High fence act in Tompkins Square Park

This afternoon... via Bobby Williams...

Exclusively exclusive first look inside the new Duane Reade on First Avenue

As noted, yesterday marked the Grand Opening of the new Duane Reade on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street ... conveniently located inches from a CVS...

We went inside. All three Duane Readers working at the checkouts greeted us. Nearly in unison. Good morning! GOOD MORNING! Good MORNING!

There are three levels. Accessible via escalators.

...and despite the sign, there is more than one beauty magazine...

They still have MoneyGram. And the MoneyGram phone...

No sushi or smoothies or hair salons here like at 40 Wall Street, though...

Meanwhile. Outside. Duane Reade and CVS are already embroiled in an ugly battle of Who Can Out Cute the Other Chain Drug Store With Adorably Sad Valentine's Day Stuffed Animals in the Window™ ...

Gotta give it to CVS here in Round 1. Easter promises to be interesting.

...and the now-former Duane Reade around the corner has closed... though the shelves are still stocked...

Today's sign of the Apocalypse: 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place now delivering

Not sure how long that sign has been up... didn't notice it earlier in the week... did not see a delivery sign on the 7-Eleven Bowery location... And what would you have delivered from a 7-Eleven?

Tonight, let it be East 14th Street...

Hmm, humming the old Löwenbräu jingle for some reason... East 14th Street tonight via Bobby Williams...

Suburban relapse

Savages with "City's Full" from last January. The London-based band plays at the Bowery Ballroom on March 18.

[Headline h/t]

Reader report: 9th St. Bakery is closing after 87 years

[May 2012]

Ugh. EVG reader Dave M. from 13th St. passes along this sad bit of news today: 9th St. Bakery, which has been around since 1926, will have to close. Oleg, who has owned the bakery with his wife Tetyana since the 1990s, said that the landlord is doubling his current rent. This, along with a barely-break-even summer, is forcing them to close.

[Via Manhattan Sideways]

There's not timetable yet for the closure — mostly likely in the next 2-4 months.

Per the bakery's website:

Max and Lena Wolkirmerski emigrated to the United States in 1913 from Zetel Belarus. They opened up a bakery on the corner of Allen and Stanton. Their children Joe, Harry and Helen moved the bakery to 9th and first ave where it still remains today.

Per Dave: "No more cheap, good pastries and bread. Such a shame."

And a tough time for the older bakeries. Aside from 9th St., Something Sweet on First Avenue and East 11th Street remains closed from last summer ... and Whole Earth Bakery on St. Mark's Place shuttered at the end of December.

Bendy thing sighting as 84 Third Ave. eclipses the AMC Loews Village 7

Over on Third Avenue at East 12th Street, Goggla passes along a photo of the always-popular Bendy Thing at work on 84 Third Ave., the 12-story apartment complex...

Meanwhile, EVG regular peter radley notes that the building is poised to pass the height of the AMC Loews Village 7...

Where it stops? Nobody knows!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smiths

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Former Nevada Smiths down to its last floor; city OKs work for new building

Former Milo Printing space becoming a gelato shop on Avenue A

EVG regular dwg notes that signage for Casa Gusto, a gelato shop, is now up at 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street, site of the former Milo Printing.

Meanwhile, next door, the former Furry Land Pet Supplies space has been chopped in half. Taking one side: a hair salon.

Plans for a wine bar in the whole space were shot down this past summer.

Velvet Underground founding member John Cale recalls his Ludlow Street apartment

These days, John Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground, lives in Los Angeles.

However, in The Wall Street Journal today, Cale revisits 64 Ludlow St., where he lived starting in 1964 ... where the fifth-floor apartment became a rehearsal space of sorts for Cale, Lou Reed and company.

The apartment belonged to experimental filmmaker Tony Conrad. Cale moved in to split the $25 monthly rent. "The building was filled with single-minded artists then like poet Angus MacLise, filmmaker Piero Heliczer, director Jack Smith and actor Mario Montez," Cale said.

To an excerpt!

Our apartment was a railroad flat — a long room running from the windows in the front to a small bedroom and a bathroom in the back. I slept on a mattress, under the windowsill in the front overlooking Ludlow. We burned crates and furniture in the fireplace to keep warm. There was no heat in the winter other than the gas stove.

Tony and I lived on what we could afford — mostly canned stew and milkshakes. Across the street in the morning, you could hear kids from the nearby high school singing doo-wop in the doorway there. Other kids threw rocks at us because they thought we looked like the Beatles. A lot of guys around here didn't like them early on.

Read the whole article here.

And here's Cale on the roof of the building the other day...



And here's the video for his newish single...



John Cale and The Wordless Music Orchestra perform tomorrow night at the Howard Gilman Opera House at BAM...

[Top photo — Michael Ochs Archives / Redferns]

Scaffolding comes down on Avenue B side of the former Cabrini Center

A tipster let us know that workers had removed the scaffolding and construction netting from the former Cabrini Center on Avenue B and East Fifth Street yesterday afternoon ...

... currently being converted into apartments... not sure what the final color scheme will be. But for now...

There are currently two retail spaces available here... as well as some bad karma, as some neighbors put it.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cabrini Center patients out by the end of today; closes for good June 30

Cleaning out the long-closed liquor store on Avenue B and East Houston

Our current fascination is the long-vacant building on the northwest corner of Avenue B and East Houston... We noted on Jan. 9 that workers have been cleaning out the space.

And in the retail space, the liquor store has been closed since the owner passed away in the fall of 2009. This week, though, a tipster told us that the workers were now cleaning out that space as well...

[Via an EVG tipster]

And, as you can see, it is mostly still fully stocked...

The tipster also said that the building is for sale. We didn't spot any listing for it. Yet. Have more details about the sale? Please let us know via the EV Grieve email.

So, for the time being, we'll continue to document the building as it is now... before it is likely refurbished and painted the Renovated Building Color of Choice — gray.

Previously on EVV Grieve:
Is something finally happening to the long-vacant, mysterious 6 Avenue B?

25 years of the 'Mosaic Man'

[Photo from last summer by Stephen Popkin]

I spotted this message on Facebook yesterday from Jim Power, aka the Mosaic Man, of course. Per the post, 2013 marks the 25th Anniversary of The Village Voice coining the name "Mosaic Man." I couldn't find that article from 1988 online, but the reference is mentioned in this Voice piece from 2010.

Watch a video about his Mosaic trail here. You can find more info here on Jim's website.