EVG reader Cheap Trick took this photo outside the John Varvatos storefront at 315 Bowery this morning... per Cheap Trick: "The windows are boarded up. Is it closing?"
There's nothing on JV's social media accounts noting a closure... or any kind of special in-store concert event, as they've had in the past with their Bowery Live series... The Rock is Dead? signage suggests some kind of concert. (Iggy Pop-Josh Homme is the rumor.)
Poppy's Gourmet Corner on Avenue A at East 12th Street will be closing up after the business day tomorrow, EVG reader Shawn Chittle reports...Owner Mike Attal told Shawn that the rent is too high now...
Jared Kushner's Westminster Management is the landlord. This has become an increasingly valuable chunk of retail with Douglas Steiner's mixed-use building with ground-floor retail and 82 market-rate condos going up on the surrounding property.
The empty storefront has looked this way for a little while here on Third Avenue at East 12th Street... however, it looked particularly photogenic in this morning's sunlight...
The colorful FroYo establishment closed in March 2015. Funkiberry opened in June 2014.
The asking rent for the corner space was $21,321.00 per month. However, the property is now off the market. So perhaps a new business is on the way. (Cue Beer Store comment!)
Francis Salud, who is under arrest for the apparent random slashing of a man on East Sixth Street on Jan. 16, spoke to a Post reporter yesterday at the Manhattan Detention Complex.
Per that conversation:
Salud told The Post he was on his way to score some pot when victim Anthony Christopher Smith walked toward him near Third Avenue and East Sixth Street on Jan. 16.
“Yo, Jamaica, you got some of that good bud?” Salud said he asked Smith.
“I don’t even f–k with you gooks,” Smith responded, according to Salud.
Salud added, “The government is profiting from the conflict between Caucasians and African-Americans, and it’s getting worse.”
Smith strongly denied that he spoke with his attacker. "There was no conversation," he told the Post. "I was attacked."
As previously reported, Smith underwent eight hours of surgery, and needed nearly 150 stitches for the wound from his right ear to his lips. He has partial paralysis on the right side of his face because several nerves were severed.
After 14 years in business at 185 Avenue C between East 11th Street and East 12th Street, Cafecito will be closing its doors for good after service on Sunday.
Several regulars shared news of the Cuban restaurant's closure, and a staffer confirmed the news. There will be a closing celebration Sunday night at 9. All Cafecito friends and fans are invited.
As we understand it, business had been tapering off ... and the Cafecito team didn't want to see it go out of business slowly and sadly — "dwindling into another solemn East Village story," as one source put it. In any event, the owners aren't leaving the neighborhood — they also run Royale at 157 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.
Like other businesses in the area, Cafecito was hit hard during Sandy in October 2012. Longtime manager Manny Garcia was featured in an Out and About in the East Village here in March 2013: "There was four feet of water in the building and we were closed almost a month. We’re still trying to recover financially. We had to replace everything. We didn’t have power for 3 weeks and to this day we still don’t have Verizon."
One nearby resident praised Cafecito's management for all their help through the years. "They could not have been any more supportive of local causes."
There is already a suitor lined up for the space. An applicant will appear before CB3's SLA committee next month. At this point, the applicant's identity hasn't been revealed.
From the EVG inbox...concerning East Fourth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C
A terrible smell has been lingering since the blizzard like a dead dog — or, not to be overly dramatic, a dead person.
This morning the area was surrounded by yellow tape. A police cruiser was blocking the street to traffic, and a Con Ed van was parked at the scene.
EVG correspondent Stacie Joy had actually taken some photos of the block, which is now closed off for Con Ed and other assorted emergency vehicles.
A resident says that Con Ed is here responding to a service outage. As for the possible source of the smell, one of the Con Ed workers said that their meter readers didn't pick up any natural gas. Yay!
Meanwhile, farther down the block at Avenue C... the FDNY was on the scene...
The FDNY, witnesses said, was there because of a manhole fire (it is manhole fire season!), which they believe led to the service outage up the block.
A manhole fire could cause a smell ... though residents have noticed the aroma going back to Sunday. No one could place the smell. Some suggested a very large dead rat. Some went with fermenting garbage. Another theory included "maybe someone hit a deer."
Nearly all of the evidence recovered from the deadly ambush of two NYPD officers on Avenue B and East 11th Street on Jan. 27, 1972, has disappeared (Daily News)
