An update on the East Village of Des Moines

Remember that classic 1930s service station in the East Village of Des Moines, Iowa, that was saved?

It's now for sale on eBay for $26,000. (Via The Des Moines Register)

Fire trucks at Fifth Street and First Avenue

Around 6 p.m. Turned out to be a false alarm. But it provided for a few moments of drama.





And people watching.

A lot of motorcycles on the FDR

The reader e-mail continues to get more interesting... Here are shots someone took yesterday afternoon showing hundreds of motorcycles traveling south on the FDR... Anyone know what this was about...?

At 2 x 4: Another bar, another awning?

The Evolution is not dead after all!



According to the door, the bar is being renovated...



As a commenter noted last time:

My roommate and I have been going to 2 by 4 for years now, so when I saw that it shut down, we had to find out what was up. We swung by there last night and saw Eric and Heather inside, so my roommate banged on the door and they opened up. The whole place was gutted and they're doing massive renovations, but they're reopening in mid-July.

It won't be 2 by 4 anymore, but the ownership is staying the same.

Hmm, perhaps the owners needs some suggestions on a theme for the new bar? I'm sure all of you have some good ideas to share. I've always wanted to open a Patrick Swayze Theme Bar — The Swayyyyyyyyyze. Made in his likeness. With drinks like "Next of Kin" and "Red Dawn." But it seems insensitive given his health.

Weekend in review: Theatre 80 to remain a theater

As the headline says, Theatre 80 to remain a theater.

More people left comments on the pink-sweater-at-the-Mars-Bar post.

Cops shut down Angels & Kings.

A band called DNA (but not the good one) filmed a video at the Cooper Square Hotel.

It got cloudy.

It got sunny.

Noted

Friday night at 3Ten Bowery. As the above copy notes, "With summer right around the corner, who could ask for a better motivator to start hitting the gym.... Ladies, you no longer have to wait for Halloween to come around to have an excuse to 'flaunt' it. Men, strip to your skivvies, and be ready to kick it Hefner style with NY's sexiest ladies. Drink, dance and be merry with 75-100 other sexy, confident singles."

Moving into the Coop

A few weeks back in The Villager, Scoopy reported that school officials planned to move into Cooper Union's new academic building at 41 Cooper Square by the summer. (The ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new building is Sept. 15.) Well, this seemed awfully ambitious to me. However, sure enough, over the weekend... the moving trucks lined up....




Meanwhile! The scaffolding is gone from in front of the new building! The graffiti! No!




By the way, what's there now looks a little different from the original rendering...

Step Up 3D returns to the East Village

Filming continues today and tomorrow in the East Village on what will likely be the greatest 3D movie about teen street dancers ever made. Parts of Third Avenue, Second Avenue, Ninth Street, 10th Street and 11th Street will be affected by the dance fever.

Angels & Kings closed today for "maintenance issues"

Such as peeling off notices from the NYPD?

And TMZ checks in...

Jack Black ushers in the return of ads to Third Avenue and 12th Street

After a few months of, uh, blankness, an ad has returned to grace the side of the building on Third Avenue near 12th Street...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Off the wall

Mr. C's on C now open

On Avenue C near Seventh Street. An Italian Trattoria. Previously.

Here's a reader comment from my last Mr. C's post:

I am one of the owners of Alphabet City Wine Co., the wine shop next door. Not sure how the place is gonna turn out but I have had a couple tours of the place and It looks really nice in there. Classic shit. Nothing too fancy. They even have a little backyard seating arrangement.The chef is pretty excited to get started and is doing solid Italian fare. It will be good to have some energy flowing from next door.

Thai coming to former sad pizza place

The former Mambo Italiano Pizzeria (AKA, the sad pizza place) at 347 E. 14th St. near First Avenue closed late last year...



... will become a thai restaurant... (not sure how long the signs have been up, to be honest...)



And a reader comment from the sad pizza post:

My friend and I used to eat at Mambo from time to time a few years ago, but we stopped for a couple of reasons. First of all, the pizza wasn't great. Probably not even good. But what really turned was off was the dough-tossing incident, which still makes us laugh when we talk about it. The last time we went there, two little boys (they were kids of someone who worked there because they kept going into the back of the pizza shop) were running around playing with the pizza dough, literally throwing it around like it was a football as we sat there wondering if they had gotten their hands on the dough that our pizza had been made with... It was funny but a little scary!

About that noise you hear if your windows are open

Fireworks for the 100th anniversary of the Queensboro Bridge. Depending on your rooftop, you can kind of see the fireworks...

Important questions of the day (and our time): Is Madonna hanging out in East Village "dive bars"

A reader sent me this item about Madonna and her current boyfriend Jesus Luz from Radar:

Luz has followed Madonna from London to New York, appeared on her arm at the Met Gala and dive bars in the East Village of Manhattan.

Per the reader:

"Um, is Madonna really hanging out in East Village 'dive bars?'"

Oh, I forgot to mention this ... I was sitting in the Grassroots the other day. And Madonna and Jesus walk on... they only have credit cards, and the Grassroots doesn't take credit cards. So I buy them a $7 happy hour pitcher of Michelob Amber Bock and a $1 basket of popcorn... To thank me, Madonna gives me a Kabbalah bracelet made out of braided red string ...

Yeah, that's not true. If Madonna is hanging out in the East Village, it will likely make the cover of the Post.