Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Craft beer specialists Top Hops on tap for Zero Irving food hall

Urbanspace signed a lease last August to operate a food hall on the ground level of Zero Irving (formerly the Union Square Tech Training Center, 14 @ Irving and tech hub) on 14th Street. 

And now we know at least one of the incoming vendors. The owners of Top Hops Beer Shop were expected to be on this month's CB3-SLA docket (Aug. 16) to operate a bar-restaurant inside the 21-story building at 124 E. 14th St. at Irving Place. 

According to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website, this location will feature 18 tables to accommodate 97 guests and an 18-seat bar. Top Hops is also applying for a backyard garden space here. The food items on the sample menu include various sandwiches, burgers and dinner platters (bratwurst!).

Top Hops currently operates outposts in Essex Market and Urbanspace at 570 Lex. Their flagship shop/bar at 94 Orchard St. closed in March after nine years on the block below Delancey.

Here's more about the Zero Irving food hall via the official news release last summer:
Urbanspace will be a unique amenity for Zero Irving's tenants, users of the building’s event space, and the surrounding neighborhood. Urbanspace plans an innovative mixed online/offline platform that stays true to its exceptional, immersive food hall experience while providing enhanced online ordering with delivery and pickup options for building tenants and the local community. 

Urbanspace also plans a catering option offered to both building tenants and users of Zero Irving's event and conference center...
The building, developed jointly by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and RAL Development Services, will feature 14 floors of market-rate office space as well as "a technology training center and incubator, co-working spaces and state-of-the-art event space ... on the seven floors beneath," per the Zero Irving website

Long contested by local preservationists and community groups, the new building sits on the former site of a P.C. Richard & Son on city-owned property.

Zero Irving is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Celebrating Luna's 2nd birthday



For a post published on Aug. 29, 2019, EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared a photo essay from the home of the Riveras on Third Street. 

On Aug. 7 that year, they welcomed Luna into the family (photo above!). 

This past Saturday (Aug. 7), the Riveras celebrated Luna's second birthday.
Stacie stopped by to photograph happy parents Juana and Edward Rivera and Luna's siblings Edward Jr. and Rex.
The festivities included a rooftop pool party...
... and friends and family...
Previously on EV Grieve:

Pete's Tavern reopens TODAY

As a follow-up to our post yesterday about Pete's Tavern reopening... it turns out today (Aug. 10) is the day. The doors open at 4 p.m. 

EVG reader Michael Quinn shared the news via new owner Gary Egan (pictured above), the longtime day manager who worked out a partnership deal with the landlord. 

Pete's Tavern is at 129 E. 18th St. at Irving Place. The circa-1864 restaurant had been closed since March 2020.

RIP Patricia Kennealy-Morrison

Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, an author, journalist and longtime East Village resident, died on July 23. She was 75. According to published reports, the cause of death was due to complications from heart disease. 

Born in Brooklyn, she settled in the East Village in 1967 after graduating from Harpur College (now the State University of New York at Binghamton). 

Aside from her trailblazing work as a journalist, she was known for her relationship with Jim Morrison of the Doors. 

Here's more via an obituary at Legacy.com:
Kennealy-Morrison became a rock music journalist as a young woman, bringing a new seriousness to rock criticism as one of the first women in the field. She interviewed Morrison in 1969 for Jazz & Pop, the magazine she edited and contributed to. 
The two began a relationship, largely long-distance, and they participated in a handfasting ceremony in 1970. It wasn't a legal marriage, though Kennealy-Morrison considered herself Morrison's wife. It was a controversial claim, refuted by some who point out that Morrison was also in a serious relationship with Pamela Courson (1946–1974). 
The handfasting ceremony was included in the 1991 Oliver Stone movie "The Doors." Kathleen Quinlan played Kennealy-Morrison, and Kennealy-Morrison herself appeared in the scene as the Wiccan priestess who performed the ceremony. 
Kennealy-Morrison wrote the 1992 memoir, "Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison." It was one of more than two dozen books written by Kennealy-Morrison, including several fantasy novels in "The Keltiad" series. In 2007, she founded the publishing house Lizard Queen Press, riffing on Morrison's "Lizard King" nickname. 
She went on to write and publish a series of rock-themed mystery novels, including "Ungrateful Dead: Murder at the Fillmore," "A Hard Slay's Night: Murder at the Royal Albert Hall," and "Scareway to Heaven: Murder at the Fillmore East."
She was also a longtime reader of EVG and left comments under her real name as well as, more recently, Peachy McPeachface. 

You can find feature obituaries about her at Variety and the Los Angeles Times, among many other news outlets.

Oh-K! Another Korean-style hot-dog chain to give the East Village a go

Oh-K Dog appears to be the next tenant for 36 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. 

The chain specializing in Korean-style snacks such as stuffed hot dogs and egg toast has this location as "coming soon" on its website. Oh-K Dog also has outposts on Ludlow Street and Seventh Avenue South with several more planned for the city.

Competition for Korean-style hot dogs is heating up around here. Two Hands, which offers Seoul fresh corn dogs, opened on Avenue A and Ninth Street in April ... while Mochinut is opening soon on Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

As for this storefront on St. Mark's Place... not much has had success here in recent years. Joe's Steam Rice Roll was the most recent tenant, quietly closing in MarchOther concepts here included Cheers Cut, the Taiwanese mini-chain of fried foods ... Friterie Belgian Fries ... Fasta ("Pasta Your Way") ... and the $1.50 branch of 2 Bros. Pizza.

H/T Upper West Sider!

The FedEx Office Print & Ship Center is shipping off to a new storefront on East Houston

The storefront shuffle continues along 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The FedEx Office Print & Ship Center is moving from its current space to several storefronts to the west ... into one of the newly renovated spaces (I believe this was Dr. Manuel Velazquez's office) ...
The 13-floor residential building at 250 E. Houston St., the former Red Square, changed ownership in the fall of 2016 ... and underwent extensive renovations.

Apparently, not all of the retail space was part of the deal. (You can tell by where the new paint stops — right at the recently shuttered Mattress Mart.) Other current tenants in the unpainted zone include the Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins combo, Subway (sandwich shop), China Town Chinese restaurant, H&R Block and Kapri Cleaners.

Two Perrys makes first appearance on Avenue C

Signage recently arrived for Two Perrys, a new cafe-restaurant in the works for 127 Avenue C at Eighth Street (thanks Robert Miner for the pics!) ...
We don't know too much yet about the new venture via proprietor Michael Perry III. He appeared before CB3's SLA committee in April

By day, the space will serve as a cafe offering breakfast and lunch ... with a bar-restaurant service in the evenings, according to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website.

No word yet on an opening date.

Loverboy, specializing in pizza and slushy drinks, closed here during the pandemic after nearly three-plus in business.  Before Loverboy, the corner space was home to multiple establishments, a list that includes Lumé, the "Epicurean drinkery," ... Life — Kitchen and Bar … which had taken over for Verso. Other restaurants here in the past nine years include Caffe Pepe Rosso and Caffe Cotto

Monday, August 9, 2021

At the Tompkins Square Park Riot Reunion shows

The concerts commemorating the 33rd anniversary of the Tompkins Square Police Riot of Aug. 6, 1988took place this past weekend.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos over the course of the two days that featured more than a dozen bands and speakers (not to mention the heavy presence of the NYPD and Parks Enforcement Patrol) ...

Large tree branch down in Tompkins Square Park

Derek Berg shares this photo from Tompkins Square Park this morning... a large limb fell here along Avenue A near the Seventh Street entrance.

Not sure at the moment when this elm branch may have fallen — late night/early morning. 

And this is the latest branch to come down in the park this summer.

Updated 2 p.m.

Here are a few more photos via Steven ...

Former tenants of the fire-destroyed 48 E. 7th St. want to hear from landlord Faith Popcorn

The longtime tenants of 48 E. Seventh St., destroyed in a six-alarm fire last December, are "seeking basic decency" from the building's landlord, acclaimed futurist Faith Popcorn. 

During a rally in late July across from the former building on the southeast corner of Seventh Street and Second Avenue, the residents, as well as local elected officials and housing advocates, said that they haven't received any answers from Popcorn (aka Faith Plotkin) on finding new low-income housing in the neighborhood.
"This building was our home. Three generations of our family grew up at 48 E. Seventh St. and have helped build this community," said Cathy Barna. "Now we are really struggling to find affordable housing in this neighborhood." 

The misery for the tenants started in February 2020 when a fire displaced the building's residents. No. 48, which included retail tenants Via Della Pace and Cafe Mocha and eight apartments, was under renovation this past fall and was vacant at the time of the December fire, which also destroyed the Middle Collegiate Church next door.  

Before the December fire, the displaced tenants were hoping to be back in the building this fall, according to the Cooper Square Committee, which organized the late-July rally with TakeRoot Justice.

There were approved work permits dated from last Oct. 29 on file with the DOB. According to the permits: "Repairs due to fire; interior non-structural demolition, removal of damaged floor and roof framing, replace damaged floor and wall joists, reconstruct floor and roof joists, reconstruct roof joists, reconstruct roof bulkhead, repair interior stairs ... install new windows, installation of new roof." 

The FDNY previously said that faulty electrical wiring was to blame for both fires. Workers demolished the building on Dec. 7

Now, 17 months out of their homes, the tenants said they want to "open lines of communication and to move forward stalled negotiations." 

The Cooper Square Committee stated that many of the tenants are senior citizens who had lived in the building for 60 or more years. Other tenants raised their families here, and all of them have deep roots in the community. (There were four rent-regulated units left in the building — three rent-controlled and one rent-stabilized). Tenants — or their family members — from three of the units spoke at the rally.)

"On top of COVID and dealing with personal health issues, the last thing we thought is that we would lose our home of 60 years," said resident Oksana Lopatynsky.

"All my friends are here in NYC," said Donna Czechowycz. "I'm living in an area where I don't know anyone. It's difficult for someone in their 80s to start over again." 

Elected officials also called on the landlord to provide answers to the tenants. Said Rivera: "I stand with Cooper Square Committee and the tenants of 48 E. Seventh St. to say enough is enough, and that their landlord Faith Plotkin must stop hiding and come to the table with real answers about the future of their homes. These tenants have been struggling for over a year ... They've been waiting, amidst COVID-19, in flux ... and even basic questions about the building itself remain unanswered. They don't deserve this, and we won't rest until they receive the housing justice they deserve."

Popcorn, whose Facebook page lists that she was born in the East Village, reportedly owns several other buildings in the neighborhood. 

According to public records, No. 48 has been in the Plotkin family for generations. Her sister, the late Mechele Flaum, was also an owner. The first entry for the building in property records is from 1969, where Plotkin's parents — the former Clara Storper and George Plotkin — took over the building from Rose Storper.
Popcorn is a futurist, author and founder and CEO of the consulting firm BrainReserve. Popcorn's office did not respond to an EVG query for comment. She also did not respond to calls from amNY and The Village Sun, who also reported on the rally and displaced tenants. 

"In the darkest days of the pandemic, these community members were also dealing with the destruction of their homes by fire. They had to live through the trauma of not one but two fires," Brandon Kielbasa, director of organizing and policy at Cooper Square Committee, said in a statement. "Now, as these folks attempt to regain a footing, communication from their landlord has become inconsistent and negotiations have stalled."

Photos courtesy of the Cooper Square Committee

Advocacy group: Mayor 'overrules' comptroller on East River Park reconstruction contract

Mayor de Blasio apparently doesn't want any further delays with the East Side Coastal Resiliency Plan (ESCR) for East River Park. 

According to East River Park Action in an Instagram post from Friday, the Mayor "overruled" Comptroller Scott Stringer's office and asked that he register the low bidder's contract for the massive floodproofing project. 

Last month, the $1.2 billion contract from IPC Resiliency Partners was waiting for approval at Stringer's office. Stringer subsequently sent the contract back to the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) for more information, including "how the project's lead contractors plan to meet the legal standard that minority/women-owned business enterprises receive 30 percent of the work," as The Indypendent reported

Per a Stringer spokesperson: "Since we were unable to resolve all of our questions within the 30-day review period, our office has returned the contract to DDC to allow them additional time to address the outstanding issues." 

Stringer apparently did not indicate that he opposed the reconstruction plan. 

Now the Mayor is "pushing through the City's contract with the unqualified company," per East River Park Action. 

Every day this week at noon, the activist group will protest the plan outside the gates of City Hall...
 
Eileen Myles, the East Village-based poet and novelist who has spoken out against the plan, called out mainstream media outlets for not covering this story.

From a weekend Instagram post that was widely shared on the platform, including by Kim Gordon...
 
Opponents of the city's current plan — where workers will raze the 57.5-acre plot of land, bulldozing 1,000 mature trees and rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill — say there are better ways to preserve the park and provide flood protection, such as the one mapped out in the years after Sandy.

In late 2018, the city surprised community stakeholders by announcing a complete overhaul of a plan discussed over four years of local meetings.

In October 2019, the city announced that they would phase in the construction, so only portions of the park are closed to the public at any given time. 

According to various reportsthe city has committed to leaving a minimum of 42 percent of East River Park open to the public. It is projected to be completed in 2025, a timetable opponents say will never be met.

New 2nd Avenue sushi restaurant unveils attempt at humor

As previously reported, Moko is a new sushi restaurant opening soon at 138 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. 

Among the various signs now on the storefront: "Tell your sugar daddy Nobu's out. Moko's in."
The same flyer is posted around the neighborhood...
Nobu, of course, is the global chain of high-end Japanese restaurants that got its start in Tribeca in 1994.

Moko's playfulness extends to the menu, where the pricing includes the "starter Omakase" ($65), "worth it Omakase" ($85) and "definitely worth it omakase" ($120).

No word on an opening date just yet.

Thanks to Steven for the photos!

75 Degrees Cafe & Bakery slated for this 7th Street storefront

75 Degrees Cafe & Bakery is opening in the weeks ahead at 93 1/2 E. Seventh St. just east of First Avenue.

This will be the first storefront for the business specializing in Asian desserts, created by "a group of friends who have always liked to eat, drink and create amazing food together," per the 75 Degrees website.  

The cafe's Instagram account has details (and photos!) of some of the featured desserts, including matcha tiramisu and chocolate brownie chiffon cake. 

This retail space has been vacant since a fire shuttered Caracas Arepa Bar in September 2016. 

New boutique office building on East Houston shows off some glass

This is the first sign of the floor-to-ceiling glass wall for the 9-story office building at 141 E. Houston St. ... as the construction netting has dropped a bit here between Eldridge and Forsyth. 

Completion of the 65,000-square-foot space is slated for the fourth quarter of 2021, per the 141 website.

Our previous post (here!) on No. 141 has more details about what's been happening here to date at the site of the former Sunshine Cinema (RIP January 2018). 

Updated 8/13

An August break for Baker's Pizza

ICYMI: Baker's Pizza at 201 Avenue A is closed for August... door signage points to "renovations & improvements."
The pizzeria, which also now has an outpost on 10th Avenue, opened here between 12th Street and 13th Street in February 2016.

Reader report: Pete's Tavern looking closer to reopening

Updated 8/10: Pete's reopens today at 4 p.m.

From just outside the usual coverage zone ... an EVG Irving Place correspondent reports signs of life at old-timer Pete's Tavern.

In the past two weeks, help-wanted signs for wait and kitchen staff have arrived on the restaurant's front door here on Irving Place and 18th Street. In addition, three smallish curbside dining spaces were erected this past week...
The circa-1864 Pete's Tavern has not been open since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. There was some talk last fall among neighbors that Pete's was going to reopen. (And given the ample space for Pete's sidewalk cafe, regulars, including the EVG correspondent, were surprised that they didn't restart the dining service much earlier.) 

According to one published report, an employee died from COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 and three others tested positive.

So far, Pete's has not posted a reopening date on its website or social media properties.

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Broken stage rail derails show at Webster Hall

Webster Hall's return to live events this weekend didn't go as planned. (Note: These were the first shows since the pandemic closure in March 2020. The renovated facility reopened in April 2019.) The plug was pulled during the first act of a late dubstep show last night at the venue on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. 

There were several errant reports of a "stage collapse" before word circulated that a stage rail broke during Chicago-based dubstep artist Guppi's set... Webster Hall officials then announced that the show would not continue, and scheduled acts Calcium and the headliner, Sydney, Australia-based Marauda, making his NYC debut, never got to play. Here's the moment those in attendance learned that the show wasn't going on... While videos from Citizen show emergency personnel at the scene, there weren't any reports of injuries. CBS 2 pieced together a report from the Citizen clips (and they incorrectly stated that the venue is in Midtown). The NYPD was on the scene to help with crowd control.

 
Webster Hall has not yet released a statement about what happened. 

Meanwhile, fans who made the trip are understandably pissed and are asking about refunds.