EV Grieve

Monday, November 29, 2010

Meanwhile, 24 Avenue A remains empty

Well, while on the topic of Avenue A retail... I recently noticed new(ish?) plans in the window of the former Graceland space at Second Street... (And it seems longer than six months that Graceland has been gone...)

Anyway the space can be chopped up into one, two or three storefronts... (Here's the listing.)

The one storefront might be best suited for the threatened 7-Eleven. And what do you think life would be like here had the CB3 approved Frank's plan for fast-food Italian (Raguboy) back in June?

Meanwhile, the FDR cheap pizza place behind the space on Second Street is ready for action... as you can see from the canopy, you can get 99-cent pizza, Indian snacks, tea...

Previously on EV Grieve:
"All uses considered" at former Graceland

More here.

Grade inflation at Ray's?

Thanks to an EV Grieve reader for this photo outside Ray's... a little marker mischief provides a boost to the Health Department's A, B or C ratings...

DBGB's decorative planters finally receive a warm welcome to the neighborhood

A tin ceiling and Vermont veal meatballs for Goat Town

The Times had an update last week on Goat Town, the new restaurant taking over the former Seymour Burton-Butcher Bay space (Le Tableau closed in December 2007) on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B:

The restaurant will hew to the current shoestring restaurant formula of repurposed materials, including a weathered copper bar and a tin ceiling, and ingredients that are often local, perhaps even grown in the restaurant’s own garden, and pickled on the premises. The menu is fairly straightforward American, with a raw bar, and dishes like Vermont veal meatballs, seared Block Island swordfish, and braised Flying Pigs Farm pork shoulder.

Nicholas Morgenstern, late of General Greene in Fort Greene, and Joel Hough, a former chef de cuisine at Cookshop, are behind this venture.

I caught a look inside the other day...

Goat Town opens Thursday.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Yes, yes, yes — Christmas is coming, we get it

We'll always have the MTA

From today's Post:

An MTA bus bully slapped a $100 summons on a Manhattan woman deemed too slow to show her ticket for the new express M15 Select Bus -- a service that has increasingly become a cash cow for the money-strapped agency.

Since 2008, NYC Transit cops have handed out more than $1 million in summonses on the two Select Bus lines, the M15 and the Bx12, whose riders buy tickets from a sidewalk machine rather than pay on board.

The machines are supposed to speed the passengers' trips, but some straphangers gripe that the speediest thing about the Select Bus service is how quickly officers ticket customers.

Celebrate the Bowery on Tuesday evening

From the EV Grieve inbox...

BOWERY HISTORY: A CELEBRATION
A lively evening of talk and entertainment honoring the cradle of American popular culture. Birthplace of tap dance, vaudeville, and punk rock, the Bowery is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. Hosted by Bowery Alliance of Neighbors & Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

Tuesday, November 30, 2010
@ Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street (Btwn. Rivington & Delancey)
SUBWAYS: F to 2nd Ave., 6 to Spring, B/D to Grand, J to Bowery

6 - Happy Hour (Cash Bar), featuring vintage Bowery cocktails
7 - Showtime

HOSTED BY:
Kent Barwick,
President Emeritus, Municipal Art Society

PERFORMERS:
Poor Baby Bree, Chanteuse (w/Frankllin Bruno, piano)
Bob Holman, Poet, Bowery Poetry Club

SPEAKERS:
City Council Member Margaret Chin
Kerri Culhane, Architectural Historian
Peter Quinn, Novelist, BANISHED CHILDREN OF EVE
Eric Ferrara, L.E.S. History Project, author of upcoming book on the Bowery
Anthony Tung, Author, PRESERVING THE WORLD'S GREAT CITIES
Trav S.D., Vaudeville Historian and impresario

FILM:
THIS IS THE BOWERY (rare film from the 1940s); fascinating footage of
the Bowery Mission, street life, etc. In many ways anticipates Lionel
Rogosin's classic 1956 documentary ON THE BOWERY.

TICKETS:
$20 - General Admission
$15 - Student/Seniors
$50 - Sponsors (Priority Seating)

Via here or 866-811-4111