The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 5 borough tour includes date at the Cake Shop on Ludlow

Via the EVG inbox…

To celebrate the release of their new, long-playing record album, "Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015," the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will be bringing their brand of high-octane street hassling back home, with an unprecedented Five Borough Freedom Tour!

The Blues Explosion will be leveling neighborhoods in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island the week of March 23 to 28, including free shows at dive bars, breweries and beyond!

FIVE BOROUGH FREEDOM TOUR:

Mon Mar 23 - Staten Island, Liedy's Shore Inn

Mar 24 - Manhattan, Cake Shop

Mar 25 - Jersey City, WFMU's Monty Hall

Mar 26 - Brooklyn, Hank's Saloon

Fri Mar 27 - The Bronx, The Point

Sat Mar 28 - Queens, Singlecut Brewery

You can get a free pair of tickets to one of the above shows with the purchase of the record from Other Music, Turntable Lab, Vintage Vinyl, or Insound. For more details, head over here.

JSBX also released a video today for their song "Betty vs the NYPD," starring Bridget Everett…

Christo and Dora are building 2 nests on the Ageloff Towers

[Christo shops at Key. Photo by Goggla]

With the Christodora House out of the picture, red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora have been searching for just the right space to build their nest this spring. (OK, late winter.)

After a few false leads, Goggla has discover where the nest is. Actually, make that nests. In recent days, Christo and Dora have been building two nests on AC units on the top floor of the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A between East Third Street and East Fourth Street…



And some nest-in-progress photos via Bobby Williams…





Interesting choice given they are a few blocks away from the plentiful sticks and rats of Tompkins Square Park … above a far more active part of the neighborhood… (compared to their spot on the Christodora on Avenue B and East Ninth Street last year)…

Anyway, head on over to Gog in NYC for lots of photos and the full story.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Red-tailed hawks nest on the Christodora House

The hawks of Tompkins Square Park have laid an egg at the Christodora House

More eggsciting hawk news from the Christodora House

Breaking (heh) news: The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are officially parents

Someone keeps destroying the nest that the red-tailed hawks are building on the Christodora House

[Updated] 1 reason why someone may not want the red-tailed hawks to nest on the Christodora House

Some well-deserved love for Casey Rubber Stamps

[EVG file photo]

Casey Rubber Stamps on East 11th Street is one of the neighborhood's great little shops.

And The Guardian filed a feature on owner John Casey's business here between First Avenue and Second Avenue the the other day. Among other topics, Casey discussed how he has been able to beat the odds in today's NYC rental market/business environment. And he doesn't sound as if he has plans to leave anytime soon.

“Landlords will kill you,” Casey says, chuckling. He has had a few run-ins with his landlady this past years, but that’s all sorted out now. “Bureaucracies will kill you. Typical hates of any small business.”

The rising rents are certainly a cause of concern for Casey, but the small-business owner, who learned most of what he knows on his own, hopes to stick around. Despite the headaches of running a small business, Casey can’t imagine closing down or selling out, even if someone walked in and offered to buy it at a good price.

“Why would I? What am I going to do? It’s like winning the lottery,” he says. “What would I do tomorrow morning? Get new friends?”

Organic food store taking over the former Kim's Video and Music space on 1st Avenue

We don't have many details just yet, but we can confirm what's coming soon to 124 First Ave. between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place — an all organic food store called East Village Organic.

They hope to be open in two months. (Meanwhile, the proprietors started a Twitter account.)

Kim's closed here for good last Aug. 25. The original listing for the space noted the address would be perfect for a bank, 7-Eleven or Starbucks.

Looks as if the Subway (sandwich shop) on East 14th Street has closed

The Subway here on East 14th Street just west of Second Avenue hasn't been open in the past 10 days or so, reports EVG reader Pinch.

Subway has already removed this location from its store locator (don't worry — there are still plenty to choose from in this area…)



This location along IHOP Way has had problems in the past: The Marshall seized the place back in March 2013. However, it reopened under new management several months later.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Marshal seizes Subway (sandwich shop) on East 14th Street

Subway replacing Subway on East 14th Street

Hou Yi Hot Pot coming to 2nd Avenue

You will soon have another restaurant choice along Second Avenue. Coming soon signs are now up for Hou Yi Hot Pot at 97 Second Ave. between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street...



Hou Yi Hot Pot currently has a location on Hester Street in the northern fringes of Chinatown. Serious Eats called Hou Yi "comfortable and friendly" and "This is your Manhattan Chinatown go-to for hot pot."

The space still looks pretty raw inside, so you may have a little wait for hot pot here.

Until last June, the storefront housed the longtime laudromat Launderette.

The old Subway Inn neon sign is now up at the bar's new Upper East Side home

Leaving the neighborhood for a moment to relay some positive NYC bar-related news.

Earlier today, workers installed the original Subway Inn sign outside their new location at 1140 Second Ave. at 60th Street.

As previously reported, the bar had to vacate its home of 77 years on 60th and Lexington back in December to make way for new development via the World-wide Real Estate Group.

Per the Subway Inn Facebook page:

The same exact neon sign that hung for several decades now has a face lift and is ready to shine bright for many more years to come. And, before you ask us, yes that is the exact same Neon sign. The only difference is we painted the back using the same color as before.

As for the rest of the bar, the Salinas family promised the following:

The space will look exactly the same. Colors, floor and all! In fact, our replication architect is hard at work making sure our new home will be nearly identical. Also, our prices will not change.

Photos of the bar in progress back that up. There's no word just yet on the official (re)opening date.

Images via Facebook

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Should we start worrying about the Subway Inn?

Report: The Subway Inn will close next month

Subway Inn continues to live to serve another day


[EVG file photo]

When it comes time to dump your furniture on the street

According to this Urban Etiquette Sign maker on East Ninth Street near First Avenue ... "throw this bed away on trash night!!"



But is this really a bed?

Photos by Derek Berg

About #SaveNYC

Jeremiah Moss of Vanishing New York has launched the #SaveNYC campaign.

He writes about it today in an op-ed over at the Daily News.

Small businesses in New York City have no rights. You’ve been here 50 years and provide an important service? Tough luck — your space now belongs to Dunkin’ Donuts. You own a beloved, fourth-generation, century-old business? Get out — your landlord’s putting in a combination Chuck E. Cheese and Juicy Couture.

And despite de Blasio’s rhetorical fears about gentrification, his progressive pro-development push may well only hasten the trend.

Read the op-ed, titled The NYC we love is disappearing: It's becoming a hollow city for hollow people, right here. Find out how you can get involved at the #SaveNYC website.

Second thoughts about the future

[Photo via an EVG reader]

Last Monday along First Avenue between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street…

And today!


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Puebla Mexican Food is closing after 25 years on 1st Avenue

[Photo via @jaha7236]

Puebla Mexican Food, which features huge portions at small prices, is closing for good at 47 First Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street...


[EVG photo]

The family run restaurant closes after business this coming Sunday, March 15. March 23. We hear that the lease was up, and the new rent was too much for owner Irma Marin to manage. As for finding another storefront, there's nothing affordable nearby … plus we're told that Marin understandably wants to take a break.


[Image via Yelp]

Back in February 2007, The Villager published a feature on Marin, who "was born into poverty in the town of Santana, in the central Mexican state of Puebla that their restaurant is named after."

She was one of 12 children. In 1979, at age 15, she left her parents and the world she knew behind to cross illegally into the United States. It was a last-minute decision. An older sister had backed out after the family had paid $550 per person to a coyote (an expert — or profiteer — at smuggling people across the border). The money could not be refunded and Marin took her sister’s spot, traveling with another sister, that sister’s husband and his brother.

The coyote led them on a five-hour hike over a Tijuana mountain into Southern California, using his familiarity with the route to avoid authorities. Marin and her small party eventually made it to Los Angeles, where they boarded a cross-country bus to New York City. Her sister and brother-in-law rented a tenement apartment in the East Village, and Marin lived with them. Her childhood and her formal education were over.

Over the next decade, she worked various factory jobs, becoming a legal resident in 1987 through a government amnesty program, per The Villager.

Marin’s sister and brother-in-law launched the restaurant in 1990… with Marin taking over in 2000. (Marin’s sister and brother-in-law run Downtown Bakery II at 69 First Ave.)

Meanwhile, we'll likely have a Puebla-heavy diet the next few days…


[EVG photo]

The new Holiday Cocktail Lounge opens tonight

[Photo from December]

The latest iteration of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge returns tonight after a three-plus year closure.

A quick recap. Stefan Lutak, the longtime proprietor who bought the place in 1965, died in early 2009 at age 89. Shortly before his death, Stefan decided to retire, and the bar closed for several weeks… only to reopen under new management on Jan. 17, 2009.

The post-Stefan Holiday lasted until Jan. 29, 2012. News broke a few weeks later that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, which makes Pirate's Booty, bought the building at 75 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue. After some anxious moments, we learned that Barbara Sibley, who lives in the building and runs La Palapa next door, would be helping oversee the operation.

No. 75 needed a a top-to-bottom renovation, and it was a long process. Sibley talked to us about it back in January 2014.

The building was in terrible condition ... It’s been such an exercise in zen and archaeology. As much as we’ve been trying to maintain it, you couldn’t keep everything. We were lucky on their closing night that we didn’t all fall through. Every time we look behind a wall it’s been a major repair. It’s been an endless process.

And here we are.

According to The New York Times, who first reported on tonight's reopening, "enough of the bar’s ancient innards have been retained that old regulars will recognize a familiar friend."

The tight horseshoe bar where W. H. Auden and Allen Ginsberg (and possibly Leon Trotsky) once presided has been given a rubdown, though it has been moved about 20 feet and now stands in the center of the space. Also still there are the battered awning, an old wooden phone booth and an exotic mural from the place’s earlier days as a burlesque cabaret.

The resurrection could not have happened without Robert Ehrlich, the snack-food mogul who created Pirate’s Booty, who decided to buy the building and preserve the bar.

The bar will include some beer-and-shot combos for $8 … and $6 cocktails served in glassware used by the old Holiday. But it won't all be the old Holiday. There are a few craft cocktails on the menu, via Michael Neff (the Rum House) and his brother Danny.

Said Michael Neff: "You have to honor the past without trying to duplicate it — that would be Disneyland."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

There goes the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Last night at the Holiday

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge is closing Saturday night

"Beat writers...spent considerable time with the bookies, dope dealers, working girls and alcoholics for whom the Holiday was a second home"