Reader report: Viva Herbal Pizzeria has closed on Second Avenue

Viva Herbal Pizzeria, the gluten-free, vegan pizza joint at 179 Second Ave. near East 12th Street has apparently closed…



The photos and report comes via Viva's #1 customer. "It was open Saturday night but [Sunday night] all the lights are off, the bench is gone and the inside looks like a hot mess. No sign to indicate a remod or anything." The phone also went unanswered.





Indeed, the space had been on the market since last August.

The former PS 64 after it snows

The former PS 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center has been sitting derelict now for what, the past 15 years or so… as owner/developer Gregg Singer continues to work out plans for turning the building here on East 10th Street/East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C into a dorm.

The lack of activity here is especially apparent after a snowfall, like this past Thursday night/Friday morning. A nearby resident notes: "Every year, at least in which we get snow, [Singer] never shovels … ice builds up, people fall, garbage accumulates. The scaffolding is in disarray, the lighting only occasionally works, there's a tent city beneath the scaffolding, etc, etc."

Here are a few photos of the sidewalks outside the building from last Friday morning…





… and on the East Ninth Street side…









Meanwhile, Community Board 3 passed a resolution on Dec. 17 requesting that the de Blasio administration return the building to the community. Perhaps someone in the community will shovel the sidewalks.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Efforts continue to fight the dorm planned for the former PS 64 on East 9th Street

Landmarks Preservation Commission asks to see modified plans for former PS 64

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approves application for modifications at PS 64

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

If you are looking for more details about chef Alex Stupak's new restaurant at the former Sushi Lounge space, then you will be mildly disappointed in the paperwork filed ahead of this month's CB3/SLA meeting. There aren't too many clues about what's coming here, other than the number of tables, etc.

Stupak, who runs the well-regarded Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria, plans to open his third restaurant here at 132 St. Mark's Place at Avenue A, where the Sushi Lounge closed at the end of October.

According to the documents on file (PDF!) on the CB3 website, the unnamed new restaurant has proposed hours of 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily… there are 18 tables with 48 seats, one bar with eight seats … plus an "open kitchen with dining counter."

And here is a sketch of the interior layout that accompanied the CB3 materials…



Stupak told Eater on Dec. 23 that he hasn't decided on the concept for the space just yet.

The CB3/SLA committee meeting takes place next Monday night at 6:30.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

The year in East Village photos 2013 (Part 2)

Picking up from where we left off on Friday… here's Part 2 of our late year-end listicle… showing some of the images from 2013… here we have July through December. Find January-June here. Thanks again to everyone who shared photos… (and can we borrow your camera?)

July

July 30


[Photo by Julius Klein]

July 30


[Photo by @toddsines]

July 14


[Photo by Shannon O'Toole]

July 7


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

July 3


[Photo by Rob and Mike]

August

Aug. 28


[Photo by Dan Efram]

Aug. 19


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Aug. 19


[Photo by Jim Flynn]

September

September 29


[Photo by Marc A Hermann for the Daily News]

Sept. 27


[Photo by @melissa_dilger]

Sept. 18


[Photo by Michael Sean Edwards]

Sept. 15


[Photo by Goggla]

Sept. 14


[Photo by Steven Hirsch]

October

Oct. 31


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

Oct. 28


[Photo by Barbara Ross]

Oct. 26


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Oct. 25


[Photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C]

Oct. 24


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Oct. 12


[Photo by jdx]

November

Nov. 23



Nov. 12



Nov. 10


[Photo by Grant Shaffer]

Nov. 8


[Photo by VH McKenzie]

Nov. 7


[Photo by Michael Paul]

Nov. 3

December

Dec. 14


[Photo by EVG reader David]

Dec. 12


[Photo by Michael Paul]

Dec. 9


[GIF by Luke on 7th]

Previously on EV Grieve:
The year in East Village photos 2013 (Part 1, probably)

Residents ask, What the Hell is that?

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

East Ninth Street near Avenue C…. Well?


[Photo by OlympiasEpiriote]

Today in photos of a squirrel eating pizza in Tompkins Square Park

These photos come courtesy of EVG official Squirrel-Pizza Correspondent Goggla.

Week in Grieview

[Making use of the tossed xmas trees along St. Mark's Place]

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2013 (Friday)

The Year in East Villages Photos (Part 1) (Friday)

Details about the new building coming to 98-100 Avenue A (Tuesday)

Children apparently miss Silver Spurs (Monday)

Avenue A regulars (Wednesday)

The "Sushi Defense" fails (Friday)

Chase tellers snubbed this aspiring bank robber (Wednesday)

Controversial Avenue A halal cart moves (Thursday)

The Jefferson sheds its sidewalk bridge (Thursday)

Here's that new Karl Fischer-designed condo on East 12th Street (Monday)

The end is nearer for this stretch of East 14th Street (Tuesday)

Avenue B Duane Reade gets a new sign, woo (Monday)

Pulino's has closed (Tuesday)

It snowed (Friday)

A cut above — 'Astor Barber All-Stars' screens tomorrow night at the Anthology Film Archives

There's a screening of the documentary by Karen Gehres, "Astor Barber All-Stars," tomorrow night at the Anthology Film Archives.

Ahead of this, the Post has a feature on the film today … noting many of regulars through the years at the Astor Place Hairstylists, such as Mayor de Blasio and his son Dante.

De Blasio has frequented the Greenwich Village institution for about 30 years, according to John Vezza, one of the shop's co-owners.

"He's been coming since he was in college [at NYU]," Vezza said.

Hizzoner sits in Alberto Amore’s chair and practices his Italian on the Sicily native.

"He loves to speak in Italian. He calls me professor because I only speak in Italian," Amore said with pride. "He reads the paper in Italian. If there's a word he doesn’t understand, he says, ‘What does it mean, this.'"

Check out the trailer ...



The shop has been here since 1939. Jeremiah Moss wrote about it back in April 2012: "it's one of the last places in the East Village that still feels like the East Village. More than that, it still feels like New York City."

Find this, get $2,000

Spotted this morning along Avenue A…

Noted

Not sure who these messages are for on East 3rd Street and Avenue C...

At the Mr. Lower East Side Pageant

Reverend Jen's 15th Annual Mr. Lower East Side Pageant took place Friday night at the Cake Shop on Ludlow Street… So much drama! Talent! Man meat! (That means chest and like abs, right?) Slum Goddess has many of the gory details and photos and video right here.



The two photos here are by EVG Facebook friend Walter Wlodarczyk. If you're on Facebook (or not), then you can find a whole lot more of his photos from Friday night here.