EV Grieve

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Not just the Holiday: Pirate Brands founder bought all of 75 St. Mark's Place

Last Wednesday, we first reported that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. (We're still waiting to hear back from him.) He will go before the CB3/SLA committee on Monday.

Yesterday, the Observer noted that Ehrlich bought the whole building at 75 St. Mark's Place where the Holiday lived.

Per the Observer:

According to Corcoran broker Dan Brady, who held the listing with his colleague Nick Arnold, Mr. Ehrlich will not be moving in. Instead, he plans to keep the space as is: four floor-through apartments with a commercial unit on the ground floor. Will there be a Pirate Shop occupying the hallowed, beer-baptized grounds of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge? A Pirate Bar? A bar with pirate booty snacks? Whatever it is, it probably won’t hold a candle to the timeless bacchanal that was the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

CB3 aims to make daytime drinking more sociable, sort of

On Monday night, CB3's SLA Policy Taskforce met... and they came out of the meeting with a plan to consider easing up on restricting new liquor licenses ...

But with a catch. Bars-cafes-restaurants that only served beer-wine and closed by midnight would have a better chance of gaining approval under the proposed plan.

The new policy would be more welcoming of daytime establishments — those closing by about midnight and serving only beer and wine — in keeping with CB3's efforts to increase foot traffic during the day and avoid new late-night establishments.

This report comes via Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo.

Nothing's definite, of course. Next steps. A meeting! March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at a to-be-determined location. CB3 members are encouraging public participation. CB3 won't vote on the proposed policy change until after the public hearing in March, Shapiro reported. (Read the whole article here.)

Any early thoughts on the potential policy?

Present your vision about bicycling in the East Village

This is what 533 E. 12th St. looked like on Jan. 29, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Going southbound

For no reason, really ... just a late-afternoon look down Suffolk from Houston... by Bobby Williams.

A forest grows on Avenue A

East Village-based artist Scooter LaForge has been painting a scene outside Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A near East 10th Street... which includes a red-tailed hawk... (and a cat)

Photos by Stacie Joy.

52 years ago today: First mention of the 'East Village' in The New York Times

Some time ago, our old friend Pinhead sent along a clip from The New York Times ... As far as his research could tell, the first time that The New York Times mentioned the East Village in print was on Feb. 7, 1960 — 52 years ago today.

The article was titled "'Village' Spills Across 3D Ave." And it appeared on Page 1. As the article notes, the destruction of the Third Avenue El in 1956 "helped stir up a minor social and realty revolution on the Lower East Side."

And, here we go...

Uh-oh...

And here come the rental agents... in the eighth paragraph of the article, "East Village" makes its appearance...

The article makes a lot of interesting observations... such as the growth of "high-rent apartment houses" that popped up along Fourth Avenue, replacing some second-hand book shops in the process.

You can access (buy) the article at the Times here.

Future trivia: Feb. 5, 2012, was the first day that the Times mentioned "NoEVil."

316 E. Third St. ready for demolition

Workers arrived yesterday morning to erect the scaffolding and netting for the doomed 316 E. Third St. near Avenue D...

And a little later in the day...

The circa-1835 house will be cleared out to make way for a Karl Fischer-designed, 33-unit apartment building. (The garden and trees to the east of the house will also be dug up to become part of the new structure.)

The city issued the demo permit for the address on Jan. 26. Surprised that it took this long to start the demolition.

Previously on EV Grieve:
33-unit, Karl Fischer-designed building rising at former home of Community Board 3 member

Landmarks Preservation Commission rejects hearing for 316 E. Third St., paving way for 7-floor condo

Former Obscura Antiques and Oddities space now for rent

As we first reported last Wednesday, Obscura Antiques and Oddities has closed its store on East 10th Street... and will soon move to a nearby new home.

The store is now for rent...

Per the listing at Walker Malloy, the 350-square-foot space is going for $3,800. (Hey Bleecker Bob's — this fits in with your parameters.)

Here are a few photos of the Obscura stuff in storage via the store's Facebook page...

Given the popularity of the store (and their reality series), a lot of people are curious about the store's new home. Here's a Facebook message from them:

[W]hen we do reopen...its in a space about twice the size of our former store...and the place used to be a Funeral Home...so its win/win for all. We will post all of our info soon...such as where the new shop will be. Its actually very close to our former shop....maybe 3 or 4 blocks away....

Several readers figure the store will be at 207 Avenue A... which was the Sparacio & DeMarco Funeral Home until 1995... the space had been for rent... and there is now brown paper over the windows...

BYE BYE CBGB is a final goodbye to one of the last relics of New York punk rock and 1970s/1980s underground culture. CBGBs is a place that continues to thrive on in the collective unconscious; a historic landmark that belongs just as much to teenagers buying their first Ramones album as it does to those who attended the first Ramones gigs in 1974. It was in this dingy little rock den on Bowery and Bleecker that the seeds of punk rock germinated before transforming worldwide counterculture forever.

On October 14th, 2006 people came from all other the world to say “Bye Bye” to CBGBs before the club shut its doors for good. Indoors, there were 48-hours of star-studded performances, but it was the emotionally-charged going-ons right outside the club’s doors that captivated multimedia artist Bruno Hadjadj. Using sketches, photography, and videos, he immortalized the anonymous throngs who queued up outside to pay their final respects. For two days people dedicated poems, artworks, mementos, and performances to the legacy of the greatest rock club of all time. Hadjadj’s resultant body of work not only tells the tale of an era coming to an end, but also pays testament to the incredible endurance of CBGBs influence.

“Bye Bye CBGB” is comprised of black and white prints and silver prints mounted on light boxes with the flickering electric lights animating the figures. The accompanying sketches are rendered with a mix of ink and pencils.

February 2 - February 28, 2012
Clic Gallery NYC
255 Centre Street