Alphabets opens new outpost on Avenue A

As you may have noticed, a new outpost of Alphabets opened Saturday on Avenue A between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street... the gift shop, which has been around since 1985, is located at 115 Avenue A near East Seventh Street... However, as we understand it, this location will be closing in the coming months...



According to public records, the building at 115 Avenue A was sold last August for $3 million. The LLC that bought the building shares the address as the notorious 9300 Realty (owned by Croman Realty). A tipster told us that Alphabets could not negotiate a new lease. Thankfully, they found a nearby space.

'This prominent corner retail space' still available on Avenue A

On the topic of Avenue A between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street ... 72 Avenue A at East Fifth Street has been on the market since the East Village Pharmacy moved to East Third Street and Avenue A in 2011.

Massey Knakal now has the listing, which reads:

This prominent corner retail space features frontage on both Avenue A and East 5th Street. The landlord would consider food in this location, however vented cooking is not possible. The soaring ceilings add tremendous appeal, while the wraparound glass frontage provides excellent visibility to a future tenant.

Rent is available upon request.

Meanwhile, there is a rumor that some kind of FroYo operation is moving into the space next door (the other half of the storefront that housed the pharmacy). We haven't heard anything else about this in the past week...

Rat battle on East Second Street

We've heard from several residents who live on East Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... These residents say that there is a rat problem at 188 E. Second St, a single-level structure that's home to the beverage distribution company.



Said one resident: "It's full of rats that run and in out all night. Dozens of them. People walk their dogs here. There are little kids. A restaurant next door. It's a real mess."

The residents don't think that the operators here are doing enough to curb the rat population. Calls to 311 haven't done much, the residents say. And now a sign campaign has started.



However, the Beverage folks have responded... providing their side of the story...

Marshal seizes former LaVie space on East First Street

La Vie on East First Street shut for good last month following an ongoing battle with neighbors over a variety of quality-of-life issues... Neighbors had long complained that La Vie was operating as a club under the guise of a restaurant.

As we first reported on June 11, the 1st Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the revocation of La Vie's liquor license. Although that decision was handed down on June 6, the club remained open until at least June 15.

For several days after that, workers cleaned out the space... and last week, the marshal seized the storefront ...turning the space over to the landlord...



Just a formality, but one that made several neighbors happy.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] La Vie closed for now on East First Street

New York Supreme Court upholds revocation of La Vie's liquor license

La Vie has closed; neighbors rejoice

L'asso EV has closed

[July 10 via @davidsokol]

L'asso EV has closed... there's no sign on the gate or announcement about the closure on its website on social media properties... the pizzeria on First Avenue between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street opened in late 2011...

We had talked with Greg Barris, a partner at L'asso EV, in the past. (He gave us the info on L'asso EV's hardcore/punk cassette art exhibit last summer.) When we reached out to him over the weekend, we learned that Barris left L'asso about six months ago and was not aware of the current situation. However: "It is disappointing. I spent almost every day for a year working on building that place and getting it going — it's a shame," he said via email.

The original L'asso outpost on Mott Street remains open.

In August 2011, when news of L'asso's expansion arrived, Rebecca Marx asked a reasonable question when she was writing for Fork in the Road: How much more pizza does the East Village really need?

At that time, there were 44 pizza places in the East Village.

Per Marx:

"[W]hile we appreciate the plenitude and variety, the whole thing is getting a bit rote: fancy pizzeria announces intentions to open/expand into the neighborhood, promises to forever alter the pizza landscape, opens, gets blogged about, and settles into comfortable mundanity. If you want to worry people, open a slaughterhouse."

Noted

An Urban Etiquette Sign on Avenue A... "Listen up, this roof is under 24/7 video surveillance and we have many 'eyes and ears' in the building looking at for you guys."

At the Trayvon Martin rally in Union Square this evening

(Stencils by @artofandres)



Photos by Shannon O'Toole. (The photos are from the second of the two rallies in Union Square today to protest George Zimmerman's acquittal ... and show support for the slain teen Trayvon Martin.)

Goggla has photos here from Union Square.

Updated.

union square rally #TrayvonMartin pic.twitter.com/NMtIWHD4UT

— Macey J. Foronda (@maceyjforonda) July 14, 2013

After the Union Square rally, those in attendance marched down Broadway... and worked their way though the East Village... one estimate on Twitter put the march at three-to-four blocks long...

Longest sustained chant: "Trayvon is dead. Zimmerman is free. That's what we call democracy." #TrayvonMartin pic.twitter.com/Ih0jgoziZK

— Ryan Devereaux (@rdevro) July 14, 2013

... the protestors eventually headed north up First Avenue... where they amassed in Times Square.

Gothamist has more on the rallies here.

Week in Grieview

[Outside Jules Bistro on St. Mark's Place]

Eviction inspires East Village resident to create this one-woman play (Thursday)

Estranged husband slashes wife on Avenue D (Wednesday)

Two men snatch $100,000 in East Ninth Street robbery (Tuesday)

A fish market for First Avenue? (Friday, 45 comments)

Tuck Shop closes St. Mark's Place location (Monday)

Burlesque is back on the Lower East Side (Friday)

An abandoned car on a lot that will one day be home to a 13-floor residential building (Monday)

S'MAC closes kiosk in First Park (Friday)

The Citi Bike stationary workout (Friday)

Goloka Juice Bar & Health Shop opens on East Fifth Street (Tuesday)

The Smell (Wednesday)

About the 2Bn2C sculpture garden (Tuesday)

Empire Biscuit launches a Kickstarter campaign (Tuesday, 105 comments)

2013 recap: Out and About in the East Village (Wednesday)

Look at Rite Aid now! (Monday)

Shiti Bikes (Tuesday)

1-5 now for Thursday night screenings in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Update on 185 Avenue B (Tuesday)

Topless Diner Week in Review [NSFW]

Here's a little background about how a photo taken at an East Village restaurant apparently became "the topless shot heard 'round the world."

On Monday morning, Verso owner Labinot Baraliu told us about a woman who removed her top after walking into the Italian bistro on Avenue C and East Eighth Street the previous evening.

The folks at Verso asked the woman to put her shirt back on ... and after a brief protest, she and her dining companion, who was photographing the entire episode, left. For his part, Baraliu thought it was a funny little story that locals might like.

Probably so. Eater linked to the story on Monday morning. On Tuesday, Gothamist and Jezebel both linked to the post.

On Wednesday morning, we heard from a responsible party — East Village-based photographer Allen Henson. He recently moved here from Los Angeles. He had been out with model Cheyenne Lutek. He offered this background. "It was an impromptu photoshoot. We did two that night," he said. "The first establishment loved it and interacted, the other, well — we weren't there long."

Meanwhile on Wednesday, news of the topless diner had made it into the Daily News, MSN and The UK Daily Mail. The item was also seemingly syndicated to various FM radio station websites across the country... such as 94.5 "the Buzz — Houston's New Rock Alternative" and Dave and Chuck the Freak at 101 WRIF in Detroit. (Please keep in mind that we weren't sending this around to anyone to feature.)

Then a story on what happened appeared in The Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan. Someone told us that it was the paper's most-viewed article for the day.

On Thursday, the Daily News had a feature titled "EXCLUSIVE: Sexy Cheyenne Lutek goes topless at East Village restaurants."


[Allen Henson via the Daily News]

Then the UK Daily Mail picked up the story again with this breathless headline: 'I'm not ashamed of my body': Model who was kicked out of New York restaurant for exposing her breasts speaks out

There was, apparently, even more coverage. Per the Daily Mail:

It's the topless shot heard 'round the world. A picture of a comely blonde who took off her shirt at a trendy New York restaurant has become an internet sensation - picked up by publications from Italy to Russia to China.

Closer to home, the Daily News really liked this story, as it was the basis for a political cartoon on Friday.


[Via Crazy Eddie]

By last night, Lutek was posing with the NYPD on Avenue C.


[Allen Henson via Twitter]

In the end, that post from Monday became the second most-viewed in EVG history, far behind another post about a topless woman. All this maybe provides some insights about how the media works. Or maybe what's wrong with the media. (Or humanity?) And it's probably too late to put up a paywall ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Female diner decides to go topless last night at Verso

The start of a summer day at Tompkins Square Park

Here is Portal 2

Last night, Portal 2 — the third in the 13 Portals interactive street art experience — was unveiled... and it's on East Sixth Street next to Sidewalk... (Find more info at the 13 Portals website.)

Meanwhile, GammaBlog has photos and a video of last evening's Portal party. Find all that here.

Sunday morning Citi Bike docking station observation

Around 8:45... no available bikes on East Third Street at First Avenue (above) and all but one bike ready for action on East Second Street at Avenue B...