Common Ground has closed

The bar/restaurant at 206 Avenue A between East 12th Street and East 13th Street closed after service on Saturday.

Here's their official explanation, via Twitter...

Our lease is up, and it's time to move on. It's been a great 10 years. This weekend will be our last, so come on down for a few last rounds.

— Common Ground (@CommonGroundNYC) May 1, 2015

The owners have another location, West 3rd Common, on West Third Street and Broadway.

As for what's next at 206… we're not sure at this time. This past November, the proprietors of The Garret on Bleecker Street went before the CB3/SLA committee for a new liquor license for the address. However, CB3 denied the application, citing concern from neighbors and the applicant's inexperience operating a business, among other reasons, according to the minutes (PDF!) of that month's meeting.

[Updated] New bar reveal at 16 1st Ave.

[EVG photo from November]

Workers have removed the plywood at 16 First Ave. between East First Street and East Second Street ...



Coming soon is a new bar/restaurant from the owners of Murray Hill's Mercury Bar and Tonic East. Materials on file (PDF!) at the CB3 website describe the new venture as a a "sports themed restaurant bar and lounge" with daily hours of 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. Name is/was to be determined.

The space was previously home to Sutra, owned by former CB3 member Ariel Palitz. That club closed last September after being on the market for several years.

Updated 5/5

BoweryBoogie follows up, noting that the new venture is called Bar Akuda. Per their Facebook pitch, they're a "sports bar in the LES … specials, happy hour, student discounts, NYU & corporate parties."



Previously on EV Grieve:
Sutra has closed; big sports bar on the way

Fourth Street Central has closed

The small cafe at 63 E. Fourth St. recently closed… just after opening this past August. We didn't hear any reason for the closure, which happened about a week to 10 days ago.

Fourth Street Central seemed to be in a good spot so close to La MaMa, the New York Theatre Workshop and other groups part of the East 4th Street Cultural District between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

There's an unconfirmed rumor that a sandwich shop with a retail component is in the works for the space.

Thanks to Bill the Libertarian Anarchist for the photo!

A quick look inside NatureEs, the new organic cafe coming to 21 E. 1st St.

This past Friday, we noted that NatureEs, the new organic cafe at 21 E. First St., will open next Monday, May 11.

Meanwhile, an EVG reader shared these two interior shots with us…





NatureEs is located in Jupiter 21, the newish residential building between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
NatureEs calls: About the organic cafe coming to where Mars Bar 2.0 was in the works

Now playing at the Quad Cinema: Closed for Renovations

[Image via Cinema Treasures]

Last August, Variety reported that the Quad Cinema had been sold to real-estate developer Charles S. Cohen.

Cohen, a well-known film buff, has plans to renovate the 43-year-old theater on East 13th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

Anyway, it's now renovation time. The theater closed back on Friday, and will return in the fall, per the Quad's website:



"New York City has perhaps the greatest concentration of serious cinema lovers in the country," said Cohen in a statement published by Indiewire, "but for too long, these great, knowledgeable fans have had few places to see classic and important films on the big screen. The always-vital Quad Cinema will now become an even more important destination for classic films and compelling new ones – and the moviegoers who love them."

The present plan is for the theater to keep its name and to maintain its four-screen configuration.

"The torch has been passed so that the Quad can remain a beacon of opportunity here in New York for the independent film community," Cohen said.

According to Cinema Treasures, the Quad was Manhattan's first four-screen theater when it opened in 1972.

Previously

Fight night

Last night, some longtime residents of Avenue B projected the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight against a building on East Third Street... and people stopped to watch...



... a lot of people. Including some local firefighters...





Gothamist has a video from the scene here.

Thanks to Joon and Shutter-ed for the photos!

Sunday in the Park

Another visit by Marlene/Hot Dog ... photo in Tompkins Square Park via @edenbrower

Week in Grieview

[Photo from Friday on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]

Update on the deadly NYPD shooting at 538 E. Sixth St. (Monday)

Posters arrive to memorialize Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa on Second Avenue (Thursday)

Sushi Park chef sues 121 Second Ave. landlord Maria Hrynenko (Tuesday)

A new look for the Joe Strummer (Thursday)

A second Tompkins Square Bagels shop confirmed for the East Village (Monday)

The Stage is now crowdfunding to help in its legal fight with Icon Realty (Friday)

An East Village salon with Nepalese roots (Tuesday)

The Marshal seizes Luca Bar (again) on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

Residents say 125 Second Ave. remains uninhabitable (Tuesday)

"Stomp" is leaving the East Village (Thursday)

Films on the Green return to Tompkins Square Park with 2 Friday nights in June (Friday)

Lan Cafe has closed (Thursday)

Out and About with Mark Mace (Wednesday)

Why Kennedy Fried Chicken is closing on East 14th Street (Monday)

95 Avenue A now free of construction netting and sidewalk bridge (Tuesday)

Filming Krysten Ritter at Sophie's (Wednesday)

Frustration and declining sales at Punjabi Grocery & Deli (Tuesday)

Met Foods checks out of its longtime Third Avenue home (Monday)

What the cluck? Chickens in the works for former vegetarian hotspot Dirt Candy on East Ninth Street (Tuesday)

... and some found artwork the other evening...


[Via @briankubovcik]

E-Nail is back open

The salon at 125 Second Ave. reopened today … for the first time since the deadly gas explosion at 121 Second Ave. on March 26. (E-Nail had temporarily relocated to a space on East Sixth.)

Meanwhile, Enz's remains closed next door… owner Mariann Marlowe is currently selling her vintage clothes from a storefront at 627 E. Sixth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C. And at 127 Second Ave., B&H Dairy hopes to reopen in the coming week.

H/T EVG reader Beth

You have until 5 p.m. to hang out in a cemetery

You can visit the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue until 5 p.m. as the headline explained.

Read more about the cemetery here.

At the NYC Cannabis Parade

EVG contributor Stacie Joy was in Union Square yesterday for the annual event … in which an estimated 400 people (that number via the Post) marched down Broadway from 32nd Street to Union Square for an afternoon of festivities…








[Hello Dana Beal]

















From the Post:

[T]he cops adopted a tacit all-toke, no-action policy.

“We have zero arrests, and we don’t plan on having any,” one sergeant told a Post reporter.

Advocates praised the cops’ mellow take on toking as the latest sign New York was inching toward decriminalization.

Last month, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson warned the NYPD in a memo obtained by The Post that his office would no longer prosecute people caught possessing — or even smoking — marijuana in public.

5:15 a.m.

Photo by Bobby Williams