Ray's is ready to crank out the ice cream all summer long

Over at Ray's Candy Store, Ray was busy yesterday working with a just-installed soft-serve ice cream machine. 

As Peter Brownscombe noted, Ray now has four machines of varying vintages working at varying efficiencies. 

Per Peter: "So anyone requiring an ice cream this summer, you know where to go." 

Ray's, 113 Avenue A at Seventh Street.

Your first look inside the new East Village Taco Bell, opening NEXT WEEK on 3rd Avenue

From the outside, the incoming Taco Bell on the SW corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street looks as if it has been there for years. 

On the inside, though... Steven got a look inside...

You can see the machine marked Chill Drink Enjoy* (which WAS going to be the EVG summer catchphrase...😔)

A worker said they'd be open next week.

* one could read that as Chill Enjoy Drink too.

Previously

Thursday's parting shot

Discarded beanbag thingee (or rejected droid concept?) as seen on Seventh Street today by Derek Berg...

A benefit concert for Ukraine at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer

The Most Holy Redeemer/Nativity Parish on Third Street is hosting a benefit concert for Ukraine on Saturday. 

Details via the invite:

Please join us for an evening of classical music to support an important cause! This concert will include works by Ukrainian classical composers Mykola Lysenko and Myroslav Skoryk, plus others. Performers will include opera singer Elena Heimur, violinist Lea Lang, the choir of St. George's Ukrainian Catholic church, and pianist Clara Bartz. 

Free admission; suggested donation $25. All proceeds go to Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). Donations may be made in-person at the event...

The concert starts at 7 p.m. at the church, 173 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. 

Find more details here.

A look inside Globe Slicers, one of the most unique storefronts on the Bowery

Photos by Stacie Joy

We've long been fascinated by Globe Slicers, which has been in business on the Bowery between Houston and Prince since 1947. (Happy 75th anniversary!)

And we've always wanted to stop in, but never got around to coming up with a cover story to shop for new or rebuilt slicers, mixers, grinders or other food-prep equipment ...

The folks here were nice enough to let EVG contributor Stacie Joy take some photos of the delightfully cluttered storefront...

Oh, and what you came for... the slicers!

There are some quirky touches on the shelves ... 

While this retail corridor continues to upscale, Globe Slicers remains an old Bowery throwback...

Dayton in Manhattan has an extensive history of the address dating to 1832 when dry-goods merchant Daniel C. Boughton lived here.

Within a decade it had been converted for business, with Holdridge & Co.'s drug company in the ground floor.  Among the items it marketed to pharmacists and direct users were the Dinner Pill, a "means of exterminating disease and promoting health," and "Dr. Taylor's original and genuine Balsam of Liverwort."

In the mid-1970s, the second-floor unit (aka, "The Blondie Loft") was home to Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. At the same time, designer Stephen Sprouse lived on the top floor. 

Updated: In the comments on Instagram, Chris Stein noted: "We occupied the whole upper building with a few other people. It was totally haunted. The first floor was a very ancient liquor store back then around 1975-6."

He also thought Globe Slicers moved to 266 from a nearby location after this time period.

266 Bowery today . The Blondie Loft where we put the 1st album together . pic.twitter.com/AhbV6ia3G5

— Clem Burke (@clem_burke) April 3, 2016

Filming notices for 'Gossip Girl' outside Key Food; see you in the aisles xoxo

Crews for the HBO Max reboot of "Gossip Girl" will be in the neighborhood today (Thursday!) and tomorrow (uh, Friday!). 

EVG GG Watchers© have spotted filming notices on Fourth Street and along stretches of Avenue A.

Storylines for season 2 have been kept under wraps, so we might as well speculate what the young adults from Constance Billard-St. Jude's School are going to be doing.

The proximity of the notices to Key Food can only mean that the grocery will play a — pardon this — key role in a plot line, like (typing out loud here) that Zoya buys a "cake for any occasion" here as a makeup gift for the canceled Julien or Monet de Haan has a crisis of it-girl status while looking for the moved-several-times Skinny Pop. Or maybe the gang stops by for to-go sushi for lunch on the steps of the Met. (Yes, it's out of the way and not really very good, but through the magic of TVmaking, the Brooklyn Bridge seems like 4 blocks to Central Park.)

(As an aside: Given the no parking signs around Key, where are all the delivery trucks going to idle/double park over the next two days? On the lawn at Village View?)

Anyway, GG notices are also posted outside Katz's, which might mean a GG-corned beef combo is in our future... one can dream!

Season 2 reportedly started filming in February, with a shoot here on March 1. No word on a release date.

The East Village was a popular location during the run of the original CW series (2007-2012) ... like outside Doc Holliday's ... or inside Veselka.

El Churro for Allen and Houston?

Renovations continue at 200 Allen St., that thin strip of a storefront on the SE corner of Houston. 

Back in February, workers at the scene told EVG contributor Stacie Joy that a cafe-coffee shop was in the works for the space, though they didn't have the business name. 

Well, based on recent façade additions, 200 Allen St. Watchers© figure the business name will be El Churro...

We'll see!

As for the past, Eastanbul Gyro Kebab and Smyrna Bakery closed here last fall. Empire Gyro, with a 24/7 schedule, opened here in February 2019 ... with the conversion to Eastanbul (and Smyrna) in the summer of 2020. The space was previously Sugar Cafe for 10 years. 

And because someone will mention it! Economy Foam (and later, & Futon) anchored the corner from 1937 to 2003.

Akina Sushi has not been open lately

Several readers have noted that Akina Sushi has been dark in recent weeks at 424 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Yelp lists the restaurant as closed... and the phone is not in service. (Delivery is also no longer available via the usual third-party apps.)

Owner Tim Chang opened Akina Sushi in December 2008... and fans of the restaurant have noted their appreciation of the staff, including Tim's wife Nicole and sometimes his mother. His sister May owned the now-closed nail salon next door. 

'Room With Stars' at Theater for the New City

"Room With Stars" is currently in production at Theater for the New City on First Avenue. 

This partly autobiographical play, written by Nina Howes and directed by longtime EV resident Elizabeth Ruf, "evokes the culture and music of the height of the Vietnam War era on the Lower East Side." 

Here's more:

Teenaged Samantha’s dreams of a scholarship to college are shattered when she's expelled from high school and locked up for her anti-war activities. Her hard-working mom is no help, and her Puerto Rican boyfriend actually wants to enlist. Samantha finds an ally in her boyfriend's fiery aunt, Angelina, a volunteer at the Catholic Worker. The playwright and the community-minded artistic team of "Room With Stars" hope to inspire new generations to speak out against the atrocities of war and all forms of injustice.

EVG contributor Steven caught an opening-weekend performance and gives it high marks...

The play runs through June 19, with showtimes Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. There's a 3 p.m. matinee on Sundays. Find more info here. 

Theater for the New City is at 155 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Photos courtesy of Andreas Weigelt

At the last day of self-defense class

Photos by Stacie Joy

With the increase in hate incidents against Asian Americans during the pandemic, Glenn Genovas, an East Village resident and owner of Sei Shin Dojo on Avenue A, decided to offer free self-defense classes for AAPI women.

The eight-week course started in April... with the last session taking place last week. EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by to watch part of the class, in which Genovas donned a helmet and padded suit and put their training to the test...

The instructor said he was impressed with the results.

"They put all those weeks of training into one actual self-defense application," Genovas said. "One of [the students] hit me so hard that she broke my face shield. In case you are wondering, it was repeated elbow strikes that cracked the face shield."

According to a new report from the Asian American Bar Association of New York, there were 233 reported attacks against Asian Americans in New York City in the first three quarters of 2021. Of those, only seven have led to hate-crime convictions to date, per the report, as CNN covered. 

The Bar Association's analysis showed that most reported anti-Asian incidents were in Midtown, with around 55% of the incidents involving a female victim.