The Bean opening a second location across from the Strand on Broadway

EV Grieve reader/contributor jdx notes this sign in the window at the Bean on First Avenue and Third Street. Perhaps at this location?

Stuy Town unveils new studios

Oh, just a worker taking a break on 14th Street and First Avenue outside Stuy Town.

Photo by blue glass.

East 9th Street, 8 a.m., July 15

Photo by John Marshall Mantel.

Innocent East Village neighborhood invaded by sin, lousy ad slogans

I'm sorry to interrupt your summer Friday to let you know that there is pornography and sin among us. Sin! Not to mention lousy advertising slogans. So once again, it's time to rally the troops to protest this, this... this.

[Last photo by Dave on 7th]

A petition will be circulating shorty about something or another.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Other East Village signs someone can take issue with

The Phoenix is remaining the Phoenix, though a few changes are in the works

The Phoenix is also on Monday night's CB3/SLA docket for a liquor-license transfer. The gay bar with a well-stocked jukebox on East 13th Street near Avenue A is in store for some possible changes.

Brenda Breathnach is one of the principals who may take over the space here. Via email, she told me that the bar will still be called The Phoenix and "cater to the local gay and lesbian community."

As for changes, she'd like to host an occasional open mic poetry reading and perhaps a session of traditional Irish music. (She is going to add soundproofing to the space.)

Overall, she described it as "a cafe-style tavern for the community to chat in and hang out to meet new people and make new friends."

Any other changes? "I intend to clean it up a little with nicer bathrooms."

Live in the house that inspired the art for 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie'

Yes, that's the bonus trivia question that comes with this lovely house at 264 Seventh St. between Avenue C and Avenue D.

According to the Corcoran listing: 'Felicia Bond lived in the Garden Duplex when she illustrated the renowned children's book 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.'"

Otherwise, the rest of the place:

This incredible East Village three unit townhouse has great bones and endless possibilities! Currently set up as a parlor floor duplex with back yard and two floor through apartments, this classic townhouse is a great investment property or could be made into your own single family home! 48 Hours Notice required to view.

Asking price: $3.2 million. Perhaps a young writer will be inspired to write or illustrate "If You Give a Pub Crawler the Last Shot of Patrón" here.

DNA profile on Avenue C

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Robert Galinksy for sending us this photo he took this past weekend on Avenue C. This man has a tattoo of his DNA strands and the DNA strands of his boyfriend ...

Avenue A, midnightish, July 15

Photo by Shawn Chittle.

This evening in models awkwardly posing outside the Christodora House

Police provide descriptions for suspects in recent armed robberies

The other day, we noted an item from the Post about a double mugging on 11th Street near Avenue B.

The police blotter in the new issue of The Villager has more information on two other armed robberies that occurred on June 27. (You can read The Villager for those details.) The same men are suspected in all the robberies.

Here are the descriptions of the alleged suspects via the paper:

One suspect was described as Hispanic, between 20 and 25 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, having a long, black ponytail, wearing blue jeans and a baseball cap and armed with a handgun. The other suspect was described as Hispanic, between 20 and 30 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing about 200 pounds, and wearing blue jeans and a dark shirt.

When Lenin was told to go fly a kite

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Tom for this photo... a view looking to the south toward Red Square on Houston ...

...and if you zoom in a bit...

And if you have a photo or two to share, we'd love to see them/post them... You may send to grieve98@gmail.com

Banjo Jim's space to become home to an 'artisanal neighborhood cocktail bar'

Banjo Jim's is on the docket for Monday night's CB3/SLA meeting. Banjo Jim's opened in December 2005, and the small space quickly became a well-known spot for live (and inexpensive) Americana, bluegrass and jazz music.

Lisa Zwier-Croce named the space for her husband, the musician James Casmire Kaminski Croce (Banjo Jim), who died in a car accident in January 2003.

However, we understand that Lisa is moving on, and Rob Ceraso and his business partner hope to get the OK for the liquor-license transfer.

"The space has sentimental value to me," Ceraso said via email. "Not only have I been coming to Banjo's for bluegrass for the last five years, but my wife and I also celebrated our wedding across the street at La Plaza Cultural Garden four years ago ... with musicians that I met at Banjo's."

Ceraso, who runs White Noise on Avenue B with Timothy Falzone, provided us with details about what they have planned for Banjo Jim's. The working name — The James Daniel.

"We are calling ourselves an 'artisanal neighborhood cocktail bar,' which I know is a mouth full," only because I couldn't think of another label that necessarily fit what we'd like to create," Ceraso said. "Cocktail bar in the sense that we will offer beautifully rendered cocktails, putting care into ingredients and making as much as we can from scratch."

"Neighborhood bar in the sense that we are trying to do what we do with the same spirit of creativity mixed with a tinge of rebelliousness that has existed in the neighborhood for the last 60 years or more. We're not putting ourselves on [that] level, but if we can do our thing with the spirit of creativity that existed ... then that would be cool with us."

A few other details...

Food:
"We'd like to push the limits a little of what you can create with a small convection oven and a couple of induction cooktops," he said. "It will be a learning experience for us and I'm sure everything won't be awesome, but I can promise it will be interesting and made with care."

Live music:
"We thought it would be great to be able to honor it with an occasional "Banjo Jim's" night of music. We're thinking of something weekly or monthly as well as possibly having some piano and fiddle, etc. for happy hour from time to time. Whatever we end up doing it will be pretty low-key. We would always plan it for earlier than later and we aren't getting any of the amplification equipment from Banjo's. All we're hoping to hang onto is the old piano."

The block:
"We love the block, the two gardens around us and the neighborhood. To us it embodies the same bohemian sensibilities that used to exist everywhere downtown. [Avenue] C seems like it's becoming the last refuge for everyone escaping the craziness and fratty takeover of the LES. We'd like to be part of that refuge and maybe help to remind people a little of what the spirit of the neighborhood still is to a lot of us."

In closing...

"If we're doing our thing right, neighbors can come in and talk about and enjoy some food, drink, music and neighborhood culture."

[Banjo Jim's photo via Down Home Radio]