Aces & Eights signage up at former Mo Pitkin's space

As I mentioned last Monday, a new bar has opened in the former Mo Pitkin's space at 34 Avenue A. I was told that the building was purchased by the folks behind the fratty Yorkville saloon Aces & Eights. Now, rather temporary-looking signage is up...




No indication yet how the performance space upstairs will be utilized. (Beer pong tourneys?) Something tells me that you won't be seeing, say, Kiki & Herb or Murray Hill headlining anytime soon...The 2-for-1 happy hour is in keeping with the four other bars on the next block -- Double Down, Kelly's, Nice Guy Eddie's and The Library -- that have the same deal.

Meanwhile, add futurist to the skills of former Mo's regular Ben Lerman. The ukulele-playing comedian had this to say to New York magazine in September 2007 upon hearing the news that Mo's was for sale:

“Like Brownies, Fez, Sin-é, Tonic, and many others before, Mo’s will be just another arts venue replaced by yet another bland, chic meat-market with delicious mojitos. The people moving into the town don’t want live entertainment. They just want to get hammered and drag someone home to their luxury condo. Which, when you put it that way, actually doesn’t sound so bad.”

Looking at some of the (temporary?) restaurant closings in the East Village

Tahini on Third Avenue at St. Mark's Place was closed for a few days...




Grub Street noted last week that the Bamn! Automat on St. Mark's was closed...the sign on the door simply reads "closed today." It was still shuttered as of yesterday...



Ryan's is still closed on Second Avenue...



And there is a "temporarily closed for remodeling" sign up at Ray's on Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street...(As I recall, this space was previously Papa D's Pizza. Never tried their pizza...)



Meanwhile!

Coming soon to Second Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street...



Finally, Table 12, the bistro at 12th Street and Avenue A that Jill mentioned last Wednesday, is now open...

Muni Meters bring out the worst in people

Spotted on Avenue A near Sixth Street...




Meanwhile...Spotted on St. Mark's Place near First Avenue...

"Couple looking to by coop or condo" without need for a mortgage flier of the day

Spotted on Avenue A and Second Street.

When popular places on East Seventh Street run out of things

At Porchetta yesterday...(and why this is so popular...I don't get...)



And at Abraço on Feb. 22...

In case you missed the 5,000 (or so) "Rock of Love Girls" posters someone plastered all over Avenue A

Looking forward to the graffiti on these.

Noted

"The modern version of the Rat Pack burned rubber through the city streets Friday as Leonardo DiCaprio and buddies Lukas Haas, Tobey Maguire and Kevin Dillon toured the East Village on bicycles." (New York Post)

Goodbye to all that

Or maybe one last (rather pathetic) attempt to enjoy a winter sport? On Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The Times looks at Webster Hall's past and present (and future)

The $3 million, yearlong renovation at Webster Hall is done. And the Times takes a look at the 11th Street club's history....

Charles Goldstein, a cigarmaker, built Webster Hall in 1886 for $75,000, with a design by Charles Rentz Jr., an architect and beer vendor, for “balls, receptions, Hebrew weddings and sociables,” according to a December 1886 article in The New York Times.

But it soon came to be known for rowdy parties, many of which featured live music, like the fund-raiser for General Grant’s memorial in September 1887, or the fete for the French Revolution centennial in May 1889.

In the early 1900s, Webster Hall’s guest lists featured artists of all sorts, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. Around the same time, Greenwich Village became a center of gay and lesbian life, and the club was frequently a gathering place.

And some of its music history...

It was back in 1953, when RCA Victor set up a studio in the Grand Ballroom of Webster Hall in Manhattan to achieve a level of reverberation that would help the label compete with Columbia Records. Perry Como recorded his “Como Swings” there in 1959, which displayed Como in slacks and a blue shirt on a golf course.

As the world changed, and music with it, so did the acts the venue attracted: in 1967, Jefferson Airplane staged its first concert in New York inside. On Dec. 6, 1980, U2ushered in the post-punk era here — it was called the Ritz at the time — when it pounded out “I Will Follow” in its first gig in the United States. And on Feb. 2, 1988, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses, standing on the same stage, before screeching “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” inflated a condom like a balloon.

No mention of K-Fed's show there, though...

At the Fillmore East, Jan. 1, 1970

And check out the shot of Ratner's at the 18-second mark....

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

News and tributes related to the death of blogger Bob Guskind (Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn)

A look at "Manhattan's mole people" (New York Post)

EV cabaret cops take a bow (The Villager)

Babs Corcoran turns 60...which can only mean: Pajama party! (Page Six)

Full coverage of the StuyTown illegal rent case (Stuyvesant Town's Lux Living)

How low will NYC real estate go? (New York Times, via Curbed)

Watchmen's 1985 NYC landscape vs. the real thing (Gawker)

Ludlow's SVA running up a big electric bill (BoweryBoogie)

Visiting two lesser-known halls at the American Museum of Natural History (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Eight-tracks next?: Vinyl is making a comeback (amNew York)

Looking at the new Minetta Tavern (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

The passenger who barfed (NYC Taxi Photo)

A Red Tailed hawk in action at TSP (Neither More Nor Less)

Karate Boogaloo has some more rock ephemera (Stupefaction)

The members of U2 finally make themselves useful in NYC (The Superficial)

The Bronx is burning money

A few passages from The Wall Street Journal article today on the wretched excess found at the soon-to-open Citi Field and Yankee Stadium. (And the place where the Dallas Cowboys will play.) As the headline goes, "Three of the most expensive sports arenas in history are about to open, and the timing couldn't be worse."

When the New York Yankees throw open the doors to their new home on April 3, fans will walk into a $1.5 billion stadium filled with all the hallmarks of 21st-century sports extravagance: a steak house, a glass-enclosed sports bar and high-definition video screens in every direction.

Luxury suite-holders can access a separate deal-room for conducting business. In the sleek, exclusive "Legends Club," the high-definition screens are so ubiquitous they're even set into the lavatory mirrors. For spectators in the premium section's teak-armed seats, waiters will bring brick-oven pizza to anyone able to shell out $2,500 a ticket to watch a ballgame in the midst of the worst recession in a generation.

Well, at least we can get a cheap hot dog...Uh, right?

Citi Field will have a reservation-only restaurant and a wine bar, plus gourmet snack food -- barbecue, burgers and Belgian-style french fries -- by top New York restaurateur Danny Meyer. The Yankees and Cowboys decided no existing concessions company was good enough for their new stadiums, so they teamed up with Goldman Sachs to create their own company, Legends Hospitality Management, which will focus on high-end, locally themed food. Yankee Stadium promises food cooked up by celebrity chefs from the Food Network, while a sample menu for a Cowboys luxury suite features New Zealand baby lamb chops, Kobe beef with a cognac demi-glace and truffled macaroni and cheese.

Well, at least we can sit in the bleacher seats.

Fans can still get bleacher seats in Yankee Stadium for $5, though their view of the field is partially blocked by a glass-enclosed sports bar. Bleacher seats with unobstructed views will go for $12.

A new mural for Houston and Avenue B

Yesterday, I noted that Chico and Tats Cru were working on a mural on the northwest corner of Houston and Avenue B.... Here's the final product:

At 2 Gold Street: They're just not that into poo

Are residents of 2 Gold Street forgetting to clean up after their dogs? Officials at the Sovereign Bank branch, which has a ground-floor location at the FiDi residence on Gold Street and Maiden Lane in the Financial District, decided that several "curb your dogs" signs were necessary for their front windows...




Of course, the signs aren't always effective.