Attention Kmart drinkers...

Word from a tipster... if you were headed over to Kmart on Astor Place to stock up on various beers and tall boys of Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Ritas... Uh-Oh!



The refrigerator signage notes:

Attention Kmart Shoppers!

We are currently unable to sell alcohol while our license is being renewed.

We apologize for the inconvenience and will be to usual ASAP.

Thanks to Steven for the photos and headline!

Melt Shop makes way back to 4th Avenue

A Melt Shop has emerged at 135 Fourth Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street.

This is the fifth Manhattan location for the quick-serve restaurant that specializes in grilled-cheese sandwiches and tater tots.

Signage for a Melt Shop was spotted here in June 2016, but the storefront instead became a Make Sandwich, which was an extension of the Melt Shop brand.

Make shut down in December after nearly two years at the address. According to the Make website: "We’ll be closing the shop ... to look for a location that is more suitable for our craft. We’d like to thank you all for your support and sando love."

So ownership decided to go with the more recognizable sandwich brand, choosing Melt over Make.

Thanks to EVG readers Jeanne Krier and Sheila Meyer for the photos and tip!

Monday's parting shot

A look at the new mural by BKFoxx (via East Village Walls) on Fourth Street at First Avenue, the new home of the just-opened Wara, the Japanese izakaya and dinner theater.

Bookstore trends we like to see

Your McNally Jackson master class in doubling down: we’re staying at our Prince Street location and opening two new bookstores this year. https://t.co/ky8lb0MDAV

— McNally Jackson (@mcnallyjackson) February 11, 2019

Highlighting three positive NYC bookstore developments from recent days (and weeks):

• McNally Jackson is staying in its Prince Street home — and opening two new locations in downtown Brooklyn and the South Street Seaport (Vulture)

• Left Bank Books is returning, reopening at a new location at 41 Perry St. (JVNY)

• Westsider Books on Broadway between 80th and 81st saved by crowdfunding campaign (Westside Rag)

Bonus round ...

View this post on Instagram

Look ma, I’m on TV! 📺 Thx @jeopardy 🥰

A post shared by Strand Book Store, NYC (@strandbookstore) on Feb 7, 2019 at 7:06am PST

Jerry's New York Central is closing on 4th Avenue

Several EVG readers (including Sheila Meyer and Ryan) shared this news... Jerry's New York Central, the art-supply store at 111 Fourth Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street, is closing.

The shop sent out postcards last week about the closing sale... the info is now posted on their website...



No word on the reasons for the closure at the moment. We reached out to the store and home office for more info.

This location was an offshoot of Jerry's Artarama, a 15-store art-supply chain headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. Jerry's opened on Fourth Avenue in late 2013, taking over the space from Utrecht Art Supplies (now Blick), who moved into a new store on 13th Street between University and Fifth Avenue. (As reported in October 2013, Jerry's signed a 10-year lease for 4,452 square feet of ground floor space. Asking rent for the deal was $125 per square foot, per a release announcing the deal.)

As New York Central Art Supply was preparing to close at 62 Third Ave. in 2016 after nearly 111 years of business, Doug Steinberg worked with David and Ira Goldstein, who own Jerry's, to acquire the remaining paper inventory of the store.

With Jerry's closing this spring, the Blick outposts at 1-5 Bond St. and 21 E. 13th St. will be the remaining art-supplies stores in the immediate area.

Craft+Carry outpost slated for 116 St. Mark's Place

The owners of Craft+Carry plan to open a new location of their craft beer shop at 116 Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue. They will appear before CB3's SLA committee tonight for a new liquor license for the address, which was recently renovated into a retail space.

According to the application on the CB3 website (PDF here), the proposed hours are 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. The questionnaire shows the space will have a six-seat bar and a counter to accommodate four more people.

Craft+Carry, which currently has locations in the DeKalb Market (since June 2017) and on Third Avenue (September 2017) in Gramercy Park, sells several hundred varieties of craft bottles and cans to take home... there's also a small bar with a rotating batch of taps and free Skee-Ball. (Among the other amenities: the Crowler machine, which employees can draft beer for customers at the bar, and homebrew equipment and recipe kits. )

Here's a look at the outpost in DeKalb Market ...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Craft+Carry (@craftandcarry) on Sep 8, 2017 at 1:18pm PDT

The CB3-SLA meeting is tonight at 6:30. The location: the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.

Here's how to reserve free tickets for the Basquiat exhibit opening next month at the Brant Foundation on 6th Street

[EVG photo from last summer]

Over the weekend, the Brant Foundation released ticket information for its debut exhibition at its new East Village home at 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As previously reported, this inaugural show features the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat...



The tickets info came via an Instagram post...

View this post on Instagram

The Brant Foundation is pleased to celebrate the upcoming opening of its New York space, located at 421 East 6th Street, with an extensive survey of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat- reconnecting the East Village to a seminal figure of its past. Reserve your tickets today at brantfoundation.org! LINK IN BIO Tickets are free of charge and must be reserved in advance.

A post shared by thebrantfoundation (@thebrantfoundation) on Feb 8, 2019 at 10:00am PST

And this ticket link is here.

Tickets are free, and available starting March 6. The exhibit runs through May 15.

The Brant ticket site included these FAQs:

How can I see the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition?
The exhibition is on view and open to the public at The Brant Foundation’s East Village space. Timed tickets are available every 30 minutes and must be reserved online in advance.

How much do tickets cost?
Tickets are free of charge. Individuals under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult.

Where and when should I arrive?
The entrance is located at 421 East 6th Street. Doors will open promptly at the time listed on your ticket and early entry is not permitted. Visitors who arrive more than 15 minutes past their ticketed time will be placed on the standby line for the next available time slot. Upon arrival, please have your ticket (printed or on a mobile device) readily available for check-in.

How long can I stay in the space?
In order to accommodate all of our visitors, we kindly ask that you do not spend more than 45 minutes viewing the exhibition.

Does my ticket include a docent led tour of the exhibition?
No, all visits are self-guided.

Here's more about the show, as reported by ARTnews, whose parent company is owned by Peter Brant, from this past September:

The inaugural show will be curated by the Brant Foundation’s founder, Peter Brant ... and art historian Dieter Buchhart. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Foundation Louis Vuitton, will include loans from Brant collections as well as international museums and other private collections.

Brant said in a press release, “Basquiat has been a cornerstone of the East Village art scene for decades, and to bring his work back to the neighborhood that inspired it is a great privilege. Our family is thrilled to launch the Brant Foundation’s New York space with an artist who is central to the collection, and above all to share his legacy with the community that was fundamental in shaping it.”

Basquiat lived and worked at 57 Great Jones St. near the Bowery at the time of his death in 1988 at age 27.

Brant reportedly began acquiring Basquiat's work shortly after being introduced to him by Andy Warhol in 1984. "Jean-Michel Basquiat is the quintessential Van Gogh figure of our time," Brant said in a 2013 interview. "He left with us a genius body of work."

Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.

After renovations, the building now features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

RIP Walter De Maria

What is your East Village dream home?

Walter De Maria's 'giant-robot laboratory' going for $25 million; inside is amazing as you'd expect

Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East 6th Street

When the world's top collectors of Dom Pérignon rosé came to the East Village for dinner

Reader report: 421 E. 6th St. will house Peter M. Brant's personal art collection

Peter Brant's East 6th Street Outreach Tour 2015 continues

Peter Brant meets the neighbors

On 6th Street, the Brant Foundation's inaugural exhibit will feature the work of Basquiat

Explosion-site condoplex now in the pile-driving phase on 2nd Avenue

Work is getting underway in the corner lot on Seventh Street at Second Avenue... the pile-driving diesel hammer is on the scene, which promises for some shaking and pounding noise (as heard here ... here and here, as examples)



And a look through the blogger portals on the plywood...





Ad previously reported, a seven-floor Morris Adjmi-designed residential building with 21 condos and ground-floor retail will eventually rise on the lot.

Three buildings, 119, 121 and 123 Second Ave., were destroyed on this corner during the deadly gas explosion on March 26, 2015. This previous post has more details about what has happened here to date.

UCB East has closed; what's next for their space on Avenue A and 3rd Street?

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater's East Village outpost, UCBeast, wrapped up its eight-plus year run on Saturday night.

UCB officials blamed the "extreme costs" of operating in the space as a factor in its closing, as Vulture first reported on Jan. 9.

Starting Friday, UCB will present three nights of programing at SubCulture, a 130-seat venue on Bleecker Street. (You can find the schedule for UCB at SubCulture via this link.)



Here's a statement that UCB released after the news broke:

"Due to the long-term cost of rent, property taxes, and other expenses associated with operating a second venue in NYC, UCB has created this new experience at SubCulture to reduce the financial impact. This move allows us to continue to offer a second venue to our performers and audience. We are forever grateful to the incredible staff, performers and countless dedicated UCB-ers who have committed so much time and effort into making it possible for us to perform and view alternative comedy in NYC."

Now comes the speculation over what might take the large space here. UCB eventually took over part of the expanded Two Boots empire — the video store on Avenue A and the Pioneer Theater around the corner on Third Street...


[Image from 2002 via Cinema Treasures]


[EVG photo from spring 2009]

The Pioneer Theater, which screened indie, underground and cult fare, closed on Nov. 7, 2008. As owner Phil Hartman said at the time: "[I]t was always a labor of love and never commercially viable." The 99-seat theater opened in 2000. (Maybe Charles Cohen will buy this space for a theater too.)

Work started on the UCB space in 2009 (this post has the cargo-shorts comments goldmine — "Go back to campus, you new jack cornballs").

No sign of a retail listing for the former UCB spaces just yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Two Boots Video store "in contract" — largest available retail space on Avenue A

[Updated] Your 'Hot Chicks Room' sign update

[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade

Breaking: UCB will remove the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign!

'Hot Chicks Room' sign will now bring ruin to compost

Report: Upright Citizens Brigade closing East Village outpost next month

The write stuff? Short Stories debuts on the Bowery

[Photo from Friday night by Derek Berg]

Short Stories debuted this past weekend over at 355 Bowery between Third Street and Fourth Street with a brunch service via the Paris-based Season (Vogue says they have one of that city's best breakfast menus) ...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cathy Closier (@cathyclosier) on Feb 10, 2019 at 5:27am PST

Not sure what their menu will look like post-brunch.

CB3 OK'd a new liquor license last June for the the applicants, including Danny "The Wolf of Wilson" Teran, who runs several businesses in Bushwick, including Wheelhouse out on Wilson Avenue, and Williamsburg Pizza investor Ashwin Deshmukh.

The questionnaire on file with the CB3 application noted that Short Stories will feature "a mix of American, Cuban and Mexican fare." (Teran, a Cuban-American, specializes in Cuban cuisine. He also previously ran Millie's Cuban Cafe on Wilson Avenue.)

Also worth noting: Jim Power created the mosaic on the front step... cracking every piece himself by hand...



Wise Men closed at No. 355 in November 2017 after five years in business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation of sorts: That kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery

Former kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery is now home to the Wise Men

Bushwick-based chef looking to bring Short Stories to the Bowery

Short Stories shapes up on the Bowery