I'll be back again some day

Despite the warmish temperatures, a little bit of the Tompkins Square Park Igloo remains today...

Danny Meyer's future in politics

At the Post, Jennifer Gould Keil conducts a Q-and-A with restaurateur Danny Meyer... Blah, blah, blah... and he doesn't really answer this question ... that I'd love to honestly hear him answer...

Q: What happened in Nolita? You were going to build a Shake Shack in a parking lot and backed off when some neighbors complained. Why?

A: One of the good things about the experience is that there will not be an unlimited number of Shake Shacks in New York and life is too short. That's the bottom line. We are going to open our first Shake Shack in Miami in late spring, before it gets too hot. And there will be others opening on the Upper East Side and in the theater district soon. There's also one in Central Park, at the Delacorte Theater.

So life is too short is what happened? Or maybe it had something to do with this resident...

Avenue A, 10:34 a.m., March 6

Ray's in the Times

At the Times, Jim Dwyer checks in on the situation at Ray's. He talked with Bob Arihood... He also spoke with Arianna Gil, who helped organize the Saturday night delivery service. (Speaking of which, it's Saturday. If you need something delivered... 718-473-9636)

The headline: Not Your Banks’ Bailouts: Stores Too Loved to Fail

Anyway, here's a passage:

One recent blustery night, Maria Musial stood behind the counter at Ray’s, where she has worked since arriving from Elk, Poland, in the early 1980s.

“When I came, he was nearly the only store on the block,” Ms. Musial said. “The squat people was here. Now it’s young customers, new people.”

A friend, Bozenna, chimed in.

“They don’t like egg creams,” Bozenna said.

Read the whole article here.

[Photo by Michael Sean Edwards.]

Hello Europe!

Sonic Youth 1983, as the YouTube title says...

Cheep's eats for Second Avenue

Thanks to the EV Grieve tipster for passing along this signage shot of Cheep's, which is going in at the former Snacklicious Cinderella, Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Fairytale new beginning for Snacklicious Cinderella?

A little while ago on lower Broadway

And the Daily News has a story on this today. Courtesy of the Local 78.

This is not a test: Cooper Union in imminent danger of "projectile vomiting"

A friendly tipster passed along the following from a Cooper Union student, who — wisely at first — thought the e-mail below was a hoax given all the upheaval there of late. But it is not.

From: bulkmail@cooper.edu
Date: March 3, 2010 2:37:35 PM EST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: A nasty stomach virus at Cooper

Cooper has been hit by a 48 hour stomach virus, characterized by projectile vomiting and high temperatures.
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water. This is the single most effective preventive step you can take.
Go back to using the Purell dispensers.
Try not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.
Avoid large gatherings.
If you get the virus, stay home! Drink lots of fluids.

Alan Wolf
Campus-wide Safety Coordinator


Our friends at EV Heave have been notified. He or she has made the necessary preparations for the weekend, and is already on the scene. See for yourself.

Benefit for Ray's: "I am thrilled to be part of this moment in our community of the East Village"

As a reminder... Bob Arihood and Slum Goddess have already made mentions of this....

Benefit for Ray's Candy Store
Monday, March 8
7:30 p.m. - 11 p.m.
Theater For The New City, 155 First Ave.
Between 9th and 10th streets.
Suggested donation of $15 — sliding scale from $5 to $15

Here's the official information from Facebook:

It promises to be a wonderful evening of giving love to a neighbor in need. Ray himself will be there with us! and some of our East Village activists. This will be an event from our beloved neighborhood to Ray, a men who has work hard and long and have give back, support, smiles, someone who has protect many of us! today we can give back to him and celebrate the spirit that still lives among us! the spirit that mayor Bloomberg and his politics want to finish, to eradicate ... We will fight against it! Lets get united to celebrate the very beautiful Ray!!! Lets have him for many more years! He'll be our strongest representation... right here in the heart of our little Villlage. please assist, collaborate, The whole East village will be there! So fun...

Show Schedule

7:30 — D.J. DiDi of the Brazilian Girls

7:45 — Ms. Marilyn singing her smash hit "My Man Ray!

8:00 — Rev. Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir

8:20 — Janine Otis

8:35 — Joff Wilson of the Bowery Boys

8:50 — Marni Rice

9:05 — Blind Boy Paxtion

9:20 set up

9:30 — East River String Band

9:55 set up

10:00 — The Bill Murray Experience

10:30 — D.J. Didi

11pm End of show!!

Francisco Valera is helping organize Monday's benefit... I asked him for his story.

Hello this is Francisco Valera. I am a former member of the Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir. I've lived in the East Village for the past 17 years, upstairs from Ray's Candy Store. Ray is a great friend and over the years I have come to love him as family. Ray and I share the same Landlord. I have been aware of his situation for a while now and we talk about it, as myself, up until a week or two ago was very late with my own rent, due to lack of work in the middle of such difficult times... does it sound familiar? I hear it all the time, from some many different kinds of people... Ray just became 77 years old recently, we had a very cute party in there, and he has been working at the little store for almost four decades, since i was a baby!


He is truly a sweet, sincere, funny, workaholic, knowledgeable, humble gentleman, a totally honorable man! He is an Icon, although nowadays that term is use so commonly... when it comes to Ray, it gains all its original meaning...

I am thrilled to be part of this moment in our community of the East Village a legendary one, with such an amazing Human Being Ray Alvarez, It can't get any better!

Meanwhile, Bob Arihood has the latest news on Ray's at Neither More Nor Less.

According to Nino's, we're still in a recession

Indeed we are. Still, as this newish sign says, pizza deals abound at Nino's on Avenue A at St. Mark's.



Meanwhile, after another slice of the artichoke pizza at Nino's...



By far a better slice than my last trip to Artichoke Basille's around the corner on 14th Street....(OK, only been there twice. Tried a few other times. I dislike the line...and a few of the people standing in it...)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Nino's vs. Artichoke

Lucy's will be back open on March 11

On Avenue A, Lucy is on a break... and I didn't realize this until I showed up for a drink...

Old laundromat becoming new laundromat

The long-dormant East Village Launderette on Avenue B near 10th Street is becoming another laundromat, or maybe a Launderette. A little competition again for Spin City.

Blast from the past

Speaking of Spin City... For some reason I never noticed this on the gate at Spin City on Avenue B at 11th Street....

Dreaming of opening your own teeth bleaching salon? Or gelato store?

Bond New York has a listing for an Internet cafe on 14th Street near Second Avenue. The 800-square-foot space holds many possibilities...

Prime retail space in high foot traffic location near Union Square. Currently occupied by an internet cafe. $150,000 buys out current tenants below market lease thru Sep 2016. This space is perfect for a gelato store, teeth bleaching salon, nail salon, jewelry store, small boutique or convenience store. Space has venting for a food business.

OK, what's the story with all the helicopters....

Been buzzing around for an hour...

Beer and loathing: Superdive eyes Las Vegas expansion

Eater has the first word...Aside from expansion news to Las Vegas (glitter gulp!) and a second NYC location, Eater notes:

"Also on their agenda, a 'SUPER backyard,' 'SUPER Frozen Drinks,' and 'SUPERNESIAN Bowl Drinks.'"

File under "urban legends."

A Building going to the dogs (and cats)

This tweet from Winick Realty just caught our attention: Winick Leases Retail Space at Upscale East Village Condo

Oh yeah? Finally!

According the subsequent (from Feb. 10!) link:

Winick’s Lori Shabtai and Michael Gleicher has brought Petopia, the dog boutique and pet store, to a 1,400 s/f retail store at the base of 420 East 14 Street, the newly-constructed luxury condominium located between First Avenue and Avenue A.

Good thing the A Building is pet friendly....

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Building retail space still on the market

East Villagers face busageddon

As you know, the MTA is like $400 quintillion over budget. And to shore up those budget gaps, the MTA will threaten propose to cut pretty much everything. Tonight at 6 you'll have the chance to let the MTA hear it during a meeting at the Fashion Institute of Technology (Seventh Avenue and 27th Street).

The Lo-Down made note of how these cuts will have an impact on everyone who depends on a bus in the East Village/Lower East Side ... CB3 passed a resolution last week strongly opposing these cuts. Specifically, here's how you might be left stranded, as reported by the Lo-Down:

-- The elimination of weekend and overnight service on the M22, a critical link into Chinatown.
-- The elimination of weekend and overnight service on the M8, which travels to and from the East Village and West Village.
-- The elimination of bus service on Avenue B by rerouting the M9 along Avenue C. Service from the LES to the World Financial Center would also be eliminated by rerouting the M9 beyond Chatham Square, terminating at City Hall.
-- The elimination of weekend service and the reduction of overnight service on the M21 (crosstown bus between Bellevue Hospital & the West Village).
-- The reduction of service on the M103 (to City Hall).

So that pretty much leaves... not much in the way of buses. Meanwhile, no word on any service disruption on the Rusty Knot Party Bus.

Which may explain why all those people on Flight 375 from Orlando were at the Mars Bar

A friend passed along an issue of Go, the AirTran in-flight magazine... Aside from being a pretty snazzy airline publication... its Go Guides in the back of the magazine included a listing for the Mars Bar...



And, rather randomly, the other NYC bars to make the Go Guide: Pegu Club, Terroir, Louis 649 and Pacha.

So, what's left of the city's "gritty past" has become something for tourists (or visitors!) to gawk at?

East Village condo sales stat of the day

According to BlockShopper.com, there have been 51 condo sales in the East Village in the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $875,000.

And at Streeteasy, there are currently 183 active sales listings, with a median price of $995,000.

Hecho en Dumbo opens Friday on the Bowery

As the Hecho en Dumbo Web site shows...



The former Dumbo hotspot is opening Friday at the site of the former Marion's Continental... Last evening, crews were prepping the space...





...and possibly tossing anything ever leftover from Marion's...



Previously on EV Grieve:
What's coming to the former Marion's Continental space on the Bowery

Michael Sean Edwards, Take Two

Three weeks ago we featured East Village photos that Michael Sean Edwards took from 1978-1985... His work has been very well received...

In a post on Flavorwire yesterday, Edwards provided a narrative to some of his photos (such as the ones below!)...He also gave insight into the technical side of his camera work...

"The film I used was Ektachrome Type B, which is balanced for artificial light, not daylight. I used an 85B filter to correct the color balance. It was a common thing in movie shooting in those days and I was a film editor for a living and had learned most of what I knew in film production."




Go here to see the Flavorwire gallery.

More on the NYU-NYT hyperlocal union

As you may have heard, NYU and The New York Times are teaming up to create a hyperlocal neighborhood news site called The Local: East Village (LEV).

Seth Lewis at Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab interviewed LEV mastermind Jay Rosen for a Q-and-A posted on Monday. Here's an excerpt: (Warning! It's pretty journalismish...)

So, are you suggesting that journalism schools could do well to focus on small, incremental steps toward local media partnerships? I mean, if I’m a journalism school director and I like what I see from this partnership, what’s the first step? What should I do?

This project began when I noticed what the Times was doing with The Local, and thought I glimpsed a need to experiment and learn. I mean, that was the logic of what they were doing. So, the first step is to get inside the head of the potential collaborator and start with a need or interest they have. The next step was to look at what we are doing at NYU and where we wanted to go with our program, and figure out where the two circles overlapped.

So, my Studio 20 concentration wants to work on innovation puzzles that matter in journalism in the broadest sense, but to do that through projects that can be completed in a semester. The Carter Institute at NYU teaches local reporting and needs a better way to do that. Put those things together and you get a version of The Local that Studio 20 can incubate, that the Reporting New York concentration at NYU can “own,” and that the Times can benefit from as a learning lab — and the community can gain from because it serves the East Village well. So it’s really four or five overlapping circles, because this is a community that NYU, the university at large, has a big stake in; it’s a big land owner and expects to own more land here.
Once I had the idea — East Village! The Local! — I just looked for ways to multiply the overlapping circles.

Oh, and one more thing: I tried to listen well to what the Times needed from such a project and understand it from their perspective as well as I did from ours.

Also, from here on out, perhaps we can shorten NYU-NYT to, say, NYUT.

Image via.

Last chance to see Dear John

You have through Saturday to see the work of John Farris (pictured, above) at Bullet Space, 292 E. Third St. between Avenue C and Avenue D... The exhibit (originally set to close this past Sunday) is titled, Dear John -- Reconstructing the Self: Drawings, Cartoons, and Plasticity. It's curated by Andrew Castrucci.

HOURS: Friday 3–6pm, Saturday, 1–6pm. Or by chance.

As Farris wrote in a release announcing the exhibit: "After a spectacularly unsuccessful 50-year career as a poet, fiction writer, and yes -- critic -- I have decided that the visual might be somewhat more expressive of my purview..."

Headline of the day: "The woman who killed Shake Shack."

If you've been following along over at Eater, then you'll know that Shake Shack decided to nix its Nolita expansion plans. Today, the Post profiles the neighbor instrumental in making this happen... the article is titled "The woman who killed Shake Shack." It begins:

Debra Zimmerman — a chatty, husky-voiced blonde — first learned that Shake Shack would be her new neighbor when she got a surprise visit from her landlord in January.

The hamburger haven’s contractor wanted to make sure the construction of a building on an adjacent plot on the corner of Prince and Mulberry streets didn’t cause damage to the railroad-style apartment, which she has called home for the past 32 years. Long vacant, the lot would soon house Manhattan’s third branch of restaurateur Danny Meyer’s wildly popular burger chain.

“At that point, I’m very concerned — extremely concerned,” says Zimmerman, 53, upon discovering that her view across Mulberry Street to the historic St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral would be replaced by a 30-seat rooftop space that would stay open until midnight every night.

And so began a modern-day tale of David and Goliath — NYC style.

Unbelievably, in a span of just six weeks, Zimmerman — who had never been a community activist before — brought down one of the city’s biggest and most connected restaurateurs.

Feel empowered?

[Image via the Post via Women Make Movies]

Now trending: East Village and Williamsburg in 10 years

There's a discussion going on at StreetEasy titled "East Village and Williamsburg in 10 years?"
The talk kicks off with:

Curious what you guys predict Williamsburg and the East Village to look like in ten years, residential property-wise. It seems like the East Village is sort of rundown these days, with a large number of empty storefronts and little development (other than on the overpriced stuff on the Bowery). On the other hand, some of the new buildings there seem to have sold out quickly like that place on B and 13th and Village Green. Will people buying into this neighborhood now see a good return on their investment ten years down the road or will this place remain humdrum? When and if the EV bounces back, will it be a cultural destination or Park Slope Manhattan?

A few of the responses...

East Village is a pain in the ass to get into and out of.
Williamsburg is and always will be a toilet.

And!

East Village in 10 years will continue to improve as a neighborhood. Better goods and services, less riff-raff.
Williamsburg in 10 years...how can I put this...any day it's gonna improve...any day now. the EDGE, still unsold refuses to lower it's asks.

And!

Despite the East Village's recent troubles, I think it's well-positioned to do well in the long-term. The major difference (IMHO) between it and Williamsburg is the quality of its older housing stock. Yes, there are many tenements and walk-ups, but in many cases those buildings have good bones or have been well maintained. It's the one thing that could continue to push it towards the West Village in terms of desirability and aesthetics. Many have lamented the reduced grit that the area was always known for (and I miss it a bit myself), but that trend probably favors property values in the long run.

And so it goes. It's an interesting discussion (and our friend Glamma is part of the conversation...). I don't know much about Williamsburg real estate. So I'm not up for any comparisions. But I do wonder what the East Village will look like in 10 years. Just think, of course, how much the neighborhood has changed in these last 10 years...

Renters lured by proximity to the Redhead, Duane Reade

Here's an apartment ad over at Craigslist that may just draw the attention of bacon lovers...

$2600 / 1br - **FLOORPLAN** 3/15-- Gut renovated 700sf 1br w/ SS Kitchen *No Fee* (East Village)

***************NEW TO MARKET*****************

This Apartment is currently being completely gut renovated by a professional company. I would describe it as a premium renovation. Huge 1 br apartment with very large closet in bedroom, large living room. Kitchen will have stainless steel appliances, marble bathroom, the works. Great price on a fantastic first floor 1br in Prime East Village just 1 block to L train. Close landmarks include Redhead, numerous bodegas, Duane Reade, multiple laundromats (one literally right across the street), too much fun to name. As I said, apartment is being gut renovated so its not very photogenic right now, but if you're interested I can show you a completed unit.

Via @nolatonyc

On the market: Bamboo paradise on East 10th Street

New to the market: This two-bedroom condo at 272 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue... According to the listing:

East Village Prime Garden Condo Duplex; An architectural masterpiece designed with many natural materials, walnut wood and stucco walls, bamboo floors, original quarry stone walls, granite counters, and white carrara marble baths. An open chiefs kitchen, gas burning fireplace and incredible living space opening out to a bamboo enriched private garden oasis. An incredible quiet and tree lined street located on east 10th Street between 1st and Ave A, just steps to Thompkins Square Park and all the best shops and restaurants the East Village can offer.

Let's take look...







Price: $1.8 million.

New at EV Heave: Cooper Union's barf barriers

Our friend over at EV Heave has an update from the weekend around the Cooper Union. You probably don't really want to wander over there.

Alice in Knockerland

While I know the world famous Pee Phone has a caretaker on Avenue A at Seventh Street....Who was responsible for this? One day last week someone gave The White Queen additional cleavage...



...the next day a reduction took place...

Hirai Mong now open, with sample dishes and watermelon soju

Hirai Mong is now open at 12 St. Mark's Place, at the former home of Gama. For those of you crazing watermelon soju, you're in luck...



Plus, the owners helpfully put out platters of food so you see what you'll be getting....



...I'll be checking back in, say, August to see how that shrimp is looking....



Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Gama space becoming a fusion restaurant and bar

At Sea Salt, the lights are still on, but no one is dining

Sea Salt, the upscale fish eatery on Second Avenue near Sixth Street, opened in July 2007... and, despite a big buzzy introduction to the neighborhood, the place closed seven months later... and the storefront has sat empty since then...windows papered over...



Last night, though, I noticed that the paper had been removed from the front door. Inside, a rather eerie scene... All the lights were on...the tables were still set...seemingly ready for business two years after closing...

Busy Bee back in business

As we noted on Feb. 21, Busy Bee Bikes on Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A was shut down by the cops ...



City Room report that owner Jack Malewich has reopened the shop. Per the article:

The shop reopened on Friday, after a $4,000 fine and under court-ordered stipulations that include random inspections and severe restrictions on purchasing used bikes. While it has stopped accepting used bikes off the street, Mr. Malewich said, the shop continues to buy used bikes from a Connecticut wholesaler.

“We have that found several of the sellers of bikes to Busy Bee had records for crimes including grand larceny, burglary, narcotics, and weapons possession,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. “One individual who sold four bikes to Busy Bee had 18 prior arrests.”

“Busy bees, indeed,” he concluded.

Mr. Malewich, 52, a retired police detective, dismissed the notion that his shop knowingly engaged in any sort of criminal activity. “We have so many repeat customers, you could never have an image like this,” Mr. Malewich said, and he called the whole episode “embarrassing.” He said he believed the undercover officers did not accurately convey to the shop’s employees that the bikes were stolen. “To these kids, ‘hot’ — it doesn’t mean stolen,” he said. “It just means, you know, a nice bike.”

For further reading on Streetsblog.