[Updated] Here's Boulton & Watt at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space

After a 16-year run on the prime corner space at Avenue A and East Houston, Nice Guy Eddie's closed for this past June 16.

Darin Rubell, co-owner of GalleryBar and Ella, is one of the partners opening a new restaurant here. As we first reported in August, the space will be a gastropub called Boulton & Watt, named for the U.K.-based business partners who made many critical improvements to the steam engine in the late 1700s.

And yesterday, workers removed the rest of Chico's KISS-themed plywood to revel the exterior... a tipster told us to expect an opening date soon...

Updated 1:20

Here's another shot via Matt_LES...

[Updated] Check out 'Portal 0' in the East Village

EVG regular jdx passes along the following... Yesterday, he ran into Nicolina ... the artist was finishing "Portal 0" next to the Bean on Second Avenue and East Third Street ...

[via jdx]

...it's the first of 13 portals by Nicolina and Brazilian artist Perola Bonfanti. The portals are interactive, and by scanning the QR code on each one, "you will begin the journey to uncover their mystery," as Nicolina put it.

Dave on 7th spotted this one going up on Seventh Street and Avenue C on Sunday...

[Bottom two photos via Bobby Williams]

Updated:

Thanks to BT in the comments... here's the website for the portals.

Sonni's Boom Box leaves East Fourth Street

Now that the water main project on East Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery is complete, the construction crates have been retired...

Yesterday, workers hauled away Sonni's Boom Box and the other work commissioned through FABnyc's ArtUp program this past summer... Keith Schweitzer, director of public art for FABnyc, shot the following video yesterday...

WITHOUT a corncob pipe and a button nose

A holiday scene on East Seventh Street across from Tompkins Square Park... via Bobby Williams.

Here is David Schwimmer's East Village home

After nearly 18 months of demolition and construction at 331 E. Sixth St., the scaffolding is finally coming down at the home David Schwimmer has reportedly been building between First Avenue and Second Avenue...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse

Mid-morning outside the Con Ed plant on East 14th Street

Report: Number of chain stores up in NYC; Dunkin Donuts leads the way

From the EV Grieve inbox... cut-n-paste journalism! Woot!

The Center for an Urban Future today published its fifth annual study ranking the national retailers with the most store locations in New York City. The study shows that retail chains in New York overall fared better this year than last, paced by strong growth in the Bronx and continued expansion from top retailers Dunkin Donuts and Subway.

The report finds that the number of chain stores in the city is up by 2.4 percent over last year, compared to a 1.8 percent gain in stores between 2010 and 2011. Although a handful of prominent retailers like Filene’s Basement and Betsey Johnson closed their stores in New York over the past year, fewer national retailers overall contracted — only 23.5 percent of retailers on our list reduced their retail footprint in the city, compared to 31 percent last year. This marks the fifth straight year there has been a net increase in the number of national chain stores in the five boroughs.

For the fifth consecutive year, Dunkin Donuts tops our list as the largest national retailer, and with a total of 484 stores it is on the precipice of becoming the first national retailer with 500 stores in the city. But even though Dunkin Donuts had a net gain of 18 stores over the past year, its lead over second ranked retailer Subway has continued to shrink. Subway added 24 stores this year, bringing its total to 454. In 2010, Dunkin Donuts had 77 more stores than Subway, but this year the donut retailer only had 30 more stores.

Starbucks regained its position as the third largest retailer in New York City, overtaking MetroPCS, which had moved up to the third spot last year. Starbucks, which registered a net gain of nine stores, has the most stores in Manhattan by far — with 200 of its 272 New York City locations in the borough.

Of the 10 largest national retailers in the city, T-Mobile added the most stores over the past year (13 – going from 161 to 174 stores overall) while GNC had the largest percentage growth (9.2 percent, going from 131 to 143 stores). Other retailers with notable increases over the past year include: Potbelly Sandwich Shop (jumping from 4 to 12 stores), Panera Bread (8 to 13) and 7-Eleven (83 to 98).

New to this year’s report is an analysis of the chains that have grown the fastest in New York City since 2008, the first year we published our ranking of the city’s national retailers. Coming in at the top of the list is Panera Bread, which grew by 225 percent since 2008, followed by J Crew (117 percent increase), Pret a Manger (113 percent), T-Mobile (112 percent) and BJ’s Wholesale Club (100 percent).

Digging into the report a bit... the 10003 zip code (which includes Union Square and parts of Fifth Avenue) is second in the city with 179 national retailers...

The 10009 zip has 23 chains while 10002 has 36.

You can find the full report here.

We'll continue to look at all this... not sure if the report took into account the two Subways that recently closed in the East Village.

And how was your weekend?

A few observations via Twitter... I know we've been SantaConned to death, but ... there's a movement afoot to curb this in the East Village next year. There was a good deal deal of discussion on this during the weekend on Facebook... several East Village bar owners will likely ban any Santa-clad wooers from entering their establishments... there are letter-writing campaigns under way to various local politicos, most notably Christine Quinn...

When my cab driver and I got to the East Village and saw that it was Drunk Santa day, we both yelled "NOOOOOOO" in unison #vomitbeards

— Amy Rose Spiegel (@AmyRosary) December 15, 2012

Today is SantaCon in the East Village so be prepared for Santa to barf down your chimney.

— Bobby Graves (@bigcitybobby) December 15, 2012

There's a lost Santa on my train this morning, apparently he didn't get the memo that douchebag day was yesterday #Santacon

— Obi Anyanwu (@obianyanwu) December 16, 2012

#santacon is the most ridiculous thing that happens in NY instagr.am/p/TTZPysH0WJ/

— NinaHens (@NinaHens) December 16, 2012

What's the right age to tell your kids that Santa is a drunk girl crying on the sidewalk in the East Village?

— mattcutler (@mattcutler) December 16, 2012

And those "santas" who are completely wasted and destroying the East Village.Congratulations.#fail

— Rafael Mateo (@ChezChefMateo) December 16, 2012

If u r in the EastVillage, safe home.There are a ton of drunk hooligans dressed as Santa vandalizing and harassing people! #whoseidea?

—Douglas Turner (@TurnerDouglas) December 16, 2012

serious q: when did santacon become so loathed? is it a “leading indicator of the east village’s decline” sort of thing?

— maura johnston (@maura) December 15, 2012

OMG. Beware of hitting the east village. There is a mob of idiots 2 blocks long trying to get into the 13th step. God speed.

— Vanessa Bermúdez (@vbermudez) December 15, 2012

Avoiding the East Village because of Santacon. How do you make me want to punch a frat bro even more? Put him in a Santa costume!

— Jordan Bowes (@jbowesmusic) December 15, 2012

Fucking #santacon. Stay away from the east village if you value your sanity, peeps.

— Joshua Conkel (@JoshuaConkel) December 15, 2012

@davidgustav Drunken #santacon chicks BEGGING the bodega guys to use the bathroom. He threw them out! WOOO! #eastvillage

— Liberation (@liberationnyc) December 15, 2012

'Holiday Grand Opening' tomorrow night for the Lobster Joint on East Houston

The import from Greenpoint will have a "Holiday Grand Opening" here tomorrow night on East Houston... (OPEN BAR!)

[Click image to enlarge]

The space previously housed Lina Frey, as BoweryBoogie previously noted. And this lobster venture will likely be more successful than the previous lobster venture on East Houston. Remember Urban Lobster?

For lease signs up now at the former Diablo Royale Este on Avenue A

In our post last week on the one-year anniversary of Tompkins Square Bagels, owner Christopher Pugliese said that he'd love to open an old-fashioned Italian-style pork store/market in the now-empty space next door. The comments were overwhelmingly in favor of such a concept.

Diablo Royale Este closed at the end of August after some ongoing issues with the State Liquor Authority (among other things — the bar has long drawn the ire of neighbors since it opened in May 2010).

The space at 167 Avenue A had been on the market for months. However, a sign just went up here at the end of last week.

It's a big space — 4,000 square feet. There's isn't any mention of rent. However, the listing includes these "notes and highlights:"

400 sf backyard for seating (permitted to be open until 10pm on week days and 11pm on weekends)
Legal lower level with bar and seating
2 year-old kitchen and equipment
Full 4 am liquor license.
Occupancy for 150 people.

As much as everyone likes the idea of a market here — something people in the neighborhood want and need ... given the almighty valuable liquor license attached to this, the reality is we'll likely get stuck with another horrible bar that no one wants and exclusively for Weekend Woo-rriors from afar.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Diablo Royale Este owner blasts the 'blasphemous lies' of residents, invites the State Liquor Authority to investigate

Avenue A transformed into fraternity-sorority party for Diablo Royale Este's 'Boats 'N Hoes' bash

Diablo Royale Este apologizes for 'Boats 'N Hoes' bash

It's just another Saturday night on Avenue A

Classic Gourmet Deli no longer on Frist Avenue

A few weeks ago, we noted the new signage for the Classic Gourmet Deli on First Avenue... which, as many people pointed out, had its share of typos... including "Frist" Avenue instead of First Avenue.

[Bobby Williams]

Anyway, EVG regular William Klayer reports that the sign has been spellchecked (spell checked? spell-checked?) ...

Reader report: The Third Man opens this week on Avenue C

Over on Avenue C between Seventh Street and Eight Street, The Third Man is ready to open. A reader saw a sign on the door this past weekend saying something like, "closed for a private event: come back next week."

The cocktail lounge is by the Edi & the Wolf owners down the block. The lounge will be called "The Third Man," named after the 1949 film-noir classic starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton.

There was the requisite preview post on Thrillist from Dec. 3. Per that post:

The bar serves Austrian/German beers and wines, but it's all about those chef-driven cocktails — purportedly, they're more accessible to the palate of someone who's not deep into the cocktail world, and are instead adjusted to the palate of someone who... eats food.

And!

Upscale bar bites will come over from the Edi kitchen, and include Long Island fluke (which most people consider "being from Long Island and not on steroids in the last five years") w/ watermelon radish, and house-cured speck.