2 Bros. Pizza now open on First Avenue

[Photos via AC]

The 2 Bros. Pizza location on First Avenue near East 14th Street opened today... and let the $1 pizza wars begin...



Eater's Greg Morabito put it this way the other day: "But really, there should be no competition here: Vinny Vincenz serves one of Downtown Manhattan's best utilitarian slices. The regular $2.50 slice is easily three or four times better than one of those crummy pieces of wet cardboard served at 2 Bros., or at any of the other dollar slice joints in the area."

Agree?

Previously.

The Nuyorican Poets Café has its new HVAC unit

[Via Facebook]

From the EV Grieve inbox...

This week, the Nuyorican Poets Café installed a new heating and air conditioning (HVAC) unit! Hurricane Sandy knocked out our heating in October; thanks to our fans and supporters, we finally have heat again at the Café

The Café on East Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C also made an appearance this week on MTV's "Washington Heights." You can find that episode here. The Café is featured starting at the 3:50 mark for a few minutes, and then several times during the segment from 32 minutes in to the end.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Avenue C and East Second Street the other day]

A Jewish-Iraqi pop-up restaurant for East Ninth Street (DNAinfo)

A look at the work of Andrea Stella, founder of The Space at Tompkins (Take Part via HuffPost)

2 LES bars cited for alleged underage drinking (The Lo-Down)

Clayton Patterson op-ed: We need new LES leaders (The Villager)

Ruby's opens on the Coney Island Boardwalk in...



Muji opening a store on Cooper Square (BoweryBoogie)

Those romantic Ramones! (Montreal Gazette)

Why Quinn holds the cards on rezoning and landmarking (Off the Grid)

Losing this Brooklyn landmark? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Hulu showing the entire Criterion Collection for free this weekend (Gothamist)

...and how many of those Kate Moss/Rag & Bone ads look like this...

The morning after

Seventh Street and Avenue C via Steven Matthews...

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn

Yeah it does — Bret Michaels, C.C. DeVille, Bobby Dall, Rikki Rockett

Now what's going on with 100 Avenue A?

[Last March via Bobby Williams]

East Village Farms at 100 Avenue A between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street closed Feb. 7, 2012. (A whole year already? Jeez.) Since then, not much of anything has happened inside the space, though the sidewalk does serve as a makeshift shelter.

[Feb. 2 via Bobby Williams]


[Wednesday via Bobby Williams]

However, in recent days, there has been some activity inside the former grocery...

And plans have changed here. Last year, the landlord was proposing to keep the store on the first and second floor, and then add a third and fourth floor for residential use.



For whatever reason, the landlord never got this plan approved. Now, as a tipster notes, the landlord has ditched the idea of adding the additional floors. Plans on file now with the DOB show a proposed addition to the back of the building ... and increasing the size of the store at the first and second floors.





Per our tipster: "I just wonder by increasing the floor area for the first and second floor, what sort of commercial entity are they looking for? Who would need such a large floor plate (and 2 stories) besides a market/grocery or a Duane Reade-type pharmacy? It's too big for a restaurant, bar or clothing store. So I wonder who they think will lease the space?"

Good question. Have any guesses? Or any tips about the space? Then please leave a comment or drop us a note via the EV Grieve email.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

When East Houston Street was 'a sleepy backwater'

There has been a lot of talk this week about what's next for Ludlow Street ... with the impending closure of Motor City Bar ... the loss of the Pink Pony Cafe... and a cloudy future for The Hat ...

Which brings us to this photo that EVG reader Paul Dougherty recently came across. He shared it with us. It's a view looking south toward Ludlow Street and beyond from his East Houston Street apartment in 1986...



"I had lived in that building for six years and had just moved to a bigger apartment in the front with this great view ... Can't really put in words the sense of neighborhood context one gets from this. Maybe 'sleepy backwater'? Pretty sure this would have been before the first youth bar/restaurant the Ludlow Street Cafe — nice place. From this acorn a mighty oak — blah, blah, blah."

We don't have a compatible today photo ... one that would show the ongoing building boom, featuring The Ludlow, Thompson LES, et al. And not much else... Except for Katz's.

Watch Abraham Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address at McSorley's

Well, in honor of Presidents' Day, McSorley's Day (Feb. 17) ... and the Oscar-busting "Lincoln" ... we give you the above video, in which, according to the YouTube description: "Greg Nissen portrays Abraham Lincoln [Ed Note: What, you expecting Daniel Day-Lewis?] on Lincoln's Birthday Feb. 12, 2011. Captain Zorikh is the Union soldier announcing him as he visits McSorley's Alehouse in New York City to recite the Gettysburg Address."

According to legend, Lincoln did actually visit McSorley's back in the day... reportedly after his famous Cooper Union Speech at Cooper Union's Great Hall on Feb. 27, 1860 ... which, according to scholar Harold Holzer, helped propel Lincoln into the presidency.

Find out more about Lincoln and the Cooper Union Speech here at the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation.

A few years ago, The Examiner offered details about Lincoln's visit to McSorley's in 1860. Do with this information what you please. There's zero sourcing for it:

Later, several men took him to the nearby McSorley's Old Ale House at 15 East 7th Street. Sipping an ale, Lincoln looked around curiously. The "Men Only" pub, with its sawdust covered floors, pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room, and friendly Irish bartenders gave him a comfortable feeling.

His confidence was renewed by his tremendous success in New York. Both the speech at Cooper Union and his visit to McSorley's helped to make his political career.

Using public records, historian Richard McDermott has pointed out that the bar really opened in 1862 and not 1854, according to New York magazine. Makes a good story nonetheless.

[Updated] McSorley's Day is Feb. 17

Speaking of McSorley's... there is an ad in today's Post noting that Feb. 17 is McSorley's Day in New York... The 17th would be Sunday, though the ad states "Friday February 17."



In any event! The bar is also celebrating its 159th (or 151st!) anniversary... (Per New York: "Though McSorley’s claims it opened its doors in 1854, NYC historian Richard McDermott used public records to prove it really opened in 1862." Which means Lincoln never set foot in the place.)

Anyway! A flashback to last year's 158th (or 150th!) festivities...

Updated:
Oh, despite what the ad says, turns out that the celebration is today, Feb. 10.. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Happy 155th birthday, McSorley's (or not)

Exclusive: Minnie McSorley's first interview

A new-look Verso reopens on Avenue C for the first time since Sandy

[Several days after Sandy]

Verso, the Italian bistro on Avenue C at East Eighth Street, hasn't been open since Sandy's floodwaters filled up the restaurant's basement. Looked grim for awhile here, a time that included a back-rent notice taped to the front door in late December.

Workers have been busy of late...


[Wednesday via Bobby Williams]

And last night, Dave on 7th noted that the refurbished restaurant was back open...



Per Dave on 7th: There's a "new, more rustic look. I actually like it. The interior is stripped down. Exposed beams and joists. Barn cladding in front."

The owners tell us that they're in soft-opening mode this weekend, with a "full force" reopening at the end of the month.

[Winter Friday Flashback] Valentine's Day tragedies: When you mix up Union Square Cafe and the Gramercy Tavern

On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Feb. 16, 2010...

-----

We heard about this third-hand... So we can't verify the authenticity of it. But! A man from out of town was here this past weekend to be with his girlfriend. She is new to the city, and was interested in trying one of Danny Meyer's highly regarded eateries, such as the Union Square Cafe or Gramercy Tavern.

Anyway, some details were apparently lost in translation, and the couple arrived here at the Gramercy Cafe on 17th Street and Third Avenue for an early Valentine's Day weekend dinner on Saturday...



Not all was lost. After realizing their error, they made their over to the Gramercy Tavern on 20th Street near Park Avenue South... they eventually got seats at the bar...