Late afternoon on Avenue B via Vinny & O...
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Today in last-minute dessert-related needs
As on previous Thanksgiving days... Sweet Generation, 130 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, is open today until about 4:30 p.m. (or while supplies last).
Owner Amy Chasan shared a list of available items, including pumpkin, pecan, traditional apple and apple crumble pies ... cupcake packs (Cranberry Black Sesame, Bourbon Chocolate Caramel, Caramel Apple Crumble, Pumpkin Spice) ...cookie platters ... pumpkin breads, etc.!
Sweet Generation, who turns 4 in January, partners with several nonprofit organizations and local high schools to create an internship program that teaches baking, food safety, customer service, work readiness, and entrepreneurship to teens and young adults from low-income communities.
Meanwhile, down First Avenue between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, the 59-79-99-cent shop is open for last-minute table-setting needs... probably find some Easter stuff in there too...
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Nov. 21
Today seems like a good day to toss the Christmas tree from last Christmas... as tree vendors are setting up around the neighborhood, with the chance to buy a new one just hours away...
Thanks to EVG reader Bill Spector for sharing this from 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Report: NYCHA tenants on Avenue C have been without heat and hot water since Thursday
[Photo on 6th Street from October 2017]
The temporary boilers that arrived after Superstorm Sandy nearly became permanent sitting here for five years on Sixth Street at Avenue C outside the NYCHA-owned building officially known as Lower East Side Rehab Group 5. (The Daily News once reported that a temporary boiler costs $5,000 a month to rent.)
However, a new boiler arrived last fall, thanks to funding from FEMA. Still, by January, residents in the building said that they rarely have heat or hot water, according PIX 11, who noted that the work there was "serving as a model for 17 other projects."
Today, the Daily News reports that the residents have been without heat or hot water now since Thursday's snowfall.
“This is a harsh living condition,” said tenant Neicee Johnson, saying she has no heat and barely any hot water.
She wakes each morning at 5:45 a.m. to boil a pot of water on the oven and turn on two space heaters. Her family, which includes two teen children, sleeps with multiple layers of clothing and blankets.
“We barely hang out in the apartment,” she said. “We are hardly ever home. We go to the local library or community areas until it is time for us to come home.”
Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera is quoted in the article... she is also tweeting about the situation...
We aren’t going to solve @NYCHA’s fiscal crisis overnight. But with the temperature expected to drop to dangerously cold levels over the next 24 hours, the city must treat this crisis like the emergency it is and bring in resources to fix heating problems immediately.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) November 21, 2018
The residents of LES V, the members of my own staff who live in local public housing, and all the other residents suffering deserve to know if they will be able spend Thanksgiving in their homes without risking their lives.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) November 21, 2018
Back to the Daily News:
Resident Clara Rivera, 91, has also been shivering in her apartment since the snowstorm last Thursday.
“The house is really cold. They give nothing here in the morning or night,” said Rivera, who has asthma and arthritis. "We're dealing with this every day. I'm not going to die from this cold!"
There were an estimated 6,366 NYCHA tenants throughout NYC with the same problem, according to an online “service interruption” tracker, as the News pointed out.
A tradition almost as traditional as Thanksgiving itself
The familiar Thanksgiving signage arrived just a little bit later this year than usual over at the Odessa, 119 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place ...
The complete dinner price remains the same as in recent years — $18.95. (Management bumped it from $15.95 to $18.95 for Thanksgiving 2014.)
Neither here nor there but this link takes you to Veselka's Thanksgiving menu.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Odessa breaks out the Thanksgiving Special signage
It now seems like Thanksgiving with the Thanksgiving Special at the Odessa
Odessa unveils Thanksgiving Special; complete dinner still $18.95
Thanksgiving at Odessa
Still the best Thanksgiving deal around
1 idea for a last-minute Thanksgiving meal
No Romaine holiday
Key Food on Avenue A appears to be romaine-lettuce free after yesterday's urgent CDC safety alert...
CDC is advising that U.S. consumers not eat any romaine lettuce, and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell any, until we learn more about the outbreak. This investigation is ongoing and the advice will be updated as more information is available.
• Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick.
• This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad.
• If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
• Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator.
• Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any romaine lettuce, including salads and salad mixes containing romaine.
CDC officials believe that it may be contaminated with E. coli. To date, 32 people, including 13 who have been hospitalized, have been infected with the outbreak strain in 11 states, according to the CDC.
Meanwhile, Key's sale on the Urban Meadow handle roasters continues... two varieties going for $2.99.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Scenes from a (re)marriage: Comedy classics at the Anthology Film Archives
This holiday weekend (and through Nov. 29), the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street at Second Avenue is screening a classic series titled "Stanley Cavell & the Comedies of Remarriage."
Cavell, a writer, philosopher and scholar, published several books on pop culture during his lifetime (he died in June at age 91), including "Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage" in 1981.
Per the Anthology: "Cavell astutely identified and brilliantly analyzed the hidden micro-genre that he called the 'comedies of remarriage,' a group of classic Hollywood romantic comedies whose unassuming wit belied their capacity for sustained, penetrating analysis."
Here's a look at the classic romantic comedies screening in the days ahead (find more details here) ...
Frank Capra
"It Happened One Night"
Nov. 23 at 6:45 PM
Nov. 25 at 6:15 PM
Leo McCarey
"The Awful Truth"
Nov. 23 at 9:15 PM
Nov. 25 at 8:45 PM
Howard Hawks
"Bringing Up Baby"
Nov. 24 at 2 PM
Nov. 28 at 6:45 PM
George Cukor
"The Philadelphia Story"
Nov. 24 at 4:15 PM
Nov. 26 at 9 PM
Nov. 29 at 6:30 PM
Howard Hawks
"His Girl Friday"
Nov. 24 at 6:45 PM
Nov.r 26 at 6:45 PM
Preston Sturges
"The Lady Eve"
Nov. 24 at 9:15 PM
Nov. 27 at 6:45 PM
Nov. 28 at 9 PM
George Cukor
"Adam's Rib"
Nov. 25 at 4 PM
Nov. 27 at 9 PM
Nov. 29 at 9 PM
RIP Jimi Zhivago
[Image by James Lanning via Facebook]
Jimi Zhivago, a musician, producer and composer who lived in the East Village since the early 1980s, died on Nov. 8 after a short illness*. He was 67.
Born James Daley on Aug. 1, 1951, in Brooklyn, Zhivago "had been a musical legend and force around NYC and beyond," his friend and collaborator Chris Riffle said.
Zhivago moved to Chelsea in the mid-1970s and later to the East Village where he lived on Fifth Street since 1982. He was a regular on many scenes, including at Max’s Kansas City where he performed with Klaus Nomi and Wayne County, then later at Sin-é on St. Mark's Place.
He had many varied credits to his name. He played with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and Glen Hansard, among many others. He had a major label solo record released in the late 1970s and was a founding member of Ollabelle. Zhivago played electric sitar on the Neptunes' remix of "Sympathy for the Devil" in 2015 and produced the SiriusXM show "Live at the Living Room" for 10 years, broadcasting performers like Norah Jones, Jason Isbell and Madeleine Peyroux.
"He was an integral part of so many careers," said Riffle, a singer-songwriter who recently toured with Zhivago. "From producing albums to playing live, Jimi was a huge part of the East Village and will be sorely missed by many."
There will be a musical remembrance and celebration of his life on Dec. 3 at Drom, 85 Avenue A, from 6 p.m. to midnight.
* Updated
Zhivago died from liver failure from a reaction to a drug taken for prostate cancer.
Dua Kafe, serving Albanian-American cuisine, now open on 14th Street
Dua Kafe is now up and running at 520 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B ... bringing a little homespun warmth to a block dominated by the impersonal chill of the EVGB retail-residential complex on either side of the address...
The menu, per the cafe's Instagram account, features Albanian-American cuisine with a variety of egg dishes and paninis ...
The hours don't appear to be set as the cafe remains in soft-open mode ... though regardless of the time, breakfast is served all day.
Despite its mediocre food, Panna II is a line-waiting smash thanks to Instagram and those twinkling lights
[EVG file photo]
Rachel Pelz files a long read at Thrillist on the growing appeal of Panna II Garden, the parlor-floor Indian restaurant at 93 First Ave. near Sixth Street, in a piece titled "One of NYC’s Worst-Reviewed Restaurants Is Also the Hottest Table in Town."
The place has been around for 30-plus years, and is mostly known for BYOB and a room full of twinkling lights that New York magazine once likened to eating inside a Christmas tree ... not to mention its competitive stair greeters battling neighbors Milon, Spice Wala and Royal Bangladesh.
However reasonably priced the menu items, the food is wholly mediocre at Panna II, as New York notes.
There are so many better places to eat. Still, of late, the lines seems to be getting longer outside.
To the article...
So why are tourists and New Yorkers beating down the door to get into a spot with middling food and coarse service? Because its luminous, rainbow-hued interior looks incredible on Instagram. The decor doesn’t just make up for the food; it justifies its existence.
Apparently singer-actress Vanessa Hudgens helped start the Instagram craze with a four-photo post to her 30.4 million followers last December.
Soon, Instagram exploded with #pannaii pictures of influencers and wannabe-influencers lit red and gold and green. The hashtag, which now has more than 2,000 posts, is an endless scroll of colorful lights with hardly a samosa in sight.
The owner's take...
"A lot of people are coming in and taking pictures. In '17, it got popular on Instagram, and it still is today. It’s still famous. You get all these international people who come because of Instagram," says Boshir Khan, Panna II Garden’s 44-year-old current owner.
And a discerning patron...
Alexandra Lacorne, who’s been waiting an hour to celebrate her 27th birthday with a group of girlfriends ... can’t wait to get inside. “It’s my first time at Panna,” she says. “I don’t care about the food. I’m in it for the lights and the drinks and that’s it.”
Oh, and how's that food?
Panna II’s late in life, juggernaut success makes it vulnerable to the internet’s seemingly unending supply of armchair reviewers. A search of its 902 Yelp reviews offers 66 results for “terrible,” 37 results for “horrible,” 110 results for “bad,” 76 for “worst,” and, blessedly, only one result for “diarrhea.”
Monday, November 19, 2018
What lies beneath 9th Street and 3rd Avenue?
An EVG reader shared these photos of some type of underground brick vaults that a construction crew unearthed earlier today while doing road work... taken on the northeast corner of Ninth Street and Third Avenue.
Per the reader: "Would imagine they have something to do with structures originally along Stuyvesant Street, which means they could be very old. Not an expert on dating cellar construction."
EVG Underground Brick Vault correspondent Steven took these pics...
Perhaps we can find out what this was part of... maybe something to do with the elevated train that ran north-south along Third Avenue ... or the trolley system near here.
Anyway! Here are some photos of the area via the NYPL Digital Collections ... this is described as "Third Avenue, looking North from the 9th Street station of the Third Avenue L" from October 1927...
... a similar view, but from 1880 (
... and "27-29 Third Avenue, at and adjoining the S.E. corner of Stuyvesant Street. May 18, 1934." (Basically where the Bean is today...)
Updated 11/20
See the comments for more possible explanations of what these bricks might be part of... ———>
Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Workers dig up streetcar tracks on 3rd Avenue
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