More details about the new Russ & Daughters Café coming to Orchard Street

Word came down last month that the nearly 100-year-old smoked fish and herring store on East Houston was going to open a 65-seat café space around the corner at 127 Orchard St.

Today, The Daily Meal published a Q-and-A with fourth-generation co-owner Niki Russ Federman about the new space. Federman offered up several details, such as if the new space will have that counter culture of the mothership:

That is so critical in how we’re designing the space, trying to bring that counter experience and that human interaction to the new café. So there will be an open slicing area where you can watch the slicing happen, and actually you’ll be able to see it better than you can in the store. Right now you have to peek down poke around, There, we’ll have a slicing counter [and] an old-school soda fountain making our egg creams. There’s going to be almost like a luncheonette counter where you can sit down as you’re watching all the food come together, and you still have that over-the-counter interaction.

The Russ & Daughters Café is aiming for a mid-February opening.

Meanwhile, in other news about LES institutions, BoweryBoogie has a recap of the gallery opening at the The Space At Katz’s.

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Tom Kopache and Chia
Occupation: Actor
Location: 5th Street between 1st and 2nd
Time: 5:50 on Friday, Oct. 18

My family moved a lot but I did a lot of my growing up on the West Coast. Then, after college and grad school I joined a theatre company that went to Europe. After Europe, I came here thinking I was only going to be here a year or two, but I ended up staying till now. I moved to the Upper West Side in 1976 and to East 3rd Street in 1983.

I’m an actor. It’s what I majored in in college and grad school. I work in theatre, film and TV, when I get the work. It’s an up-and-down profession but it’s been alright for me. I’ve been able to earn a living. I worked at La MaMa for many years. I worked at the Manhattan Theatre Club when they were in their old space. I did a couple of Broadway Shows and then TV and film work.

My favorite roles that I’ve played were a few from Shakespeare ... I played Macbeth at La MaMa and "Measure for Measure" when I was in Europe. And I’ve enjoyed some of my TV parts, but those parts were predicative.

I have to say, I’m glad a lot of the changes have taken place here. It was a rough area in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The drug scene was out of hand and the buildings were really run-down. There was a high crime rate. You had to watch yourself. Back then I was a young guy. I was a tough guy so I held my own.

I remember a girlfriend came to visit me on 3rd Street and she came up to my apartment. We had a nice time together and she said, “I will never come here again. If you want to see me you come up to the Upper West Side.” It was that kind of place. That relationship didn’t last very long. I liked my neighborhood, but I knew what she meant. It was tough and she wasn’t used to that kind of scene.

Some of the gentrification has gone a little overboard and [the neighborhood has] lost some of its character, but the streets are better. I like a lot of the changes. The arts are still here. I heard somebody say that the artists were leaving but there’s theatre here and a lot of little theatre companies. There’s a lot of painters and dancers. All-in-all it’s cleaned up a bit, but I think for the better. And there are good restaurants and coffee shops. Every block has got something. It didn’t used to be that way.

I’m heading to Social Tees right here. I’m a volunteer. They rescue animals, they adopt, they do fostering, and they take volunteers to do things like this, walking dogs. They’re a community-oriented group and they care about the community and taking care of the animals.

This is Chia. He’s an old guy. He’s been a shelter dog for awhile, but he’s a very gentle, sweet dog, and he’s up for adoption — if anyone’s looking for a nice, friendly little, I think you call him a Terrier mix. He’s low key. Not a yapper.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

'Potential townhouse conversion' a possibility at residential building now for sale at 58 E. 7th St.

58 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue recently hit the market. The listing at Eastern Consolidated mentions that this is a "potential townhouse conversion."

More details:

The Property is a five-story-over-full-basement, circa 1900, walk up apartment building containing ±6,792 square feet of above-grade building area divided into (5) five apartments. Each apartment contains approximately 1,300 square feet and has 3 bedrooms, a spacious eat-in kitchen area, a living room and one bathroom.

There's certainly precedent for townhouse conversion on this very block... just a few numbers to the east at No. 64.



64 E. Seventh St. was sold as a single-family townhouse several years ago... and gut rehabbed into a luxury, 13-room mansion. It seems likely that history will repeat itself on the block. (Read this post at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York for more on the fascinating past of No. 64.)

Con Ed making strides so that the East 13th Street substation doesn't explode again

[14th and C last Nov. 4 via faces]

On Monday, Con Ed officials unveiled the repaired substation on East 13th Street nearly a year after Hurricane Sandy.

As you'll painfully recall, the storm surge caused a relay station inside the substation off of Avenue C to explode, leaving the lower half of Manhattan eating peanut butter, drinking warm beer and [______] in bags, among many other things worse than that.

Con Ed issued this video to show their improvements to its systems as part of a $1 billion plan to fortify critical infrastructure from major storms. Per Con Ed officials: Overhead equipment is now tougher and more resilient. Substations have new walls and raised equipment. Gas and steam infrastructure also is protected with water-proofing measures.

And here's WABC with a report... Last November, Fortune published an inside look at the Con Ed's Sandy experience. Find that here.

Here's Golden Cadillac, the '70s-nostalgic bar' opening at the former Boca Chica space

Boca Chica, the inexpensive Latin American restaurant on First Avenue at First Street, closed its doors back in February.

By April, we learned about the bar-restaurant called Golden Cadillac that was in the works for the space... it's the latest venture from Giuseppe Gonzalez, a bartender who has worked at places we've never been before like PKNY, Clover Club, Dutch Kills and Flatiron Lounge.

Eater had more details on Golden Cadillac yesterday...

The food from Miguel Trinidad, the chef behind Maharlika and Jeepney:

[T]he food menu ... consists of variations on New York classics that have been 'inspired by vintage editions of Gourmet Magazine.' A few of those dishes include knish fondue, a Monte Cristo, and hunters stew for four.

The drinks:

There's "a menu of 'classic' 70s-era cocktails like the grasshopper and the Miami Vice (that's a pina colada topped off with strawberry daiquiri)."

The decor:

The bar's aesthetic takes its cues from the "sad glamour" of a seedy late-70s dive bar, furnished inside with wood paneling and patterned wallpaper mixed with mirrored surfaces.

The opening date is set for Nov. 6. And this isn't the first time that we've heard about Golden Cadillac. Time Out reported in November 2011 that the bar was opening on East 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. But that never materialized, for whatever reasons.


[The mural on the rolldown gate from the other week]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Boca Chica apparently won't be reopening on First Avenue; and the return of Golden Cadillac

So is this what James Renwick, Jr. had in mind when he designed 27 Stuyvesant St. in the 1860s?

Via Curbed, we learn that the Anglo-Italianate townhome at 27 Stuyvesant St. is back on the market for $5.25 million. (Original asking price was $6.7 million.)

It's a beautiful townhousehome — especially from the outside. And, per the listing, it was designed in 1861 by James Renwick, renowned architect responsible for the Smithsonian Institution and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, among other renowned structures.

And this inside? It has been staged to sell...





Not sure how to describe this decor — Early 21st Century Real Housewives Revival?

Today's fall shot

Tompkins Square Park in the late afternoon via Bobby Williams...

Noted

I read about this last week... but just saw it for myself tonight... last Thursday, Uniqlo opened a pop-up shop selling puffy jackets and non-puffy parkas in the Union Square subway station ... part of a new MTA program to bring businesses into vacant retail subway spaces.

From the official MTA news release:

The shops will receive month-to-month leases from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for small retail spaces that are temporarily vacant while the agency is arranging long-term leases.

And!

The pop-up store initiative allows small entrepreneurs, online businesses and established corporations to rent space in generally “as-is” condition to provide high visibility exposure for products or services where the emphasis is on displaying merchandise as much as actually conducting on-site transactions. In some cases, retail customers would be encouraged to make their purchases online or at larger stores off site.

And!

“Pop-up stores will provide a fresh and beneficial element to our stations while also improving the image and desirability of retail space in the subway,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “This is another example of the MTA working to make better use of its real estate portfolio and improving the subway environment for customers at the same time.”

The store will be open through the December holidays...

Soooo... what kind of pop-up shop would you like to see from the MTA in the future? (To get you thinking about it...) Egg shop? Zine store?

Roseland Ballroom makes closure official

On Saturday, we posted the scoop from Billboard about the Roseland Ballroom's closure... at the time of Billboard's report, there hadn't been any announcement from Roseland's ownership.

They made the it formal today with the following release received via the EVG inbox...

NYC’S ROSELAND BALLROOM SCHEDULES CLOSING IN 2014

Today, Roseland Ballroom announced that it will cease operations in April 2014. Roseland Development Associates, LLC, owners of Roseland, issued the following statement in response to media reports about the venue’s closure next year:

“The owners of 239 West 52nd Street have operated the Roseland Ballroom for over three decades. Managing Roseland has been a labor of love, which is why we have deferred major changes for all these years. Plans to redevelop the property are now underway and will be made public when they are finalized. Roseland will cease operations at the end of April 2014.”

Live Nation, the world’s leading live entertainment company, which has had an exclusive music booking agreement with Roseland Ballroom since 1990, issued the following statement:

“We enjoyed being a part of the history of the Roseland Ballroom and we will continue to celebrate its rich history with an unparalleled closing run of shows. One of the best things about New York is how our city continues to reinvent itself and we look forward to sharing our tremendous plans for live entertainment in the city for 2014 and beyond.”

The space was a sentimental favorite for me... and I agree with an anonymous commenter's thoughts on the Roseland:

Lets face it, the audio was awful and the air conditioning was worthless.

But you could get up close if you felt like it and the mosh pits were great.

One of my favorite places to see a show and I will miss it.

Image via Frankie Gale Photo Gallery

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[On East Seventh Street via Derek Berg]

Why an East Village widow's bankruptcy case poses risk to rent-stabilized tenants (The New York Times)

Lunch at the Stage (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Who's next at the Houston/Bowery mural wall (BoweryBoogie)

Claim: Airbnb is a boon to the NYC economy (Curbed)

Soho House decision day on Ludlow (The Lo-Down)

Despite CB3 and resident objections, Sweet Chick signs lease at former Max Fish space (Grub Street)

Looking at the great Carl Fischer Music building (Off the Grid)

Cooper Square at the turn of the last century (Ephemeral New York)

When Andy Warhol painted Debbie Harry on an Amiga computer (Dangerous Minds)

Remembering some more lost record stores (Flaming Pablum)

Borough President Scott Stringer voices concern over CB3's suspension of the L.E.S. Dwellers

As we first reported yesterday morning, neighborhood group The L.E.S. Dwellers are demanding an impartial investigation into their recent suspension by Community Board 3.

Upon their suspension, the group submitted a formal complaint to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, whose office oversees the city's Community Board governance.

Stringer responded to CB3 Chairperson Gigi Li and District Manager Susan Stetzer yesterday. A tipster shared a copy of Stringer's letter.


[Click on image to enlarge]

As he wrote, "the decision to exclude an organization ... under these circumstances does not serve the interest of community board transparency and democratic representation."

And later:

"While I understand the view that the organization may have detracted from community input by influencing certain applicants to withdraw from the Board's process, I do not believe a 'suspension' of the organization is the most effective response to such a concern. The act of suspending a community organization for lawful conduct from a program promoting community input without a fully deliberative process has implications for the transparency and fairness of community board governance. For these reasons, I ask that the Board reconsider its current policy of excluding organizations . . . to ensure that its mission of representing and responding to community concerns remains fully transparent and open to public scrutiny."

The L.E.S. Dwellers have been active in opposing new liquor licenses on the Lower East Side, including the proposed SoHo House on Ludlow Street ... and the ongoing battle with the DL on Delancey. CB3 first recognized the L.E.S. Dwellers as a block association in October 2012.

The CB3 suspension is to last the remainder of 2013.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking Badly: LES Dwellers demand impartial investigation of Community Board 3 (33 comments)

Construction watch: 45 Great Jones Street

Plans have been in the works at least back to 2007 to add extra floors of residential above the landmarked 45 Great Jones St., the longtime home to the Great Jones Lumber Corp., between the Bowery and Lafayette.

There are demolition plans on file dated from Thursday. Per the usual all-cap DOB style: "DEMOLITION OF THREE STORY STRUCTURE. PER LPC, FRONT FACADE TO REMAIN."


[Photo via Goggla]

The Landmarks Preservation Committee OK'd enlarging the Romanesque Revival building by five floors back in July 2012, as Curbed reported.

These are older plans from June 2012 (we have not seen the final renderings) ...


[Via Curbed]

Building owner Joseph Lauto also ran the lumber business. (He worked at the lumber yard as a kid dating to the late 1940s.) In March 2012, he told The Local that the changing landscape of NoHo contributed to his decision to develop the building.

"One of the reasons we merged the businesses was because forklifts and trucks moving lumber had to stop because of baby carriages," he said. "We never had that before."

The ground floor will remain a commercial space while the subsequent floors and penthouse will be residential. The plan is still waiting approval by the Department of Buildings, who last passed along a "disapproved" in July, according to city records.

Built in 1893, 45 Great Jones served as the home of Great Jones Lumber Corp. from 1934 to June of 2008, when the company merged with Michbi Doors Inc. of Long Island, per The Local.