A takeout sandwich shop is expected to open this spring at 226 E. Third St., between Avenue B and Avenue C.
According to New York magazine, who first reported on this opening, proprietor Corey Cova "is an undersung sandwich genius, having served as the opening chef at Earl’s Beer & Cheese, where his brainstorms included Hudson Valley foie gras on Eggo waffles, and mozzarella with dill pickles, miso mayo, and potato chips on Thomas' English muffins."
New York also notes that he "brought the world the scallion-pancake pork taco and the foie gras Fluffernutter."
While the place doesn't have a website yet, there is a Lord Hamm's Twitter account.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer released a report today titled "Small Business, Big Impact: Expanding Opportunity For Manhattan Storefronts." (Find a PDF here.)
Brewer is proposing legislation to give small businesses a one-year break before they get booted from their spaces. Under the plan, the city would create a mediation program that would kick in when a store nears the end of its lease.
If the landlord and tenant don’t reach a deal with the help of a mediator, the landlord would be required to offer a one-year lease extension with a rent hike of no more than 15%.
“The city can — and must — do more to help small businesses survive,” Brewer said.
Other ideas from Brewer include ... via Gothamist:
Finding a way to "condo-ize" more storefronts (basically allowing tenants to buy space, as there are federal funds for small businesses to do this); create "low-intensity" commercial districts in areas that have skyrocketing rents (this would be allowing some commercial businesses to open on quieter streets); and helping small business owners navigate the thicket of various city agencies.
[A makeshift memorial for Donna Harris on Avenue A earlier this month]
Village Voice reporter Emily Mathis attended the memorial for Donna Harris Saturday night at Maryhouse on East Third Street.
Harris, a homeless resident of Avenue A/Tompkins Square Park these past five years, died on March 2. She was 52. The Voice reported that Harris, an addict who was mentally unstable, died in Harlem as-of-yet-unknown causes.
In total, some 50 people stopped by the Maryhouse to pay their respects, including family members.
Her daughter, Grace Harris, said her mother's drugs of choice were Oxycontin and, she suspects in later years, heroin. The younger Harris had been estranged from her mother for about a year.
Also from the article
[H]er death has clearly hit a nerve, symbolizing not just the plight of the city's homeless population, but also the real estate restructuring — and consequential class restructuring — of the East Village. "You have these buildings where families used to pay $500, now single people are paying $5,000," [Maryhouse worker Felton] Davis said.
"There have been a few cynical comments, people who were like, 'please, what is this,'" he continues. "I think that people that are moving into this neighborhood, and paying top dollar — it irks them that there are people leftover from when this was working class families and poor people. And they have to walk by them in the park. And people are dirty, and they're coming here to eat. There's a class of the super-rich that are bothered by that. They think that anything that isn't spiffy is affecting property values."
Yesterday was last call for the nearly 40-year-old bagel shop on First Avenue at East 21st Street…
Here's a video that someone from the #SaveNYC group made from inside the shop after the doors closed...
To recap the recap on the situation here:
As the Town & Village Blog first reported on Jan. 16, Ess-a-Bagel was being forced out of its longtime home. However, according to a statement that the landlord's reps sent us, Ess-A-Bagel’s owners "repeatedly refused to meet us between their below-market rent and current market value."
However, they will be reopening nearby one of these days...
Ess-a-Bagel downtown will be opening again soon at a location nearby! Watch this space for details. #essabagel
As to where… owner David Wilpon told Town & Village "that there were a couple of possibilities, but declined to elaborate, citing confidentiality agreements." Last Monday, an Ess-A-Bagel worker "said even he didn’t know where the business was moving or when it would reopen."
According to Town & Village, Ess-A-Bagel has expressed interest in the now-closed laundromat space the next block up…
As for the now-closed Ess-A space at 359 First Ave. ... a Bank of America branch is in the works.
Meanwhile, because this always comes up on any First Avenue bagel posts… here are two other bagel shops on the west side of First Avenue between 14th Street and 21st …
Some neighbors don't think that the people behind the incoming exhibition space for the Brant Foundation are being ... very good neighbors.
Last Wednesday, workers began loading equipment into the back of 421 E. Sixth St., the under-renovation exhibition space expected to be used by the billionaire art collector Peter Brant's Brant Foundation between Avenue A and First Avenue. This included the arrival of several high-powered CAT generators parked on East Seventh Street, outside the driveway/back entrance to the East Sixth Street property.
In the past several days, a handful of parking spaces (with generic No Parking Police Department signs) have been blocked off on East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street ...
[East 6th Street]
[East 6th Street]
There are also security guards posted on both streets... none of the guards have been very forthcoming with details. A reader finally found one to divulge more than a no comment/I don't really know ... according to one of the hired hands, the space is hosting an event for Dom Pérignon on Friday.
In total, the activity surrounding this event will last 11 days, per the signs posted on 421 E. Sixth St.
If you have any questions or concerns about this, then you can call the caterer, as the sign suggests.
One neighbor who emailed us about the situation hopes that this won't be the upscale party norm for the building now that Brant and his organization is the owner.
Artist Walter De Maria, who died in July 2013 at age 77, bought the former Con Ed substation in 1980 to use as a home and studio.
The applicant was on the August 2014 CB3/SLA agenda, but the item was not heard before the committee (meaning the public didn't have a say in the matter). Paperwork on file with CB3 points to a corporate change, with a Robert C. Payne as the new partner.
On our last Odessa post, a reader left this kinda-sounds-like-the-dude-quoted comment: "I talked to the dude working on it — he said he's 'just making a bar, none of this overly fancy shit.' He seemed like a cool guy."
And someone, likely just a cheap Penistrator knockoff, saw fit to degrade the renderings on the plywood here at East Third Street by drawing a large [redacted].
Thankfully workers had painted over the offending doodle before any more harm could be done...
Yep, a Chipotle is coming to 286 First Ave. in Stuy Town … near East 17th Street… not sure exactly when Chipotle made this announcement… (an EVG Facebook friend shared the info with us on Friday) …
The Chipotle displaces the PCVST Broker Welcome Center, which has moved up the block…
