From wigs to veggies on East 14th Street

For the past few months, we noticed that the Royal Wigs shop was never open on East 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... sure enough, in recent weeks, a few readers have spotted workers inside gutting the space... such as this one via LvV...



...and from Dave of 14th Street...



Dave said that it has been on the block the 15 years he has lived nearby ...

Before getting into history ... as for the future: A tipster tells us that it will be a vegetarian restaurant selling items that include wraps and sushi.

As for the past... like, Dave, it seems like the place has always been there. Does anyone know any of the store's history?

We came across an alt.rock country band called The Royal Wigs, who took their name from the store. According to the band's bio, the store "was frequented by such famous NYC denizens as Lou Reed, the New York Dolls, and Vivienne Westwood." Not sure about the merits of these claims ... though we like the thought of, say, Arthur Kane rummaging around in here one day years back ...

In any event, the storefront was always photogenic ... Here's a shot by Goggla...



...and via LuciaM on Panoramio...

Live above Kelly's Sports Bar on Avenue A for $12,000 a month

There's a new listing for 12 Avenue A ... it's a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom home available starting July 1.

According to the listing at Maison International:

Enjoy this nicely furnished house located in the heart of the East Village. Come in from the city hustle and bustle and lounge in your 3000 sqft house that has a gracious floor plan. A large kitchen, separate dinning area and 4 bedrooms with private baths, no detail was left undone. This house comes with its own private outdoor space that has lovely outdoor furniture that will help you unwind and forget the hype of city. Perfect for a vacation summer rental you will not be disappointed. Listed at a great price for a quick rental.

So, are we already in $12,000-is-a-great-price territory? (And I had something planned for when it hit $10,000!)

Anyway, not sure if this is a short-term rental or what... the listing isn't too clear. Still, be great in the fall if you're a Sabres fan — can zip downstairs to Kelly's...

In closing, bedrooms...

The new restaurant for the former Bowery Wine Co. space

Before the May 2011 CB3/SLA committee meeting, we learned that the people behind restaurants like Dell'Anima and L'Artusi were taking over the Bowery Wine Co. space as well as the empty storefront next door in the sterile bowels of Avalon Bowery Place on East First Street.

Yesterday, Grub Street learned that the name of this new place will be called L'Apicio. (Here's the take from Eater.)

According to the original proposal, there'll be 50 tables seating 160 people with plans for outdoor dining and a sidewalk cafe. The proposed hours of operation were 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week.

Grub Street has the opening date as late summer or early fall...

Anyway, renovations continue in the space ... here's how it looked yesterday...



We noted this in our previous post about the space.. and we'll repeat it here... Not familiar with Dell'Anima? (Like us!) Here's a summary via New York magazine:

This is what happens when a former Babbo sommelier and an ex–Del Posto kitchen whiz get together and open an unassuming little trattoria: mobs of salivating foodies and goggle-eyed scenesters clamoring to get in.

Meanwhile, say goodbye to those GIANT SUSHI ROLL PHOTOS along here...

Previously on EV Grieve:
August Cardona buying Bowery Wine Company, expanding next door

Bowery Wine Company has closed

At the Bowery Wine Co. protest Friday night — in pictures

Linen Hall seeks sidewalk cafe

Over on Third Avenue near 13th Street, there are newish notices up that Linen Hall is seeking an unenclosed sidewalk cafe ...



Per the notice, there's a public meeting about the matter tomorrow at 2 p.m. downtown at 66 John St.

The owners of Penny Farthing also own this space, the former Cosmic Cantina, which had a small sidewalk cafe as well.

When this address went before the CB3/SLA committee in November 2010, Eater reported that "neighbors complained vehemently about the noise with one resident stating it made him 'miss the crack whores' ... they admitted that it wasn't so much Penny Farthing as the combination of all the restaurants on the block and no formal noise complaint was ever made against the bar."

Starbucks sidewalk cafe returning to Second Avenue

Speaking of sidewalk cafes... last night, The Lo-Down provided live coverage from the monthly CB3/SLA committee meeting. (There were still 22 items left to cover at 11 p.m. The meeting started at 6:30.)

One item that the committee dispatched with quickly: The renewal for the sidewalk cafe at the Starbucks on Second Avenue and East Ninth Street.

[An oldish sidewalk cafe shot via Google Street View]

On May 14, the city shuttered this Starbucks for having an expired permit for its sidewalk cafe. We heard about three different versions about how this happened... and employees told different versions of what happened too. (One employee told a reader the sidewalk cafe was never reopening.)

Anyway, the sidewalk cafe is coming back, as The Lo-Down noted. Also, the documents (PDF!) that the Starbucks reps provided CB3 are worth looking at (well, if you're a dork who likes looking at paperwork... like me!) Quite detailed!

Free tonight: "Permanent Vacation," Jim Jarmusch's first feature

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Seward Park Branch Library is pleased to announce the second of its 2012 Lower East Side Heritage Film Series: the Eighties...

Tuesday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m.

In this installment of our FREE monthly series we will be showing Jim Jarmusch's first feature film:



Permanent Vacation (1980, 75 min., 16mm)

Jim Jarmusch direct his first feature: 16-year-old Aloysious Christopher Parker searches for meaning as he wanders a Lower East Side landscape of blind alleys, rubble-filled lots, and abandoned buildings. Along the way he meets his schizophrenic mother, a possibly psychotic war veteran, an hysterical Spanish-speaking Ophelia, and a junkie who recounts the sad life of Charlie Parker. Starring Chris Parker, Leila Gastil and John Lurie. With music by John Lurie.

Seward Park Branch Library
192 East Broadway

There's an essay by "Low Low" author Luc Sante in the booklet that accompanies the "Stranger Than Paradise" Criterion Collection, which includes "Permanent Vacation."

An excerpt:

"Permanent Vacation" sharply brings back the physical experience of the city then, both its serenity (a cobbled street lined with 19th-Century loft buildings possibly as empty as Egyptian temples) and its squalor (tenement rooms last painted during one of the Roosevelt administrations and pungent with the indelible odor of cockroaches).

Note the seemingly absolute darkness of the nighttime scenes. Note the devastation of the streets off Avenue C, looking like war ruins. We were right on the verge of owning the place, we thought — nobody else seemed to want it.

And how was your Monday night?

... a few observations via Twitter...

What's with all the drunkards in the hood? It's only Monday, people. You're not supposed to flood the streets til Thursday. #eastvillage

— Celine Willard (@CelineNYC) June 19, 2012

What's up with the people yelling and singing on 1st Ave? #eastvillage

— Alison Backman (@alibackman) June 19, 2012

Help find this East Village resident's stolen artwork

[One of the missing paintings]

A reader asked us to share this information (pulled from the Voice classifieds)

Please help!
My car was broken into on the morning of Wednesday, June 13th and a vintage green "Amelia Earhart" suitcase was stolen!

Sadly, this suitcase was FILLED with all of my paintings that I was going to hang in a show!

I believe the suitcase was discarded on the street shortly after the theft & one by one all the paintings were taken by passersby. (The car was parked on East 12th street between A & B.)

The paintings have fotografka.com on the back.

Please, if you have seen any paintings or know of their whereabouts please contact me!
email: The_Lost_Works@yahoo.com or call 646.567.0348

I am heartbroken over their loss!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Deep in 51 Astor Place ... by Bobby Williams]

Henry Rollins: Joey Ramone's legacy is in danger (LAWeekly)

Avenue B's past as the "German Broadway" (Ephemeral New York)

Landmarks Preservation Commission postpones meeting for new hotel next to the Merchant's House (BoweryBoogie)

Donal Logue will play Merv Ferguson in CBGB biopic; Cheetah Chrome lands cameo (The Hollywood Reporter)

Making Delancey safer (The Lo-Down)

Jesus and Love at the Folsom Street East festival this past weekend (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

LES men curating monthly reading lists at Orchard Street's Lost Weekend (DNAinfo)

Nicoletta pizza porn (Gothamist)

And we spotted this 7-Eleven brandage on IHOP Way back on Thursday...

Are these dangerous intersections on the Bowery?

EVG reader Chad Marlow points out what he considers some dangerous pedestrian crossing signals on the Bowery at East Third Street and East Fourth Street... He lodged this complaint with 311:

"East-west pedestrian signals at Bowery @ E. 4th E. 3rd only provide 6 second countdown to cross 6 lane road with no center median. 1 second per lane must be an error and is dangerous. Please adjust."

It is a short signal considering ... that, for example, you have a 25-second warning crossing 14th Street at Second Avenue...



This is especially a short signal considering that the Evelyn and Louis Green Residence at Cooper Square is on the corner at East Fifth Street... and the residents here and their visitors might likely need more time crossing a busy street... Why not a 25-second countdown like at the 14th Street intersections?