St. Mark's Place between A and 1st now an open street for dining on weekends

St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue has been added to the list of the city streets closed off for dining on the weekends. 

Back on Friday, Mayor de Blasio announced 40 open-street additions for the city's Open Restaurants program. He also extended the program through Oct. 31. 

This block of St. Mark's join these other EV streets already participating in the program (as of July): 

• St Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

• Avenue B between Second Street and Fourth Street 

• Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue 

These corridors are in dining mode on Friday from 5-11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. 

Thanks to Steven for the photo!

Kong is missing

Back in February we had the story about how Kong, the stuffed animal that longtime East Village resident Nefertiti Jones had as a child, ended up in the Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden. (Link to the story is below.) 

Anyway, as the headline tells you, KONG IS NOW MISSING!

 

View this post on Instagram

I am heartbroken my beloved Kong was stolen from the 6th Street Community Garden. https://www.facebook.com/6bgarden/ Kong who was loved by so many people and had become a permanent fixture on Avenue B was taken a few days ago. If you have seen him please bring him back.

A post shared by Nefertiti Jones (@nefjones) on Sep 12, 2020 at 9:32am PDT

Previously on EV Grieve: 

King Kong lives: How a favorite stuffed animal from childhood became part of a community garden

Saturday's parting shot

A moment during the Pinc Louds set today in Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg...

This should be a photo of the Empire State Building

Still working out the kinks of the new Blogger platform. (Please see the earlier posts today. I would link to them, but...) Over the next few days we will be testing the new platform and working out the kinks of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). 

Anyway, the new uploading system is a little screwy... So please excuse our appearance while we're under re-construction. There will be a few more (pointless than usual) posts for testing purposes in the hours and days ahead.

The 1st Tompkins Square Arts + Crafts and Book Fair is TODAY

Via the EVG inbox...

Come and get works of art, hand made crafts, books, records, videos, and more — all offered by members of your community on the Lower East Side. There will also be book readings, musicians and speakers. At dusk, we will be showing the amazing film called "Loose Change" (a student-made documentary about 9/11).

Fair times are listed from noon to 6 p.m. Visit the Facebook invite for more details.

Noted

Parking in the time of curbside dining. As seen this morning on Avenue A at Sixth Street. 

Still working out the html kinks on the new Blogger content tool. Testing, testing.

This morning in photos of the sun through trees

From this morning Tompkins Square Park (above) and along the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street...

This is also a test of sorts ... because stupid Blogger has forced a new template on the Blogger community... the post-creating tool is taking some getting used to... As fellow Blogger user Goggla noted: "Formatting the HTML has become an obnoxious chore." +1.

So things may look a little funky for awhile... this also may mean fewer posts for the near future ...

Friday's parting shot

Thank you to Deb Kadetsky for this photo of the Tribute in Light tonight...

'Hold' on

Death Valley Girls have a new record, Under the Spell of Joy, out on Oct. 2. Ahead of that, here's a single from the release titled "Hold My Hand."

'Open' your eyes to this nighttime walk through the East Village

Here's info about a new nighttime walking tour through parts of the neighborhood... via the EVG inbox...

"OPEN" is a series of temporary light art installations occupying a selection of storefronts in the East Village. Visitors are invited to discover the neighborhood anew via a mapped out nightwalk. The walk links both empty and occupied storefronts transformed through a mix of light projections and radiant effusions of color.

Sponsored by the Designers Lighting Forum of New York (DLFNY), the Flint Collective NYC partnered with lighting manufacturers and local business owners to respond to a city transformed by the global pandemic. In the rhythm of closed storefronts "OPEN" offers an optimistic pause of light and color.

"People may be cynical in thinking of these storefronts as failed capitalism, but each one has a history and plays a vital role in creating and sustaining vibrant communities," said Yasmina Palumbo of neighboring business MUD NYC and site partner for OPEN.

The installation is spread out across eight sites in the East Village and is active from Saturday Sept. 12 through Sept. 20, 7:30-11 p.m.

The following sites are on the tour:

• 155 Avenue B
• 111 East 7th Street
• 336 East 11th Street
• 307 East 9th Street
• 436 East 9th Street
• 337 East 9th Street
• 107 Ave B
• Secret Site

And if a map helps...

Ki Smith returns home, and debuts Ki Smith Gallery on 4th Street

The Ki Smith Gallery is now open on Fourth Street (first reported here) ... EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the soft opening on Wednesday evening to check out new works on paper by Caslon Bevington, Morell Cutler, Charlie Hudson, Max "Senor Melon" Hodgson, Sono Kuwayama, Julia Powers, Luke Ivy Price, Kiyomi Taylor and Sei Smith...


[Sono Kuwayama]


[Caslon Bevington]


[The work of Kiyomi Taylor]


[Charlie Hudson]

Ki Smith is an East Village native and current resident... he most recently showcased emerging artists from a space on West 125th Street. Smith has worked for 10 years as an independent curator. His résumé includes launching the Bushwick-based gallery and performance space Apostrophe in 2012.

"It took us 10 years to make it back to the East Village where I grew up," Smith said with a laugh.



The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. You can follow them on Instagram here.

Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices opens on today on Avenue A

[Photo by Vinny & O]

The EV outpost of Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices and Ice Cream officially opens today at 145 Avenue A at Ninth Street.

Daily hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The business dates to 1928 when Ralph Silvestro started selling Italian ice (or water ice) from his truck around Staten Island. The first retail store opened in 1949 on Port Richmond Avenue in Staten Island. In recent years the company has franchised out, expanding to other parts of NYC as well as Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester County.

This marks the third outpost in Manhattan.

Previously.