EV Grieve

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Pecking order

Rat dining in Tompkins Square Park this afternoon. Photo by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] S'MAC seeking help

From the EV Grieve inbox... via S'MAC at 345 E. 12th Street just west of First Avenue...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, like all downtown restaurants, we sustained heavy losses due to spoiled inventory and loss of business, and are working with our insurance carriers to see how much we can recover.

In the meantime we have decided to carry a full payroll for our staff for the week that we were forced to shutdown, but in order to do this we need your help.

If you intend to eat at S'MAC at any time in the next year, we ask that you consider putting that amount on a S'MAC gift card and use that card when you come in to eat in the future.

Please consider using S'MAC gift cards to fulfill a part of your Holiday gift-giving this year. And please buy that gift card now rather than wait until later in the year.

Either of these ideas will allow us to collect cash, that you had intended to spend at S'MAC, up front and use it for employee payroll now.

To purchase a S'MAC gift card, please go here.

Updated 9:27

DNAinfo has a piece on S'MAC's gift-card campaign tonight... Per the article by Serena Solomon, owner Sarita Ekya estimated that her Sandy-related losses were $90,000.

S'MAC, which first opened in 2006, has three locations — East 12th Street, East 33rd Street and a small kiosk on First Avenue and 1st Street — that were not damaged in the storm but were all forced to close. The East Village and Murray Hill locations were shut for eight days and the kiosk for 11 days.

S'MAC also decided to pay workers for the time the restaurants were closed during the hurricane.

However, now the bills have started arriving and rent on the shops is overdue by more than 10 days, she said.

Happy No. 35

St. Mark's Bookshop is 35 years old today! Long live books & book lovers!
— St. Mark's Bookshop (@stmarksbookshop) November 13, 2012

East 11th Street residents meeting tomorrow to discuss 'the big changes coming'

From the EV Grieve inbox...

With the threat of a super-size 7-Eleven at the south corner at 500 E 11, the loss of our community's wonderful flea market and its impending replacement with a huge luxury residential complex along Avenue A, residents on 11th Street have organized to let their voice be heard. If we can't stop these developments, we can still make a difference to prevent the worst. Join us!!

Block Association Meeting
Wednesday, November 14, 7 pm
@ Father's Heart Ministries
545 E 11th St

Anyone living on 11th Street is a member of the 11th Street A-B-C Block Association.
So come and be heard.

[Photo via James C. Taylor]

Nublu moving up Avenue C; restaurant in the works for new space

We continue to look at this month's CB3/SLA committee agenda. Here's another item of considerable interest: Nublu, the eclectic cosmopolitan music venue, is planning to move from its current home at 62 Avenue C to 151 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street, according to paperwork on file with CB3.

Plans call for a "restaurant/music performance space" with daily hours of 9 a.m. to 4 a.m. seven days a week. According to the paperwork, "a sidewalk cafe license application will be made at a later time."

Starting in August 2011, Nublu had to temporarily relocate to under Lucky Cheng's on First Avenue ... it's a complicated story that features a liquor license snafu involving the club's proximity to the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall across the street. (You can read more about it at the Voice in this Q-and-A with Nublu owner Ilhan Ersahin.) Nublu, which opened in 2002 with a location now also in Istanbul, moved back to No. 62 in January.

Ersahin and three friends bought 62 Avenue C, as a feature in the Times from June 2011 points out, making it safe from the usual club killers. (High rents, etc.) However! "[I]t's my dream to move the club into a larger space nearby and then make Nublu into a recording studio. That's what we need to be even more productive," Ersahin said at the time.

As we noted back in August 2009, 151 Avenue C and its "4,186 buildable square feet of additional air rights" hit the market for $2.3 million. The space was billed as "a rare opportunity for ... developers."

City documents show that the two-story building at 151 Avenue C was purchased in June by 151 Ave C Holdings LLC (with an address of 62 Avenue C) for $1.75 million.

Saints Tavern appears on St. Mark's Place

The Typhoon Lounge closed back in May on St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue. And now the bar that is taking its place has revealed itself — Saints Tavern.

The proprietors went before the CB3 back in August to to open a bar and "American grill." They previously were licensed for the bar The Brews Brothers on Second Avenue in Yorkville from January 2009-2011.

The hours were expected to be 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. No word on an opening date just yet.

Please keep this tree house's living room tidy

Spotted on First Avenue near East 14th Street...

...and pick up your CDs too.

It sure is dark on Avenue A and East Houston

A few readers have noted how dark it is now at the East Houston-Avenue A-East First Street intersection....

The streetlights on both sides of the Avenue are out... (and it doesn't help that the corner business, the former Nice Guy Eddie's, is still boarded up during renovations...)

To the ~~always popular~~ Grievestrator...

One reader said that he reported the outage to 311, though changing lightbulbs may not top the city's post-Sandy priority list at the moment... so take notice: This is always a dicey intersection, made even more so without proper lights...

Monday, November 12, 2012

Sandy vs. East Village Fruit & Vegetable

Monday evening, Oct. 29 on Avenue B at East 14th Street. Video by Karla Murray.

East Village gas shortage over ...?

You've seen the long lines for gas the last 9 days or so... A quick look tonight found that one car was waiting at the BP on Second Avenue at East First Street...

...while the Mobil on East Houston and Avenue C was out of gas at the moment...

However, there weren't any cars waiting. And the NYPD still had a presence at both stations.

Acme-Indochine owners aiming to take over Lucky Cheng's space

We now know who the unnamed applicant is for the Lucky Cheng's space on First Avenue. According to documents on file with CB3, the owners of the new apparent hipspot Acme on Great Jones — Jean-Marc Houmard (co-owner of Indochine) and Jon Neidich (who used to manage the bar at the Standard Hotel's Boom Boom Room) — are aiming to open a still-unnamed restaurant-lounge.

Per CB3 paperwork, the establishment will serve Asian cuisine, with planned hours of noon to 4 a.m. Hui Chi Le, an owner of Indochine and Republic, is the other partner named in the new project.

The applicants will appear before the CB3/SLA licensing committee next Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Lucky Cheng's recently relocated to Times Square.