Summertime snow job

In the 568 posts the past few days about crews filming the Amazon series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on St. Mark's Place, we've seen the crew set up a Christmas tree stand and reindeer ... not to mention bring in cars that fit the dramedy's 1958 setting... so we'll wrap it up with a photo from last night when it all came to life in front of the cameras between Avenue A and First Avenue — complete with fake snow...



Thanks to @jaclynstagrams for the above photo!

Meanwhile, on the L train...

Photo by Grant Shaffer...

The Joey Ramone street sign returns to Joey Ramone Place

[Photo from this morning]

After nearly a month-long absence, the city returned the Joey Ramone Place street sign yesterday afternoon (H/T Jessie Malin!) to the northeast corner of the Bowery and Second Street. (This block of Second Street is co-named for the frontman of the Ramones.)

It appeared that the light pole on this corner was under repairs. (Plus, the street sign looked as if it had been bashed a few times.)

The sign first went up in November 2003. The sign remains pretty high up there ...


[Photo from this morning]

This placement happened several years ago after the sign was previously stolen a half-dozen times. So workers raised the sign to 20 feet. Standard street signs are between 12 and 14 feet off the ground, per the Post.



Meanwhile, the two-year-old Joey Ramone-CBGB 40th anniversary mural a block away at Bleecker and the Bowery has been painted over in place of a Debbie Harry-Blondie mural by Shepard Fairey. Will post on that a little later.

You may now enter and exit Tompkins Square Park at 8th Street and Avenue B

Two months-plus after the sinkhole began to sink... the entrance/exit is back in use.


[EVG photo from June 18 ... the times that we had]

Thanks to @dens for the top photo!

The owner of East Village Wines says goodbye to the neighborhood

[Photo via Facebook]

East Village Wines, 138 First Ave. between Ninth Street and St. Mark's Place, is now under new ownership.

Imran Ahmed was the store's manager for years before taking over as an owner in 2008.

Ahmed and his team's last day at this shop was on Aug. 7.

This week, he sent an email to the shop's mailing list. Ahmed was happy to have me share the letter here. He did not disclose why he sold the business.

Dear friends,

If you had told me 24 years ago, when I first walked into East Village Wines, that someday I’d be a owner of East Village Wines and a happily married father of two happy and healthy kids, I’d have laughed harder than I ever have. I have spent the majority of my adult life in this store. Through it, you welcomed me into your living rooms, weddings, and one-man shows, with a tall glass and a hug. So it is with a great deal of sadness that I must inform you that I have sold the business, and have left 138 First Avenue in the hands of somebody new.

The East Village is one of the most vibrant and creative places in the world, and it was a pleasure to befriend so many beautiful and talented people while I was here. Some of my customers I have known since they were in the womb (yes, that makes me feel old), back when their parents were regular customers, still swinging from the chandeliers of the East Village. I have loved and lost so many people through this little shop, that is hard to sit back and take it all in.

I have seen a lot of the East Village change in the last quarter century, from riots in the Park to caravans of double-decker tourist buses loading and unloading out front. We stayed open through a few international crises, a handful of hurricanes, and even a blackout. From the Polish butcher next door to Michelin-starred dining across the street, the neighborhood has evolved in ways nobody could have predicted, and I had a front row seat.

I will never be able to repay all the friendship and inclusiveness I have experienced here at East Village Wines. This store has broadened my idea of family, and has given me a place I am proud to call home. I leave this store a happier man. I’m not sure what awaits me, but hopefully, we can sit down sometime and have a glass of wine and talk about it.

Thank you all.

[Image of Ahmed via Yelp.]

There has been a liquor store at the address since after prohibition in 1933. It is known at the moment who the new owners are, and what, if any, changes they might make at East Village Wines.

[Updated] Pata Negra has closed on 12th Street

[Image via Facebook]

Pata Negra, the 25-seat Spanish tapas and wine bar on 12th Street just west of First Avenue, has closed for business as of July 31.

Chef-owner Rafael Mateo told me this in an email yesterday: "10-year lease expired. Cost of doing business and the changing East Village contributed to decision not to renew."

In 2010, Mateo wrote a compelling post (H/T Eater) on his blog about the trials and tribulations of running a restaurant in NYC. He addressed the hell that is the NYC Department of Health.

The Department of Health has been on a witch hunt. I understand the need for transparency with its newly implemented grading system, and further agree with the best conditions for public safety. But make no mistake about it, the DOH agenda is about making money for the city, period. Every day at 66 John Street, hundreds of owners are crammed into a stuffy room with a 10:00 am appointment summons to testify against all of the violations heaped upon their respective businesses during the latest visit from a DOH inspector. The owners are iced all morning; on my latest appointment I arrived before 10 am and was seen at 3:30 pm, all for an opportunity to be heard by a “judge”, whose qualifications are suspect. The owners are called like cattle into a room with the “judge”. A tape recorder is turned on, the owner speaks, and then the “judge” sends the owner back into the lion’s den awaiting some 45 minutes for a verdict. The verdict is an average of $2000. in fines. There are hundreds of owners there per day. Do the math. $$$$

That’s the cost of doing business. This has become my favorite go to expression for unforeseeable, necessary expenses and costs that a business commands. The DOH paid me a visit in February. Fine, $2000. I fixed the violations. Then they paid me a visit in October and I received 17 points which amounts to a “B” rating (13 or less for an “A”). The Inspector said he was sending me another inspector in a couple of weeks. He stated that I had a potential for an “A” if I fixed certain violations. Four weeks later another inspector came in and fined me 21 points for completely different violations. She awarded me a “B” with a grade pending, meaning that another inspector will be paying me a visit in the next month as well.

In a follow-up note today, Mateo said that in 2017, the DOH is better at working with business owners rather than just using the system to generate income through excessive fines.

"On more than one occasion, inspectors were helpful to me in finding solutions to problems and were collaborative in education. As a result the business received fewer violations and more A ratings. The desired effect of my blog post, and the ensuing press made some impact (I believe) ... While it is still far from perfect, it has improved drastically since Mayor de Blasio has taken office."

He offered more insights about the East Village business environment in this blog post from February. It offers more insight into why it wasn't possible to stay in business.

75 1st Ave. now in bendy thing phase

[Photo by Goggla]

There's more activity now to note at 75 First Ave., where the bendy thing arrived yesterday morning for some cement-pumping action here next to the Rite Aid on Fifth Street.

Meanwhile, as previously reported earlier this month, sales are underway at the 8-floor, 22-unit condoplex. The three units on the market are asking between $1.79 million and $2.25 million.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Developer: A shorter building in the works now for 75 First Avenue

High-rise for 75 First Avenue back in play

Long-stalled First Avenue site now has a brand-new rendering

Report: Long-dormant 1st Avenue development site changes hands

Plywood report and the future of 75 1st Ave. (Spoiler: condos)

Sales underway for Rite Aid-adjacent condoplex on 1st Avenue

Dec. 1 date set for Boris & Horton, Avenue A's new dog cafe

As we first reported last month, Boris & Horton, billed as "New York's first dog friendly coffee shop and community space," is coming to the former Ost Cafe and Raclette spaces on Avenue A at 12th Street.

The cafe made New York magazine's fall-opening listings. (The tentative opening date is Dec. 1, per New York.)

Here's what the magazine had to say in the preview: "Logan Holzman and her father, Coppy, the founder of Charity Buzz, will open this dog café in late fall, where canines can play while their humans hang out and sip wine or coffee. Logan has an animal-rescue background, so she also hopes Boris & Horton (named for the Holzmans’ dogs) will host adoption events."

Boris & Horton has a teaser site up with a little more info about the owners.


[Screengrab from the Boris & Horton website]

DNAinfo reported that the space will be divided by a glass wall into two sections per Department of Health rules. There's a cafe side with food and drinks ... with a dog-friendly side that will sell pet supplies.

Ost Cafe closed in February after nine years in business. Their owners said that it had "become too expensive to stay open any longer." (The Grand Street location is still in service.) Raclette moved from its 14-seat space on A around the corner to the former Northern Spy on 12th Street last fall.

It's 1958 (still) on St. Mark's Place — not to mention Christmas

It's like Santa's Workshop on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue... where crews have been busy prepping for shooting the Amazon series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" ... the dramedy is set in 1958. And apparently around Christmas, as these photos via Scuba Diva show...







Some of the storefronts have been redressed to look like old-timey businesses...


[You in the Iron Maiden shirt — move to another decade!]

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Meanwhile!

The block is full of some old-timey automobiles as well, as Derek Berg discovered...









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Looks like a big shoot... as of early this morning, there wasn't any parking allowed on parts of Avenue A from St. Mark's Place to Sixth Street, and on a few of the side streets...



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Updated 8 p.m.



Here's a look at Physical Graffitea on St. Mark's Place this evening... dressed up as Quality Shoe Repair for the shoot, but open for business right now...



Photos by Steven...

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing 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: Felix Velazquez
Occupation: Social Worker
Location: 6th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A
Time: 3:50 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 21

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I came here when I was 13 years old — I’m going to be 70. I came to this neighborhood right after I got out of the Navy. I’d been in Vietnam and I came back to this neighborhood around 1969 or 1970. This was free love, drop out, lots of upheaval throughout the United States against the Vietnam War.

This was a neighborhood where my first rent was $73 a month. Basically when I came here, this was a slum. The demarcation line was Avenue A. There was a lot of abandonment in the early 1970s. The other side of First Avenue was, not very expensive, but the difference was major. Even the other side of First Avenue on St. Mark's was pretty much abandoned. Second Avenue was blithe.

This was a marginal community, but there was also a community of immigrants. You had a lot of Polish, Russian, Latinos, Puerto Ricans. There were hardly any Dominicans at that time – they came later. Since it was an immigrant neighborhood, you had lots and lots of churches, and you still have a lot of churches. The city was pretty rough, and I think the only places that didn’t change were probably Park Avenue, 5th Avenue, but most of the other neighborhoods went through some heavy-duty stuff.

I’ve been working in the neighborhood for a long time. I graduated from social work school in 1979, and most of my social work has been in this neighborhood. There was a lot of organizing in this neighborhood. I did some organizing for housing, because of the gentrification going on. I became a member of the Community Board for awhile – I was vice chairman and I was chairman of the Housing Committee for Community Board 3 for a long time. This was a fighting community; it still is a fighting community, but it had been slowly changing with gentrification. Organizing is still going on. There are still a lot of people doing it. It’s always been kind of a leftist community.

On a day-to-day basis, I lived in the neighborhood and I survived. It was fun, and it’s always been a neighborhood where you have lots of live music, art, poetry. The Nuyorican Poets Café was formed at that time in the 1970s. In the Latino community, in the Puerto Rican community, you had El Teatro, El CoCo que Habla, which was a group of young kids who were involved in theater, and Miguel Piñero came out of there. So there was a lot of activity and a lot of fun. You were young.

And there were a lot of drugs — a lot of easy access to just about any kind of drug you wanted, so it was always a struggle to not get caught up in that kind of thing. As a social worker I helped a lot of people get out of drugs. I worked for St. Mark's Place Institute for Metal Health for many years.

I love New York and I love this neighborhood. It’s a 24-hour neighborhood — 24-hour supermarkets, delis. If you like witchcraft, you can find it down here. If you like stand-up comedy, you find it down here ... live music, rock and roll, salsa, whatever you like, you got it. You’ve got lots and lots of clubs with live music. If you’re into music, this is the place – outdoor concerts, jazz festivals. It’s a great neighborhood – I love it.

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

Capturing lightning on a building

EVG reader Eben Hall shared this photo from last night ... a composite of the lightning strikes on One World Trade Center, as viewed from Avenue C. Captured between 11 p.m and midnight.

[Updated] Woman pushed onto F train tracks at 2nd Avenue in unprovoked attack; victim in stable condition

A 49-year-old woman was pushed onto the northbound F train tracks at Second Avenue during an unprovoked attack last night around 9, according to published reports.

There wasn't a train approaching the station at the time. Several people jumped onto the tracks and helped the woman back up to the platform. Police said that she left the station under her own power and was taken to Bellevue, where she is in stable condition with a head injury.

Per NBC 4: "Police [said] that the suspect told the woman 'I'm going to push you' and the suspect then shoved the woman."

Police described the suspect as a black male in his 20s wearing dark clothing. He remained at large this morning.

Here's a video clip of the NYPD statement via Andy Mai of the Daily News...

Capt. Hsiao Loo of Manhattan South Detective Bureau briefing reporters on a 49 yo female push on tracks at 2nd Ave F train station #NYC pic.twitter.com/gQ2Xt271sZ

— Andy Mai (@MaiAndy) August 23, 2017

Updated 11:30 a.m.

The Daily News spoke with the shove victim, Kamala Shrestha, a mother of three, at Bellevue.

“He said something I don’t understand, he said ‘Do you want to die with me?’” or something. I didn’t understand what it was.”

He was skinny but strong and he shoved her hard, she said.

“I didn’t want to die. I yelled for someone, and somebody came, two guys,” she explained. They pulled her up, but the man escaped.