Chroming in the rain on Seventh Street today via Derek Berg...
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
From the reader mailbag: What is this on 11th Street?
An EVG reader shared these photos of a "mysterious device" that arrived on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue over the weekend...
The reader asked: What is this?
Updated 2 p.m.
Thanks for the responses about this traffic data collection thing... see comments.
A final visit to the Tuck Shop, closing today after 13 years on 1st Street
Today is the last day in business for the Tuck Shop, which has been selling Australian meat and vegetable pies these past 13 years on First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Owner Niall Grant told me this about the closure in an email last week: "All the usual reasons can be cited but rising costs in general are behind this difficult decision. After 13 years in business I am tired of the struggle to keep a small business afloat in NYC."
Yesterday, EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the shop where the mood was fairly upbeat, all things considered...
Here's part of the Tuck Shop team (from the left): Andras Castro, Lee Galdos, Pedro Arrioca, Juan Lorenzo and Grant...
Grant said that he is especially concerned about finding jobs for his longtime kitchen team. (He was helping with résumés while Stacie was there.) Arrioca, the head chef, has been at Tuck Shop from Day 1 while Lorenzo, the sous chef, has been there for nine years, and Castro, the prep cook, for seven years. (If anybody out there has a kitchen opportunity for any of them please email tuckshopfirststreet@gmail.com.)
[Tuck Shop employee Elvis Barlow-Smith]
Here's a longtime customer who stopped in for a last Tuck Shop meal...
Grant said that he'd love to have people could come by today to have a meal and say goodbye...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Tuck Shop is closing after 13 years on 1st Street
Fables of the East Houston Reconstruction
A milestone of sorts to note in the never, ever, ever ending East Houston Reconstruction Project ... the work moved last week from the east side and the median of the Bowery at East Houston ... to the west side of the Bowery...
Anyway, as noted off and on through the years, completion of the $52.5 million East Houston Reconstruction project is now overdue by five years. The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) started this project in June 2010, reconstructing/replacing combined sewers, trunk main, water mains, catch basins, fire hydrants, sidewalks, etc., etc., along East Houston Street, from the Bowery to the FDR Drive.
The work was initially scheduled to wrap up in 2013 (heh), but has been delayed again and again as the city reportedly ran into problems with existing underground wiring and pipes.
At last look, the estimated completion was Jan. 15, 2018, per the DDC's weekly bulletin. There doesn't appear to be any published end date at this point. The last reconstruction newsletter is from the fourth quarter of 2017. (An email to the Community Construction Liaison wasn't returned.)
And in another milestone of sorts... workers yesterday removed one of the painted storage sheds on First Street between Avenue A and First Avenue that has been here dating to 2010.
[Photo by Stacie Joy]
A few items remain ... which will have to be moved as the unrelated water main replacement hits this side of First Street...
Register to vote today at the Tompkins Square Library branch
Today is National Voter Registration Day (happy National Voter Registration Day!).
On this occasion, all 216 of the city’s library branches will have voter registration drives.
Locally, the Tompkins Square Library branch at 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B will have a voter registration table available from 3:30-5 p.m. to get you ready to vote on Nov. 6.
Meanwhile, enjoy this vintage photo of Bette Davis...
Handsome Dan's has closed on 1st Avenue
Last week, a 50-percent-off sale sign arrived outside Handsome Dan's Snocone & Candy Stand on First Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street.
This was positioned as a moving sale to an EVG reader.
On Sunday, however, a "going out of business" sale sign appeared...
Everything was for sale — tables, art work, pillows, Tupperware. Sunday was to be their last day in business. There isn't any mention of a closure or move on the Handsome Dan's website or social-media properties. (Updated: Owner Daniel Levin confirmed the closure in a Facebook message.)
This outpost of the Williamsburg-based shop selling old-time candy and vintage sodas opened here in the spring of 2014. Last fall, the shop added a cafe serving breakfast burritos, wraps and other items to expand their offerings.
Before Handsome Dan's, the retail space housed A-1 Music for 26 years until January 2014.
Thanks to Lola Sáenz for the photos!
Report: Ben Shaoul sells Liberty Toye/Bloom 62 on Avenue B for $85 million
[EVG photo from April]
Ben Shaoul's deal to sell his residential conversion at 62 Avenue B at Fifth Street is apparently official.
The Real Deal reported last evening that Bronx-based investor Martin Shapiro bought Shaoul’s Liberty Toye/Bloom 62 apartment building for $85 million. Shapiro plans to keep it as rentals.
This officially ends Shaoul's nearly seven tumultuous years owning the former Cabrini Nursing Center, which shut down in June 2012. The 240-bed center — sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — provided health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. Shaoul reportedly paid $25 million for the property and closed down Cabrini.
Apartments at the new Bloom 62 — "the right place to plant your roots" — arrived in the spring of 2013, with prices topping out at $7,600 for a four-bedroom apartment. Despite the upgrades, some people thought that the units still looked like nursing home rooms, though with better lighting.
Under Shaoul's watch, the rental building gained a reputation for its rooftop DJ parties that annoyed neighbors. Shaoul finally cracked down on the ragers in the summer of 2015.
Shaoul attempted to sell the building several times — $72 million in 2014 ... and $80 million in 2015.
Last November, Shaoul decided to go condo with the property, renaming the building Liberty Toye, and renting a sales office from convicted felon Steve Croman.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement
A look at the 'Hip young crowd planting roots at Bloom 62'
Have you heard the rooftop parties at Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62? (52 comments)
Ben Shaoul looks to make a whole lot of money converting nursing home into high-end housing
More details on Ben Shaoul's condo conversion Liberty Toye, where you can buy with bitcoins
Sales underway for Ben Shaoul's Liberty Toye — at the 'crossroads that cradled the Culture of Cool'
Monday, September 24, 2018
The 9th Precinct's monthly Community Council Meeting is tomorrow (Tuesday!) night
The 9th Precinct's Community Council meetings take place on the third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m.
However, in observation of Yom Kippur last Tuesday night, the 9th Precinct rescheduled the meeting to tomorrow (Tuesday!) night at the station house, 321 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
This is an opportunity for residents to address any concerns and ask 9th Precinct officials for their input on recent crime statistics. (Find the PDF of the most recent crime stats here.)
The meeting will also provide an opportunity to meet the 9th Precinct's newish CO — Capt. John L. O’Connell.
Protection for pedestrians arrives at 75 1st Ave.
It appears that workers will be ready to kick the tires and light the fires again at 75 First Ave., where the site of an incoming condoplex has been dormant since January.
This past Friday, a crew finished erecting a more substantial sidewalk bridge here between Fourth Street and Fifth Street...
On Jan. 12, the city served up a full stop work order on the site. The DOB complaint noted "no protection for pedestrians."
Here's what the construction looked like at the time of the stop work order...
Sales had already commenced here in August 2017 for the 8-floor, 22-unit condoplex. The four units on the market are asking between $1.79 million and $2.25 million.
The foundation work dates back to October 2016.
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
Goodbye to Cucina Di Pesce
In case you missed the post from Friday afternoon... Cucina di Pesce, the unpretentious seafood-focused Italian restaurant on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery, closed after service last evening.
Cucina Di Pesce had been open for 32 years, though the building was recently sold and the rent was increased.
This is how New York magazine described the place:
Cucina di Pesce is the type of unpretentious, comfortably lived-in Italian restaurant that ruled New York before Mario Batali and his ilk turned the town upside-down. But if Cucina's ambience feels a bit dated, its flavors are absolutely contemporary. This is one of the best places in the city to get good Italian food on a budget.
There were a lot of reader comments about this closure spread out over this site, Instagram and Facebook.
A quick sampling:
That neon sign, two blocks away from their window, was a nighttime touchstone for my kids when they were little. Fish!
And...
Very sad. This was one of the first restaurants I discovered when I moved to NYC 30 years ago.
And...
When it opened we little babies thought it the most expensive restaurant in the world. And that it was going to ruin the neighborhood! Then we discovered the free happy hour mussels and pasta. Kept many of us alive for most of the 90s. Very sad.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)