Friday, November 16, 2012

Chubby Mary's now serving you heros on East 14th Street

As previously noted, Led Zeppole, the fried-dessert homage to Coney Island on East 14th Street, closed to give way to something called Chubby Mary's from the Artichoke Pizza team...

[From September]

Today, Eater points us to a Chubby Mary tweet ... noting that the Chubsters opened for business last night...



Not even a Yelp review yet! Let us know if you try it...

Previously.

[Updated] 6-story apartment building ready to rise from the former Croxley Ales beer garden

We've been waiting for this one... Back in November 2009, we noted that the former beer garden at Croxley Ales was on the market...


A deal was in place for the lot back in March 2011 here on Avenue B near East Second Street. This morning, a tipster points us to the freshly arrived plywood...




Earlier in the year, the city OK'd permits for a six-story apartment building with ground-floor retail space.


Shiming Tam Architects are listed with the DOB.

Updated 3:43

Our tipster passed the site again... and workers put up more signage...


Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Croxley Ales beer garden ready for development

Things that I didn't notice before: The beer garden at Croxley Ales has closed

Deal apparently in place for former Croxley Ales beer garden

East 12th Street to get shadier

EVG regular Greg Masters notes the arrival of new trees this morning on East 12th Street ... just east of First Avenue...




From the look of it, the truck has a lot more deliveries to make... please let me know if you see a tree go up on your block...

Joey Pepperoni brings his $1 slice to IHOP Way

Well, that Joey Pepperoni $1 sliceria went up quickly at the former AT&T store here on East 14th Street just west of Second Avenue...


And this is the second JPP in the East Village ... with the one opening on First Avenue near East 13th Street in August. And this may be a record for turning over a storefront. One day it was empty, the next day it's a fully functioning pizza place. Not bad considering it usually takes the city about 7 weeks to show up and inspect a hand sink.

Anyway. Game on.

You've been put on notice, Nicoletta!

Haha. Kidding!

But seriously — has anyone tried JPP's? (And if you answer, then I promise to never refer to it again as JPP's.) Was curious how it compared to 2 Bros. or any other $1 or $1.50 slices... Or cardboard?

[Thanks to EVG reader Tony for the tip on the opening]

The 2 Bros. 'supreme slice' location still closed on St. Mark's Place

Speaking of $1 and $1.50 pizza... one of the 2 Bros. locations on St. Mark's Place remains closed after the fire in the apartment building above in late September ...

Here's a look at the place yesterday (this is the one that sells the $1.50 "supreme slice" that's closer to Second Avenue) ...


We haven't heard anything about a reopening date. Have you? Meanwhile, the door continues to be Wacky Wok'd...


Previously.

Wall progress at East Side Community School

In the aftermath of Sandy, we hadn't checked in on the progress at the building that houses East Side Community School and Girls Prep Charter on East 12th Street ... as you know, students and faculty evacuated the building when a maintenance worker found part of the eastern wall separating from the rest of the structure.

Crews immediately moved in to tear down and rebuild the wall... the last estimate via NY1 put the return date at late February — at the earliest...

Bobby Williams passed along this photo from yesterday afternoon...


According to Deputy Schools Chancellor Kathleen Grimm in a letter (PDF) dated Oct. 15:

"The current plan is to build a new steel and masonry wall from inside of the east side of the building. This will allow the school to be reoccupied while we continue to work on a new brick facade to be completed after school hours and on weekends... while work continues on the new interior wall on the east side of the building, we will take that opportunity to secure the entire west wall as well."


Previously.

A Thanksgiving meal for Sandy survivors at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

A group of local residents are teaming up with Jessica Alfreds Homemade to organize a Thanksgiving Dinner for people who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy ... and won't have the ability to cook their own Thanksgiving dinners due to a lack of power, gas ... or inability to get into their homes in the East Village/Lower East Side.

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Date: Thanksgiving

Time: 1-4 p.m. (or until the food is gone)

Location: St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Second Avenue at East 10th Street

If you are willing to roll up your sleeves, donate, connect us to people/companies that can provide us with what we need, or help spread the word all is welcome and appreciated. Please click here to find out more about Thanksgiving for Sandy Survivors.

[EVG file photo]

Early thoughts on Union Market


Union Market finally opened Wednesday on Avenue A and East Houston... a few readers stopped by to see what was what. Some passages from the EVG comments:

-----

Anonymous said...
Prices are competitive with Whole Foods on premium items. Meat and Seafood, produce looked great. Staples and generics will still be bought at Key and the Associated. Nice addition to the hood, in my opinion.

------

Anonymous said...
I went there last night. It's a little confusing to navigate -- one guy was wandering around trying to find the checkout counters. The people who worked there were very friendly. Overall good selection, and a nice addition to the neighborhood.

------

RyanAvenueA said...
We went in last night to check it out and I have to say I loved it. Despite being a year behind schedule, the meat counter alone is worth it. Plus a great selection of pre-made food if you want to throw together a quick dinner. Definitely on the higher end with the prices, so I agree the staples can be bought elsewhere, but it's closer than Whole Foods.

-----

Anonymous said...
"one guy was wandering around..." that's because zombies are and will be patronizing this.

For those looking for good meat, I say bring back mom and pop butcher shops. Personalize attention, my former butcher had a MFA in writing, and a poet. Not only he was knowledgeable about the cuts of meat, he often would recite a poem, in correlation to the type of cut that was purchased. Character.Soul.Personality. Try having that from this generic suburbanize, mallify, Duane Readeesque market. Catalog that for your thoughts.

-----

OK. Anyone else?

Maiden Lane coming to East 10th Street and Avenue B

We had the scoop last month on what would be taking over the former Life Cafe space on Avenue B and East 10th Street — a cafe/restaurant serving beer and wine with the working name of Yardbird (out of homage to Charlie Parker). An alternative to the woo.

Eater learned yesterday that they new place will be called Maiden Lane. (An homage to where the Federal Reserve is located in the Financial District?)

As we noted, the partners are Nialls Fallon and Gareth Maccubbin, East Village residents with restaurant experience at two popular Mulberry Street eateries. Fallon was the general manager at Torrisi while Maccubbin held the same position at Torrisi spinoff Parm next door.

Per Eater:

The pair were granted a beer and wine license at last month's CB3 meeting. They plan to serve a regionally sourced food menu that compliments their white wine and sherry-heavy beverage list.

Maiden Lane is eyeing an early 2013 opening.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's what's coming to the former Life Cafe space

After 30 years, Life Cafe closes — 'until further notice' — in the East Village

Manhattan Kids Club II raising funds to rebuild Sandy-damaged facilities

From the EV Grieve inbox...


Manhattan Kids Club II is a nurturing, educational child care facility on East 14th Street ... Hurricane Sandy filled the school with 4 feet of water leaving it unusable for the children and staff. The MKC community is coming together on behalf of the owner Beth Garcia to raise money for the restoration of the space, new furniture, educational materials and supplies.

The facility was ravaged by hurricane Sandy last week, with 4 feet of flood waters rushing through the doors, destroying everything... Everything from walls and insulation, carpeting and flooring was destroyed by the storm. Every toy and book, cubby and desk had to be thrown away. Every single thing will need to be replaced.

A crowdsourcing campaign is under way — the school's modest goal of $2,500 has been exceeded... but a lot more is needed for the facility's complete gut renovation and restoration of supplies, according to one parent ... you can learn more about it here.

Report: Percy's Tavern owner robbed at gunpoint

Larry Watson, an East Village resident and the owner of Percy's Tavern on Avenue A and and East 13th Street, was robbed at gunpoint last Monday night.

According to an article in this week's issue of Town & Village, Watson had just returned from a food-and-clothing drive in the Rockaways. While walking into his building on A and East 12th Street, a car pulled up ... and two men approached him. One man reportedly pointed a gun at his stomach while the second man took his iPhone, $120 in cash and his keys.

Watson admitted to executive editor Sabina Mollot that he had let his guard down for a moment ... exhausted after a day of unloading truckloads of donated supplies in the Rockaways.

According to the article, which hasn't been posted online, Watson "hoped his story could serve as a warning to neighbors in the East Village and Stuy Town. Like most others — even those guilty of doing it — he complained that people are too busy playing with their cell phones to pay attention to their surroundings."

[Click article to enlarge]

Thanks to Crazy Eddie for the clip.

Get Lucky this weekend

[A look inside Lucky Cheng's one recent day]

Jeremiah first pointed out this sale on Wednesday over at Vanishing New York: Lucky Cheng's is having a big moving sale this weekend. (Actually, the cabaret already moved to Midtown...)

Posting it here too in case you are interested in a hodgepodge of restaurant stuff...


Get in on the action tomorrow and Sunday from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. at 101 E. 2nd St. Find the Craigslist ad link here.

As for history of the Lucky Cheng's space, Jeremiah looked at the building's past here. As for the future of Lucky Cheng's space, the owners of Indochine and the new Acme have designs for an Asian-style restaurant-club space. Read about all that here.