EV Grieve

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Coyote Ugly's Sweet Sixteen

Good lord, has Coyote Ugly really been there on First Avenue near Ninth Street for 16 years? I don't think I've been there in 15 and half years...

So what I have missed?

And of course!

Man! Has there ever been a more accurate portrayal of moving to NYC?

Looking at the New York Inn; so bad, Trip Advisor reviewers use five exclamation points for emphasis!!!!!

I've been curious about the New York Inn (there on the left) on Eighth Avenue between 46th Street and 47th Street. A few weeks back, the NYI was named the third dirtiest hotel in America by the voters at Trip Advisor. Is that good for the Bronze Medal? (And the Hotel Carter on West 43rd Street was tops...)

Anyway, haven't had a chance to get up there yet...However, Scouting New York was there and took a few nice shots, particularly of the faded ad on the side of the NYI.

In the meantime, like Scouting NY did, check out a few reviews of the NYI via Trip Advisor...where out of 116 user reviews, they received 93 one-star reviews!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Checking out the Vigilant Hotel: "Perfect for the bored with responsibilities of maintaining a traceable address"

Elk in the City

At the Hotel Edison: An appreciation

Ivana more Page Six Magazine

As you may have heard, Page Six Magazine, which is free in the Sunday Post after you pay $1.25 for the paper, will now appear quarterly. The Feb. 15 edition will be the last on the weekly schedule. The recession and continued advertising decline are the culprits. Some staffers will be let go. Of course, I'm sorry to see anyone lose a job.

Selfishly though, how will I get my weekly fix of the likes of Ivana Trump's Ivana-logues column? This and other P6M features are arguably some of the most over-the-top, what-recession?, yuppiefied crap ever put to paper.

For instance, consider this week's installment of the Ivana-logues, under a headline "God forbid you sit next to some fatso at Fashion Week." Indeed!

Anyway, in another titillating item from this week's column:

I underwent a "recession makeover" for the March issue of Harper's Bazaar (on stands February 17), and it was fun, to a point. There are three things I dislike: rice pudding, social climbers and photo shoots — though not necessarily in that order. I knew they were going to put my hair down. My hairdo has become my trademark and my curse because if I show up at a gala with my hair down, people shriek, "We want Ivana!" And I say, "You have Ivana." And they say, "No, we want the Ivana hairdo." So I told Bazaar, "I will not cut my hair, because if I do, I cannot put it in a chignon." But the crew was fabulous. And I had a great laugh about the story. If people were not interested, magazines would not write about me. I am what I am.

Doesn't get much better than this!

So! What other gems have we picked up from Page Six Magazine through the months...?

"Private Clubs: Hideouts of the Rich and Shameless"

Meet the new Carrie Bradshaw

The Oct. 19 Ivana-logues (bonus excerpt!):

"You think I'm going to send a $10,000 Dolce & Gabbana suit to Honduras? UPS takes like three weeks. It's never going to arrive because somebody will steal it." Countries like that are beautiful but they are very poor, OK? So I am passing on that. Rossano is just looking for adventure. But I am really slightly worried. In the jungle there are no mobile phones, no computers and no cigarettes, but there are plenty of tarantulas, cockroaches and snakes. I hate those slimy things. I can deal with the sharks on Wall Street and the barracudas on Madison Avenue, but this is really too much."

Celebrities are just like us! (Dive bar edition)

And finally the most bestest ever Page Six Magazine column...from June 15 -- "The Socializer" by "woman-about-town" Kelly Killoren Bensimon. She wants to be a real-life Angelina Jolie (or something) and see Africa. You just have to read her column for yourself. (Click on the image for a better view.)

Gawker picked up my post ... Page Six Mag: African Suffering Is Trendy. Hey Look, Diamonds!

Someone in the Financial District is actually hiring

A new T-Mobile store is opening soon at 175 Water Street at Maiden Lane (the former site of the Gabes House of Flowers.)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Bowery blues

From Bowery Street to the Bowery District, there's no shortage of attempts to call the Bowery everything but the Bowery of late. In a blog post today, Michelle and James Nevius, authors of "Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City," discuss previous attempts to change or repurpose the Bowery name through the years:

By the late 19th century, the Bowery had become synonymous with skid row.

A lot of the Bowery’s reputation was deserved, but at least part of the blame for its near-universal name recognition was the musical A Trip to Chinatown, which featured the song “The Bowery.” Its chorus boasts:

The Bow'ry, the Bow'ry
They say such things and they do strange things,
On the Bow'ry! The Bow'ry!
I'll never go there any more.

By 1916, the street’s reputation had gotten so bad that civic groups battled to come up with a new name for the thoroughfare. One suggestion was “Cooper Avenue” in honor of Cooper Union founder (and Jell-O pioneer)* Peter Cooper.

A rival proposition recommended “Central Broadway.” It’s hard to imagine the chaos this name change might have brought about in a city that already featured Broadway, West Broadway, and East Broadway.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Bob Arihood has a not-so-good update on Ray of Ray's Candy Store as well as a report on some Avenue A thuggery (Neither More Nor Less)

The return of DJ Lenny M (Down by the Hipster)

Inside the Pee Pee Phone (Slum Goddess)

An update on the Aqueduct's racino plans (Queens Crap)

Horse-drawn carriages may be replaced by eco-friendly vintage cars (Gothamist)

The Elk Hotel loses some business (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Rite Aid and Sbarro are among the companies who may not last through the recession (Yahoo! News)

Smell like the Astor Place cube (Esquared, who has a new home)

What retailers say about the recession (New York)

Ruffians who sing Sham 69 songs in the middle of the night (Flaming Pablum)

More fun at the Ludlow Residence (BoweryBoogie)

The Blarney Stone is back in business

A lovely sight. No word yet on why they were closed on Fulton Street for seven-plus days...

A pile of clothes at the Royal Tailor

Jeremiah has written about one of the treasures left in the East Village, Gino DiGirolamo, the tailor who has been plying his trade here for more than 40 years. He moved to 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B in late 2006.

I walked by his shop Friday night at 10...Per usual, he was still at work...barely visible behind a pile of clothes...

It appears business is good, which makes me happy...

For further reading:
Still Shopping, Maybe, but Now it's For a Tailor (New York Times)

New signage for St. Brigid's

There are new signs up at St. Brigid's on Avenue B at Eighth Street that note the upcoming restoration of the historic church...and its rebirth in the community.

An article in this week's issue of The Villager provides an update on the restoration:

Neighbors, elected officials and friends from near and far gathered on Feb. 1, the Feast of St. Brigid, to celebrate the victory of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s in the group’s long struggle to prevent the demolition of the 1849 church on Tompkins Square Park.

The committee saw its dream come true last May when the Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced it had accepted a $20 million donation from an anonymous donor, including $10 million to restore and maintain the building and the parish and another $10 million to endow parish schools in the area.

The donor is still anonymous and the archdiocese has declined to identify the “angel” who made the gift.

Edwin Torres, leader of the committee, told the gathering on Sunday that the archdiocese had received the last $5 million installment of the $10 million for the building restoration on Dec. 16 and that architects and engineers have been working in the building at 119 Avenue B since the beginning of the year.

“We’ve been at the site at least once a week and we’ve spoken to the engineers — they’re testing the bricks and mortar in the church to see the extent of the problems,” Torres said, adding, “This will probably be the last meeting of the committee — we’ve achieved what we set out to 10 years ago. But we’ll continue to monitor the site,” he said.

By the way, there's also a new Post Office box there too...the old one at that spot was fairly battered looking...I liked it.

Previous St. Brigid's coverage on EV Grieve here.

I just had to look (but you don't have to)

Found myself on the Upper West Side yesterday afternoon...As you know, the P & G Cafe at Amsterdam Avenue and 73rd Street closed on Jan. 31...and is moving to a new location. Brooks at Lost City had a photo of the iconic neon sign being removed from the building last week...

This is what is used to look like...

I knew it would be ugly...but I walked by anyway.

Ugh. Nothing is left inside, of course. I still looked. While I was peaking inside, another fellow stopped and took it all in. "Wow," he said.

Yes.

Check out Ken Mac's photos of the P & G (how we will remember it) at Greenwich Village Daily Photo.

Alex also paid his respects this weekend over at Flaming Pablum.

Tompkins Square Park Christmas tree update

On Saturday, the Christmas tree in Tompkins Square Park was turned off after nearly two months...

On closer inspection Sunday...

...the lights are still on the tree...

So maybe someone can plug it in for Valentine's Day.

Comings and goings: Third Avenue and Ninth Street

East Village Photo at 35 Third Avenue recently lost their lease and moved...

The store is empty...save, curiously enough, for the rack of NYC postcards.

So this means the corner store on Third Avenue and Ninth Street in the building that houses NYU's Alumni Hall dormitory is available...FroYo anyone? (Just guessing -- seems reasonable, eh?)

Also, we noted a few weeks back that M Sonii, the vintage-y, knicknack-y store at 220 E. Ninth St. near Third Avenue, was closing...appears now they have found a new location...just a few blocks away...

According to a commenter, the Sonii space is owned by the people who run the parking garage next door...and they were looking for a hefty rent increase.