The 'Wolf' of Avenue A

New(ish) month, new flavor of the month with corresponding art on the gate at Mikey Likes It, 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street.

Andre Trenier's 1980s-flavored mural in October pays tribute to one of the greatest films from that era — "Teen Wolf," which topped "Out of Africa" for Best Picture that year as I recall.

Anyway! As always, the mural coincides with the flavor of the month, which is Teen Wolf, a combo of maple ice cream, chocolate covered marshmallows and pumpkin spice Oreos.

And a bonus photo of last month's mural – Tone Lōc ... (the flavor was "Wild Thing") ...

Friday's parting shot

10th Street and Avenue D via Bobby Williams...

Recycling day on 6th Street

Near First Avenue... someone Downsizing?

Previously

Come-to-the-Jesus-Lizard moment

The Jesus Lizard are back, touring for the first time in eight years. They'll be at the Irving Plaza on Dec. 10.

Meanwhile, enjoy "Gladiator" (above!) from 1992.

1st look at the new corporate partners of the birdbaths in Tompkins Square Park

The Robins seems to like the Fruit Loops anyway...



Photos by Steven

Time for the Harvest Festival at the 6th and B Community Garden

Tomorrow marks the 32nd annual Harvest Festival at the 6th and B Community Garden (on the corner of Sixth Street and Avenue B, if this is helpful).

There will be music, BBQ and a raffle during the festivities (2-7 p.m.).

You can find more details on Facebook here. Find a list of the raffle prizes (dinner for two at the Odessa!) here.

Openings: Ummburger, the Fern, Kokus, though just through Sunday

Ummburger opened this week at 99 First Avenue at Sixth Street.

As the name implies, this place sells a variety of burgers as well as salads. Here's a look at their menu from the Ummburger website...


[Click image to go big]

The drinks menu includes what they are calling "Ummazing Chalices," 38-ounce fish bowl cocktails on dry ice, including the Mari Juana, which pairs apple, pineapple, kiwi liquid smoke and vodka. ($25).

The previous tenant at this address, Mancora, moved across Sixth Street this past summer.

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The Fern is now open at 166 First Ave. near 10th Street. The bar-restuarant is from the same folks who run the Belfry on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. Don't know anything else about the place at the moment. The Fern only has a placeholder website at this moment.

This address was previously, in fairly quick succession, North River and The Nite Owl, which closed in September 2015.

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And Kokus, billed as NYC's "first plant-based soft serve with organic cultured coconut cream and lightly sweetened with raw honey," is serving its wares through Sunday at the Bowery Market, 348 Bowery at Great Jones. (They started on Wednesday.)

Mayor and Mendez team up for Town Hall meeting next Thursday (Oct. 12)

Mayor de Blasio's Town Hall Tour 2017 comes to Council District 2 next Thursday (Oct. 12).

The Mayor is hosting the Q-and-A session in collaboration with District 2 City Council Member Rosie Mendez at PS 188, 442 E. Houston St. (at Baruch Drive). The Town Halling starts at 7 p.m.

If you want to attend, then you need to RSVP by 5 p.m. on Tuesday (the 10th). You can RSVP right here.

2 more weekends for Cafe Orlin

[Photo from Sunday]

News began circulating back on Sept. 8 that St. Mark's Place mainstay Cafe Orlin was closing after service on Oct. 15.

A rep for Cafe Orlin confirmed the closure in an email, as I posted on Sept. 8: "Yes — it's sad but true. The owner asked me to say that he's thankful to all who came to the cafe over the years. Cafe Orlin had a great run of 36 plus years, but he's ready for a change."

Grub Street reported that the Cafe Orlin owner is also the building's landlord, "and a new restaurant will open in its place."

I don't know much about the ownership. This is from a Village Voice feature on sister restaurant Cafe Mogador in September 2014:

Owner Rivka Orlin came to New York City from her home in Essaouira, Morocco, at the start of the 1980s, and helped her recently transplanted brother run Cafe Orlin, still in operation just down the street. Shortly after, the siblings heard the space at 101 St. Marks was becoming available, so they opened a second restaurant, using recipes from their mother in the kitchen and naming it after the small town in Essaouira where their Israeli-Moroccan family came from. Mogador is now run by Rivka’s nephew, Gal, and cousin, Ariela.

Anyway, you have two weekends left to visit Cafe Orlin at 41 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue. It first opened in March 1981.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cafe Orlin will close next month after 36 years in business (34 comments)

Crops for Girls closes on 9th Street

[EVG photo from yesterday]

An EVG reader writes in to say that Crops for Girls, the longtime hair salon at 437 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, has closed now. (There has been a for rent sign in the front window of late.)

In a Yelp post from last month, one longtime customer wrote about owner-stylist Michael D’Amico: "Sad to see him leave the biz because there is no one else who can cut consistently like he does."

Here's more on D’Amico from a New York Times piece in 2014:

Since 1992, Michael D’Amico has made a business out of chopping off women’s hair, dealing exclusively in above-the-shoulder styles. Bobs, pageboys, asymmetrical razor cuts — they are his specialty. If the salon had a motto, it might be “No men, no ponytails, no exceptions.”

Mr. D’Amico, 50, was a beauty school student in Manhattan in the 1980s. Women on the streets — this was the heyday of new wave and punk — didn’t look like the girls back in Jersey City, where he grew up. “I would see girls walking around with buzz cuts and other cropped, funky hair,” he recalled. Hoping to avoid a career giving ho-hum trims, he decided to narrow his focus. “There are only so many styles you can do with long hair, and I like the challenge of working with people who are making a big change,” he said.

There isn't any mention of a reason for the closure on the salon's website or Facebook page.

Dorian Grey, the other retail tenant at No. 437, closed in June 2016. The gallery owners were apparently unable to secure a new lease with the landlord, Benchmark Real Estate Group, who bought the building for $6 million in the spring of 2016.

Something for the kids at La Plaza this Halloween

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

The fun starts at 4 p.m. here on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street on Halloween (Oct. 31!) ... find more details here.

[Updated] Curb work damages Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame star

The sidewalk ramp improvement — under a city contract via the Department of Design and Construction — continues in the neighborhood, with workers on Second Avenue now.

Yesterday, while workers were on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street, one of the fragile plaques from the Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame, was damaged...





This plaque in question was already missing part of its border and looked to have been patched up previously.

This development was particularly upsetting to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, who has been working to have this Walk of Fame preserved and relocated. (You can read about their campaign here.)

In 1984, Abe Lebewohl, who owned the Second Avenue Deli in this corner location, installed this Yiddish Walk of Fame to commemorate when the area was a vibrant Yiddish theater community in the early 20th century. In recent years, many of the stars in the double row have become worn down or broken and are mostly illegible. Higher rents forced Second Avenue Deli to vacate the premises in 2006. A Chase branch is here now.

As we understand it, Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer was here yesterday and spoke with the owner of the contracting company. He said that his crew will fix the cracked piece and the remaining work will not have an impact on the other five-pointed gold stars.

"Moving forward, we will continue to work with a variety of stakeholders to ensure the long-term preservation of the Walk," said Harry Bubbins, East Village & Special Projects Director, at the GVSHP.

Updated 6:30 p.m.

The work crew patched up the star on the sidewalk...



Previously