What you are missing if you went away on Spring Break this week

Suckers!

Tompkins Square Park this morning.

RIP Gino DiGirolamo

[Photo of Gino in 2014 by Michael Paul]

Gino DiGirolamo, who ran a tailoring business in the neighborhood for 50-plus years, died this past Friday. He was 82. He suffered a heart attack several weeks ago, and never recovered.

Friends and customers had been leaving get-well wishes on cards on the gate at Royal Tailor Shop on 11th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...




[Photo Friday by Vinny & O]

He was born Gioacchino di Girolamo in Palermo, Sicily. After active duty in the military, he worked for two years as a tailor in Palermo before deciding to move to the United States in the early 1960s.

He worked as a tailor on Avenue A near 12th Street (in space that is now part of Boris & Horton). He bought the shop for $1,000 in 1963 when the owner decided to return to Italy.

Gino moved to 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B in late 2006. A rent increase there almost caused him to retire. However, with the help of an East Village resident, he was able to find the 11th Street space where he had been since 2014.

Gino was known for keeping long — and often unusual — hours, working overnight, barely visible behind a mound of clothes, before calling it a day around 11 a.m.


[Photo from 2009]

Here's part of a post that Jeremiah Moss wrote about Gino in 2008:

He wears a measuring tape around his neck. He has two televisions sitting one on top of the other. His walls are covered with pictures of the Italian soccer team, boxer Rocky Marciano, and a poster showing popular lengths of sleeves and trouser legs.

A gray-haired woman sits with him. While customers are present, she is silent. But after the customer leaves the shop, she gets up and berates Gino, telling him what he’s doing wrong and asking why can’t he do things the way she says. The tailor just smiles.

You can read more on Gino in these features from years past at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York ... Town & Village ... and the Local EV.

And there is a series of videos with Gino from 2007 on YouTube... including this one...



Gino lived in Ozone Park, Queens with his wife Adriana, a schoolteacher, who died in October 2013. Their son Vito was a familiar presence in the shop.

Updated:

A longtime customer launched a crowdfunding campaign "to raise funds to honor Gino with a donation in his name or potentially a plaque or marker in the neighborhood." Find details here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

Gino's short-lived retirement

Mary Pupillo - 'A true relic of the East Village'

Report: 2nd Avenue gas explosion trial to start in September

Three years after a gas explosion killed two men and leveled three buildings on Second Avenue at Seventh Street, the case will finally go to trial on Sept. 24, according to The Villager.

Per the paper: "Ahead of the projected trial date, both parties will suggest questions for jury selection on June 25, the judge on the case, Kirke Bartley said on Friday."

As previously reported in February 2016, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance's office charged landlord Maria Hrynenko, her son, Michael Jr. Hrynenko (now deceased), along with contractor Dilber Kukic and plumber Jerry Ioannidis with manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide and assault in the second degree, among other charges.

The final defendant, licensed plumber Andrew Trombettas, was charged with offering a false instrument​,​ for allegedly lending his name and license number to paperwork.

The five were accused of installing an illegal gas system, which they hid from inspectors, at 119 and 121 Second Ave. All five pleaded not guilty in 2016.

In February, Nexus Building Development Group filed plans to build a high-end condo at 119 Second Ave. Nexus paid $9.15 million for the empty lots at No. 119 and 121 between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place. Public records show that Maria Hrynenko's companies — MAH Realty and Kiev Realty — were the sellers.

Shi Miaodao Yunnan Rice Noodle opening in the former Mark Burger space on St. Mark's Place

Signage arrived Friday (H/T Steven) for Shi Miaodao Yunnan Rice Noodle, opening soon at 33 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...




[Photo by Steven]

The restaurant's website (not quite complete) is here ... it shows a few menu items, such as spicy trotter rice noodle and spicy pork intestine. Their hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

High rents caused Mark Burger to close here last fall after eight years in business.

Checking in on 886, opening later this month on St. Mark's Place

Work continues at 26 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue ... where 886 (or Eight Eight Six) — a full-service Taiwanese restaurant named after its country code — will open at the end of the month...



And in case you haven't read their note that has been up on the front door... the 886 owners, whose résumé includes The Tang on First Avenue, offer a few more details on what's to come...



"We will be serving an array of local Taiwanese stir fry along with some comforting and creative dishes. Our mission is to bring people together with delicious food and authentic Taiwanese hospitality." (The note also offers an apology in advance as they "approach our more 'noisy' construction period." I think that period has already passed.)

The previous tenant at No. 26, TK Kitchen, which served bubble tea and various Taiwanese street food, closed this past December.

Previously on EV Grieve:
886, next-level Taiwanese food, in the works for 26 St. Mark's Place

Easter with Christo and Dora

Today's red-tailed hawk activity in Tompkins Square Park included: Christo standing guard at the nest, fueling further speculation that Dora has laid eggs...



Christo bringing more materials to help fortify the nest for Dora (perhaps for extra bedrooms?) ...





And more mating...



And hanging out...



Thanks to Steven for the photos!

P.S.

Dora apparently clipped her injured wing... this photo by Steven is from yesterday morning... hopefully it's just a minor irritation... hawk watchers thought she looked OK today...



... and from this morning...

Week in Grieview

[Photo on 6th Street near 1st Avenue]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

The FDNY remembers fire marshal Christopher T. Zanetis on 2nd Street (Thursday)

Residential rentals at the former Amato Opera on the Bowery start at $10,995 (Tuesday)

Baci e Vendetta has closed on Avenue A: 'it simply wasn't sustainable' (Monday)

Onetime home of Lucky Cheng's and adjacent property sell for $12 million (Thursday)

'Freak water problem' KOs Veselka till Monday (Friday)

8-story residential building underway in this empty 9th Street lot (Thursday)

Permits filed for Sunshine Cinema-replacing boutique office building (Friday)

Atino Eyewear Optical now open on 7th Street (Wednesday)

Benny's Burritos & Empanadas will not be reopening on 7th Street (Thursday)

A look at the former Streit’s Matzo Factory (Friday)

Mandolino Pizzeria has closed on 13th Street (Wednesday)

Double Wide signs off after 7 years on 12th Street (Thursday)

Jillery is closing on 7th and B (Friday)

Last weekend for Three of Cups (Friday)

... and Shawn Chittle shared this photo from last night at the Three of Cups Lounge...



On 14th Street, Evergreen Cleaners closing, merging with Wash N Clean (Tuesday)

Club Cumming temporarily suspends live music (Monday)

The OTB parlor-bank branch post that you've been waiting for (Wednesday)

'Night mayor' Ariel Palitz holds her 1st public meeting (Tuesday)

Hot Box bringing soup noodles to 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

Restaurant in the works for former Golden Food Market on 1st Avenue and 7th Street (Monday)

Report: Cherche Midi looks to be closing on the Bowery (Monday)

The Subway (sandwich shop) isn't returning next to the McDonald's on 1st Avenue (Thursday)

... and it was a good week to track this witch's hat on Seventh Street...







And it has not been seen here since Friday...

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Free Count Dankula on 9th Street

Between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (Dog not included.) Photo by Grant Shaffer.

6 stories from March

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park today by Lola Sāenz]

A mini month in review...

• Tibetan speciality shop DöKham is now open on 1st Avenue (March 2)

• Historic Bathhouse Studios for sale on 11th Street (March 7)

• Bar taking over former HiFi space on Avenue A is called Coney Island Baby (March 8)

• A memorial for Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square (March 15)

• Bookstore coming to the former St. Mark's Bookshop on 3rd Street (March 21)

• Permits filed for Sunshine Cinema-replacing boutique office building (March 30)

Easter at the 6th and B Garden

Egg hunt tomorrow (Sunday! Easter!) at the 6th and B Garden from noon to 2 p.m.

Report: Mayor wants to penalize landlords for keeping storefronts vacant

[DF Mavens on 2nd Avenue has been tenant-free since January 2016]

From today's Post:

As a growing number of vacant storefronts dot the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday said he wants to penalize landlords who leave the shopfronts sitting empty.

“I am very interested in fighting for a vacancy fee or a vacancy tax that would penalize landlords who leave their storefronts vacant for long periods of time in neighborhoods because they are looking for some top-dollar rent but they blight neighborhoods by doing it,” he said on WNYC. “That is something we could get done through Albany.”

And...

The borough’s overall vacancy rates doubled from 2.1 percent to 4.2 percent between 2012 and 2017, according to a City Council report published in December. The report blamed landlords charging skyrocketing rents right as brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling with growing online competition.

Easter weekend egg watch in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

Red-tailed hawk watchers in Tompkins Square Park are expecting Dora to lay eggs soon. Christo and Dora were spotted mating (again) yesterday in the Park.

Anyway, here's the most recent post from Goggla on the situation:

Last year, Dora laid their first (perhaps only) egg on or around March 14. It seems all the city hawks nests are running a bit late this year, but Christo and Dora also went through the extra trauma of Dora's injury, subsequent absence, and then the introduction of Barucha/Nora. Christo and Dora seem to have settled into a routine of nest-building, mating and eating together, so we can expect egg-laying any time.

To date, Christo and Dora have had 10 hawklets these past few years.

Meanwhile... here's a photo from several weeks ago showing Dora atop one of the buildings in Village View...



Thanks to East Village and Village View resident Max Pyziur for this photo!