EV Grieve

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

[Updated] Vandaag has been closed lately is officially closed now

Several readers pointed us to Vandaag, the well-regarded Dutch-Danish bistro on Second Avenue and East Sixth Street. The restaurant has been closed of late. One reader put the date at May 20.

EV Grieve regular peter radley, who took these photos, said this sign has appeared in the window for at least a week... "plumbing emergency"

He also noted that the plants and flowers inside the restaurant are dead...

[EVG]

A reader photo from Sunday night... you can see the mail stacking up on the floor...

There isn't any outgoing phone message with an explanation of the closure. The restaurant's Facebook page hasn't been updated since May 8. Open Table is not accepting any reservations. We sent the Vandaag folks an email asking when they might reopen.

Vandaag opened in July 2010 in the former Bounce Deuce space. Vandaag owner Brendan Spiro is involved with a new restaurant, Woodland, in Park Slope that opened on May 21.

Updated: 3:15 p.m.

Eater gets word that Vandaag is closed for good.

Patricia Field moves on the Bowery

This past weekend... we watched workers move goods from the Patricia Field boutique on the Bowery... On Saturday, the designer closed up her store of six years at 302 Bowery...

... and she'll open at the newly renovated showroom space that she already owned at 306 Bowery/298 Elizabeth tomorrow... EV Grieve reader Pedro took a look at the new storefront during the weekend...

Meanwhile, the space at 302 is for rent now — $30K a month. We wrote about that here.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Celebrating the last weekend of the summer

As we close out another summer, we take a look at some of the iconic structures around the city... Bobby Williams took a little road trip today...

... and from yesterday...

We are looking forward to the fall and cooler temperatures ahead.

Hold on. What?

Oh, it's not Labor Day weekend?

Are you sure?

This is what records people were buying on Memorial Day weekend 2012

[At Kim's]

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Did you?

Spotted along First Avenue.

Today in photos of large bones found on the sidewalk

Photo by WIlliam Klayer.

First Avenue bus bulbs on the way

Catching up on a few items that I meant to post last week. (Or maybe the week before.) Such as!

Over on First Avenue between First Street and Second Street ... the MTA is, as the sign shows, building sidewalk extensions (bus bulbs!) for the M15 and the Select Bus Service...

...the sign says something about completion during the fourth quarter of this year...

As Streetsblog puts it: "Bus bulbs — sidewalk extensions into the street at bus stops — keep bus shelters and ticket machines out of the way of pedestrian traffic. And by allowing buses to load passengers without having to pull to the curb and back into traffic, they also make for faster rides."

... Meanwhile, no word on how this is slowing down the limo departure times outside Lucky Cheng's...

Today in photos of things splattered on the sidewalk

Cooper Square at Sixth Street. Perhaps I'll start a separate site for this kind of thing.

Celebrating 28 years of saying 'There goes the neighborhood'

We trot this one out every so often... It's the cover story from the May 28, 1984, New York magazine ... The article talks about the influx of chain stores, art galleries and chic cafes. "And real-estate values are exploding" as a result. Said one longtime resident on the changes: "I've lived in my rent-controlled apartment for years and pay $115 a month. I live on the Lower East Side. The young kids who just moved in upstairs and pay $700 a month for the same space — they live in the East Village."

Find the whole article here.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Zaitzeff closing Avenue B location

A tipster passes along word that the family-run Zaitzeff burgers is shutting down its Avenue B location that opened in 2007 after tomorrow... the Zaitzeff locations in Murray Hill and the Financial District will remain open...

Just a few scenes at the Loisaida Festival today

A few moments from the 25th anniversary of the Loisaida Festival today on Avenue C... via Jacob Anderson ... always one of the best street festivals around...

Ivy Irizarry-Rivera, right, of Ivy Jewel, was one of the few vendors based in the neighborhood... (Many of the other vendors were from the outer boroughs, according to festival officials...)

Above, Sixth Street resident David Joffe gives a demonstration of one of his trinkets for sale...

Avenue C gold rush

During the Loisaida Festival today... photo by Bobby Williams...

Reader report: Fire on Avenue C yesterday

We heard reports of a fire yesterday afternoon on Avenue C... a reader passed along these photos with some details...

Just before 4 p.m. yesterday, the FDNY responded to a report of a fire at 56 Avenue C near East Fourth Street ...Per the reader: "Smoke was pouring onto Avenue C for over an hour and a big crowd gathered. I feel badly for any building residents or neighbors who will return home wondering why their homes are water logged and/or smelling of smoke."

We haven't heard the official cause of the fire. A new cafe called Bikinis is slated to open in one of the retail spaces at 56 Avenue C, which is the former Nublu Records office.

Do you have any further information on what happened here? Let us know via the EV Grieve email

[Updated] In case you were going to go look at those baby tigers today...

[Photo by BB]

It's closed, via Matt LES_Miserable ... As Gothamist pointed out on Friday, two five-month-old female Bengals (Sonia and Tanya) were part of Norwegian artist Bjarn Melgaard's "Ideal Pole" exhibit at the Ramiken Crucible gallery on Grand Street.

[Katie Sokoler/Gothamist]

No word on why the exhibit is closed. Or if the tigers will be back. They were scheduled to be there until June 3. Gothamist wrote, "We've reached out to the Humane Society of the U.S. to find out what the rules are about this sort of thing, because that cage looks too small to us."

Updated 3:31 p.m.:

Gothamist received a statement from the Human Society of the United States. Part of the statement:

The baby tigers on display at the Ramiken Crucible gallery were prematurely removed from their mothers, transported to New York from a game farm in Ohio that has been cited for failing to meet minimum standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act, and are confined to a tiny barren cage inside an art gallery.

Week in Grieview

[Toys for sale on Avenue C today]

Water store opening on East 10th Street (Monday)

Searching for the loudest block in the East Village (Friday)

Development lot for sale on Avenue D (Monday)

No Astor Place is an island (Tuesday)

The smallest art gallery in the East Village? (Wednesday)

Iglesia Pentecostal Sarepta cut in half for now on East Sixth Street (Monday)

Union Market update (Wednesday)

A former bank branch is becoming a Duane Reade (Friday)

Bistro Cafe & Grill opens (Tuesday)

From farm to sidewalk (Saturday)

Why there's a dining room set in the middle of Avenue B

Crews arrived early this morning for a shoot on 10th Street and Avenue B... a crew member said it's a short film titled "1956" ...

The NYPD is redirecting traffic on Avenue B ... several motorists have been grumbling ... (Avenue C is closed between Sixth Street and 12th Street for the Loisaida Festival ... so apparently driving and parking is a bit of a hassle for the time being. More of a hassle than usual...)

Anyway! Here's the street set...