A bust at LA Convenience on Avenue A

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Last night around 9, a multi-agency raid took place at LA Convenience at 105 Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. 

Officers confiscated a large quantity of products (labels included vapes/cartridges and edibles/candies) ... and left the smoke shop with more than 12 bags of items...

The shop, formerly LES Convenience, has been busted several times this year... and eventually reopens.

As previously reported, as of August, a new city law is now in effect that holds commercial landlords responsible for renting storefronts to unlicensed cannabis shops. 

Introduction 1001-B, known as Local Law 107 of 2023, prohibits owners of commercial spaces from knowingly leasing to unlicensed sellers of marijuana or tobacco products, imposing fines of up to $10,000 on landlords for violations. 

Checking in on Superiority Burger 6+ months in; weekend breakfast & lunch and Chrissy's Pizza coming soon

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

After several weekends of staff training for friends and family extravaganzas, Superiority Burger officially debuted (for a few hours!) on April 1 in its new home at 119 Avenue A. 

Since then, the vegetable-centric diner-restaurant has enjoyed some positive notices in the press. For instance, in late June, Pete Wells bestowed three (out of four) stars on Superiority Burger for The New York Times ... this followed a solid review in The New Yorker. More recently, The Michelin Guide added them to its "recommended" list. 

And you've seen people waiting from time to time for the opening bell at 5 p.m.

Taking stock in this six-plus-month milestone, owner and East Village resident Brooks Headley is pleased. 

"Things are going pretty great," he said. 

Early last month, Superiority Burger recently expanded its evening service to seven days.

 

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Coming soon: Saturday and Sunday all-day service. "Breakfast and lunch will include a significant amount of breakfast items," Headley told me. (Note: this is breakfast and lunch, NOT BRUNCH. He wanted everyone to be clear about that!) 

In addition, Headley will soon be serving the popular Chrissy's Pizza on the late-night menu. Chrissy's has been making pies around the corner in the former Superiority Burger space on Ninth Street. (Headley still has the lease for the storefront, and is friends with Chrissy's founder Chris Hansell.)

 "We want people to be able to have Chrissy's Pizza and a place to sit and have a beverage," Headley said.

I then headed to the back bar — aka Fowzy's Saloon ... where bar manager Fowzy (left) and Paddy were setting up for the evening...

There is a special late-night and bar menu (lower left corner!) ...

You can get it to go too...

And if a burger isn't your thing, you can get snack mix for a quarter...

Anyway, it has been a good scene back here...

And some Superiority Burger history... the quick-serve spot opened — as primarily a to-go operation — in the East Village on Ninth Street in June 2015. News of their move to a larger space — the former Odessa — on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place arrived in the summer of 2021.

Montauk's Memory Motel is popping up on 3rd Avenue and 13th Street

Memory Motel, described as "Montauk's high energy dive bar & motel," is popping up for a three-month-plus stint at 106 Third Ave. at 13th Street. (And presumably just the dive bar part.) 

Workers were spotted prepping the space yesterday... ahead of tomorrow's debut...

We're not exactly sure what all this will entail at the space... there's a website where you can sign up for more info... there's also an open casting call for the "Montauk Memory Motel TV Show." 

Montauk's Memory Motel has evolved through the years and now caters to a new generation of east-end weekend warriors. 

Like Montauk itself, the motel's bar used to be on the more sleepy side... until the Rolling Stones ruined it! 

As widely documented, the Stones "hid from the rest of the world for five weeks as they rehearsed for the coming summer's massive 1975 Tour of The Americas" at Andy Warhol's Montauk compound. 

Per legend, Mick and Keith spent time at the Memory Motel bar ... anyway, the ballad "Memory Motel" appears on the 1976 album Black and Blue... this is a live version from 1998...

   

The pop up takes over for the short-lived French concept Blue Bird... no word if that will return or what will be next for the corner space after the Memory Motel checks out.

Wednesday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy

Exit9, in the gloom of dusk this Halloween season, at 51 Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street...

'The East Village in Music and Words' series continues at the Tompkins Square Library

Last month, the Tompkins Square Library debuted a new monthly author series titled "The East Village in Music and Words" with Lenny Kaye. 

Early tomorrow evening (Oct. 26), the series continues with author Jesse Rifkin ("This Must Be the Place") interviewing avant-jazz pianist and composer Matthew Shipp. 

The event is from 5:30-7 p.m. You can register for the free talk here. 

The branch is at 331 E. 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B

A round-up of the old-school Chinese restaurants in the East Village

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

The neighborhood has temporarily lost two reasonably priced quick-serve Chinese restaurants this year — A&C Kitchen on Avenue C after a fire in the courtyard and Asian Taste on Third and B due to a gas shutoff in the building. 

In addition, New Double Dragon closed on First Avenue with the pending demolition of a three-building parcel. 

Previously, we saw the closure of New Chinatown Restaurant on Avenue D and China Town Restaurant on Houston. 

So it seems like there aren’t as many options for pork fried rice, sesame chicken and beef with broccoli these days. So, we decided to take inventory. I recruited local Chinese food enthusiast Josh Davis (an EVG contributor under the name jdx) to help me visit the remaining old-school East Village options. 

Here's our list. (Have we left any out? And note: We stayed between Houston and 16th Street, Avenue D to Third Avenue.) 

• Chen's Express Kitchen: 223 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

(Menu here)

• Baji Baji: 145 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street

(Instagram account here)

• China Wok: 63 Avenue D between Fifth Street and Sixth Street

(Menu here)

• Fei Ma: 79 Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street 

(Menu here)

• M&J Asian: 600 E. 14th St. at Avenue B 

(Website here)

• Mee Noodle: 223 First Ave, between 13th Street and 14th Street

(Yelp info here)

• No 1 Kitchen: 265 First Ave. between 15th Street and 16th Street 

(Website here)

• Red House: 203 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

(Website here)

• Yang’s Happy Wok: 175 Avenue C between 10th Street and 11th Street 

(Website here)

While we miss some mid-2000s casualties like Bamboo House and Jade Mountain, a decent variety of restaurants remain. 

Let us know in the comments if you have a favorite from this list...

Report: LLC pays $44 million for the loan to the former P.S. 64

There's a new plot twist in the decades-long saga involving the former P.S. 64/Charas/El Bohio Community Center at 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

According to The Real Deal, Madison Realty Capital "has sold the $44 million loan secured by the property." The buyer is reportedly 605 East 9th Community Holdings LLC, repped by David Pfeffer of NYC firm Tarter Krinsky Drogin.

A lawyer for Gregg Singer, who bought the property in a city auction in 1998 for $3.15 million, claims that Aaron Sosnick, a billionaire hedge fund manager who lives next door in the Christodora House, is behind the LLC. 

The Real Deal also published a series of emails and texts between consultant Paul Wolf and Sosnick — obtained by Singer through a freedom of information request — that show an interest in acquiring the building. (Sosnick and Pfeffer did not return TRD's request for comment, while Madison Realty Group declined.)

As we first reported, the building is headed to a bankruptcy sale on Nov. 8. Per TRD: "The owner of the loan can bid using the debt, making it the clear favorite to acquire the property."

In January 2022, Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane ruled that Madison Realty Capital could move forward with a foreclosure against Singer after years of delay. 

Madison Realty Capital reportedly provided Singer with a $44 million loan on the property in 2016. Court records show that he failed to repay the balance by its maturity date in April 2016, and by that September, the lender filed to foreclose.

Through the years, Singer wanted to turn the one-time P.S. 64 into a dorm (more here), though those plans never materialized, and the building has sat in disrepair. The 135,000-square-foot building is zoned for “community facility use,” any conversion to a condoplex or residential housing would require a zoning variance. 

As previously noted, some residents want to see the space used again as a community center, as it was during its time as Charas/El Bohio Community Center. Singer evicted the group on Dec. 27, 2001. 

Sosnick also reportedly bought the former Boys' Club of New York on 10th Street and Avenue A, now home to the Joyce Theater, several nonprofit arts groups, and a gallery. 

In August 2019, Crain's first reported that Sosnick, founder of the investment fund A.R.T. Advisors LLC, was the new owner, buying the 7-floor building for $31.725 million with the intention of selling the property, "potentially at a substantial loss," to a nonprofit that would maintain its civic use. 

A quick look at Manhattan Pawffice, opening next week at 20 St. Mark's Place

Photos by Derek Berg 

Back on Oct. 3, we reported that a doggy daycare was the new tenant for the long-empty retail space at 20 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. 

More specifically, this will be Manhattan Pawffice, a sibling to Brooklyn Pawffice out in Williamsburg. 

Per their NYC website: "Welcome to our dog daycare and boarding facility located in the heart of the East Village. With spacious play areas and a vast backyard, your furry friend will have plenty of room to run, play and rest." For anyone curious, there is outdoor space behind the building. 

The building does have outdoor space in the back. (The previous tenant, the Grassroots Tavern, never used it.) 

The Manhattan Pawffice website lists a grand opening on Monday.

The Grassroots Tavern, the last tenant in this lower level of the landmarked building, closed after 42 years in service following New Year's Eve 2017.

Momofuku Ko is closing in Extra Place

According to its website, Nov 4 is Momofuku Ko's last day of service in Extra Place. 

The restaurant with two Michelin stars made the announcement yesterday and was covered by Eater and Grub Street. 

Ko got its start on First Avenue in 2008... and relocated to Extra Place, the pedestrian walkway off of First Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue, in November 2014 (they increased their EP footprint in 2017.) 

Ko aside, Extra Place hasn't been too kind to restaurants. However, a spokesperson told Eater that the company will keep the Extra Place outpost: "We are pausing Ko as it currently operates and we hope to have something in the new year in this space." 

Meanwhile, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, which moved from the East Village to the Seaport in 2020, closed last month. 

Per Eater: 

The closure is part of Momofuku's restructuring since Marguerite Zabar Mariscal became CEO of the company in 2019; it includes shifts in its restaurant concepts and upcoming locations, along with an expansion of its pantry products in stores like Whole Foods and Target.

Tuesday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Taking in the Halloween-time windows at Trash & Vaudeville on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...