For those about to shop

The East Village Community Coalition has compiled the seventh edition of their Get Local! Guide to locally owned and operated stores. You can find it here (PDF!)

Per the EVCC website:

Spending your money locally helps small businesses thrive in the East Village.

Local shopping also:
• Keeps more money in our community
• Creates local jobs with fair wages
• Sustains small business owners who defend our neighborhood’s identity
• Spending your money locally helps small businesses thrive in the East Village.

The newly available 7th Edition lists more than 450 local merchants and is available in shops and cafes in the neighborhood.

The EV Grieve Gift Shop is almost not really open

Speaking of shopping, we're ramping up the EVG Gift Shoppe for Friday. Among the items that you actually won't be able to buy:







We're also open to gift suggestions.

East Village Shoe Repair has closed

Back in February, we heard that the custom-shoe specialists at East Village Shoe Repair at 1 St. Mark's Place would be closing… unable to continue to make it work here. However, not only did they remain open, but owners Boris Zuborev and Eugene Finkelberg also had the 100-square-foot space renovated.

And that was that… until several tipsters on the block passed along word that the shop closed for good this past Friday. (One tipster said that the marshal was on the scene to seize the store.)

This weekend, a small handwritten note, since removed, said that the store was closed, and there was a number for people to call to arrange pick up of their shoes.

Here's a post from April 2010 on Style Bubble notes:

" ...characters like Boris and Eugene are diminishing in cities... that encounters in grimy holes where they gesture to their faded albums with shoe polish fingers are few and far between... I maybe over-romanticising but I did feel ever so slightly enrichened by a visit to this particular shoe repair joint..."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Will a rent hike force out East Village Shoe Repair on St. Mark's Place?

Rustico is now open on First Avenue

Rustico is now open at 135 First Ave. near St. Mark's Place. We don't know too much about the place, other than that they specialize in crêpes and serve Italian coffee (per the chalkboard sign out front).

The address was previously home to Iconic Hand Rolls, which closed in April after 10 months in business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Crêpes for First Avenue?

Plans for luxury housing with a gym and penthouse filed for part of the Children’s Magical Garden

[Photo from May via MoRUS]

Developer Serge Hoyda has filed plans for a six-story, six-unit residential building on part of the Children’s Magical Garden on Norfolk and Stanton streets, according to a report today at BuzzBuzzHome.

Citing security and safety concerns, workers erected a fence on part of the property in May that Hoyda owns, much to the dismay of residents, community activists and local poltiticians, who wanted to maintain the entire space as a community garden.

In late June, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development transferred ownership of the remaining sections of the garden to the Parks Department to protect the parcel as park space. (Read more about this at DNAinfo.)

Per DNAinfo from June 27: Community gardeners hoped "to convince Hoyda to give up his part of the lot or participate in a land swap in which the city would give Hoyda another block of land in exchange for the full Children's Magical Garden."

According to the proposed work plans, the new building will measure 7,242 square feet and include a gym and a penthouse.

Hoyda purchased the lot in 2003.

H/T Curbed. Find more background on the Children's Magical Garden at the Lo-Down and BoweryBoogie.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: Children’s Magical Garden under siege on the Lower East Side

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Michael Sean Edwards]

Meet Sprinkles, the firehouse snake of East 2nd Street (DNAinfo)

Three centuries, three views of East 14th Street (Ephemeral New York)

The Keith Haring mural at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center on West 13th Street (Dangerous Minds)

Sting and others at La MaMa's annual benefit (The Wall Street Journal)

A call to tame SantaCon (BoweryBoogie)

Sampling Otto's Tacos on Second Avenue (Eater)

"Everybody Street," a new documentary on street photography (Flaming Pablum)

Revisiting Chantal Akerman's "News from Home" from 1977 (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Teen mugshots from 100 years ago (Bowery Boys)

An end to the knish shortage? (Eater)

More proposals for the former Domino Sugary Factory (Curbed)

... and, mysteriously enough, perhaps, a dead chicken in a box on East Fourth Street...


[ Derek Berg]

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Last Thursday, Publishers Weekly reported that St. Mark's Bookshop had found a new retail space "in the East Village in a space near Avenue A and Third Street." The article didn't mention where, exactly, the rent-challenged new store will be.

According to the article, the shop will leave its Third Avenue home and its Cooper Union landlord for a space that "would be about half of the store's current size, or 1,300 sq. ft."

So where exactly is this relocation going to happen? We understand that the owners aren't ready to divulge the details. Readers made some guesses on Friday.

The most practical space is 136 E. Third St., where Landmark Bicycles was housed before moving to the northwest corner of East Third and Avenue A.

The NYCHA is the landlord at No. 136. Here is a description of the space:

136 East 3rd Street
Rentable Square Footage: 1,328
Rent: $60.00 per square foot
$79,680 per year/$6,640.00 per month

The square footage is right. And the space is ready for a new tenant. The NYCHA notes that an application is in process for the space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A

The Space at Tompkins looking for some help with its Thanksgiving meal

Starting today, The Space at Tompkins will have use of the storefront at 75 E. Fourth St. this week for an array of events.

From Kathryn Villaverde, director of community relations at The Space at Tompkins:

This means we will have the special opportunity to host a Thanksgiving Dinner for our participants. We are fortunate to have a generous donor sponsoring the meal. However, we do not have the proper tools to keep the food warm throughout the afternoon. If someone you know has food warming supplies (e.g. sterno hot box, hot plates, food wells, heated shelves) that they can lend us for the day, it would be so greatly appreciated!

If so, then you may email her here.

Here's the Space at Tompkins Facebook events page with details about other workshops and readings at the pop-up space this week.

The Space at Tompkins is a harm reduction organization providing aid and support to the transient homeless community.

Demolishing 100 Avenue A

We noticed a few workers on top of 98-100 Avenue A on Friday… they were jackhammering away...



And a rooftop view...


[Photo by Paul Dougherty]

The former movie theater/grocery is coming down to make way for Ben Shaoul's retail-residential complex here between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street. The rendering posted on the plywood shows a new building looking like this...



A retail listing that we posted in May stated that the building will contain 40 residential units.

Also on the plywood outside 98-100 Avenue A…



Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

Asbestos abatement continues at 98 Avenue A, Ben Shaoul's latest East Village trophy

Half reveal at 84 Third Ave.

The construction netting is off the East 12th Street side of the new residential complex at 84 Third Ave.



And the rendering for a comparison…

Former Max space now for rent on Avenue B

Max, the reliable Italian restaurant on Avenue B near East Fourth Street, served its last meal here this past New Year's Eve after 12 years. Not much activity here these past 11 months … until "for rent" signs finally arrived late last week.



The listing doesn't appear to be online just yet at Jalca & Associates. The Max outpost in Tribeca remains open.

Casa Gusto closes on Avenue A

We recently noticed the Casa Gusto, the relatively new gelato shop at 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street, was closed. We thought maybe it was a seasonal thing. Not so. The space is for rent. Casa Gusto didn't seem to last too long. They just opened at the beginning of the year, taking the storefront of the former Milo Printing.