Thursday, March 11, 2010

325 Bowery gets scrubbed and painted

Over at 325 Bowery at Second Street, which was most recently Kelley & Ping...the construction netting came down this week...



...revealing a freshly refurbished exterior...



Perhaps in anticipation of the yet-unnamed eatery by Freemans bros Taavo Somer and William Tigertt? A bilevel bar and eatery are in the works here...



From 1970-1975, as New York Songlines notes, this space was The Tin Palace, a noted jazz club .... it became a go-go joint in 1975. It reopened for a time as a jazz club in 1978, with critic Stanley Crouch doing the booking. Read more about The Tin Palace here at Perfect Sound Forever.

[Top photo by Robert Chin via. Tin Palace ad via ]

Caffe Buon Gusto's shelter

Last summer, after a seemingly lengthy renovation, Caffe Buon Gusto hoisted its signage at Fifth Street and Avenue B. Since then, things have not gone so well for the Italian eatery ... The space has turned into a graffiti hotspot... and its first pass at obtaining a liquor license last October didn't go so well... The Caffe Buon Gusto folks are back before the CB3/SLA board this Monday.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, the space has provided shelter for a variety of people....




Balloons and St. Brigid


Dumpster of the day



Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Niagara to "get a facelift"

Eater pointed us to an interview at NiteTalk with Jesse Malin, who owns Niagara, Cabin Down Below and Bowery Electric... Of particular interest...

Without playing favorites, what bar of yours would you be most likely to frequent on a night off? Which fits your sensibility the most? Black & White or Manitoba's because I don't own them, and that's truly a night off. Our spots are like our kids, I love 'em all. Niagara just turned 12 and it's about to get a facelift.

I do hope that the Joe Strummer mural remains safe here on Seventh Street and Avenue A ...



UPDATE: Eater reports that Niagara's former Tiki Room has been turned into a new bar called Lovers Of Today... complete with a separate entrance...

Report: Ex-con stabbed to death outside Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D

According to the Daily News today, a man was stabbed to death outside the Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D:

One ex-con stabbed another to death outside a Manhattan housing project Tuesday night after their feuding female companions crossed paths, police sources said.

Cops believe Louis Dawson, 34, chased down Luis Johnson, 29, outside a building in the Lillian Wald Houses on the lower East Side about 7:50 p.m. and plunged a knife into his neck, chest and heart, the sources said.

"He stabbed him again and again," said witness Mario Hernandez, 37, of Manhattan. "There was much blood."


According to the NYCHA: Lillian Wald Houses has 16 buildings 10, 11, 13 and 14-stories tall with 1,857 apartments housing an estimated 4,536 residents. Completed Oct. 14, 1949, the 16.46-acre complex is between F.D.R. Drive, Avenue D, East Sixth and East Houston Streets.

Listicles! New York is now a "new style coffee bar" town


In a piece titled New York Is Finally Taking Its Coffee Seriously, the Times looks at the "new style coffee bars" that have opened here the last two years. "At places like Bluebird Coffee Shop in the East Village, the espresso is so plush and bright that it tastes sweet on its own," the article notes. "At Abraço in the East Village, you can get drip coffee brewed by the cup, not drawn from an urn."

The article goes on in great detail about fresh roasted beans and all that. Then! A listicle of the 30 best coffee joints in Manhattan and Brooklyn... and several of them can be found right around here. To the EV list!

ABRAÇO "There’s barely room enough for six standing adults, never mind the dozen or more who can crowd in during prime time. And yet in this cramped space the baristas turn out some of the city’s best cappuccinos and drip coffee."

BLUEBIRD COFFEE SHOP "So pleasant, it’s disarming — tiny and flooded with sunlight, it’s easy to sit and linger over one of the pastries baked here daily. But the coffee is exceptional. Katie Duris, one of the country’s most respected baristas, sets a high standard: the espresso is bright and lush, the cortado a sublime balance of coffee and steamed milk."

EVERYMAN ESPRESSO It’s little more than a handful of tables and a coffee counter in the lobby of the Classic Stage Company, an Off Broadway theater, but its owner, Sam Penix, is much admired by espresso-heads.

NINTH STREET ESPRESSO Each Ninth Street Espresso feels different, and yet the harried shoppers at the Chelsea Market, the parents with strollers across from Tompkins Square Park and the laptop crowd at the original Ninth Street location all enjoy uniformly excellent coffee. Last spring, the owner, Ken Nye, did the next best thing to roasting his own beans by creating the Alphabet City Blend with Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea."

OST CAFE "Excellent coffee, including a fine cappuccino. Most people here seem to nurse their drinks, a tacit rent for the comfy chairs and WiFi."

(There's also an interactive map!)

Image via.

Avenue C is for .... Coco Chanel?

On Avenue C, a newish Coco Chanel ad on the Cemusa bus shelter near Sixth Street lights up the evening...



Across the Avenue sits the Lower East Side II Consolidation (NYCHA) development ...



Anyway, first time that I can recall a Chanel ad on Avenue C... and with such large buys, do the ad folks/Chanel marketing executives have any idea where these things are being placed? Or does someone think that Avenue C is a hot spot for Chanel fans out and about on a weekend night?

P.S.

On the flip side of Chanel ad, a little Kate Moss for M21-goers who may be tempted to buy a $1,000 bag...

Avenue C and Sixth Street in 1984

Here are two shots taken by Steve McCurry that can be found in the Magnum Photo archives...with their descriptions...



New York City. 1984. Avenue C between Sixth and Seventh Streets in the East Village (looking south).



New York City. 1984. Children playing on East Sixth Street at Avenue C in the East Village (looking north).

On St. Mark's: $1 beers at former Why Curry?; "new and improved" Bua reopens Friday

On St. Mark's near Avenue A... the former Why Curry? space became Lychee, a "home style Thai kitchen" several weeks ago... (even though a lot of the Why Curry? signage remains...)



... and they were enticing passersby with a $1 beer special last night...



...and next door, Bua has been closed all week for renovations.



According to the sign out front, "We look forward to welcoming you back to the new and improved Bua on Friday, March 12."

First sign of another possible Porchetta on Seventh Street

On March 1, we noted that Mingala Burmese Restaurant at 21 East Seventh St. (a few doors east of McSorley's) had closed. Then Eater brought word that the folks behind Porchetta just down the street applied for a liquor license (beer and wine) here for another venture...

And now the "attention residents" sign has gone up in one of the windows at 21 E. Seventh St.



One of the many locations up for a license during the CB3/SLA meeting Monday evening.

Seems like 2009 on Wall Street




Yesterday evening near the Stock Exchange.