Week in Grieview

[Photo on Avenue A by Derek Berg]

Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East Sixth Street (Tuesday)

Workers remove 10 trees from long-empty First Avenue lot (Tuesday)

That's it for Mitali East on Sixth Street (Wednesday)

Out and About with Regina Bartkoff and Charles Schick (Wednesday)

Lois now serving draft wine on Avenue C (Tuesday)

Ginger has closed on First Avenue (Monday)

Happy Spring! (Friday)

Ess-A-Bagel is closing at its current First Avenue location (Monday)

The sad, strange saga of Tony Franzese continues (Monday)

What you can rent the former Benny's Burritos location for on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Kabin Bar & Lounge closes on Second Avenue (Friday)

Life at 20 Avenue A (Tuesday)

Un-dorming 101 E. 10th St. to make way for luxury rentals (Thursday)

Adventures in trespassing at 190 Bowery (Tuesday)

Mercadito has officially closed on Avenue B (Monday)

Former Bourgeois Pig space for rent on East Seventh Street (Thursday)

More about Taberna, the Portuguese restaurant opening in the former Yaffa Cafe space (Wednesday)

NYU has a new president (Thursday)

13 months after opening, the USPS retail outlet on East 14th Street gets signage (Monday)

Brow Bar! (Thursday)


[Outside the F stop on Second Avenue and East Houston — "Dedicated to Syrian Refugees"]

The latest issue of The Shadow is now available

Look for NYC's only underground newspaper at the following locations:

• The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS): 155 Avenue C
• Gem Spa: St. Mark's Place/Second Avenue
• Saint Mark's Bookshop: 136 E. Third St. (Avenue A-First Avenue)
• East Village Books: 99 St. Mark's Place (Avenue A-First Avenue)
• Revolution Books: 146 W. 26th St. (Sixth-Seventh Avenues)
• Bluestockings: 172 Allen St. (Stanton Street)
• INK: 66 Avenue A (East Fourth - Fifth Streets)
• Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books: 34 Carmine St.
• McNally Jackson: 52 Prince St.
• The Source: 331 East Ninth St.

Report: East Village resident sues dog walker for losing Sugar

From the New York Post today:

The Manhattan man who allegedly “flipped out” last month and lost Sugar — a beloved pit bull mix who has become a social media celebrity — has been outed in court papers as Tommy Doerr, a 46-year-old East Village resident.

Devastated dog owner Morgan Bogle, 33, is suing Doerr for negligence in Manhattan Supreme Court.

She went to court against Doerr “because he refused to speak to me,” Bogle told The Post.

“I have tried to play detective for three and a half weeks, and the reality is we just don’t know” what happened to the tan-and-white, 4-year-old Sugar, said Bogle.

Bogle is seeking $15,000 damages from Doerr, as well as the return of Sugar, who went missing on Feb. 23 under mysterious circumstances.

Doerr had been Sugar’s dog walker for three years.

For the latest Sugar updates, head to Twitter and Facebook.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More about Sugar, the missing pit bull mix with a $5k reward (78 comments)

Reward for Sugar is now $10,000, thanks to NBA all-star David Lee (45 comments)

An East Village Sugar sighting (53 comments)

Pukk is closing for good after tomorrow night

The 11-year-old restaurant shuts down after service tomorrow evening, according to the sign on the door here at 71 First Ave. between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street.



Pukk's "vivid Thai–fusion cuisine" (per New York magazine) was a favorite among vegetarians. In a piece at the Voice back in June 2005, Robert Sietsema wrote: "In contrast to both the ho-hum vegetarian restaurants of the East Village and the mediocre Thai places found nearly everywhere else, Pukk is manna from heaven."

And, based on the sign to Pukk patrons, it appears there's a Spice opening here next month. (Pukk and Spice share the same ownership.) The Thai chainlet has been slimming down. The Fourth Avenue location closed in December. And the Spice on Second Avenue at East Sixth Street is on the rental market.

Puebla Mexican Food closes on 1st Avenue; Villacemita opens on Avenue A

As you know, Puebla Mexican Food is shutting down at 47 First Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street. There were several closing dates… last we heard, owner Irma Marin would keep the 25-year-old quick-serve restaurant open through Monday.

Not sure what happened to those plans, but Puebla has officially closed… back on Wednesday, per one EVG reader. The storefront has mostly been cleaned out.

A rent hike is apparently to blame for this closure.

Meanwhile, at 50 Avenue A between East Third Street and East Fourth Street, Villacemita, serving Puebla Mexican cuisine, opens today at 4.


[Photo from last week]

Here are their menus… breakfast (served until 2 p.m.)…



… and dinner…





They have not yet posted their beer-wine menu.

After today, Villacemita's hours will be 7 a.m. to midnight every day.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Villacemita, serving authentic Puebla Mexican cuisine, announces itself on Avenue A

Puebla Mexican Food is closing after 25 years on 1st Avenue (29 comments)

Noted

From the EVG mailbag:

"I saw this man running barefoot on Avenue A this morning. It was 29 degrees. It was wet and slushy. Concrete isn't exactly forgiving! I was shocked and kind of impressed."

Peter Cooper is now out of the box

[Photo last April by Dave on 7th]

As we noted yesterday morning, workers were starting to remove the Peter Cooper monument from its protective plywood.



So just for some closure, so to speak, Peter Cooper is now completely out of the box… free to once again watch over the park outside Cooper Union that bears his name…





Workers had covered Coop up for safekeeping during the Astor Place-Cooper Square reconstruction project, which will be done just as soon as the 4-5 guys working on it are done.

Essex Crossing's 15 minutes of Andy Warhol fame are up

Executives of the Pittsburgh-based Andy Warhol Museum announced last night that they will no longer be moving forward with their plans to build a 10,000-square-foot annex to anchor the new Essex Crossing development.

In a statement to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol Museum, said:

"The Andy Warhol Museum, which had been exploring its participation in the Essex Crossing development in lower Manhattan, has determined that it will not proceed with the project. Despite the efforts of both the museum and the developers, an internal study of business and other operational considerations led the museum to this decision.

"The Warhol will continue to participate in programs, exhibitions, and special projects in New York City through its longstanding collaborations with a variety of New York-based arts organizations.”

The museum was to be in Site 1 of the former Seward Park urban renewal site … in the Broome Street municipal parking lot, a complex that will include condos and a bowling alley.

As the Post-Gazette reported last May:

Delancey Street Associates will pay for the cost of building the museum branch, which has a target opening date of 2017. For the first five years of the museum's existence, the developers will pay for any operating deficits.

For their part, a spokesperson for Delancey Street Associates, told the paper:

"For the past two years we have worked closely with The Andy Warhol Museum to find a way to bring Andy home to New York's Lower East Side. We have dedicated tremendous time and resources and offered them a very generous multimillion dollar package to make this work. We found out today and are surprised and disappointed that they are unable to see this through. We are hard at work looking for another exciting use for this great space."

And why did Museum leaders consider Essex Crossing a good spot for the annex? Per the Post-Gazette:

The location appears apt. When Andy Warhola moved to New York in 1949, his first apartment was in Lower Manhattan on St. Mark's Place. The Lower East Side, where the branch housing his art will be built, teemed in the 1900s with immigrants whose lives of assimilation and struggle paralleled the experience of Warhol's parents, Andrej and Julia Warhola.

Meanwhile, you still have the 14-screen Regal Cinemas theater with electronic reclining seats to look forward to at Essex Crossing.

RIP Lisa Colagrossi

We were sorry to hear about Lisa Colagrossi, a WABC-TV reporter. She suffered a brain hemorrhage while returning from covering a story Thursday morning, according to the station. Colagrossi, a mother of two, was 49.

She was in touch with us several times through the years about East Village-related stories. She was always friendly and professional, and showed a genuine interest in stories in this neighborhood.

Her colleagues remember her here.

The first day of spring, 2015

Along Tompkins Square Park today via Bobby Williams...