Wednesday's parting shot

A preview of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum’s annual Tribute in Light. Thank you to Deb Kadetsky for sharing the photo.

Reader report: A dog-kicking incident on 10th Street

An EVG reader shared the following:

Yesterday (9/3) at around 4:40 p.m., a man approached my two friends and I as we stood on the sidewalk talking on 10th Street between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue ...

He asked us something along the lines of “what are you doing in my spot?” Completely unprovoked, he then kicked my friend's dog across the sidewalk — hard enough that the dog flew about five feet in the air and yelped loudly. He then walked off as though nothing had happened.

We called the cops immediately and they turned up pretty fast but no luck so far in tracking the guy down.

The reader snapped a photo of the man as he walked away. The reader said the dog-kicking suspect was a black male, 5-7 and in his late teens or early 20s with hazel-colored eyes. He did not seem "with it."

Per the reader: "Thought I’d try and make as many people in the neighborhood aware in case he tries to approach anyone else and do the same thing ..."

And the dog is doing OK.

Updated 7:15 p.m.

There are now flyers on 10th Street...


[Photo by Steven]

Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen is back open for the fall (and winter and spring)

[Image via Instagram]

Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen opens today for the season after its customary summer break.

The rustic basement cafe, which generates income for the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church on Seventh Street, is open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Check out Streecha's Instagram account for daily specials. You can always find traditional Ukrainian fare such as borscht and vareniki here. Not to mention homemade desserts and coffee.

Visit Streecha at 33 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to the Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen on 7th Street

L train work moves to the entrance of the future Trader Joe's on 14th Street

As you may have noticed in recent days, the walkway configuration has changed on 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue in the L-train rehab zone...



Preliminary work started in the summer of 2017 on building new L-train entrances at Avenue A, including accessibility-compliant elevators.

Here's a rendering...



The front entrance of the incoming Trader Joe's at 432 E. 14th St. is now closed off to pedestrians ...





Pedestrians now have to navigate this path between the Trader Joe's-adjacent construction zone and 14th Street...



As for the Trader Joe's, the store's website simply notes "coming soon."

Not sure how soon "soon" is — especially when you see the inside of the space. Here's how the interior looked earlier last week before the construction moved to the front of the entrance...



Speaking of entrances, crews have restored part of the street and sidewalk outside the Associated across 14th Street...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Nightmare scenario for residents who learn that 14th Street and Avenue A will be the main staging area for the L-train reconstruction

Trader Joe's finally confirms that a Trader Joe's is opening on 14th Street at Avenue A

Pub in the works for longtime corner bar space on Houston and Suffolk

[Photo from Saturday]

Gene Lennon, the proprietor behind Juke Bar on Second Avenue and 12th Street as well as Trinity Pub on the Upper East Side, is applying for a new liquor license for 269 E. Houston St.

Lennon will appear before CB3's SLA committee on Monday evening for the currently vacant space on the corner of Suffolk Street.



According to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website (PDF here), the still-unnamed venture has proposed hours of 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. Monday through Friday, with a noon start time on Saturday and Sunday.

The bar will feature a menu of standard pub fare as well as a jazz brunch.

Lennon has operated a variety of pubs in the city dating to 1995.

He would be taking over a space that been a variety of concepts through the years, most recently as Suffolk Arms, a high-end cocktail lounge from celebrated bartender Giuseppe Gonzalez. That well-appointed bar opened in February 2016 to much acclaim. It went dark in the spring of 2018.

Before Suffolk Arms, this prime corner spot sat empty for several years. The Local 269 never reopened after a flood wiped out the live music venue's equipment in the fall of 2012. Other recent bar tenants included Meow Mix and Vasmay Lounge.

One note about the space: The old neon Bar sign is currently MIA from above the front door.


[Photo from 2016]

Monday's CB3-SLA committee meeting is at the Perseverance House Community Room, 535 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Plywood wraps itself around the incoming Suffolk Arms

Whatever happened to the former Heathers space on 13th Street?

[EVG file photo]

Two retail spaces recently arrived on the market at 506 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B...



Per the listing:

Brand new, mint-condition, white-boxed space with floor-to-ceiling windows (full glass front), exposed brick, recessed lighting, new hardwood flooring, partial kitchen (however no food establishments, please), renovated bathroom. Open floor plan with tons of potential. Similarly-finished but smaller second space also available next door (same address).

The rent is $107-$118 a square foot.

The larger of these spaces (the storefront on the west) was home for eight years (under two different owners) to Heathers, a bar-lounge hotspot of sorts that attracted plenty of press during its time here.

Heather Millstone opened Heathers in 2005, and the bar quickly became a lightning rod for noise complaints. (The Times had a lengthy article in January 2007 about the ongoing noise issues between the bar and neighbors.) There was also plenty of CB3-related drama for Heathers with its liquor license in the fall of 2011.

New owners took over the bar during the summer of 2012 ... and the place abruptly closed in October 2013.

Post Heathers, the space has been on and off the market these past five years. I can't recall any business being in the space during that time.

You have through Sunday to swim in city pools (though not the Tompkins Square Park mini pool)

The Tompkins Square Park mini pool is now closed until next summer. The pool season ended here on Labor Day... and workers have already drained (most of) the water, as these photos via EVG Mini-Pool Correspondent Steven show...



However, because it's still summer (woooooo!), the city's 50-plus outdoor public pools remain open. So you have until Sunday evening (Sept. 8!) to enjoy Hamilton Fish Pool on Pitt and East Houston and the Dry Dock Pool on Avenue D and 10th Street.

Outdoor pools are open daily from 11 a.m. through 7 p.m., with a break for pool cleaning between 3-4 p.m.

Same rules apply as they did on opening day in June: No urinating or defecating in the pools.

CVS FYI

That 24/7 CVS in the base of the condoplex on the corner of Orchard and Houston opened over the Labor Day weekend (about a week later than advertised).

The drug chain joins Marshalls and an Equinox Fitness center as the retail tenants at this 11-story, 94-unit building.

In July, the developers behind 196 Orchard St., including Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Management, sold the retail portion of the building to the AR Global affiliate New York City REIT for an incredible $88.75 million, according to The Real Deal.

This property on Houston between Ludlow and Orchard previously housed a single row of storefronts, including Ray's Pizza and Bereket.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Making way for Ben Shaoul's new retail-residential complex on East Houston

Katz's is now the last business on East Houston between Ludlow and Orchard

A CVS is coming to the corner of Houston and Orchard in Ben Shaoul's luxury condoplex

Report: retail portion of Ben Shaoul's luxury condoplex on Houston and Orchard sells for a whopping $88 million

Tuesday's parting shot (aka Endless Summer!)

Photo on Astor Place today by Derek Berg.

An unsettling find on 5th Street

An EVG reader shares these photos from Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... the reader did a double-take at this note...



At first, the reader thought this might be some kind of sick gag (as we've seen notes on curbside garbage bags in the past). However, upon closer inspection, it looked as if someone took care to wrap the contents inside the double plastic bag.

Apparently this is an acceptable way to dispose of a pet in NYC. According to the Department of Sanitation website:

The City accepts reports of dead animals. The City will collect a carcass from a public area or street (or from private property – if the animal may have been rabid, was killed by a family pet or scratched or bit a person or pet.) You may also place a dead animal in a heavy-duty black plastic bag or double plastic bag and put it out on the day of garbage collection with a note taped to the bag stating "dead dog" or "dead cat", for example. Animals that may have been rabid should not be put in the garbage. The City cremates dead pets for a fee, though the ashes are not returned to the animal’s owner.

Jury selection starts for defendants in 2nd Avenue gas explosion that killed 2 men

[Aerial photo of 119-123 2nd Ave. from March 27, 2015]

Jury selection is set to start today for Maria Hrynenko and two others for their role in the gas explosion on March 26, 2015, that killed two men, Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón, and leveled three buildings — 119, 121 and 123 Second Ave.

The trial could last as long as three months in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Daily News reports.

Hrynenko, her son Michael Hrynenko (now deceased), contractor Dilber Kukic and their plumber Anthanasios Ioannidis illegally tampered with the gas line at 121 Second Ave. then failed to warn those in the building before the blast, according to the Manhattan District Attorney.

Charges against Hrynenko, Kukic and Ioannidis include second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and several counts of assault in connection to more than a dozen injured victims.

This past March, the fifth defendant, Andrew Trombettas, was sentenced to probation and community service. Trombettas had previously pleaded guilty for his role in rubber-stamping a modification to 121 Second Ave. prior to the explosion. The D.A.'s office charged him with two counts of "Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a class E felony."

The News has comments from Kukic’s lawyer:

The defense is expected to argue that tampering was not the root cause of the explosion.

“I think the DA is going to try and show that there were all these irregularities regarding the gas piping,” said Kukic’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo. “None of that is what caused the gas to leak.”

Instead, he said, the gas leak came from the restaurant’s kitchen where workers heard a “hissing.”

“They smelled gas for months prior to the explosion. It was not a one-time thing,” Agnifilo said.

If the fire started in the kitchen, the defendants are expected to argue that couldn’t be blamed because their potential liability would have been isolated to basement operations.

“I don’t think the DA will ever really conclusively pinpoint what the problem was, where the gas came from,” Agnifilo [said].

Hrynenko and the defendants had made 25-plus courtroom appearances since February 2016, which all ended the same — "adjourned/bail continued."

Shaky Cohen's Nexus Building Development Group paid $9.15 million for the empty lots at No. 119 and No. 121 that Hrynenko owned. In a previously recorded transaction, Ezra Wibowo paid $6 million for the adjacent property at 123 Second Ave. that was owned by a different landlord who had no role in the explosion. There isn't any development planned there for now, according to previous reports.

Workers have been quickly erecting the Morris Adjmi-designed building at 119 Second Ave. — officially 45 E. Seventh St. — that will feature 21 condo units and ground-floor retail. The new building will include a commemorative plaque that honors Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'

RIP Nicholas Figueroa

RIP Moises Ismael Locón Yac

A family continues to feel the loss on 2nd Avenue

Exclusive: 2nd Avenue explosion sites have a new owner

Dedicating Moises Locón Way and Nicholas Figueroa Way on 2nd Avenue at 7th Street

Artichoke Basille’s Pizza vying for former Nicoletta space on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street

Looks like the Nicoletta space will remain a pizzeria on Second Avenue at 10th Street.

Reps for the ever-expanding Artichoke Basille’s Pizza chain, which started in the East Village, are on this month's CB3-SLA agenda for a liquor license for 201 E. 10th St.

This questionnaire for the Sept. 16 meeting isn't online yet. However, the name of Artichoke co-founder Francis Garcia is on the application posted at the CB3 website.

Renovations are currently underway at the former Nicoletta space, which had a sizable dining room and outdoor cafe. Artichoke's plans for the venue aren't immediately known.

This would mark the second East Village location for Artichoke, which moved from its original East Village home (circa 2008) on 14th to a larger space across the street in June 2017.

Artichoke has been expanding nationwide with multi-unit franchise deals, most recently opening in Oakland, Calif.

As for Nicoletta, the much-heralded pizzeria from Michael White closed last December at this address after six-plus years in business. They are still delivering pizzas from an undisclosed location.

This corner space on 10th Street and Second Avenue had been on the retail market with a nearly $18,000 monthly ask.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Artichoke appears to be moving into a new space on 14th Street

Report of an early-morning fire at 328 E. 14th St., home of Artichoke Basille’s Pizza

Artichoke Basille's Pizza signage arrives at new 14th Street location

FDNY says fire that started at Artichoke was accidental