Soft openings on 12th and 2nd: Lumos Kitchen and Dunhuang East Village

Lumos Kitchen is now in soft-open mode on Second Avenue at 12th Street...

Per the restaurant's website: "Lumos Kitchen is proud to bring the best modern Chinese to you, our customers. Our signature baiju cocktails will also be making a splash into our menu."

Lumos was previously (until April 2017) a cocktail bar on West Houston Street between Thompson Street and LaGuardia Place. As New York magazine noted, "Lumos ... is likely the only [bar] in America that specializes in baijiu, the ancient Chinese liquor that's probably the most surprising, divisive thing you can drink in the whole city."

Perhaps Lumos Kitchen will add some stability to the corner. Three restaurants — Hot Pot Central, DumplingGuo and Dumpling Go — all came and went since March 2015.

... and next door on 12th Street, Dunhuang East Village is now serving its take on northwestern Chinese cuisine in a family-style dining room ...





This is the fifth location for the owners. You can check out their menu here.

The address, 300 E. 12th St., was previously Angelica Kitchen, which closed almost one year ago to the day.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Lumos Kitchen bringing the baijiu to 2nd Avenue

Cows, pigs and chickens now adorn the walls at the former vegan favorite Angelica Kitchen

[Updated] Suffolk Arms has not been open lately

Suffolk Arms, the cocktail lounge on Houston at Suffolk from celebrated bartender Giuseppe Gonzalez, has been dark this past week — weekend included.

There isn't any message about a temporary closure on the bar's website or social media properties ... or on the front door. Will update if we hear back from them.

The well-appointed bar opened in February 2016 to much acclaim. Per Grub Street: "New York’s Next Big Cocktail Destination Opens Tonight."

This prime corner spot sat empty for several years. The Local 269 never reopened after a flood wiped out the live music venue's equipment in the fall of 2012. Other recent bar tenants included Meow Mix and Vasmay Lounge.

Updated:

Thanks to ed in the comments for this info from Neat Pour:

No official reason for the locked and dark bar was provided by ownership. Emails, calls, and messages to Suffolk’s Arms official contacts went unanswered as did attempts to reach both owners.

Two employees told Neat Pour that they were informed that the establishment would reopen at a later date with a new concept, but the same staff. Other employees declined to comment.

Co-owners Ruben Rodriguez and Giusseppe González have long been rumored be at odds with one another. Sources told NP that there were previous attempts to remove González from the business this winter, but the staff’s loyalty to the charismatic bartender thwarted these efforts.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Plywood wraps itself around the incoming Suffolk Arms

Ahoy! It's Liberty Toye!

The building banner arrived last Thursday for Liberty Toye, the former nursing home and Bloom 62 apartment complex that Ben Shaoul is converting into a condoplex.


[Photo from 2014]

Sales got underway here on Avenue B and Fifth Street last November at the 81-unit building. Prices range from $660K to $1.8 million for buyers who may use Bitcoin for the purchase. Shaoul's sales team is renting an office at 44 Avenue B between Third Street and Fourth Street...



The Liberty Toye website lists 11 available units.

The site describes the neighborhood like this:

Creative energy runs through the East Village like a buzzing electrical current. Since the ’70s, a groundswell of artists, musicians, and iconoclasts put the neighborhood—and New York City—on the map as the place to be. It’s the birthplace of punk, the hub of counterculture, the lightning rod for the city’s kinetic spark. Today, elements of the neighborhood’s history mix with new hotspots that carry the torch.

The 240-bed Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation closed for good in June 2012 after Shaoul purchased the building ... eventually converting it into apartments. Bloom 62 started renting in May 2013. Prices topped out at $7,600 for a four-bedroom apartment.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement

A look at the 'Hip young crowd planting roots at Bloom 62'

1st signs of Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62 going condo on Avenue B?

More details on Ben Shaoul's condo conversion Liberty Toye, where you can buy with bitcoins

Sales underway for Ben Shaoul's Liberty Toye — at the 'crossroads that cradled the Culture of Cool'

Sunday's parting shots

A few shots from today's successful e-waste recycling event along Avenue A... photos by Derek Berg...



And because someone will ask, these are NOT new LinkNYC kiosks...

Week in Grieview

[Photo on 9th Street from Thursday by Michael Rosenthal]

Report: 2nd Avenue gas explosion trial to start in September (Monday)

In memory of Kelly Hurley (Thursday)

Jane's Exchange closing this summer on 3rd Street; owners looking for a buyer (Wednesday)

Go on a tour of the East Village tour in 1985 (Thursday)

The latest I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant (Friday)

The 31st annual Loisaida Festival is May 27 (Thursday)

7-story residential building planned for former Blue Man Group facilities on 3rd Street (Tuesday)

The Post looks at the Night Mayor's fines as an East Village bar owner (Wednesday)

RIP Gino DiGirolamo (Monday)


[Photo outside Royal Tailor Shop by Dan Scheffey]

'Heeere's Kubrick' at the City Cinemas Village East (Monday)

Full reveal at Thirteen East (Tuesday)

Bubbleology Tea seeking full liquor license for the former International space on 1st Avenue (Tuesday)

Groups file lawsuit ahead of the L-train shutdown (Thursday)

Matthew Kenney bringing yet another plant-based restaurant to 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

Coney Island Baby opens on April 26 with Murphy's Law (Tuesday)

What you are missing if you went away on Spring Break this week (Monday)

Shi Miaodao Yunnan Rice Noodle opening in the former Mark Burger space on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Red-tailed hawk week in review: Easter in the nest (Sunday) hawk fight (Monday) Dora re-injures her wing (Wednesday) Dora won't be returning to Tompkins Square Park for awhile (Sunday)

Checking in on 886, opening later this month on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

The historic 137 2nd Ave. — the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic — is for lease (Thursday)

Gothamist turns to Kickstarter to speed up its return (Wednesday)

Flashback Friday: Anthony Bourdain and Nick Tosches at Sophie's (Friday)

The Two Boots on Nassau Street no longer appears to be happening (Thursday)

... and this past week, 212 Arts left Fourth Street near Avenue B for a larger space on 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...



Check out their website for current and upcoming exhibits.

Dora's wing is not broken, but she won't be returning to Tompkins Square Park any time soon

[Photo of Dora Wednesday by Steven]

Back on Wednesday, Dora, one of the red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, was rescued and sent off for an examination and a possible rehab assignment.

Bobby Horvath of the Long Island-based WINORR (the Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation) provided an updated on her injured wing via Facebook:

She has no broken bones but will not be going back to her Park ... She has had some bad luck and needs to regroup and stay out of trouble. She will be staying with us until we figure out what the next best step is. Also people were asking if she had any eggs inside her. The answer is no. So she will be our house guest for awhile. No more soap opera sagas for this gal for now!

And here's an x-ray of Dora's wing...



Goggla has video from Wednesday of Horvath examining Dora's wing in the Park.

Dora had been in WINORR's care starting in late November for an injury unrelated to the current one ... she was declared fit, and returned to the Park on Feb. 26.

Meanwhile, as Goggla pointed out, as Dora was leaving the Park, a new female red-tailed hawk (not Barucha/Nora) had already taken up residence in the nest. Christo and the new hawk mated then for good measure.


[Photo of Christo and the new hawk by Bobby Williams]


[Photo of Christo from Friday by Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dora the red-tailed hawk returns to Tompkins Square Park

Dora re-injures her wing, leaves Tompkins Square Park for examination, possible rehab

Reminders: Recycle your e-waste today

Reps from the the Lower East Side Ecology Center will be on Avenue A (between Ninth Street and 10th Street) today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ... where they'll be accepting your old (or new maybe) electronics.

And as noted on Friday, here's the list of items they'll accept during the e-waste-apalooza:

• Computers (laptops & desktops, servers, mainframes)
• Monitors (CRT and flatscreen)
• Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
• Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, cords, chargers, etc.)
• Tablets and e-readers
• Components (hard drives, CD-ROMs, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.)
• Printers under 100 pounds, scanners, fax-machines, etc
• TVs, VCRs, DVRs, DVD & Blu-ray Players
• Digital Converter Boxes, Cable/Satellite Receivers
• Portable music players
• Audio-visual equipment
• Video games
• Cell phones, pagers, PDAs
• Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)

There are some e-waste items that we accept, but we charge a recycling fee for:
Media such as CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassette tapes
Computer battery backup systems (Uninterruptible Power Supply [UPS])

FAQ page here.

Open house tomorrow (Sunday!) at Studio 55C on Avenue C

Via the EVG inbox last night...

Studio 55C, a new Home for Somatic Movement + Arts on the Lower East Side, is hosting an Open House this Sunday, April 8 from 2-5pm.

The Open House will include 15-minute sample classes in the Nia Technique, EyeCare Exercises, Moving for Life, Pranayama, and mini-bodywork/healing sessions. The art of Tasha Robbins will be on view and offered for sale, with proceeds benefiting Moving for Life to fund their free classes for seniors and cancer survivors. Studio 55C also will provide light bites and refreshments.

Studio 55C is a conscious movement collective formed by three leaders in the field: Martha Eddy, Dana Davison and Kristin DeGroat. Classes and workshops educate students on how to move from deep within the body to increase awareness, self-regulation, and the ability to self heal. As each student is encouraged to move fluidly in their own way, they experience a joy that goes beyond the average exercise experience.

Studio 55C is at 55 Avenue C between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. You can find their website here with more details about their classes and events. (Their next open house is May 11 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.)

The space was previously home to the East Village Dance Project, which recently relocated to the Abrons Arts Center.

Le Sia on 7th Street is one of the neighborhood's (and city's) most exciting new restaurants

Le Sia quietly opened in January at 11 E. Seventh St. near Cooper Square.

I hadn't heard anything from readers about the restaurant, which serves Chinese barbecue, seafood and an assortment of kebobs. The dining room was empty the few times I walked by during the winter.

However, as Eater noted yesterday, Le Sia is catching on, especially with students.

Eater's Robert Sietsema paid a visit and came away impressed. (The headline: "NYC’s Most Exciting New Chinese Restaurant Dares to Pile the Heat on Seafood.")

An excerpt:

Beyond the seafood, the menu also offers robust menu of other Chinese dishes — many of them offered here for the first time outside Queens. It’s a bold move; many of the newer Chinese restaurants in neighborhoods outside of immigrant enclaves like Sunset Park or Flushing either come from restaurateurs with experience in Western-style restaurants (like Little Tong) or offer water-downed versions of traditional Chinese fare (like Han Dynasty).

Hunan and Sichuan restaurants nearby already stir fry fresh green chiles with sliced pork or pork belly, for example, but here, fiery peppers are instead tossed with gluey cubes of pig trotter, with a texture something like melting gummy bears. Called “wok-fried hog hoof jelly with pepper” ($16.95), it’s one of four chef’s specials. Another less-known dish available here is a “dough drop and assorted vegetable soup” ($12.95), a comforting tomato broth with free-form dumplings.

And in conclusion...

For now Le Sia is BYOB, making it one of the better restaurant deals in the neighborhood, and also one of the most exciting. With a restaurant right in the East Village, the owners clearly have faith that people other than first generation Chinese immigrants will dig the foods of their hometowns — it’s pure genius that may pay off in a big way.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Le Sia opens today on 7th Street

Lunatic fringe

Vive la Void is the new solo project of Sanae Yamada, co-founder and keyboard player of Moon Duo ... the above video is for "Red Rider," from her LP due May 4 on Sacred Bones Records.