Bleecker Bob's have a bid on space in the East Village

As you know, Bleecker Bob's is closing up shop at its longtime home, which will become a FroYo shop in the West Village.

However!

Perhaps the store will live on... in the East Village. Per BB's Facebook page this afternoon:

Dear Friends,
only a few days left until closing day!!!

BUT..... we do have a "bid" in on a space in the east village so keep your fingers crossed!!

Previously on EV Grieve:
[UPDATED] Let's help Bleecker Bob's find space in the East Village

Bleecker Bob's is for rent

Bleecker Bob's won't be moving to the East Village — or anywhere else, for that matter

Deals of the day: This old tagged ATM

Spotted on Craigslist:



Is a tag considered "minor cosmetic wear"?

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Bobby Williams]

Cash mob Sunday evening at El Sombrero on Ludlow (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Comparing prices at neighborhood groceries (The Lo-Down)

Crif Dogs proposing a food truck at the former Billy's Antiques (Grub Street)

About the Downtown Music Festival (BoweryBoogie)

Ghost signage on First Avenue (Ephemeral New York)

Acid Flashback: The art of the Fillmore East (Off the Grid)

Goodbye Bar 82 (The Gog Log)

The Bloomberg administration has preserved more of New York City's architecture than any of his predecessors (The Wall Street Journal)

A look back at Cop Shoot Cop (Flaming Pablum)

Tentative re-opening dates for old-timers Bridge Cafe and Paris Cafe at the Seaport (Eater)

On Coney Island, Shoot the Freak is now Shoot the Clown (Amusing the Zillion)

... and springtime outside the great Enz's on Second Avenue...

Morning tweets

Someone tossing some nudes this a.m. on E. 6th St. twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) April 2, 2013

John Penley plans campout at Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate offices this weekend

Longtime East Village activist John Penley is set to campout this weekend outside the offices of Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate on Broadway in Soho. (Set to start at 5 p.m. Friday.)

Per the Facebook invite:

SHAOUL AND HIS REAL ESTATE COMPANY HAVE BEEN AN EVIL CORPORATE REAL ESTATE WRECKING AND GENTRIFICATION CREW IN THE EAST VILLAGE. THE WORST OF THE WORST !!!!

While Shaoul has been a widely criticized developer in the East Village for years, the recent revelations about actor-poet-writer Taylor Mead's living conditions were the impetus for this event.

Articles in The Villager and the Post and at BoweryBoogie have outlined the 88 year old's current living conditions while the Shaoul-owned building on Ludlow undergoes a gut renovation. (Mead, a former Andy Warhol star, had lived in the rent-stabilized apartment for 34 years and didn't want to leave.) According to the account in the Post, "Plaster falls from his walls and roaches crawl up his legs. The kitchen sink doesn’t work."

"It’s going to kill him,” said Clayton Patterson, a neighborhood activist and longtime friend. “This is elderly abuse. It’s pretty Third World when you think about it."

As Curbed put this particular episode, Shaoul is "up to his old tricks. Or, more specifically, his old trick — forcing stubborn, rent-stabilized tenants out of the apartments he owns by having their buildings demolished around them."

Penley had this to say to us via a message on Facebook:

"I am demanding at the protest that he give Taylor a renovated ground-floor apartment in Taylor's building rent free for the rest of his life and provide Taylor with home-care assistance. He just made so much cash speculating and flipping buildings on the LES that doing something humane like I suggest he do would be a very small gesture."

Shaoul has recently sold large parcels of his East Village buildings to developer Jared Kushner. Shaoul is currently converting the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on Avenue B and East Fifth Street into residences.

Penley recently held a campout to call on NYU to help house the homeless.

Public plaza outside 51 Astor Place taking shape

Workers continue to create the plaza area in front of 51 Astor Place, the in-progress 12-story office building at the gateway (from the west) into the neighborhood ... the trees arrived for the space a few weeks back... we took a quick look inside yesterday, and spotted the granite seatbacks .. among other things, the plaza will feature plantings, bike racks and a piece of public art.

Here are some of the renderings showing the public plaza from one of the earlier meetings on the development...





Previously on EV Grieve:
The demolition of 51 Astor Place means the end of the New York Film Academy Café here

[June 2011]

Some East 2nd Street residents want a laundromat, but not a Living Room

The Living Room received another lease extension for their current home on Ludlow Street, as BoweryBoogie reported yesterday. Third extension in as many months for the live music venue.

Meanwhile, the folks from The Living Room are moving forward with plans to find a new home on East Second Street. As we reported last September, Klean & Kleaner, the laundromat at 173 E. Second St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, was on the market for use as a bar or restaurant.

This potential Living Room move was a topic of conversation during a recent community meeting. Co-owner Jennifer Gilson attended that meeting, and made her case on why the Living Room would be a good neighbor, such as shows for kids, use of the space for neighborhood fund-raisers and no pub crawls.

However, from the meeting, East Second Street residents said that they are "vehemently opposed to the possibility of The Living Room" in that space for a variety of reasons, including:

• East 2nd Street is a residential side street whose residents include a large number of seniors and families with young children.
• As a residential street, we already endure excessive noise due to late night crowds from the many bars and restaurants already on our block and nearby.
• While we believe The Living Room is a wonderful part of the cultural fabric of New York City, its presence at 173 East 2nd Street will severely and negatively impact our quality of life.

The Living Room will go before the CB3/SLA committee next Monday. Gilson told BoweryBoogie:

Of course there’s a good chance that if they block our liquor license, another less-neighborhood friendly business with less community history will take the space.

[On April 8] I will argue why after 15 years of enhancing the quality of life by hosting great music, kids shows, fundraisers, theater, etc., I should be able to stay in my neighborhood, which I helped to transform, and not be pushed to Brooklyn…

One 18-year resident of the block told us in an email that he didn't have problems with The Living Room, "but I'd much rather keep the place as a laundromat."

Of course, the landlord has different ideas...

A few more details on El Diablito Taqueria, opening this spring on East Third Street

El Diablito Taqueria is coming soon to East Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, as we noted on Jan. 21. And they are on the CB3/SLA committee agenda this month for a beer-wine license.

According to documents (PDF!) on file at the CB3 website, the shop will have just and a handful of tables... with a counter primarily for to-go orders. El Diablito Taqueria looks to have hours of 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturdays; with an 11 p.m. closing time on Sundays.

Here are a few interior shots from El Diablito's Facebook page...







The folks from the taqueria told us via Facebook that they hope to be open next week, but that date is pending...

Previously, this address was home to the wholly unique Hospital Productions, the specialty record store that closed late in 2011. ... not to mention reggae specialists Jammyland...

Soho Billiards eyeing move to Red Square

When we saw the following item on this month's CB3/SLA docket — NYC Billiards Club Inc, 250 E Houston St (op) — we didn't realize that this was the former Soho Billiards. The 22-year-old pool hall closed late last fall, as we first reported.

In any event, documents on file ahead of Monday's committee meeting show that the ownership is the same... and they are looking at taking over space in the Shoppes at Red Square between Avenue A and Avenue B. (It would be the space that Sleepy's used before they moved into the Blockbuster location.)

The new location would have hours of 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday; to 4 a.m. on Friday Saturdays, documents show. There would be one 10-foot bar (no food) with a total occupancy of 74 people.

As far as we can remember, there was a pool hall along here before the Blockbuster...

Muji opening on Cooper Square this April 12

As you may have heard, a Muji store — its fourth in Manhattan — is opening on Cooper Square ...

Workers told Bill the libertarian anarchist that the Japanese import, which sells various home goods and clothing and stuff, will indeed open here at 54 Cooper Square on April 12...

...and an interior shot from Friday via Muji's Facebook page...