The Chipotle on St. Mark's Place has permanently closed

Permanently closed signs now adorn the front doors of the Chipotle outpost at 19-25 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

An EVG tipster shared this news...



Chipotlers are instructed to visit the nearest location at 55 E. Eighth St.



I don't recall when this Chipotle opened. 2003? 2004? 2008? (The first one opened in the city on 44th Street and Third Avenue in 2003, per the Times.)

Chipotle recently announced that the company was closing 65 U.S. locations as part of a brand restructuring.

This article has some history of the buildings that stood here previously.

EVG Etc.: Combatting wheelchair-ramp scams; searching for serial package thief

[14th Street near C the other morning]

The owner of Via Della Pace on Seventh Street is organizing local businesses to lobby City Council and the mayor for help with wheelchair-ramp scams (The Post)

NYPD searching for this suspect wanted for package thefts in buildings across Lower Manhattan, including in the East Village (Patch)

Jeremiah Moss on Target's CBGB storefront tribute: appropriating neighborhood icons is at the heart of planned gentrification (The Village Voice)

Hunan Slurp Shop gets high marks from Adam Platt (Grub Street ... previously)

Manhattan DA will no longer prosecute marijuana arrests (WNYC)

When the Young Lords announced the founding of their New York Chapter in Tompkins Square Park in July 1969 (Off the Grid)

A vigil for the Rivington House on Aug. 8 (The Lo-Down)

LES ferry line starts service on Aug. 29 (BoweryBoogie)

An interview with Kim Gordon and Bill Nace of Body/Head (Gothamist)

Mapping the city's lost movie theaters (Curbed)

Koreatown has been overrun by chains (Eater)

A charming Iggy Pop in this French TV interview from 1988 (Dangerous Minds)

... and via the 9th Precinct ...

The #NYPD is asking your assistance in identifying these two individuals in regards to a burglary that occurred on Saturday July 21 inside of 44 Avenue B.
If you have any info we ask you to call #800577TIPS #EastVillage #NYC pic.twitter.com/AxUbWnw58q

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) August 1, 2018

A new mural to keep an eye on at Great Jones and the Bowery

A very early WIP here on the southwest corner of the Bowery and Great Jones... not sure who the artist is just yet... JR is the artist (H/T xOMars!)



Thanks to Lola Sáenz for the photos...

The Ottendorfer Library closing for 6 months to install new fire-suppression system

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

The Ottendorfer Library, 135 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street, closes on Monday for upgrades that will keep the branch out of commission for at least six months.

Here's the message via branch manager Kristin Kuehl...

The New York Public Library's oldest branch, the Ottendorfer Library, will close temporarily on August 6 to install a new fire alarm and life safety system. The 8,000-square-foot Ottendorfer Library opened in 1884 as New York City's first free public library.

The upgrades at Ottendorfer Library will strengthen the well-being of a historic New York City building as well as further support nearly 135 years of library service to the Lower East Side community.

Due to the building's age and landmark status, the project is expected to take six months. The branch ... will reopen in early 2019. While Ottendorfer Library is closed, patrons are advised to use the Tompkins Square Library at 331 East 10th Street.

As for the Tompkins Square branch between Avenue A and Avenue B ... check out their free activities (link here) for August.

Illegal hotel row mural defaced again in First Street Green Art Park

Someone has twice vandalized the illegal hotel row mural since its arrival in First Street Green Art Park back in May.

The folks at the Cooper Square Committee shared this with me on Monday:

On June 27, tenants from East 1st Street rallied alongside affordable housing activists and elected officials to celebrate the completion of a community mural project, which called attention to the high concentration and negative effects of commercially operated, short-term apartment rentals facilitated by platforms like VRBO and Airbnb. These amateur muralists were shocked, but not surprised, to find that their project had been vandalized for the second time since they had begun work on the mural in early May.

On both occasions their mural was the only artwork in the First Street Green Art Park to be hit by the vandal, and the muralists allege that their messaging about the negative impact of short-term rentals on the community, as well as information on what tenants can do if they believe an illegal hotel is being operated in their building, were intentionally obscured.

A report issued in May 2018 by City Comptroller Scott Stringer notes that Chinatown and the Lower East Side are home to a high concentration of short-term rentals. Tenants living in buildings where illegal hotel operations are common allege that illegal hotels reduce affordable housing options and compromise tenant safety and quality of life — the lucrative prices that short-term rentals fetch contribute to displacement pressure on long-term tenants, and tenants' lives are often grossly disrupted by the influx of tourists and strangers who are able to access their building.

Residents in buildings where these operations are common claim they are routinely woken up in the middle of the night by confused guests ringing their buzzers and travelers carrying luggage up and down their stairs at all hours of the night. Others have woken up to find vomit in building common areas.

The tenants who worked on the mural are currently planning their response, and are looking for support from members of the community who are also concerned about illegal hotels' detrimental effects on the community.

Here's a video about the mural project...

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[Photo from late June]

Beetle House founder brings ridiculous milkshakes to 6th Street with Cake Shake

Cake Shake USA has arrived at 514 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The shop's Instagram account simply notes: "Cake Shake USA COMING SOON TO NYC AND LA!"

Cake Shake is the creation of Zach Neil, the entrepreneur behind the Tim Burton-themed Beetle House on Sixth Street as well as the now-closed Will Ferrell bar Stay Classy on the LES and the short-lived 'Merica NYC on Sixth Street.

Neil shared a few posts via his Instagram account showing Cake Shake's vegan concoctions... such as this pop-mocha shake with vegan chocolate cake, handmade caramel corn, caramel, vegan whipped cream, etc. ...



Cake Shake will also serve over-the-top non-vegan items too, such as the Shake Rattle and Roll, aka the “Elvis” chocolate cake with peanut butter, chocolate ice cream, maple glazed bacon, banana, freeze dried banana cubes, fresh caramel and chocolate straws...



Cake Shack had a soft-opening sneak preview Saturday evening. No word on when they will be open full time.

The space was most recent recently an office for restaurateur Ravi DeRossi and DeRossi Global (they moved a short distance away) ... and Betola Espresso Bar before that.

Film Forum reopens today after months-long revamp

[Image via @FilmForumNYC]

Over on West Houston, the Film Forum reopens today with a fourth screen and new seating, among other improvements. (The movie house closed back on May 2 for the upgrades. Read more about the changes here.)

The re-opening day lineup includes the start of a Jacques Becker retrospective and the biopic "NICO, 1988."

Meanwhile, enjoy this time-lapse clip of the renovations...



The Film Forum has been in its Houston Street space between Sixth Avenue and Varick since 1990. It was established in 1970.

Tuesday's parting shot

Today in discarded items on Seventh Street via Derek Berg...

Activity in the former DF Mavens space

EVG DF Mavens correspondent Steven spotted workers inside the former DF Mavens space this morning on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place...



Workers weren't too chatty about what they were working on ... perhaps a new tenant is taking over this prime retail spot?

DF Mavens, the vegan ice cream shop, closed in January 2016 after two years in business... and the storefront has remained tenant free and for-lease-sign free since then.

Every so often, a past-due rent notice arrives on the door.

The 23-year-old Starbucks on Astor Place is now closed for 'a major renovation'

The Starbucks on Astor Place went dark yesterday (h/t to the tipster!) ... as workers covered the windows...



... to mark the start of renovations ... actually "a major renovation," per the Starbucks signage...



According to the approved work permit on file with the city (and in the DOB's ALL-CAP STYLE: "FILING FOR RENOVATIONS TO EXISTING STARBUCKS STORE. DUCT WORK, SPRINKLER HEADS, PLUMBING FIXTURES, AND RELATED GENERAL CONSTRUCTION."

The estimated cost of this work is $985,000, per the DOB.

Apparently this location — a popular spot outside the downtown 6 for its restrooms — was in need of an upgrade, at least according to some of the one-star reviews on Yelp.

For instance ...

This Starbucks is always full and the tables and chairs are always taken and theirs always a line to use the bathroom although that is next to the subway station entrance and across from a department store, this location needs lots of improvements and make the place more cozy for people.

And...

First, it's desperately in need of a renovation: 1) All the tables are scratched and worn. The chairs are the same, plus most of them are ready to fall apart. 2) The roof leaks when it rains. 3) The bathrooms look like they run a cockfighting ring out of them.

This outpost opened in the spring of 1995 (RIP Riviera Cafe!) As The New York Times noted then, this 5,000-square-foot, 80-seat Starbuck's was "the chain's largest outlet in Manhattan."

Per the Times on April 2, 1995:

The Astor Place Starbuck's has floor-to-ceiling windows and a vaulted ceiling. "We've been looking at opening stores that are a larger format, using the architecture of the site to its fullest potential," said Kat Spellman, a company spokeswoman. It is the 11th Starbuck's Coffee in Manhattan; several more are planned in the next year.

Today, there are 317 Starbucks in Manhattan, according to the Center for an Urban Future.



The tipster who passed along this temp closure news noted that the Astor Place Starbucks was expected to reopen on Sept. 6.

407 E. 6th St. is for sale; one of the 'most sound-proofed properties in NY'

The five-story townhouse at 407 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Avenue A is now on the sales block.

Cushman & Wakefield has the listing, which notes that the building can be converted into a single-family home. Also, according to the listing, the recent renovations here apparently made it a very quiet place to live...

Originally built in the early 1800s this townhouse now consists of 4 high-end residential apartments, all of which are free market, and thus the building is positioned for an easy conversion to a single family home. The garden floor (a few steps down) and 2nd floor consist of a beautiful and spacious duplex apartment that has 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 laundry rooms and an 800SF rear yard/garden. The 3rd, 4th and 5th floors consist of 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartments.

As a bonus, the basement has a large open finished storage space (approx. 700SF) with rear yard access. From 2014-2016, the property underwent a high-end gut renovation, including steel superstructure, high efficiency heating/cooling, full insulated hurricane windows (eliminating the need for security gates), all LED lighting, complete closed cell urethane insulation, soundproofing, steel superstructure with foundation footings/grade beams, silicone integrated roof coating on top of new EDPM roof system, separately metered utilities/systems are new from the street throughout the building, all exterior walls are protected with brick ties/rods.

The result is one of the best built, most energy efficient, sound-proofed properties in NY. This property is ideal for an investor to operate the building as a 4 family (plus bonus space) and utilize the air rights down the road, or for an owner/user who can occupy all or a portion of this gut renovated gem.

Asking price: $9.5 million.

The building has been on the market several times through the years, most recently in July 2012, when it was seeking $3.5 million. Public records indicates that the property sold for $3.6 million in December 2012. That sound-proofing really pays off.

Mexican restaurant back on for 157 2nd Ave.?

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

A for-rent sign remains on display in the front window at 157 Second Ave., which was most recently Yuan Noodle.

And for a few days, there was a notice from the State Liquor Authority (SLA) about a new applicant seeking to sell liquor here between Ninth Street and 10th Street ...


[Photo Saturday by Steven]

In May, applicants from Butter Midtown — doing business as E&Y Hospitality LLC — received CB3's OK to open a Mexican restaurant here.

However, the SLA notice has since been removed at No. 157. So the Mexican restaurant's status remains unclear at the moment.

Despite the application on file at the CB3 website back in May, Yuan owner Jacob Ding told Eater that his restaurant was not closing. Yuan shut down nearly two months later after a year in business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Yuan Noodle may be yielding to a Mexican restaurant on 2nd Avenue