Monday, January 4, 2010

Dunkin' Donuts closes on Second Avenue; only 428 left in NYC

Several readers have noted the closure of Dunkin' Donuts on Second Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street. Serving up Double Chocolate Cake Donuts one day, windows papered up the next. Perhaps it's just a renovation, though you'd think they'd put up a sign or something...



Of course, Dunkin' Donuts is the most dominant (prominent?) chain in NYC with 429 locations, according to the last report by the Center for an Urban Future. This includes two locations right near the Second Avenue spot...First Avenue (below) and 14th Street...




All this reminds me of this fellow below who apparently really liked Dunkin' Donuts...taking the time to memorialize it in paint...


And this little piggy cried "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home

The former Birdies space (and previously, Flor's Kitchen) at 149 First Avenue near Ninth Street...



...is now something called This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef, which doesn't seem to be open just yet...(But there is a "How are we doing?" sign in the window with the name....)




Anyway, an alternative for those meat lovers who don't want pork at Porchetta over on Seventh Street...?

FYI:
Birdies closed after nearly two years last October.

Some photos of the new Cooper Union building that you may not have seen



No, not the one above. I took that last fall. Inhabitat has an "exclusive" look at the newish Cooper Union academic building. (Exclusive? Never mind the various photo essays that Curbed has posted in recent months...like this one...and this one...or these "exclusive" photos last fall from TrendLand...)

Still, the Inhabitat feature does have a few shots that I haven't seen before, such as these on the roof...

As the article notes:

Green roof gardens and terraces provide insulation to the interior spaces of the building while minimizing the "urban heat island" effect so prevalent in Manhattan. They also reduce the flow of storm water runoff and pollutants into city sewers.


Yeah, and some Cooper Union student totally has some weed growing in here...



Oh, and there's this shot too...

A Building lobby renovation update: One month anniversary!

This is how it looked on Dec. 14:



And this is how it looked this past weekend...



Hey, I know that it takes time to renovate a new lobby.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Building residents forced to use the service entrance (Dec. 7)

Boutiques on Bowery replacing the Bowery Bazaar (plus, Brazilian coffee!)

First, there was the Bowery Bazaar in the retail space in 52E4, the 15 stories of condo on the Bowery near Fourth Street...



Perhaps that was only seasonal, given the Feb. 1. debut of Boutiques on Bowery, which sort of seems like the same idea but with a new graphic: A woman in a rather short dress standing in some leaves during a windstorm with a python/cat/scarf wrapped around her neck.




According to the Boutiques on Bowery Web site:

The Boutiques on Bowery are an assembly of 36 hip new designer and artisans displaying women's clothing, dresses, sweaters, mens suites, hats, scarves, vintage and new Jewelry.

B on B will also be home to O-Cafe coffee bar reflecting the very essence of Brazil. O-Cafe will be serving the finest coffees, cappuccino, espresso, macchiato, cortado, teas, pastries and much more.

Just steps from the stylish Bowery Hotel, B on B aims to bring a sense of authenticity back to a part of Manhattan that's been transformed from a central throughway, to a gritty nabe and back again. A community collaboration, B on B is ever seeking new talent.

$3 million penthouse sale at 52E4



According to the real estate section in the Post this week, a $3 million penthouse was sold at 52E4, the 15 stories of condo at Fourth Street and the Bowery...

Manhattan
EAST VILLAGE $3,000,000
52 E. Fourth St.

Two-bedroom, two-bath penthouse condo, 1,317 square feet, with 13-foot ceilings, marble baths and washer/dryer; building features doorman, garage, pool and roof deck. Common charges $1,811, taxes $225. Asking price $3,250,000, on market 82 weeks. Brokers: Frances Katzen, Prudential Douglas Elliman and John B. Gomes and Fredrik Eklund, Core


According to StreetEasy, there have been 15 sales here...with three units currently on the market...


Previously.

And, I promise, the last post of the day on 52E4



(Maybe.)

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Things that people are throwing away

On 10th Street near Avenue C...



...a Mr. Potato head.



At Doc Hollidays on Avenue A and Ninth Street...



...a Jägermeister machine...



There has to be a connection...

A mighty wind

Winds were gusting up to 50 mph over night, at least according to my friends at the Weather Channel.

Still, however gusty, that probably doesn't explain how this Villager box moved from the west to east side of Avenue B near Eighth Street during the night...

10th Street, 11:15 a.m., Jan. 2

Silence of the Limbs



This great LES streetscene is from Logically Impossible via Neighborhoodr.

Reminds me of a scene from Stanley Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss."

Saturday, January 2, 2010

What has been lost during Bloomy's reign (so far...)



Our friend Nathan Kensinger has an in-depth photo essay on how Bloomyberg's tenure has changed the skyline of NYC... here's an excerpt...:

With the loss of small businesses, the commercial landscape of New York re-oriented towards chain stores - with cookie-cutter exteriors - that could afford to pay exorbitant rents. By mid-decade, New York's commercial streetscape had become dominated by redundancy. A multitude of sterile bank branches opened, while chains like Duane Reade and Starbucks placed multiple store locations within a few blocks of each other, to monopolize neighborhoods. For the first time, big-box-stores were allowed to enter the city, like Home Depot in 2004 and Ikea in 2008, further endangering small businesses.


Read the whole thing here.

[Photo by Nathan Kensinger]

At Port 41: Putting "the salty in 'salt of the earth'



Over at the Times, Cara Buckley does a round up of things to do around Port Authority, including a trip to EV Grieve favorite Port 41. A few of her observations:

"[A] bona fide dive bar with a life-size hippopotamus head — missing one eye and sporting a hard hat — that adorns one wall. Other perks: the bartenders wear bikinis, sometimes accessorized with fishnet stockings, and the regulars — working stiffs, construction crews and, one recent afternoon, a guy passed out by the pool table in the back room — put the salty in "salt of the earth.".


And!

For those women who like to disappear to the bathroom in pairs, the restroom is one stall with two toilets, side by side, separated by nothing.


Previously on EV Grieve:
Drinking near the Port Authority: All is well at Port 41 and the Holland, but here comes Heartland Brewery

Friday, January 1, 2010

PETA gets involved in falling moose/caribou head circus



More developments in the story of the moose head (which was actually a caribou) that fell on a diner at LES hotspot White Slab Palace. PETA has issued a statement!

PETA sent a letter to Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, urging her to encourage members who still have animal heads mounted on the walls of their establishments to take them down and send them to PETA. PETA plans to offer fun, puffy faux animal heads in return. The letter comes on the heels of reports that a 150-pound moose head at the White Slab Palace restaurant on Manhattan's Lower East Side came crashing down onto a diner, leaving her with a concussion. The woman is suing the restaurant for damages.

"Perhaps it was bad karma--the departed moose's way of taking revenge on restaurant owners who are disrespectful enough to display their remains," writes PETA cofounder and President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "For the new year, we want to help restaurants ditch dead decor and go friendly faux."

In the letter, PETA points out that a growing number of Americans oppose the cruel blood sport of hunting and are repulsed by the idea of using a dead animal's head as decor. PETA has offered to provide a free faux head for every real head that the association sends to the group. Options range from a teeth-baring T-rex to an inflatable, easy-to-clean moose head to an attractive handcrafted faux deer head.


Hmm, and some of my favorite bars have dead animals on the wall: Joe's and Port 41... Will Port 41 replace its hippo head with something plastic....?



Meanwhile, what this saga needs is a theme song...