Odd Eye closing 5th Street shop; going online

After nearly three years at 524 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, Odd Eye NYC is closing up shop.

The owners of the design store are moving their business online...



In an upbeat closing notice on Instagram, the owners note:

What a ride but guess what?
It’s time to adapt. We’re going 100% digital! 🤳🏼

Everything is on sale! Come make an offer/score a deal!

Been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work! Excited to see what ODDEYE has in store for you in the future but until then come buy some shit! 🤗

And thx for the awesome opportunity and the best landlord anyone could ask for! C U on the internet!

Odd Eye will be open through this month. You can find their website here.

A look at the northwest corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue

The Duane Reade on First Avenue just north of 14th Street closed last Wednesday, one of many DRs around the city to do so.

This (mostly) single-level strip of commercial buildings on the northwest corner has long drawn reader interest ... mostly because someone hasn't gobbled up these properties for new development.

All of the four-story 239 First Ave., where the shuttered Salt & Pepper sold Indian and Chinese cuisine from the storefront, is apparently vacant ...



Anyway, there's nothing in public records to suggest anything is afoot here. And a new Japanese restaurant is coming to the former Kambi Ramen House space there next door to O'Hanlon's...



For now it's on the Future Development Site watch. And enjoy Papaya Dog.

11 Avenue C now with bricks and glass

The 10-story 11 Avenue C (aka 350 E. Houston St.) has entered the next phase in its construction — bricks and glass...



After a sloooooow start (foundation work began in December 2016 on this triangular lot that housed the neighborhood's last gas station), there has been noticeable progress in recent months. The residential building with 46 units will include ground-floor retail.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Workers officially reach the top at 11 Avenue C, where a 10-floor building sits on the neighborhood's last gas station

Week in Grieview

[Friday morning in Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg]

Posts this last week included...

Exclusive: After 20-plus years in the East Village, Obscura Antiques and Oddities is closing (Thursday)

A look at Book Club, the new bookstore-cafe on 3rd Street (Friday)

Enz's Boutique has closed on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

This book was due on Dec. 10, 1958. Someone just returned it to the Cooper Union Library. (Tuesday)

State pols introduce legislation to ban garbage trucks from parking overnight on city streets, like on 10th Street (Wednesday)

The incoming Trader Joe's on 14th Street at Avenue A is now hiring (Monday) ... Will the new East Village Trader Joe's open on this date in 2020? (Tuesday)

2 neighborhood Duane Reade locations closed this week (Wednesday)

Behold your new Avenue A L-train entrances! (Tuesday)

Acclaimed pastrami purveyors Harry & Ida's will close this month on Avenue A (Friday)

Haveli-Banjara has not been open lately on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

This week's NY See (Thursday)

About face: The Cupcake Market has a new name on 7th Street (Wednesday)

Coming to select M14 A/D SBS stops along 14th Street: bus boarding platforms (Thursday)

Sorbet Cray Cray goes bye bye from Avenue A (Friday)

Mi Casa Latina closes after 10 months on 14th (Monday)

What's going on at Joe's Steam Rice Roll? (Tuesday)

First sign of Mokyo, a new Korean restaurant coming to St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

Openings: 5 Napkin Burger Express rolls out its counter service (Monday)

... and a fallscape on 10th and B via Vinny & O...



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This unique bird made a migration pit stop on 7th Street the other day

This American Bittern made a migratory pit stop behind a building on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... which is where Elizabeth Cunningham spotted the brown heron hanging out in the nasturtiums ...







The bird arrived on Friday morning around 11 and left by 8 a.m. yesterday. During the bird's nearly 24 hours here, she spoke with the Wild Bird Fund, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and two wildlife rehabilitators in the city.

Here's her report:

Although rarely spotted — especially around here — I was informed it's common for them to make 24-hour stops along their way south. He didn't appear injured and the ornithology personnel told me he'd be fine overnight despite the cold snap. He settled into a bush for the night and is now presumably back on track toward warmer climes.

Former Benny's Burritos week in review

Back on Monday, we had a full reveal of the long-vacant storefront that housed Benny's Burritos (RIP November 2014) for 27 years on Avenue A and Sixth Street.

There seemed to be a lot of interest on the empty-for-five-years-now space among readers.

Con Ed did some work out front on Wednesday...



Not much happened inside, though.



There's a new roll-down gate on the Avenue A side, and someone removed the Benny's sign from the space... though part of the Benny's awning remains on the Sixth Street side...



Oh, and someone quickly tagged those new roll-down gates...



In any event, the for rent sign remains up out front... with no word of a possible new tenant. There aren't any new work permits on file for the address either.

Early Saturday morning street scene

Looking south from 7th and B early today... courtesy of Dave on 7th...

UPDATED 9:46 a.m.

Too bad Dave just missed this...

Beatles on 7th Street!
cc: @evgrieve Photo by Dave on 7th pic.twitter.com/9YwiMwpBOz

— pinhead (@evpinhead) November 9, 2019

Meet your 'Match'

The new EP via Squid — a UK-based five piece — is due next Friday (it has been out via digital platforms for the past two months). The audio track here is for "Match Bet."

EVG Etc.: Co-op accusations on 7th Street; Noah Baumbach at the Metrograph

[Sky scene from 4th and A]

• A profile of Shuho Yagi, who has been running a number of Japanese restaurants in the East Village since 1984 (City Limits)

• On Seventh Street, a co-op owner "is being accused by neighbors of having guests who shoot heroin between their toes in the lobby, have sex in the corridors — and occasionally jump out the windows." (The Post)

• Man stabbed following dispute near the 7th and A entrance to Tompkins Square Park (PIX 11)

• Citi Biker, the victim of road rage, is nearly run down on the LES; cops blame the cyclist (Streetsblog)

• Apartment dwellers, know your heat and hot water rights (Curbed)

• Five weeks til SantaCon! (Gothamist)

• As The Lo-Down noted, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman praises Essex Crossing "in a piece that makes some good points, but is also loaded with factual errors and mischaracterizations of the Lower East Side mega-project" (The New York Times)

• Builders respond to the vote that gives community boards more time to review ULURP applications (The Real Deal)

• An end to the food hall craze? (Commercial Observer)

• A Noah Baumbach residency (Metrograph)

• A retrospective surveys the career of Holly Fisher (Anthology Film Archives)

• Cornell prof finds rough versions of 12 previously unreleased songs by Lou Reed (Variety)

• A look at some early 1990s NYC music venues, including Mission on Fifth between A and B (Ephemeral New York)

... and over at the Black Emperor, 197 Second Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street, The Truffleist is now working the kitchen, taking over for Jae Lee's six-month burger residency. (Lee is prepping to open his first restaurant, Nowon on Sixth Street) ...

View this post on Instagram

BIG NEWS! 🔊 We’re opening TODAY in @blackemperorbar NYC! We’ll be serving up our delicious Cheesesteaks every day! 🤤 Tag a friend who needs to know! Starting hours are below: 👉🏼 Mon to Wed 4pm - 12am 👉🏼 Thurs to Sat: 4pm- 1am 👉🏼 Sun: 4pm - 10pm ‼️ See you today at 4pm ‼️

A post shared by The Truffleist (@thetruffleist) on Nov 7, 2019 at 6:54am PST

A look at Book Club, the new bookstore-cafe (softly) opening tomorrow on 3rd Street

Tomorrow (Nov. 9) at 9 a.m., Book Club makes its debut at 197 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

As we've been reporting, this bookstore-cafe is the work — two years in the making — of an East Village couple, Erin Neary and Nat Esten.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by yesterday for a quick look at the space before its soft opening tomorrow...



The book portion of the storefront will carry a broad selection of adult fiction, non-fiction and a children's section ...







Book Club includes some East Village-specific reads...



The space features an area for sitting and reading ... and a cafe serving MUD coffee. (They were approved for a beer-wine license, though that has yet to be issued.) Expect some community events and readings in the weeks/months ahead. You can follow their Instagram account for updates... or their website.

Meanwhile, they'll be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Book Club — an independent bookstore with cafe — coming to 3rd Street

Acclaimed pastrami purveyors Harry & Ida's will close this month on Avenue A

[File photo]

Another day, another high-profile closure on Avenue A.

The owners of Harry & Ida's have announced that their Meat and Supply Co. will close the weekend before Thanksgiving at 189 Avenue A at 12th Street.

Siblings Julie and Will Horowitz, who are also behind Duck's Eatery on 12th Street, discussed the pending closure in an Instagram post:

We are heartbroken to announce that we will be closing up shop at the end of the month. We have so loved being part of your community, your celebrations, your lunches, your dinners, and your hearty snacks in between.

Never in a million years would we have imagined that our (not so little) sandwich, once a late night pop-up @duckseatery would receive so much attention this many years later. As painful as it is, we are proud to go out on a high note with the shop busier than ever, our pastrami still holding strong on top national lists and the support of you, our beloved customers.

While our presence on Avenue A will come to an end, we will be carrying on the H&I name with some exciting projects on the horizon. Be on the lookout for our usual array of quirky, cured and smoked products, with a little more plant and a lot less meat this time around. To our fellow delis, we are proud to have served alongside you. Keep the tradition (and the not-so-traditional) alive.

They do not cite any specific reason for the closure.

In August 2018, they shuttered their offshoot Harry & Ida’s Luncheonette in the Financial District after 10 months in business.

Harry & Ida's arrived on Avenue A in June 2015, and immediately drew raves for their pastrami. The market, which specializes in a variety of preserved foods and smoked meats, was named for their great-grandparents Harry and Ida Zinn, Hungarian immigrants who had a store in Harlem.

In October 2017, workers finally removed the sidewalk bridge and scaffolding from the Avenue A side of the Steiner East Village condoplex between 11th Street and 12th Street. For 19 months, the entrance to Harry & Ida's was obscured by all this construction. In total at the time, 19 of their 29 months in business had been under the doom and gloom of a sidewalk bridge.

Other recent closing announcements on Avenue A include Obscura Antiques and Oddities and Three Seats Espresso.

H/T Kenny and Dave!

Sorbet Cray Cray goes bye bye from Avenue A

A for-rent sign now hangs in the front window at 131 Avenue A, the sliver of a storefront between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.

The previous tenant here, Sorbet Cray Cray, has packed up and left...



We're told they're opening a new dessert bar on 10th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen.

Sorbet Cray Cray, via the owners of the Chikalicious dessert shop on 10th Street, opened here back in July ... in a revamp of their Churro Cone space.

Thanks to Steven for the photos!