Trash and a dead rat at the Tompkins Square Park Playground this morning

A reader this morning noted an unusually dirty playground in Tompkins Square Park on East Ninth Street and Avenue A ... newspapers, half-eaten containers of food, etc. ...

But... per the reader, "The icing on the cake was the dead rat, which was still pulsating, chilling in a swarm of flies by the still broken-down sandbox."

In the summer of 2010, New York magazine named this one of the city's best playgrounds.

How do we feel about a Tim Hortons opening on East Houston?

As you may have noticed in recent weeks... hanging in the vacant space next to Katz's on East Houston...

EVG reader Chris F. sent along the above photo. BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down both recently noted the arrival of Tim Hortons, launched by the former NHL star who spent some 20 years in the league.

Per the website:

The Tim Hortons chain was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario. The chain's focus on top quality, always fresh product, value, great service and community leadership has allowed it to grow into the largest quick service restaurant chain in Canada specializing in always fresh coffee, baked goods and homestyle lunches.

And...

Sadly, Tim did not live to witness the chain's great success. He was traveling back to Buffalo from a game at Maple Leaf Gardens when he was killed in an automobile accident on February 21, 1974. The Buffalo Sabres retired his Number 2 sweater as a tribute to his memory. At the time of Tim's death, there were 40 Tim Hortons restaurants.

There are now 3,000 locations in the United States and Canada ... including 11 in the city. (This will make No. 12.)

I'm not at-all familiar with the chain (except what I posted above) ... though I'm not sure I like the sound of "Timbits"...

Tomorrow is NYU Freshman Move-In Day

Tomorrow, NYU welcomes nearly 4,000 new students during the school's official Freshman Move-In Day. For the new students and parents, this means a day of great excitement and stress. For you, well, tomorrow may not be the best day to, say, finally decide to rent a car and run errands, like drive to P.C. Richard on East 14th St. to buy that new air conditioner you've been talking about all summer.

Meanwhile, at other NYU residences, some students are already moving in, such as here on the Bowery at East Second Street...

Anyway, please be on your best behavior tomorrow. Any encouragement, words of wisdom, neighborly advice, etc., to pass along ...?

Today in photos of a Home Depot cart tied to a light pole with plastic on East 9th Street

Phew.

Pic by Bobby Williams.

My girl and me we hang around in bars

Copenhagen's Gangway with "My Girl and Me" circa 1988.

Tonight at the Pyramid Club: 'Rise great spirit of Avenue A!'

From the EV Grieve inbox... heh ... at the Pyramid tonight starting at 10 ...

Tonight join Rosalie Knox & Jacquelyn Gallo as we journey into the unknown where unicorns frolic, faeries shine & nails get did.

With musical offerings by DJ MIKE BILL$ and DJ MAX GERONIMO, we summons the olden gods of yore who once burst through ye olde Pyramid Club with splendor and majesty. Rise great spirit of Avenue A!

If it pleases the court, our pro go-go dancers including seasoned contortionist AMAZING AMY + majorly bonerific ARIC-SHUN aka JUGGERNUT + the unihorned wonder REVE and many more will grip their feet and steady their beat to music curated by the best djs in our friends list — all MC'd by Mr JOHNNY BIZARRO himself.

A place where only oddity reigns supreme, costumes are encouraged.

Searching into the darkness, we jump into the abyss. What do we say to the God of death? Not today.

~FOR WE ARE HORNY~

BASEMENT OF PYRAMID CLUB
DOWNSTAIRS FROM 80S NIGHT!
$5 - entrance to both!!

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Midtown the other day]

Lawsuit claims East Village trainer is bedding his clients, dumping them via Facebook (New York Post)

Counting the driving infractions on Delancey and Essex (Animal NY)

The fate that awaits Colony Records (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Bloomberg thinks the city's homeless shelters are a pleasurable experience (Runnin' Scared)

The Voice is leaving Cooper Square (DNAinfo)

What if the Bowery had a different name? (Ephemeral New York)

One on One's new neon (BoweryBoogie)

Something new in the works for 13th Street and University Place (Flaming Pablum)

... and THE SUMMER OF BEES RETURNS... Swarm found on Grand Street (The Lo-Down)

Josie's opens tonight on East Sixth Street

Tonight at 6, Josie's opens at 520 E. Sixth St., former home of the late, great Joe's Bar here between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The bar closed last Thanksgiving after proprietor Joe Vajda died. (Joe's opened in that space in 1973. Joe and two other partners previously had a place across the street.)

Earlier in the year, as we first reported, Richard Corton and his business partner Kirk Marcoe, who own Mona's and Sophie's, purchased the bar from Dottie, Joe's longtime domestic partner.

The two considered all this as more of a restoration than a renovation. So you'll find a space that looks and feels very familiar... Which is all good.

As Dave on 7th noted after a recent look-see:

"The bar has been beautifully refinished. I spent 10 years of my life in this bar and I think what they're doing is going to be beautiful and authentic."

Indeed.

Corton and Marcoe even found a company in Los Angeles to replicate the exact same wallpaper that adorned Joe's through the years...

And here's a shot of the old wallpaper before it was removed ...

There is a new pool table and jukebox ... and likely some new music. Dottie took all of the country-and-western CDs with her...

Also, expect the return of the giant, Soviet-era Lowenbrau clock (once it's working again). But there aren't any seedless mandarins.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe's Bar is joining the Sophie's-Mona's family

2 additional floors coming to 205 Avenue A; another Lowenberg-Issac production

205 Avenue A between East 12th Street and East 13th Street is resident-free as workers have gutted the building this past week... According to the DOB, two additional floors are on the way via developer Terrence Lowenberg and architect Ramy Issac.

Perhaps we can expect to see more dorm-like conditions upon 205's unveiling, much like the previous Lowenberg-Issac production at 326-328 E. Fourth St., where there is a six-bedroom unit available for $8,000. (The two also teamed up for the in-progress additions at 154 Second Ave.)

Meanwhile, there are two complaints dated Wednesday on file with the DOB... from next door at No. 203:

CONSTRUCTION AT THE ADDRESS LSITED IS NOT TAKING PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS AND AS A RESULT NAILS, SCREWS AND OTHER DEBRIS IS FALLING ONTO ADJACENT PROPERTY

Previously on EV Grieve:
City has OK'd one-floor addition for Ben Shaoul-owned building on Avenue A and East 12th Street

[VIDEO] 'Suffering terribly' from the mystery noise on East Ninth Street

Earlier this week, we posted the signs about the "terrible screeching noise" from somewhere behind a building on East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C ...

There's also a video.



Per the description on the video: "If anybody has any idea what the noise might be and how it can be stopped, please let me know."

Checking in on the Axis of 11

Back on Feb. 24, we noted that a 7-Eleven was in the works for 813 Broadway near 12th Street ... the cheap-o DVD shop packed up and moved across the street...

Jeremiah noted the arrival of the all-too-familiar signage yesterday...

The march continues...into the 7-Eleven zone...

Previously on EV Grieve:
7-Eleven to give its regards to Broadway

Reyna Exotic Turkish Cuisine has looked closed of late

Reyna Exotic Turkish Cuisine quietly opened at 82 Second Ave. (the former Mission Cafe space) back in the middle of June... and it has looked closed of late. The above photo is from a few nights ago... paper now hangs in the window... the always-reliable fellow at the deli next door said that the owner was "impatient" and decided to close...

However, another tipster on the block said that the owner will likely reopen with a different concept. Back in February, Crain's reported that the owner had signed a 10-year lease here.