Signage alert: Saint Pizza on Avenue B

Photo by Stacie Joy

Signage arrived last week for Saint Pizza at 223 Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street.

We mentioned last month that a pizzeria was taking over the former Subway (sandwich shop) here.

Hopefully, it will offer a solid slice/pie for after a visit to Mona's across the street.

Will post more details about the operators when that info becomes available.  

Monday's parting shot

From a sold-out Webster Hall on 11th Street, the first night of the co-headlining tour with the Charlatans and Ride... at Brooklyn Steel tomorrow (1/31) if you like.

Another call to unlock the restrooms in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The public restrooms remain closed to the public in Tompkins Square Park. 

We've seen various homemade signs about reopening the restrooms here since the Parks Department locked them up in early November. 

Today, Jimmy was taking up the cause...

Parks officials have said that a malfunctioning boiler and a broken pipe in the basement of the Park's fieldhouse are to blame for the closure.

As we've noted, perhaps the Parks Department is just waiting ... as they are expected to rebuild the fieldhouse. According to the Parks Department website, the contractor's contract is now registered with the city.

A youthful exchange of ideas with Dr. Cornel West at Performance Space New York

Photos and reporting by Daniel Efram 

This past Saturday afternoon, Dr. Cornel West gave an interactive talk with children and their families for Performance Space New York's ongoing "We the Youth — Keith Haring Lecture Series" about ideas and social issues that are often left off of school curriculums.

The kids made profound remarks about wondering how to love during difficult times. 

The professor, activist and philosopher responded with his thoughts on humanity, respect and love — not to mention his weakness for popcorn, which was occasionally fed to him by his generally well-behaved but sometimes restless young audience.

Performance Space New York is at 150 First Ave. at Ninth Street.

Signage alert: O'Flaherty's on Avenue A

Photos Friday by Stacie Joy 

Signage and a sidewalk awning arrived Friday for the new home of O'Flaherty's, the art gallery coming to 44 Avenue A at Third Street...

As we first reported, artist-curator Jamian Juliano-Villani was moving her gallery into this space after a year at 55 Avenue C at Fourth Street (we covered the opening here, culminating with a barn burner of a show late this past summer).

The gallery opens on Feb 16, featuring a performance series and film screening by @gelitin_official in association with Austrian Cultural Forum New York and Federal Ministry — Republic of Austria: Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

This space has been empty ever since Upright Citizens Brigade Theater closed UCBeast amid financial challenges in February 2019. The comedy venue opened in September 2011, and UCB 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.

We'll have more on this opening in the days ahead.

Openings: Gen Korean BBQ House

Gen Korean BBQ House opened earlier this month on the SW corner of Third Avenue and 14th Street. (First mentioned here.) The California-based brand has has a few dozen locations out west. This is the first East Coast outpost.

With daily hours of 11 a.m. to 4 a.m., Gen Korean BBQ House is among the city restaurants serving food late following the worst days of the pandemic when many spaces closed early (once they were allowed to reopen). 

As Eater noted here last week: "On a recent Saturday night after 2 a.m., there were around 40 people hovering over tabletop grills in its dining room, which has more than 40 communal tables."

The restaurant took over the former 5 Napkin Burger space as well as the storefront next door that served as the 5 Napkin Express, then Taman Falafel. Those businesses closed at the start of last year. 

The return of 99-cent pizza?!

Signage is up for a 99-cent pizza spot at 418 E. 14th St. just east of First Avenue along a stretch known for street vendors selling items of dubious quality and origins. 

If this price holds, then it would mark the return of a 99-cent pizza joint. Thanks to inflationary food costs, in late 2021 and early 2022,  the neighborhood's discount slicerias uniformly raised prices by 51 cents and became $1.50 pizzerias.

The storefront was previously a spa specializing in eyebrows and waxing.

Essex Squeeze has closed its 5th Street outpost

Photo by Steven

Essex Squeeze has been dark in recent weeks... and now comes word that the juice-coffee shop has permanently closed here at 300 E. Fifth St. just east of Second Avenue.

Sources tell EVG contributor Stacie Joy that the closure was "due to a rent increase and lack of business."

The cafe, run by LES natives and childhood friends Cedric Hernandez and Charles DeLaCruz, opened its first outpost in Essex Market in 2020. There's also a location in Dekalb Market Hall in Brooklyn.

The EV location opened in March 2022.

This space was previously Idlewild Coffee Co., which closed after just two months in business during the summer of 2020. The owner blamed the presence of the 9th Precinct's police barricades at the time for greatly reducing his foot traffic.

Idlewild took over from another coffee shop — Southern Cross Coffee, which shut down in September 2019 after two and half years in service.

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a good-boy photo by Derek Berg) ...

 • Indictment announced against suspect who allegedly murdered James Cunningham on Avenue A last month (Friday) 

• RIP Tom Verlaine (Saturday) 

• La Mama to celebrate the reopening of its renovated home at 74A E. 4th St. (Tuesday) 

• Rent hike forcing Café Cortadito to close on 3rd Street (Monday) 

• The former Charas/P.S. 64 is nearly all sealed up as it awaits its fate (Thursday)

• Bluestockings reopens after a 2-week closure for sidewalk repairs (Tuesday) 

• Crossroads Trading opens on 2nd Avenue (Friday)

• About the 'Kim's Video' doc, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival (Wednesday) 

• At the opening of New York's second legal weed dispensary (Tuesday)

• Will it ever snow again? (Wednesday) 

• Check out these 'Creatures of the Night' at Theater for the New City (Tuesday) 

• Papered windows at 101 Avenue A, the incoming home of cafe-bar-music venue Baker Falls (Thursday) 

• Reader report: Toasted Deli has not been open lately (Thursday) 

• Openings: the Office of Mr. Moto on St. Mark's Place (Thursday) 

• A look at the currently closed Mermaid Inn on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday) 

• The Marshal has seized KC Gourmet Empanadas on Avenue B (Friday)

• The 21-story building that replaced B Bar & Grill begins its ascent on the Bowery (Monday) ...and since our Monday post about that new building for the Bowery and Fourth Street, the site had bulked up...

...with an added message on the plywood — "Land Back!!!" ...

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City removes the curbside dining space at Eros on 2nd Avenue and 5th Street

This a follow-up to a post from Jan. 15... on Friday morning, the city removed the curbside dining structure from the Fifth Street side of Eros on the NE corner of Second Avenue. (Thank you, Eden, for the tip!) 

On Jan. 10, the Department of Transportation issued a "Termination" notice for the curbside space that ran the length of the Greek restaurant, which hasn't been open in more than five months.

Meanwhile, the indoor space remains dark. 

Eros took over for the diner the Kitchen Sink in September 2021 (same owners) ... management previously changed names from Moonstruck to the Kitchen Sink in the fall of 2015. 

The Eros website still notes that this location is "closed for renovations. Reopening TBA." We had not seen anyone inside the space since the restaurant closed in August. The "temporarily closed" sign is still on the front entrance.