Hudson's sign fading away on East 13th Street

Seems as if the on-again, off-again construction at 103 E. Third Ave. at 13th Street has been going on forever. I forgot now what's even going on up there. There was talk of a hotel some years back.



In any event, the new paint job on the 13th Street side is getting awfully close to the faded ad of one of the site's former occupants, Hudson's Army-Navy Store.



What are the chances the developer has an appreciation of history, and will let the old Hudson's ad stay as it has been for years...?



You can just make out a smidgen of a Hudson's street sign on the bottom left in this undated photo of the Third Avenue El by David Pirmann from nycsubway.org. (Pirmann took the shot looking south from the 14th Street station.)



The nycsubway site includes an article on the launch of the Third Avenue El from Aug. 27, 1878. A reporter asked business owners along Third Avenue about the new noise casued by the elevated train. This included the proprietors of 103 E. Third Ave.:

At Lamke Brothers', grocers, No. 103 Third avenue: "Naw, we are used to noises on this avenue."

Meanwhile, take a ride on the Third Avenue El via YouTube. You may have seen this before, but...:

'Tis the season for keeping ConEd in business: The holiday lights are up at Rolf's

One of my favorite NYC holiday traditions. The over-the-top holiday lights -- some 70,000 light bulbs in total -- and Victorian-era tchochkes went up at Rolf's last week. For the last month, a few members of the staff at the French-Bavarian eatery at 231 Third Ave. at 22nd Street have been putting up the decorations after hours...they'll be on display until the middle of January. The restaurant opened in 1958, and the lights apparently started going up a few years after that...(at times, it still feels like 1958 in here...). Anyway! The lights!









It gets horribly crowded at Rolf's during the holidays, of course...Just grab a seat at the bar (if you can during off-peak hours)...the food is too heavy for my tastes (hmmm, suckling pig), unless I'm trying to spike the LDL level in my bloodstream. In any event, if Rolf's is mobbed, Paddy Macguire's down the street -- between 19th and 20th -- is a decent alternative for drinks during the holidays. They have some lights as well -- and a much smaller carbon footprint.

New bar El Dorado opens today in the East Village

Here's the scoop!

Everyone knows that working for the press has it’s advantages. This week I was lucky enough to check out the new El Dorado bar before it even opened. Located in the East Village where the Hong Kong Club used to be this is going to be a bar to look forward to.

El Dorado is not what I would characterize as a typical dive bar. The new owners have created an entirely new atmosphere by renovating and improving the previously neglected bar. The bar mixes old school dive bar decor with a slightly modern twist that exudes sophistication. The deep red booths and long 70’s era bartop inlayed with classic comics of decades past add a certain charm that together create the comfort of a timeless lounge. The East Village bar perches on the edge, hovering between a barfly dive and a hip hangout.

The four young owners, three of which are brothers, have a certain cadence to the way they pour their drinks, they put as much care and thought into each drink they make as they did into the details of the bar. From the gold flaked floor, vintage jukebox, wood finishings above the bar and hanging chandeliers this is the type of old-fashioned bar you can tell their minds envisioned going to when they got older; a type of bar their grandpa would have gone to is his heyday.

The result is an attractive, comfortable, friendly Dive-Lounge that provides independent entertainment, honest prices and consistent, cordial service. El Dorado’s purpose was to provide East Village residents and visitors with the highest quality neighborhood lounge, and I for one fully believe they have achieved this.

Oh. Right. HUH? Hong Kong Club? So I didn't know that San Diego has an East Village too. This is from the SanDiegoish blog. Anyway, for my bar and beer news in San Diego, I prefer Beer & Burritos.

Per-man, per-hour moving war takes strange, hunky twist.

My fascination continues. Spotted on Fourth Avenue:



Meanwhile, thanks to the anonymous commenter Friday for some inside information:

Anonymous said...
Back in the 80s and early 90s I was part of an moving/trucking/van outfit based in the EV. We charged $25-$35/hr for 1 guy and a van, $55-$65 for 2 guys and a van/truck. All other expenses such as flights of stairs, boxes, reasonable mileage around town, tape, blankets etc. were included in the price. We also did a huge number of band jobs--$50/round trip to and from your gig in the city.

We were always busy and had a great crew of people and a really good rep. We also advertised exactly as these companies still do-those flyers bring back memories *sniff*.

Back then we heard plenty of horror stories from people who had made use of these $16/hr outfits because first of all, there were extra charges for EVERYTHING. Even as 1 guy with a van, you make NO MONEY charging $16/hr in this town. That isn't even going to cover insurance for the van and all of the expenses incurred, like parking/moving tickets, supplies, gas, phone, advertising, and the aggravation factor.

[Examples of the aggravation factor--showing up to move someone and finding out they live on the top floor of a 6th floor walk-up and have packed all of their belongings, including their 3 full sets of encyclopedias, into Hefty bags. Or that the person you are trying to squeeze in between 2 other jobs lied about how much crap they have and there is no way you will make it to your next job remotely on time.]

I have a million stories of stuff you can't even imagine from those years.

If you consider that the people who come to move you will be handling all of your personal stuff, it's not always a good idea to go for the cheapest deal. And moving is usually a stressful adventure so unless you count a futon, a hotplate and an autographed poster of Zeppo Marx as your only belongings, set some dough aside and don't forget to tip if they do a good job. Over the course of my time in the biz, we moved some people repeatedly and a great way to develop a relationship is to show that safe transport of you and your most important belongings to a new location is worth more than a couple bucks.

Mayor Mike's monarchy

Fred Siegel, senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Civic Innovation, has an opinion piece in today's Post titled "KING BLOOMBERG:
MIKE IS A MAYOR RUN AMOK."

An excerpt:

While arguing over whether to reauthorize Off Track Betting, the Mayor clashed with the normally mild-mannered Governor Paterson, whose support is essential for the city; Paterson came away describing the mayor to the Post's Fred Dicker as "a nasty, untrustworthy, tantrum-prone liar who has little use for average New Yorkers."

Another!

Bloomberg is so committed to his ideal of the "luxury city" run by and for the wealthy and organized interest groups that the Wall Street collapse took him completely by surprise. Like Lindsay's successor, the hapless Abe Beame, Bloomberg seems not to understand what's happening around him. His budget projections are based on the notion that the future economic path will be shaped like a U, but it's more likely to look like an L.

New York, which became ever more dependent on Wall Street's high rollers to create each new job a thousand-dollar meal at a time, is going to have to rethink its economic future. Wall Street as we knew it is never coming back. The high taxes and over-regulation Bloomberg prefers pushes out the small- to medium-size businesses that will have to drive much of our economic growth in the future.

Greenwich Village Sunday -- 1960 (also, 1944 and 1981)

The Times examines the ongoing battle for Washington Square Park today.

Meanwhile, let's take a look back at the Park and neighborhood in something called "Greenwich Village Sunday -- 1960."



Here's a little more of the neighborhood, circa 1944:



And 1981:

Articles that I stopped reading after the first paragraph

From the real estate section in the Times today:

THE duplex five-bedroom apartment on Attorney Street that Daniel Vosovic calls home seems ready-made for a television sitcom. There’s the location, on the of-the-moment Lower East Side, with its mix of detox juice bars and Old World knishes, runway models and streetwise misfits. There are Mr. Vosovic’s four roommates, who work in disparate industries — cupcakes, high fashion, education and sofas.

Stopping the music

Last July, I posted the intro to the most deliriously awful movie set in New York, 1980's "Can't Stop the Music" starring Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner and the Village People.

Well! I just got a little note from the folks at YouTube about the video...



Harumpf!

Still, there are other copyright enfringement videos that you can enjoy until the YouTune killjoys remove them...

Like the intro to the arthouse hit Weekend at Bernie's!



Or my exclusive video of Olafur Eliasson's waterfalls on the East River...

Buffalo Exchange ready for action (as soon as the gates go up today that is)

Buffalo Exchange opens today on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...at the former spot of Rififi/Cinema Classics. How many used/vintage stores does this make now in a row on 11th Street? Five? Six?




Took these photos a few hours ago. Wonder if they plan on keeping the Cinema Classics sign?

Meanwhile! Sort of related, but not really! Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals" ... from 1983. Good NYC scenery. (For Alex!)

Just three shopping days left until the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame NYC Annex opens!

In case you want another feature story on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex, the Post delivers today:

It's one for the money, two for the show, and $26 to go-go-go to the first-ever annex to Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum, opening soon in NYC. "When we were looking for places to really do something special, New York was the obvious choice," says Joel Peresman, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation president and CEO.

Whatever! Just hope they feature that Debbie Harry photo on a very large wall.

Oh and a great reader comment from my Annex post yesterday:

Ron House said...
it's always nice to get a watered-down version of something from cleveland.

More Marzzzz on the way

From USA Today:

Life on Mars got a small new lease on life — four extra episodes — and a big new time slot behind Lost, Wednesdays at 10 ET/PT starting Jan. 28, when the show is now scheduled to air 10 times behind ABC's returning hit. Mars has been yanked to preserve new episodes for the new slot....ABC's programming chief is a Mars fan and decided to give it another try.

Maybe I'll give it another try. I tuned out after the third episode.

Maybe we'll get to see more of Annie Norris too...



Previous Life on Mars coverage here.

Noted

Why the frenzy to get into Trader Joe's this morning? Thanksgiving rush?