EV Grieve

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Another co-starring role for Vazac's

"Person of Interest" filmed today here on Seventh Street and Avenue B.

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Noted

[Image via @BaohausNYC]

BaoHaus on East 14th Street has created the fried curry pork chop Taiwanese TBao in honor of Jeremy Lin.

People of interest

The CBS show "Person of Interest" is filming on Avenue B today... Jim Caviezel and (is that Kevin Chapman?) near Seventh Street. Photo by Melanie Neichin, who has more shots at East Village Corner.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[A look inside Something Sweet, by Dave on 7th]

More details from Monday night's CB3/SLA meeting (Eater)

Keith Haring died 21 years ago today (Off the Grid)

On the roof of the Chelsea Hotel (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

The last days of CBGB (The Guardian UK)

Traffic problems persist after Lake Bowery subsides (BoweryBoogie)

A fire last night on Eldridge Street (The Lo-Down)

The Wayland on Avenue C gets the Thursday Styles section treatment, which explains the use of "plaid-clad downtown types." (The New York Times)

A 70-year-old Mayor Bloomberg looks good for his age (The Wall Street Journal)

And Steve Cuozzo bestowed one star upon the Bowery Diner in the Post yesterday. The diner recently opened in the ground-floor space of the Sunshine Hotel. "Yup, another retro-proletarian pastiche of pressed aluminum, white tile, formica and 1950s pastels on the former Skid Row."

It's a great morning for a run!

Second Avenue and East Fourth Street this morning. Escapee from Dolphin Fitness?

Photo and headline inspiration via EV Grieve reader Blaine.

The other secret old movie theater in the East Village

There's not much new to report on the long-empty 185-193 Avenue B at East 12th Street. There is a demolition application on file already with the city (dated Sept. 20). And, according to the DOB, plans for a mixed-use seven-story building with 44 units are pending with the DOB. (You can read a short history of what's happening with the space here.)

On Friday, EV Grieve reader Ron Z. noted some activity at the building...

Yesterday, another reader noted, "Construction work going on this AM, door wide open. They appear to be drilling un middle of auditorium floor."

Given the interest in the hidden theater behind the now-shuttered East Village Farms on Avenue A, thought it might be a good time to revisit this space.

The address was a movie theater for many years, first the Bijou in 1926, then the Charles. (The theater closed in 1975, and a church took over the space.) A fire nearly destroyed the building in October 2006.

A reader got inside the space back in July 2009 ... at the time, he sent us these photos — and diagram!

We went inside the space in June 2010...

Here's the Charles in 1966. (Via.)

You can see the Charles here in this shot from 1949. We're looking north from 11th Street. (Via.)

Anyway, just wanted to take another look here before the building comes down.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Revival planned for church and theater on Avenue B

Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

[Updated] What would you rather see at 51 Astor Place?

Yesterday, we posted updated photos (thanks to Curbed's discovery) of 51 Astor Place ... and there was pretty much a Universal Ugh from commenters here and on Facebook about the look of the building... (Alex calls it DisAstor Place at Flaming Pablum...)

One of our favorite responses, via Richard Bensam:

It dwarfs its surroundings and is actually less appealing than the building it replaces -- something many previously thought impossible.

On the upside, now the herbivorous primates of the East Village will finally learn how to use the femur of an antelope to crack open the skulls of tapirs and become omnivores, ensuring their future evolution into humanity. Later, their remote descendants will discover an exact duplicate of 51 Astor Place buried on the Moon.

Several people asked if the developer could just keep the empty lot the way it looks now...

Bobby Williams took the above shots on Monday afternoon.

Well, anyway, the developer probably has a few dollars tied up in this project (whistling)...

Still, we can be democratic about it. Let's put it to a~~n unbiased~~ vote.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Updated:

Curbed is offering a $100 gift card to St. Mark's Bookshop for the best redesign of 51 Astor Place. Smurfs are always good.

Previously on EV Grieve:
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower

East Village — the new Midtown?

Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place

An apartment for power-tool lovers

Here's a newly refurbished apartment at 91 E. Third St. ... kind of difficult to get a feel for the place now. Several of the photos the real-estate folks posted on Streeteasy look like this...

Decorating ideas or proof that the place really is renovated? Anyway, two bedrooms for $1,990 per the Streeteasy listing. Which seems a little too good to be true (I know!) given that the median price for two bedroom apartments is $3,600. The median price for a studio, per Streeteasy, is $2,000.

Strange how one day $1,990 seems like a deal.

[Updated] Coming soon

More canopies and signs and stuff at 5 Napkin Burger on 14th Street and Third Avenue... Opening "really, really soon" per their Twitter account ...

[AC]

Grub Street is reporting that 5 Napkin is opening on Monday.

...and a new sign announcing the spring arrival of Boukies on Second Avenue at Second Street...