EV Grieve

Monday, April 25, 2011

Please cover me

On April 14, we noted that that the DOB had taped up a new "notice of violation and hearing" outside 35 Cooper Square... According to the DOB:

BOTH ROOFS HAVE BEEN STRIPPED OF ROOFING MATERIAL TO SHEATHING SECTIONS OF LOWER ROOF ARE EXPOSED TO JOISTS ALSO NOTED

On Thursday, the Local East Village followed up and reported that developer Arun Bhatia just paid about $16,000 in fines related to the violations.

Meanwhile, the roof is still unprotected, now with a weekend of heavy rain to help it continue to rot.

David Mulkins, co-founder of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, wrote a plea to protect the roof last Friday at the Local EV. Per the article:

[T]he roof and dormers as essential structural elements and character-defining features, are currently compromised by partial demolition and exposure to the elements. Any effort to save this building, at this point, needs to start with the basics: putting a tarp back on the roof.

A friend of EV Grieve said this is like visiting a loved one at the nursing home, and seeing him or her without a blanket.

In any event, Arun Bhatia's nonaction should tell you all you need to know about the developer's interest in possibly saving this building.

Hoop dreams in Extra Place

We're not sure who just put up the basketball hoop here in Extra Place ...

Maybe DB and the gang are playing some H-O-R-S-E?

Water in Tompkins Square Park 'most likely safe' to drink

EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams noted this on the Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park...

C is a new coffee shop on Third Street

Several readers have noted that that a new coffee shop has opened (as of April 18) at 256 E. Third St. near Avenue C. A reader said it's pretty straightforward — coffee, tea ... some croissants. The coffee is from Strongtree Organic Coffee Roasters in Hudson, N.Y. I stopped by myself to check it out yesterday morning, though it wasn't open yet for the day...

C takes over the space from Chez Betty Cafe.

About the newspaper article in the Chez Betty Cafe front window

So C has taken over the Chez Betty Cafe space on East Third Street near Avenue C. Had never been inside, but I looked at the cafe's front window quite a bit... where there was an article from the Times on display. With one passage blacked out. (Later, someone placed a Yelp sticker over this.)

I always wondered what passage someone had blacked out. So I looked up the article. The piece is from March 2005:

At Chez Betty, a sumptuously decorated cafe that opened last May on East Third Street just off Avenue C, Shilat Erbibou froths milk for cappuccinos and serves delicate salads. She has befriended the bohemian-chic models who live around the corner, and watched students from Cooper Union and New York University bring wary parents who come to check out the neighborhood and are comforted by Avenue C's growing charm.

But Avenue D, the next thoroughfare to the east? As far as Ms. Erbibou is concerned, it could be a hundred miles away.

"I haven't been to Avenue D," she said with a shrug. "I don't think there's a future there."

Speaking of new coffee shops...

La Bonne Bouffe, a cafe-bakery-small-plates-type place, opened on the corner of Avenue B and Second Street in March 2009 ... and closed in December...

Based on the sign that we spotted outside the space, it appears another cafe-coffee shop is on the way...

Still speaking of coffee shops... 9th Street Espresso closing for renovations

9th Street Espresso just east of Avenue C is closing starting today for renovations, as the sign shows... 9th Street on 10th Street remains open...

Looking for the old Bon Vivant space

Last July, I noted that Bon Vivant, the usually reliable Greek diner on Broadway near 12th Street, had closed after several decades in business.

Eater later reported that the owners would reopen ... but "lose its diner atmosphere, have a new name, and focus on 'organic foods.'"

So I thought I'd check up on the new space. I couldn't find it at first. Been some time since I've been right on this stretch of Broadway. That Quiznos Subs on East 12th Street and Broadway with the erotic ads closed late last summer... and here's its replacement... Cafe Reunion! (Update: Per the comments ... it already came and went)