Gabay's Outlet settling into new Avenue A home

After 45 years at 225 First Ave., Gabay's Outlet moved earlier this month to 195 Avenue A near East 12th Street.



We checked in with proprietor Joey Gabay, the third generation of the family to run the business, to see how they were settling in their new home.

"We are still in liquidation mode of all of our excess inventory," said Gabay, noting that they are selling designer items at $10 a hanger. "Once the store is empty we will renovate to make a great designer boutique outlet. We are really looking forward to the fall when we will be able to put our best foot forward."

Gabay's first opened in the neighborhood at 1 St. Mark's Place in 1940. Increased rents forced them to move away from First Avenue.

As Gabay told us last month: "We are thrilled that we are staying in the East Village."

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 45 years on 1st Avenue, Gabay's Outlet is on the move

Apartment 13 will not be reopening on Avenue C

Apartment 13 at 115 Avenue C between East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street temporarily closed during the July 4 weekend. Signs on the door pointed diners and reservation holders to its sister restaurant Dinner on Ludlow.

However, a message on Apartment 13's Facebook page now notes that they will not be reopening:

It is with tremendous regret that I tell you all that Apartment 13 has closed its doors indefinitely. We would like to first and foremost express our eternal gratitude to all of you who took a leap of faith and decided to support and join us on what we fondly consider one of the most invaluable experiences of our adult lives.

Thank you all so very much for your unconditional support and unwavering patronage. It is truly humbling the way in which you greeted us with open arms and welcomed us whole-heartedly into what we consider one of the last remaining authentic “communities” in NYC.

Without burdening you all too much with the uglier side of business I'll explain it like this. Similar to a marriage, or divorce rather, our child (Apt 13), became collateral damage and fell through the cracks of a faulty foundation due to no fault of its own. Partnerships, be it business or personal, demands all parties involved to play for the same team at all times. When this fundamental law of business is tampered with, or worse disregarded, the potential for loss exponentially increases until destruction is an inevitability.

There is a P.S.

We look forward to seeing you all in the near future at the opening of our next venture and invite you all to continue the journey with us as we embark upon Chapter 2.

The restaurant, the first for chef John Keller (the executive chef at Dinner on Ludlow), opened last July 25. Apartment 13 featured food that they described as "Modern American interpretations with Japanese and Caribbean influences."

Looking at a studio with a 'loft style' bedroom

We looked at a "micro loft" for sale yesterday on East Second Street. Today, let's check out what you might call a "micro studio" rental with a "loft style" bedroom at 105 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.



Per the Village Living Rentals listing, this studio features:

Oak strip flooring, high ceilings and crown molding.
Apartment has large, full separate bathroom.
Kitchen is also separate from the living space.
Bedroom is loft style!
There is a decorative fireplace!

There does not appear to be much headroom coming into the bedroom/living room/fireplace area… (tenants may need a "watch your head" sign…)



Asking price: $1,700.

Reminders tonight: See 'Fast Times in Ridgemont High' in Tompkins Square Park

[Debbie and Damone]

In case you missed our post yesterday … the Films in Tompkins series returns tonight with a free screening of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," which needs no introduction.

And this trailer for the movie sucks.



Sadly, I am not allowed to go. I have seen the movie so many times, I can't help but blurt out lines right before the character does.

This is U.S. History, I see the globe right there!

Hope you had a hell of a piss, Arnold!

"Now, the lady will have the linguini and white clam sauce, and a Coke with no ice."

Sorry! Go! Enjoy! The film starts at sundown. (The gates open at 6.)

How you can help Punjabi Grocery & Deli stay in business

Jeremiah first reported on this campaign yesterday at Vanishing New York.

Given the never-ending East Houston Reconstruction Project, the folks at Punjabi Grocery & Deli on East First Street near Avenue A/East Houston are struggling to stay in business. The storefront, which arguably serves the best inexpensive vegetarian food in the neighborhood, is losing a big chunk of its audience: cab drivers.

The construction site has taken up all the parking spaces for cab drivers, making it nearly impossible for them to stop in for a meal. (Those who do stop face a getting a ticket.)

So Punjabi is petitioning the city to bring a taxi relief stand to the front of the deli, "a place where taxis can park for an hour so drivers can get a meal, use the rest room, and relax before getting back behind the wheel."

Here's more from the petition:

Though the City and state government collect taxes for each trip from commuters in the form of surcharge through hard working of drivers, they do not create or give much facility and respect to taxi drivers. Since last many years this particular area is under major road and other repairs.

On the top of that construction companies using this area as their personal storage and stocking facility. Due to that in this all area you only see no parking signs. Parking to use the facility become more and more difficult and drivers get parking violation tickets. But the city government official do not think about creating facility but they are only interested in creating more hardship to their hardworking community.

[East First Street disaster construction zone]

You can find the petition here.

This is exactly the kind of business that we need around here. As it stands, the inexpensive, quick-serve restaurants are disappearing (Bereket ... Cafe Rakka on Avenue B ... First Avenue Pierogi and Deli ... and soon, Snack Dragon, to name a few).

As for the East Houston Reconstruction Project, it is now scheduled (PDF!) to be completed by mid-2016, according to the latest city estimates. It doesn't seem possible that Punjabi Grocery & Deli can last two more years at this rate.

Actually, the new rent for the Snack Dragon space is $4,495

[Image via]

Late last week Snack Dragon proprietor Josephine Jansen told us that her tiny taco stand at 199 E. Third St. will have to close for good on July 31. The reason: Landlord Steve Croman wants to triple the rent to $3,900.

Turns out the rent for the next tenant will somehow even be higher. In a follow-up article on Monday, DNAinfo's Lisha Arino noted that the rent on the 9300 Realty website for No. 199 is $4,495.

Small, vented restaurant available for 1 August move in on East 3rd St, steps from Ave B. Good dining corridor - Fonda, Root & Bone, Ethiopia Meskel, Café Cortadito, Poco NYC and others.

The COO of 9300 Realty told DANinfo that Jansen was the one who wouldn't negotiate a new lease and only offered to pay $200 more a month for the "way under market rate" space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Watch a lot of people speak out against Steve Croman and 9300 Realty

Cromanated: The East Village Snack Dragon Taco Shack is closing

Meanwhile near City Hall....

Oh no! Someone doesn't like NYC? But we love you!

And what about our teeth? And why take it out on a Metro box?

Tonight's sunset

Photo by Bobby Williams

The animal extras of Judd Apatow's comedy 'Trainwreck,' which filmed in the East Village today

Not much is apparently known about the movie, which filmed in part today on East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... Bobby Williams spotted a few of the extras...





The human co-stars in the comedy are reported to be Daniel Radcliffe, Tilda Swinton, Marisa Tomei, Brie Larson, Bill Hader and Amy Schumer, who wrote the script, among others.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Outlaw Bobby Steele photographed on 1st Avenue by jdx]

Here's the family behind Mimi Cheng's Dumplings, now open on Second Avenue (Fork in the Road)

Sports bar taking over for Sutra, where there have been 659 311 complaints — most allegedly for any bar in the city (BoweryBoogie)

A visit to the Tompkins Square Dog Run (Curbed)

Photos from Brian Rose's book "Metamorphosis: Meatpacking 1985 & 2013" now only display at the Dillon Gallery (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

A look at The New Museum's latest exhibition (The Lo-Down)

Those darn hawks! (Gog in NYC)

Inside the Cooper Union Building Clock (Untapped Cities)

Top 5 punk drummers of all time (LA Weekly)

And congrats to the Brooklyn bloggers who are coming together to create a hyperlocal network (The New York Times)

... and Derek Berg spotted a new mural by Mark Samsonovich on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and East Seventh Street ...

Films in Tompkins series returns tomorrow night with 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High'

As we noted a few weeks ago, the Films in Tompkins series would return this summer, though sligtly later than usual.

The organizers have just released the roster, starting with "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" tomorrow night...


[Click on image for more details]

The series ends Aug. 14 with "Midnight Cowboy."

We originally heard that "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" would be on the bill. Unfortunately, the organizers were unable to secure a copy of the film from the distributor, we heard.

Anyway! Gates open at 6 p.m. and the films will start at sundown.

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: Alex Shamuelov
Occupation: Barber and student
Location: Ace of Cuts, 518 E. 6th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B
Date: 9 a.m., July 9

I’m from Uzbekistan, but my background goes back to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Because of the Soviet Union, it was really tough there but it was a little bit easier in the southern part, so that’s why my ancestors moved down there. So I was born in Uzbekistan and I came to New York when I was 3 years old.

I never thought I’d be a hairdresser. My dad has been a hairdresser for a long time, but when he was young he was a mechanic. His father’s a hairdresser, his brother’s a hairdresser, his mom used to be a hairdresser, and his sister’s a hairdresser. Everybody in my family from both sides — everybody’s a hairdresser. That’s how it was from the old country. Everybody was a hairdresser.

My father always said, ‘You know, listen — it’s better for you to learn a talent than it is for you to hop from one job to another.’ He said, ‘This is something that you’re going to have and something that you’re never going to lose. You never know what could happen in life. Let’s say one day, God forbid, you lose your job, then you have something to turn to. Hair always grows. Everybody always needs haircuts.’

So I took those words into consideration. I was only 15 years old. Imagine when you’re 15 years old, for six months for almost two summers after school, standing next to a barber and not making anything, whereas I wanted to go become a counselor or something, you know. I wanted to make some money. No, my father kept pushing me toward it and I’m happy for that. This is something that I like to do, and not to brag, but I’m good at it. I’ve won competitions and stuff like that. I like to draw and I’m artistic, so this helps me sculpt a person, sculpt a head. So everything worked out well.

I’m 20 years old now and I just opened my own barber shop with my father. [July 9] is actually a month since we opened. Everybody is shocked about that. It’s not easy trying to succeed in this life right now. I have the support of my family. We’re all together. We live next to each other, in a two-block radius in Queens.

The landlord of this building is my previous customer from Long Island. He currently goes to my uncle, because that was my uncle’s barbershop, so he told my uncle about it. So I came one day with my parents and uncle and I loved the place, and now we’re here. I love the East Village. Everybody’s very neighborhoody; everybody’s very friendly. Say if you go to Midtown, neighbors don’t know each other. Here everybody knows each other and they say hi to each other. It’s the same thing where I live Queens — in Rego Park.

You know how landlords are — they want their rent on the spot, so we had to do it quick. I renovated this whole place in about three weeks. I did it for my father mostly. I don’t want him to work for somebody all his life. I wanted him to become his own boss, so that’s why I’m here now. I’m on break from school. I’m helping him out. I’m in the middle of the street so it’s really hard to advertise. You have to be patient. I went from cutting 35 to 40 people a day to cutting five people a day. Psychologically that hurts you.

In Park Slope I used to cut 40 people a day. We were right next to Mayor de Blasio’s house. I’ve cut his hair. I used to see him every day; every day he walked by. It was shocking because you see somebody, you take care of somebody, and then all of a sudden, boom — he’s an icon of New York. Over there you need speed and you need technique, and you need a sense of style. Imagine in 12 hours cutting 40 people. That means about 100 to 150 people come in every day. They used to call me Ferrari because I used to be very quick.

Obviously I’m not going to be the same here because I don’t have that competition going on. That’s why I made this barbershop like this, you know. I have Jameson. I have vodka. I have beer. I have everything for someone to come in and relax. I have a 65-inch TV. People come in, they watch TV. I charge $15. So yeah, hopefully I’ll make it. I was trying to go for a different image for someone to come and relax.

I am also currently in school at LIU, Long Island University, in downtown Brooklyn. I’m trying to get into the pharmacy program out there. It was a challenge for me to pick my profession that I wanted to go for, that I wanted to succeed in. My dream is now opening a pharmacy and having a barber chair, to build a barber shop in the pharmacy, so while you wait for your medicine you get your hair cut real quick. Cause you know how everybody in New York is trying to get things done quick.

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