[Updated] Discovery Wines opens today on Avenue B

Back in the late spring, Discovery Wine moved away from its home on Avenue A ... one of the businesses displaced with the arrival of Union Market... Discovery didn't travel too far — just to the southwest corner of Avenue B and Second Street.

According to the Discovery Wines site, the store will open today. (Updated, per a Discovery tweet — they'll open at 5.)

And this closes the chapter on 16 Avenue B...Previously, two different restaurant-club hybrids had tried to open a club restaurant at 14-16 Avenue B since the corner deli closed a few years ago. (As you may recall, one venture called for a 3,000 square foot Italian restaurant, catering company and lounge "with an occasional D.J.")

The stores displaced by Union Market now have new homes ... in addition to Discovery Wines, the Houston Deli & Grocery is opening on Second and A ... and Joyful Nail on Avenue A...

More on 14-16 Avenue B here.

More on Union Market here.

Tompkins Square Park wildlife, dead or alive

Photos today by Bobby Williams.

If you look directly into the light...

A red-tailed hawk will appear... A little after 6 this evening in Tompkins Square Park via EV Grieve reader Mish...

Another bakery for St. Mark's Place?

Heh. Noticed this out at the curb this morning near First Avenue... Called ConEd about getting the gas turned on. Should have it on in a few months.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Third Avenue at East 10th Street circa 1970, Courtesy LaGurdia & Wagner Archives NYC Housing Authority Collection]

10th Street and Third Avenue through the years (Off the Grid)

From the archives on this block: Klein's Fat Men's Shop (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

No more Edgar Oliver on East 10th Street (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Another worry in Tompkins Square Park: leptospirosis (The Villager)

LES Jewels and Jennifer Blowdryer at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Sunday night (Neither More Nor Less)

A lot more additions to the EV Grieve animated GIF tribute site (EVGif)

Q-and-A with the bellhops of the Bowery Hotel (Runnin' Scared)

East River String Band in Washington Square Park (Slum Goddess)

Suggestions for a tour of Chelsea galleries (The Gog Log)

And the new LES-branded trash cans...

[Photo via @nackman]

More details emerge about attack on East Eighth Street Saturday morning

As reported Saturday morning, several residents said that a man had attacked a woman on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

On Monday, Patrick Hedlund at DNAInfo had more details about the assault, which occurred around 8:20 a.m. Saturday. The man, listed as Neil Essex, "allegedly threw the woman to the ground and began punching her in the face ... The complaint claimed that Essex then removed the woman’s pants and raped her while choking her so viciously that she lost consciousness."

Hedlund had a follow-up story last evening. Police sources said that Essex did not know his victim, "claiming that he pounced on her suddenly on the street in broad daylight."

According to the Post today: "Essex was arrested for allegedly killing his mother in 1984; the status of that case wasn’t immediately available."

One source said that Essex had been staying at a halfway house on East Sixth Street.

No 7-Eleven for former Graceland; and the return of Houston Deli & Grocery

In June 2010, EV Italian eatery guru Frank Prisinzano said during a CB3/SLA committee meeting that the landlord of the former Graceland space on Avenue A and Second Street had four prospective tenants: Frank's fast-food Italian joint, a bank, a 7-Eleven and a bank.

Which caused us to play with PhotoShop.



Anyway, on June 22, 2010, the full Community Board 3 denied Prisinzano's application to open a fast-food style Italian restaurant here.

And the space has sat empty ever since... However, workers have been splitting up the space. There are now three different storefronts.

Anyway, remember that The Houston Deli & Grocery on Avenue A and Houston had to close in the spring to make room for the new fancy Union Market...?

EV Grieve reader Josh saw one of the fellows inside the corner space at the old Graceland. Per Josh: "The really nice guy who ran the corner market on Houston and A ... is opening up on the corner of 2nd and A at the old Graceland space. Says by the end of the month. Glad to see he'll be back in the neighborhood."

Not sure if they'll actually still be called Houston Deli & Grocery seeing as they're a block to the north... Still, we'll take it.

And no word yet on the tenants of the other two storefronts...

Today's sign of the apocalypse: IHOP will have a bouncer

As you're painfully aware, IHOP opened yesterday on East 14th Street. And, according to the Post today:

IHOP is so convinced its new East Village location is going to be an after-hours hipster hot spot that it has hired a bouncer.

An off-duty cop will stand guard outside the East 14th franchise each night from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in order to keep the bar crowd at bay, manager Michael Carlos said, explaining, “When people have a few drinks, they can get rowdy.”

Hipster hot spot? Uh-huh.

Anyway, let's give it up to Niall Gibbons for this quote:

“IHOP is bland and belongs in Times Square — it doesn’t make sense in the East Village. The neighborhood has lots of character, but the character fades when something like this comes along.”

Rumors: Ground floor at 147 First Avenue will include the Bean AND a bar

As we first reported, The Bean is opening an outpost at the former home of Anjelica's Herbs on First Avenue and Ninth Street...

And, now, that persistent rumor: The ground floor will also house a bar. Per an EVG reader:

"I heard from someone who talked to the workmen that a BAR is going to take half the former herb store on the ground floor. The Bean will have half, and a bar will have the other half. I dunno, seems like very small spaces for two establishments. And dear God, ANOTHER bar???"

Yes! The always reliable construction worker! Sure, it's possible. But we've been wrong here before... remember the motel? Or the full demolition? (Hey, we're one out of three so far!)

Meanwhile! Looks like the painting is continuing... and we see some charcoal gray creeping up...

The upper floors are still set for luxury apartments... still looking like what a reader described as something that blew in from the Hamptons...

RIP Ball Park Lanes

Every so often we venture away from the neighborhood... yesterday, we were reminded that we never ran this post after seeing the news of a planned high-end hotel near Yankee Stadium...

On a recent trip to Yankee Stadium, I was sorry to find that the Ball Park Lanes was sealed up and for sale... In June 2010, Gothamist reported that the 51-year-old bowling alley was closing for renovations. Despite an ongoing landlord dispute, they expected to be back open by the end of last year's baseball season.

So I thought that I'd find them up and running this season... but when I went to my first game late in the summer, I stopped by for a pre-game beer at the bowling alley's snack bar.

[JVNY]

Apparently the landlord had won.

The bowling alley was directly across the street from the old Yankee Stadium ... Jeremiah put Ball Park Lanes on his endangered list before the arrival of the new stadium. (Read his post here.)

Massey Knakal is listing the space. It's going for $4.3 million.

Hard to say what will come here... there is a lot of potential, as plans show. Great for community space and affordable housing — if that's what ultimately comes here.

Not so good for baseball history buffs...

[The southern wall outside Ball Park Lanes]

[Location of the former Yankee Stadium]

Previously on EV Grieve:
With high rises and new shops in the works, it's time to take a look at the area around Yankee Stadium

At the new Yankee Stadium

Meanwhile, across 161st Street...

The East Village pep talk diaries

Last Tuesday, we posted an email from a longtime East Village resident who was losing faith in the neighborhood. We asked for people to submit comments on the things that they like about the East Village. So far we're at 62 comments. Like this one:

Anonymous said...
I also highly recommend early-morning Sunday walks! Far east 14th, with storekeepers hosing the sidewalks. It's very peaceful. More to love:

St. Mark's Church in the Bowery

Chico murals and Jim the Mosaic Man

Trash & Vaudeville

East Village Books (St. Marks b/t 1st/A)

We'll periodically post some of the comments. Read all the comments here.

And now, photos of Ice-T in front of Sunny & Annie's

Today, crews from "Law & Order: SVU" were filming around the neighborhood... in front of Sunny & Annie's on Avenue B at Sixth Street in particular...Not exactly newsworthy given how many times something from the "Law & Order" franchise filmed around here through the years...

Still! It gave us a chance to add to our Ice-T collection... courtesy of Bobby Williams...