Things that I wish I hadn't read: Katz's corned beef sandwich has 4,490 milligrams of sodium

Which is the same amount as 10 McDonald's hamburgers. (The New York Times via Grub Street)

[Image via]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Ice cream spilled during Avenue A donnybrook Saturday night (Neither More Nor Less)

Thoughts on living in Fishbowl City (Flaming Pablum)

Another vanishing: Aphrodisia Herb Shoppe on Bleecker (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Town Hall on future of Chinatown tonight (Save the Lower East Side!)

Someone using the Pee Phone to make an actual phone call (East Village Corner....Musings by Melanie)

A Meatpacking District Now and Then (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Spotting a T-Rex on East Houston (BoweryBoogie)

Is America's greatest family moving to the East Village?

We're still reeling from the feature in yesterday's Post on the superduperfaboo Novogratz family...

After reading this, you may want to move to, say, Greenland. Or someplace where aren't TVs. And we pretty much have to excerpt the entire article:

Two gorgeous, self-taught downtown designers with seven young urban kids are set to become Manhattan's next reality-TV stars. Think "Jon & Kate Plus 8" meets "Sex and the City."

Artsy downtown couple Bob and Cortney Novogratz, who gut-renovate dilapidated city buildings and transform them into multimillion-dollar homes, are set to star in "9 by Design," a Bravo reality show premiering April 5 that chronicles their chaotic Manhattan life where real estate is the constant family drama.

Their shenanigans could make Bob and Cortney the latest New Yorkers you love to hate -- with some viewers likely to be outraged by the manic couple's constant uprooting of their kids, and others embracing them as the coolest and most photogenic TV parents since Mrs. Partridge and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Cameras follow the nomadic Novogratz clan -- they've moved more than 15 times within a five-mile radius -- as Bob and Cortney scramble to find a temporary apartment in one day after renting out their mansion at 5 Centre Market Place in SoHo.

They check out a $14,000-a-month East Village rental and briefly consider renting out an old bar where they would bathe their newborn in the urinal. They eventually settle on a two-bedroom apartment where all the kids have to share a 12 x 14 bedroom.

During the eight-episode season, Cortney gives birth, the couple builds their first boutique hotel on the Jersey Shore, and designs a private gym in Hoboken, NJ, a beach house in Amagansett and a townhouse in the East Village.

"We wanted to show off New York City like 'Sex and the City' did," said Bob, 46, who is filmed scooting around SoHo on his Vespa with his pregnant wife on the back of the bike.

"Building in the city is stressful," said Cortney, 38. "People can relate to moving whether they've moved once or as many times as we have. We've lost track of how many times we've moved over the past 17 years." Twice, the family has moved three times in one year.

The chronic flippers live in their homes while renovating, then sell them and move on to their next project.

The family currently lives in a five-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot townhouse at 400 West St., where they've built an indoor basketball court for the kids. But Bob and Cortney are already getting bored; they've listed the property for just under $20 million and are eyeing a move to the East Village.

"The kids may end up in therapy," Bob jokes on the show. Indeed, the couple actually named their fifth child "Five."

The Novogratz kids, Wolfgang, 12; twins Bellamy and Tallulah, 11; Breaker, 9; twins Five and Holleder, 4, and Major, 1, attend three different schools.

Meanwhile, as you may know, work continues at 238 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B where the former one-level construction company was razed to become a BoCoNo-designed $4 million penthouse.



Previously on EV Grieve:
A Manhattan family that intrigues, intimidates and nauseates

[Photo via]

Washed up: Butcher Bay calls it a day

The long, expensive saga of Seymour Burton/Butcher Bar on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B has apparently come to a close... the space is for lease...




A quck refresher on this fish eatery that opened last February:

After The former Le Tableau space closed in December 2007 and became Seymour Burton... there were gut renovations, menu changes, new chefs and CB3 lawsuits...the restaurant closed in November with the following note:



"...closed temporarily to write our memoirs..."

Where donuts were once served, a grocery store opens

From the Department of That Was Really *&%$##@@* Fast... The corpse of Dunkin' Donuts is still warm and, possibly, a little glazey...and on Second Avenue, the first of the two shops have opened in DD's old space... a deli/grocery...




Jeremiah first had the news of DD's split future... Meanwhile, some folks are still in mourning... from Let's Do This Instead (via Eater):

It would sound strange that I’d think the biggest loss in the East Village would be a Dunkie’s. But the one on Second Ave. between 10th and 11th was one of the nicest neighborhood amenities ever. Where else could you sit on the sidewalk with free wifi, or at a counter by their picture windows in winter, and look out onto one of the oldest buildings in New York City, St. Mark’s Church (built in 1799, and just imagine everything it has seen grow up around it for over two centuries).

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dunkin' Donuts closes on Second Avenue; only 428 left in NYC

Dunkin' Donuts Week in Review

New scaffolding reaching to the heavens at St. Brigid's

At Eighth Street and Avenue B.

Previously.

The Cooper Square Hotel's new dining option opens Saturday

Workers have removed the paper on the windows on the former lobby bar at the Cooper Square Hotel...




As Eater reported, the space will be for a "casual cafe"...and we were told this past weekend that it opens Saturday...

Boutique on Bowery possibly opening today; new lease signs appear at 52E4

Boutiques on Bowery is slated to open today in the retail space in 52E4, the 15 stories of condo on the Bowery near Fourth Street... The BOB Web site confirms that the store opens today... The site also lists the hours from Tuesday through Sunday...meaning they likely wouldn't be open today, Feb. 1, on a Monday....

Anyway! With this opening comes the arrival of new "prime retail space available" signs at 52E4...Perhaps something more permanent is coming here some day?

"How to Make it in America" debuts Feb. 14

As you may recall from last fall... the new HBO series "How to Make it in America" has been filming all over the neighborhood... And now, posters are up advertising the show's debut on Feb. 14...



I don't have HBO, so you'll have to let me know how it is...

Somewhere on Second Avenue

Avenue A, 10:12 a.m., Jan. 31

Why people in L.A. might be talking about McSorley's today

The Los Angeles Times published a feature today about Geoffrey Bartholomew, the poet bartender who has worked behind the bar at McSorley's since 1967. Bartholomew is the author of the 2001 release "The McSorley Poems." (He has an MA in from City College, where in the '70s "he tutored under literary heavyweights Kurt Vonnegut and Anthony Burgess.") The piece talks about some of the bar's history and current group of regulars... nothing all that interesting for us hereabouts, but far more fascinating for L.A. bargoers, who think Backstage Bar & Grill in Culver City is the best dive bar.

Spotting an artwork ad on a cab

Thirty days into the month yesterday... I finally spotted one of the new art ads atop the ads...(the one on the right)



As the Times reported back in December:

[F]or the month of January, Show Media, a Las Vegas company that owns about half the cones adorning New York City’s taxis, has decided to give commerce a rest. Instead, roughly 500 cabs will display a different kind of message: artworks by Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz and Yoko Ono.

Previously on EV Grieve:
But how will we know what reality show to watch or strip club to hit?

Art show at the Mars Bar: Your chance to show off your "priceless masterpieces"

Tomorrow at 2. I'll be bringing my velour cats playing poker wall tapestry



[Feline Frenzy at the Poker Table via]