East Village Cheese makes move to 7th Street official

As we reported on May 27, East Village Cheese was going to relocate this summer to East Seventh Street.

There's now a sign up at the shop at 40 Third Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street with a few more details on the relocation…



Their current lease expires at the end of July. In January, we heard that the Duane Reade on Third Avenue at East 10th Street was going to expand into adjacent storefronts on that block, forcing out several businesses, including East Village Cheese and Excel Custom Framing. (Excel has found a new home on Third Avenue, which we will write about in a separate post.)

The Cheese shop owners had considered a move to Avenue A and East 13th Street, though that plan never materialized.

The new East Village Cheese will be at 80 East Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, which was the former home of Warwick and Framus Custom Shop.

H/T East Village Eats

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors: Duane Reade expansion will take over adjacent storefronts, including East Village Cheese (74 comments)

[Updated] Confirmed: East Village Cheese will be moving to Avenue A later this year

The downtown skyline this morning

Photo by Bobby Williams

Puke Island Part 5 is this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

Bands today will include:

2 p.m. — Universal Truth Machine
2:45 — The Graveyard School
3:30 — Skitzopolis
4:15 — Get Ignorant
5 — Lucifer Jones

Find more details here.

Manhattanhenge this

@evgrieve St.Mark's pic.twitter.com/B0mnAKLye9

— Christian Burns (@Knickerbock4Lif) June 7, 2015

Bringing home the bacon

Spotted outside Porchetta this morning on East Seventh Street … via EVG correspondent Steven…

'The Oracle of the Past, Present and Future' now on display in Tompkins Square Park

Artist Jorge Luis Rodriguez installed his new sculpture yesterday in Tompkins Square Park …



Here's more about it via Facebook:

"The Oracle of the Past, Present and Future" (2015) consists of geometric interlocking parts of steel, wood and glass elements that stands about 12 feet high with a magnificent steel dome and designed for Tompkins Square Park …"

The sculpture is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Growth, his large-scale, permanent work at the East Harlem Art Park at East 120th Street and Sylvan Place.

EVG correspondent Steven took these photos of Rodriguez, who teaches at at the School of Visual Arts, Manhattan Community College, and Kingsborough Community College.



The installation will officially be dedicated today at noon … you and the night heron have until May 2016 to enjoy this in the Park.

Some earlier reports did contain a little misinformation…

@evgrieve did you see the shrine the rats built? pic.twitter.com/3WKv662lD3

— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) June 5, 2015

Zoltar, now with the personal branding back in place

[September 2012]

Zoltar graced us with his presence outside Gem Spa starting on Sept. 23, 2012 (as seen in the above photo).

And Zoltar hadn't really looked the same since his glass was bashed by a skateboard in April 2013 here on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place… the replacement glass didn't carry the ZOLTAR name…



Now, though! Yesterday, the ZOLTAR SPEAKS lettering returned!



See?!



Though given how vocal Zoltar can be, is the SPEAKS part necessary?

The beautiful south

The debut record by Atlanta-based Algiers came out on Tuesday… Here's a quickie band bio via label Matador:

A trio of émigrés of the American Deep South, now split between New York and London, Algiers synthesizes its eclectic influences, from Nina Simone and PJ Harvey to Suicide and Public Enemy, into frightening new forms.

The video here is for "Black Eunuch."

Afternoon break

Outside St. Stanislaus on East Seventh Street today via Derek Berg…

EV Grieve Etc.: A rise in serious crime; an homage to Arthur Russell

[Photo on East 7th Street by Derek Berg]

A rise in serious crime in most NYPD precincts, including the 9th (DNAinfo)

Some 100,000 rent-stabilized apartments may go market-rate (The Real Deal)

June is Gay Pride Month (Off the Grid)

East Village-based photographer Sally Davies has an exhibit at the Bernarducci Meisel Gallery (Bernarducci Meisel Gallery)

The story behind the mural "Nepal 2015" on the Avalon Chemists building at Second Avenue and Houston (Bedford + Bowery}


[EVG photo of "My Nepal" from Saturday]

An homage to Arthur Russell (The Independent)

Egg Rolls, Egg Creams & Empanadas Festival returns to Eldridge Street this Sunday (The Lo-Down)

A bike/coffee shop opens on Canal Street (BoweryBoogie)

The Super 8 films of Stephanie Gray playing at the Anthology Film Archives (The Villager)

One resident's unchain challenge (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Midtown's vanishing historic architecture (The New York Times)

...and won't someone please help Santa in Tompkins Square Park?

Name change for Bar Akuda?

[EVG photo from May 8]

Bar Akuda, the sports bar-restaurant at 16 First Ave. between East First Street and East Second Street, opened on May 21.

Perhaps ownership decided to rethink the name, which sounds like a Heart song.

An EVG reader notes this morning that the Bar Akuda is sign is gone... and there's a banner noting a more dignified-sounding name — The Grayson...



There isn't any mention of a name change on the bar's Facebook page... here is the latest entry...

On the road again: Who's behind the wheel of that apocalyptic-looking RV

You've likely seen this Mad Max-era RV parked around the neighborhood in recent months.

Back in March, BoweryBoogie spotted the vehicle with corrugated siding and barred-over windows parked at the Baruch Houses. (We've seen it moored on East Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.)

BoweryBoogie reported that this Urban Assault Vehicle had "instilled a sense of intrigue (nay, suspicion) among the population." (Curbed wrote that "this might be the scariest vehicle, recreational or otherwise, we have ever seen.)

For the past three weeks, the RV — which has a bed and some flowers inside its rather nondescript interior — has been parked on East Houston … anywhere between Avenue A and Avenue C. A few residents apparently have complained "because of garbage in the street and [the owner] sitting there idling, causing noise and fumes," one resident told us.

One resident also said that the owner, who apparently lives inside, was BBQing on the street, which prompted a visit by the FDNY.

Anyway, the owner has introduced himself as "an artist working at the Whitney Museum."

You can see Jared Madere's work starting Oct. 16 at the Whitney.

Perhaps the artist will even arrange a shuttle service between here and the Whitney.