight (briefly) and Black Market.

A reader who lives nearby said the new place debuted this past weekend... while the Bar's Instagram account first notes a Nov. 9 opening.

In any event, there are a few menu items (leftover from the Black Market days?) ... as well as a pool table...





Black Market abruptly closed here in March after seven years. The same ownership then debuted Sister Midnight in April... within a month, brown paper covered the front windows and the menu disappeared. Sister Midnight then advertised being in the downstairs space with the 132 1/2 E. Seventh St. entrance around the corner ... which is also the address of Lovers of Today and previously The Cabin Down Below ...


[Photo from yesterday]

A look at Orchard Street's transformation into the 1970s for Martin Scorsese's Jimmy Hoffa film

Text and photos by Dan Efram

Last week, Martin Scorsese’s "The Irishman" took over the corner of Orchard and Broome for filming. Villa Roma Productions brought in classic vintage cars and made over this Lower East Side corner to resemble one from Little Italy a few blocks West — specifically Mulberry & Hester — creating historically accurate facades and business signage.

Set mere steps from the Tenement Museum, it's not surprising to anyone familiar why the area is so popular for period pieces. Previous productions shooting here are too numerous to mention, but this may be Orchard Street’s most significantly altered state since Steven Soderburg’s Cinemax vehicle, “The Knick,” was filmed here in 2014–2015."

Scorcese’s romance of 1960-70’s New York City, always brings out a bevvy of amazing images. Vintage cars littered the neighborhood and included a Cadillac, Lincoln, Chevy, Dodge and Plymouth. The scene in question on Friday evening included a swanky (mob?) family arriving via a Sedan De Ville to Umberto’s Clam House (Tictail Market). Across the street, Irving Coffee Roasters had been completely turned into Al’s Shoes, where the cast and crew was treated to a cupcake party celebrating their friend Marty’s birthday.

As is often the case on big production sets, there seemed to be one person for every specific task that could be imagined. Prior to the Umberto’s arrival scene, a scenic artist came out to paint dirt onto the facade.

























The cast includes Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino (as Hoffa), Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci, Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano. This Daily Mail post has pics of the cast on set.

[Updated] A look at the collapsed sidewalk bridge on Broadway and Prince

Stepping away from the usual coverage zone for this post... EVG regular Lola Sāenz shared these photos this afternoon... showing the aftermath of the scaffolding collapse on Broadway and Prince...



According to reports, five people received minor injuries after the sidewalk bridge on this corner collapsed this morning around 11:30 a.m. The FDNY blamed today's high winds for the damage.

Twitter is full of clips of passersby digging through the planks to help those injured...

NEW: Video shows moments after scaffold collapsed on Broadway and Prince Street in SoHo. pic.twitter.com/OoWelg0PFz

— Myles N. Miller (@MylesMill) November 19, 2017

Updated:

There were also reports of a collapsed sidewalk bridge at 753 E. Sixth St. at Avenue D. Per CBS 2, there weren't any reports of injuries.

Bobby Williams shared these photos from Avenue D...



A bystander said that a piece of the scaffolding came down at 79-89 Avenue D between Seventh Street and Sixth Street ... where a 12-story retail-residential building is under construction.



According to the DOB website: "FDNY REQUESTS A STRUCTURAL STABILITY INSPECTION DUE TO SCAFFOLDING IN DANGER OF COLLAPSE."

Week in Grieview

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

RIP Kenny Kendra (Wednesday)

Remembering Elizabeth Lee (Monday)

Haveli Banjara Indian Restaurant said to be closing and relocating early next year (Tuesday)

NYPD searching for driver involved in deadly Union Square hit and run (Wednesday)

East Village resident arrested in hockey-stick assault (Monday)

Annual New York Cares coat drive underway (Thursday)

Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood (Thursday)

Out and About with Ronald Rayford (Wednesday)

New at Ray's Candy Store: chicken and waffles (Monday)

Former Angelica Kitchen space will yield to a Chinese noodle shop on 12th Street (Thursday)

Le Village is closed for now on 7th Street (Wednesday)

Construction watch: 619 E. 6th St. (Tuesday)

Odessa breaks out the Thanksgiving Special signage (Friday)

BarBacon looking at expanding to Avenue A (Friday)

About the Bowery Social Justice Short Film Festival (Monday)

Catching up with the hardcore matinee crowd (Thursday)

7th Street storefront to be modified for piercing studio (Thursday)

A look at Icon Realty's 9th Street building where the rentals are $30k a month (Monday)

Sales underway for Ben Shaoul's Liberty Toye — at the 'crossroads that cradled the Culture of Cool' (Thursday)

More about 29B, a new teahouse at 29 Avenue B (Wednesday)

Lizzie Fortunato for the holidays on 7th Street (Tuesday)

Kellogg’s NYC, will be slinging cereal at an all-day breakfast café on Union Square next month (Tuesday)

Construction watch: 809 Broadway (Friday)

... and I meant to note this in last week's Week in Review... the new-look Stomp marquee at the Orpheum on Second Avenue...



...looked like this for years...



Bonus! Here's a photo from 1991 via Cinema Treasures showing the marquee here for John Leguizamo's "Mambo Mouth" ...



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Reports of more package thefts: 'Thief is shopping now in our mailbox area'

On the heels of Friday's reader report about a package theft on Third Street (between First Avenue and Second Avenue) ... an EVG reader shares this from a building on Second Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...



Per the sign on the front door:

"Thief is back. Do not just buzz people in:

Have just found over $100 of gifts I ordered open and gone. Another resident also has a ripped and empty box.

Thief is shopping now in our mailbox area. Reporting to Mr. Lasker for any video — but none of us are now safe.

Go down in person if you must let people in. It could be you next."

Per the EVG reader: "We had problems before and our landlord installed cameras. I guess it’s not a deterrent."

Saturday's parting shot

Christo and Dora were renovating their nest this morning, as this photo via EVG reader Mark Cyr shows.

As Mark notes, "They have been putting a lot of work into this nest lately, hopefully it will be full this spring."

The world seems upside down today

At least on Ninth Street at First Avenue ... photo by Grant Shaffer

The pre-Thanksgiving spread at East Village Meat Market

[Click on image for meatier details]

A morning look here at 139 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street via Raquel Shapira ...

A double dose of 'Generation Wealth'

A post shared by Anthology Film Archives (@anthologyfilmarchives) on Nov 17, 2017 at 12:03pm PST

A two-week series is underway at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street and Second Avenue titled "Generation Wealth." Here's more about it:

Continuing our ongoing collaboration with the International Center of Photography, Anthology hosts a film series in conjunction with the ICP’s latest exhibition, “GENERATION WEALTH by Lauren Greenfield.” Using photography, oral history, and film to examine the pervasive influence of money, status, and celebrity in America and abroad, Lauren Greenfield explores the ways in which the pursuit of wealth, and its material trappings and elusive promises of happiness, has evolved since the late 1990s.

Weaving together stories about affluence, beauty, body image, competition, corruption, fantasy, and excess, Greenfield’s sweeping project questions the distance between value and commodity in a globalized consumerist culture.

The film series kicked off last evening... upcoming screenings include Mary Harron's "American Psycho," Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers," Robert Bresson's "L'Argent" and Amy Heckerling's "Clueless." Find the full slate of films here.

Noting the arrival of the Cookie Walk signage

Several readers pointed out the arrival this past week of the Cookie Walk signage at St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on Avenue A and 10th Street... so here you go.

The 9th Annual Cookie Walk is set for Dec. 9-10 ... 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 9 and noon to 3 p.m. on Dec. 10. Find more details here.



Previously

From the woodlands to Tompkins Square Park

Cooper's Hawks are a fairly common site this time of year in Tompkins Square Park, per the bird-watching regulars... Steven shared this photo from yesterday.

The Cooper's Hawks don't always get along so well with Christo and Dora, the Park's resident read-tailed hawks. This visit was drama-free, though.

Updated 10:01 a.m.

Here are two photos from this morning. Still no drama.

Reader report: Package theft PSA

An EVG reader on Third Street shared this from earlier today.

"This woman tried to go 'shopping' for packages in our hallway this morning. Our building has a security camera (obv) ... [she was] caught stuffing packages into her Whole Foods bag."

A building resident chased her out and called the NYPD.

"Another reminder not to buzz people into your building unless you know them."

The spirit of the 'Law'

Grab your trumpet and go dance in the woods like they did in 1984 ... The Suburbs with "Love is the Law" ...

BarBacon looking at expanding to Avenue A

The proprietors of BarBacon are getting a head start on CB3's SLA committee meeting for December... paperwork is up in the front window at 171 Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street...



In case you don't dine on swine, here's more about BarBacon, which has an outpost on Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen: "Bacon flights & other swine-spiked grub served in a gastropub setting with a large bar." (Read more about the place here.)

The meeting notices and applications aren't live just yet at the CB3 website. However, the paperwork on the door shows that the owners plan to use the hotly contested backyard patio.

The previous tenants here, both Chao Chao and Soothsayer, as well as B.A.D. Burger, were unable to secure a full-liquor license or back-patio usage.

CB3 had this to say in denying Soothsayer's full-liquor request:

"[T]he applicant proposed using the backyard area for dining, although no certificate of occupancy was provided to demonstrate the legality of the commercial use of the backyard and there had been numerous complaints from residents regarding commercial use of backyards in this neighborhood."

Updated 9 a.m.

See the comments for an update from CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer. The meeting location has NOT been confirmed for December.

Construction watch: 809 Broadway

The extension at 809 Broadway is shaping up here between 11th Street and 12th Street.

As previously reported, the developers — a partnership of three private investors led by its principal Ariel Rom — are jacking up the height of the 55-foot building to 199 feet, adding 10 stories to the existing five-story structure. In total, the building will house 10 luxury condos, including one duplex and one triplex penthouse on the top floors.

No. 809 was the longtime home until 2013 to Blatt Billiards, a pool table manufacturer that had owned and occupied the building since 1972. Blatt principals Ronald Blatt and Bruce Roeder reportedly sold the building to a buyer who was identified only as 809 Broadway Holding LLC.

Here are renderings via ODA-Architecture ...



Per ODA: "Situated on a diagonal segment off Broadway, Lot 809 stands like a totem indicating the visual entrance to Union Square. The neighborhood’s characteristic street scape is extended to the building’s façade by stacking and shifting the floor plates, thereby creating enlarged spaces, and protected outdoor terraces."



This is one of the many luxury developments sprouting up south of Union Square that some local elected officials and preservation groups spoke out against on Wednesday night at a rally on Third Avenue at St. Mark's Place.

At the rally, the group — led by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation — is seeking a rezoning of the area in to enforce some height restrictions and affordable housing requirements.

Odessa breaks out the Thanksgiving Special signage

The familiar Thanksgiving signage arrived yesterday at the Odessa, 119 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

Pricing for the Complete Dinner remains unchanged since 2014.

Gut renovating the former Mary Ann's space on 2nd Avenue

Workers have been doing some major excavating of late in the empty corner storefront on Second Avenue and Fifth Street... One of the workers told EVG Interior Demolition Contributor Derek Berg, who took the shots below, that there were multiple layers of floor and ceiling here... (some cheap-o and quick-o renovations from the past...)





The work permits don't shed much, if any, light on the next tenant. The permits say, in the ALL-CAP DOBese:

INTERIOR ALTERATIONS INCLUDING REMOVAL OF NON-LOAD BEARING PARTITIONS AND FINISHES, REPLACE CELLAR SLAB ON GRADE, REPLACE 1ST FLOOR WOOD JOISTS WITH METAL JOISTS, METAL DECK AND CONCRETE SLAB; PLUMBING ALTERATIONS INCLUDING REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT OF FIXTURES.

The space was last 100% Healthy Blend (or maybe just Healthy Blend), which closed last November after three months ... and previously it was the underage-drinking hotspot Dahlia's and Mary Ann's.

Catching up with the hardcore matinee crowd

The Bowery's all-ages, hardcore matinee shows were a ritual for young outcasts, free thinkers and activists. All these years later, what's become of those kids? https://t.co/ylKyozIaNg pic.twitter.com/as6xb8IeIf

— nprmusic (@nprmusic) November 16, 2017

NPR has a feature today on "Matinee: All Ages On The Bowery," Drew Carolan's photo book on the afternoon hardcore scene at CBGB from 1983-1985 ... Carolan, who grew up on the LES, photographed people coming and going to the matinees.

At NPR, there's a now-and-then feature that shows what some of the people featured in the book are doing today... such as Joshua:

In hindsight, I think that my early adolescent treks from Staten Island to the Bowery to catch the weekly matinee at CBGB's may have been training me to spend my life on the road. After getting out of university I started traveling more seriously, eventually expatriating when I was 24. Since then, I've probably spent half my life living overseas, working mostly as a journalist and travel writer in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. I have a new book coming out in 2018 — my 14th — titled Formosa Moon and have recently switched from original Star Trek "continuing journey" mode to a more Deep Space Nine mode by hooking up with a Taiwanese travel company that does custom tours around the country. It kind of fits, in a weird way. There's a decent punk scene here, and Beijing calls us a renegade province, so yeah, there's that. Currently listening to: Kou Chou Ching, The White Eyes, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Yes, Bad Brains, The Germs, Black Flag, Minor Threat

There's a book celebration Saturday over at Generation Records on Thompson Street ... and another one Dec. 8 at Rough Trade in Williamsburg.

1 way to reduce the rat population

Art by @ratanicacts spotted on Sixth Street near Avenue A...

Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood

A coalition of community groups and preservationists hosted a rally last evening titled "Don't Turn Our Neighborhood Into Silicon Alley" on on Third Avenue outside 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star ... and across the street from where a 7-story office building is in the works for the northeast corner of the Avenue at St. Mark's Place...



An estimated 50-75 residents turned out... as well as several elected local officials, such as State Sen. Brad Hoylman.
EVG contributor Peter Brownscombe shared these photos... Curbed has a recap of the rally here, which the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) organized ...

It’s the latest new development that’s destroying the fabric of these neighborhoods, local residents argued at the rally on Wednesday. While Greenwich and East Villagers, along with their outgoing City Council member, Rosie Mendez, have been demanding protections for this area for years, this latest push for rezoning was prompted by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement of a new tech hub at the old P.C. Richard & Son on East 14th Street.

And...

GVSHP is encouraging the mayor to create height restrictions in the area, that would limit building heights to between 80 to 145 feet, and would have incentives for creating affordable housing. [GVSHP Executive Director Andrew] Berman said he wasn’t opposed to the tech hub per se, but was unable to get behind it without all the other neighborhood protections in place. The tech hub can only be approved through a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), and will ultimately come before the City Council for final approval. The incoming City Council member from the area, Carlina Rivera, also backs the zoning protections, so it remains to be seen how the Mayor’s project will fare.

Bedford + Bowery has coverage here.

State Assembly member Deborah Glick said preserving the residential, mixed-use character of the neighborhood was important to maintaining the vibrancy of the East Village and that she was disappointed in the proposed developments. “Seeing New York homogenized during the Bloomberg administration – we thought it would come to an end but it’s only getting worse,” she said. “I want to say to Bill de Blasio: Don’t turn yourself into Bloomberg 2.0. We deserve to keep our open skies, air and light – don’t suffocate us just for a quick buck from developer.”