Auriga Cafe announces itself on Avenue A

It has almost been a year to the date when we first heard that a diner was coming to 198 Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Back on Friday, the signage arrived for Auriga Cafe. The cafe comes courtesy of David Duran, who runs El Camion a storefront away on the corner at 12th Street.

Through the grapevine, we've heard that this has been slow going here for a variety of reasons, such as waiting for city permits and approvals as well as undoing the mess that the previous tenant, Empire Biscuit, left behind.

The storefront hasn't been in use since the Biscuiteers started peelin' potatoes in January 2016.

H/T to dwg, Christine C., Gojira and Lola Sáenz!

Now the Sidewalk looks closed

A quickie follow-up post from last week ... on Saturday, someone covered the windows with paper at the Sidewalk Bar and Restaurant on Avenue A at Sixth Street, which closed on Feb. 23...



Until Saturday, the place still looked open. The lights were on inside ... and there weren't any closed signs or farewell notes to patrons on the door or windows.... we spotted several people trying the front door then peering inside.

Anyway, the bar-restaurant-live-music venue has new owners, whose plans for the space haven't been made public yet.

Durden has not been open lately

[Photo last week by Steven]

Several EVG readers (H/T Laura!) have noted that Durden remained closed through the weekend ... and paper hangs in the windows of the "Fight Club"-inspired sports bar here on Second Avenue at 13th Street.

There's no word about any closure, temporary or permanent, on the bar's website or lightly used social media properties. (Yelp lists Durden as closed.)

A closure wouldn't be a surprise. Back in December, Curt Huegel, who runs a handful of bars-reaturants around the city, including Campagnola, Printers Alley, Galli and Bill's NYC, received the OK from CB3 for a new liquor license for the space. (The application stated that the new venture will serve "classic modern American" food.)

The paperwork at the CB3 website listed this as a "sale of assets."

Durden opened in October 2013 ... in space that previously housed the Nightingale Lounge.

Noted

And on a discarded mattress on St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue, someone writes that the Sinaloa Cartel will avenge the death of recently murdered Gambino Crime Boss "Franky Boy" Cali...



Also written on the mattress: "Bed Bugs Are Fun!"

Thanks to @ImPaulGale for the photo...

Week in Grieview

[St. Patrick's Day weekend on 2nd Avenue via Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Good Records NYC is closing, though the shop will continue to sell vinyl as Stranded Records (Monday)

A visit to Sixth Street Specials (Friday)

Photos: 'Best Wishes' from Harley Flanagan at the Pyramid Club (Wednesday)

A Repeat Performance, until July 31 (Wednesday)

Art on A Gallery closing this summer after 7 years (Tuesday)

Report: New York Attorney General intervenes to stop eviction of tenants in Raphael Toledano-owned building on 13th Street (Thursday)

The Annual Mr. Lower East Side Pageant returns to the neighborhood for its 20th edition (Monday)

The FDNY honors fire marshal Christopher T. Zanetis in plaque ceremony on 2nd Street (Friday)

Todaro Bros. is closing April 2, ending 102 years of business (Thursday)

Hanoi House expanding on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Cold case: New information sought in the 23-year-old murder of Second Avenue Deli owner Abe Lebewohl (Friday)

An outpost of Original Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches arrives on Avenue A and 13th Street (Wednesday)

Station on 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park now one of the largest in the Citi Bike system (Wednesday)

Tree Bistro is returning after October fire (Thursday)

Reminders: the Ottendorfer Library is back open (Monday)

This week's NY See (Monday)

Christmas is coming to 10th Street thanks to 'Mr. Robot' (Wednesday)

Van Đa brings modern Vietnamese cuisine to 4th Street (Friday)

Report: MTA commits to a shorter work day for the 14th Street L-train rehab (Friday)

Chinese Graffiti now open at 171 Avenue A (Friday)

Coming soon signage spotted for Plado on 2nd Street (Tuesday)

The Black Emperor has arrived on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)

The building housing the now-closed Sidewalk remains for sale on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Another look at that 5th Street ghost signage (Wednesday)

1st of the new businesses at 20 Avenue A is now open (Monday)

Wattle Cafe joins forces with Pure Green at 152 2nd Ave. (Tuesday)

Perk Espresso and Coffee Bar opens this week on 14th Street (Monday)

Former No Malice Palace for rent on 3rd Street (Monday)

... and on Friday, students from several East Village schools came to Tompkins Square Park in support of the National Youth Climate Strike ...


[Derek Berg]

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The fight to keep Church of the Nativity from becoming luxury housing

[Photo from yesterday]

ICYMI from Thursday ... Elizabeth Kim at Gothamist has a feature on the Cooper Square Community Land Trust's efforts to buy the Church of the Nativity on Second Avenue for use as low-income housing.

An excerpt:

The land trust proposed a price of $18.5 million. Of that amount, $5 million would be paid to the archdiocese upon closing. The remainder, which would use a combination of federal tax credits and state and local funding, would be paid in installments over a 20-year period.

David Brown, the church’s director of real estate, told Val Orselli [a project director with Cooper Square Community Land Trust] he would get back to him.

Several months later, Orselli returned to Brown's office. In a show of support, representatives of city councilmembers Carlina Rivera and Margaret Chin, as well as the Manhattan regional representative from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, accompanied him.

But Brown was unmoved. The offer was insufficient, he told them. Among the sticking points was the land trust’s inability to pay upfront.

“He told me, ‘A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow,'” Orselli recalled.

Orselli took the rejection as a sign that the church, a tax-exempt institution, was more interested in getting top dollar for its property, which has been estimated as being worth as much as $50 million.

“I was a bit naive,” he said. Referring to the land trust’s pitch to do something with the property that was aligned with papal doctrines, he added, “They couldn’t care less.”

The Church closed after a service on July 31, 2015, merging with Most Holy Redeemer on Third Street. In the summer of 2017, the archdiocese desacralized the former church, clearing the way for a potential sale of the desirable property.

The Cooper Square Community Land Trust is currently organizing a town hall this May with Community Board 3 to discuss "how decommissioned churches can be best utilized by the Archdiocese and the communities they once served." Something other than demolishing them to make way for ultra-luxury condos.

View this post on Instagram

We came across this note someone left at Nativity Church/44 Second Ave. It says, “Buyer Beware: God Still Lives Here.” . . . . . . . #nycchurch #churchforsale #nativitynyc #churchofthenativity #catholicchurch #eastvillagechurch #churchnyc #nativitychurch

A post shared by Friends of Nativity Church (@nativitynyc) on Mar 12, 2019 at 4:53pm PDT

Meanwhile, as Curbed reported in February, the Archdiocese of New York is considering a proposal to turn the 300,000-square-foot property that housed Saint Emeric on 13th Street, which includes a former school, over to a land trust for 400 units of below-market-rate housing.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking at the Church of Saint Emeric on East 13th Street

From St. Emeric's to St. Brigid's

Educator: Turning the former Church of the Nativity into luxury housing would be a 'sordid use' of the property

March 17, 8:30 a.m., 15 E. 7th St.

As you may have noticed, today is St. Patrick's Day. As of 8:30 a.m., there wasn't a line [yet] for McSorley's over on Seventh Street. Everyone is at mass?



McSorley's opens at 11.

Ghost signage reveal at the former Raul Candy Store

Someone has removed the Raul Candy Store sign from 205 Avenue B between 12th Street and 13th Street.

And as this photo by Gojira shows, there's ghost signage now on the storefront for Gift Shop and Cosmetics. Raul opened here in 1981, so it's presumably from the previous tenant.

As for Raul Candy Store, Raul Santiago, 75, and his wife Petra Olivieri, 70, decided to retire, closing up on Feb. 28.

'Webster' call

Been awhile since we noted one of the 1980s-throwback murals on the gate at Mikey Likes It, 199 Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street. Back on Tuesday, Andre Trenier created this mural of Webster to coincide with the ice cream shop's flavor of the month...

Saturday morning scenery

A sunrise shot from Avenue A and Seventh Street at Tompkins Square Park ... and last night's gentle downpour refreshed the restorative reflection pond along Avenue A...

Incoming

Incoming thunderstorms over #NYC.#fridaynight @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/dYHuBrtIRr

— Evan Kapitansky (@evan_kapitansky) March 16, 2019

Reptaliens: Resurrection

"Shuggie II" is the first single from Valis, the second record from Reptaliens that's out on April 26 via CapturedTracks.

You can also catch the psych-pop band on a bill at Brooklyn Steel on May 6.