Auction at the Telephone Bar

On Jan. 31, the Telephone Bar closed on Second Avenue near Ninth Street... Earlier today, I noticed an auction sign up on one of the Telephone booths...



Here's what was for sale:

MICHAEL AMODEO CO., INC. Auctrs
SELL MONDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2010 AT 2:30 PM
AT 149 SECOND AVENUE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, NEAR 9th ST.
WELL KNOWN RESTAURANT & BAR
600Lb. Ice Machine, Blodgett Electric Convection Oven, Hobart 30Qt Mixer, Hobart Potato Peeler, 1&2 Door Refrigerators & Freezers, 3Ft Charcoal Grill, Deep Fryers, 4 & 6 Burner Stoves, Traulsen Fish File, 2 Head Espresso Machine, Coffee Urns, Upright Broiler, S.S. Sinks & Tables, Hobart Upright Dishwasher with S.S. Drain Boards, Steam Table, Bain Marie, 20 Bar Stools, 40 Tables with Old Fashioned Cast Iron Bases, 100 Chairs, Banquets, 16Ft Chef’s Line, Sound Equipment, JBL Speakers, 3 Flat Screen TV’s, POS System with 4 Screens & 5 Printers, 8x10 Aluminum Walk-In Refrigerator, S.S. Pots, Pans, Trays, China Dinnerware, Glassware Utensils & Much More. Inspection: Day Of Sale 1PM To Sale Time. Terms: Cash or Bank Cashiers Checks. 15% Buyers Premium. DCA#528663. Auctioneers Phone: 212-473-6830 or 917-776-1080.

Nothing about phone booths. Do you think the new owners will keep the phone booth motif?

Dunkin' Donuts celebrates 60th birthday with Donut Cake

Holy donut holes! I had no idea that it was Dunkin' Donuts 60th birthday! I didn't buy a gift! And look! The DD brass celebrated with a Donut Cake!



I will now go celebrate with a cup of coffee and some fries from Ray's...

[Donut cake via]

V-Bar St Mark's now open at former Tribe space

On Friday night, V-Bar St. Mark's opened on St. Mark's and First Avenue... Looked pretty full to me when I snapped this photo...




Last March, The Villager's Patrick Hedlund reported that Danny Rivera, owner of the Crooked Tree around the corner on St. Mark's, was opening a tapas bar in this space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Peeking inside the former Tribe space

An end to the St. Mark's DOB guessing game

We were just getting started earlier today guessing what the DOB stood for with Michael Huynh's new eatery...I liked Goggla's pick: Douchebaggery or Bust.



Anyway! Those spoilsports at Eater had to actually go get the answer from the man himself. As they reported:

[H]e reports it stands for Date of Birth. Those little ones between the letters represent his d.o.b., November 1 (see also: Bao 111). When the restaurant opens it will serve French Vietnamese fare with breakfast and brunch offered all day. There will be a dinner menu, a late night menu, and a $29 prix fixe. His friend and onetime business partner Pichet Ong is in charge of dessert.

Sound off: Looking at the disappearing New York accent

A few weeks back, we excerpted a Fox News story -- based on a presentation at the Linguistic Society of America -- on the disappearing native New Yorker's accent ... (The story prompted a healthy comments section here.)

In yesterday's Post, Sheila McClear wrote a nice piece on the topic titled "Why the classic Noo Yawk accent is fading away."

Here's a little bit from her story:

First, a lesson in rhoticity. What, exactly, is the New York accent? One key component, linguists say, is the "R." Not only do New Yorkers drop Rs (call the doctah!), they add them in where they're not needed, usually when the next word starts with a vowel, which creates "I sawr it with my very own eyes!" and "The sofer in the living room is green." It all started across the pond. The New York accent, with its dropped Rs, is "absolutely from British English," says Kara Becker, a Ph.D. student at NYU who is writing her dissertation on New York City English. Londoners began to drop Rs around the end of the 1600s, according to Michael Newman, associate professor of lingusitics at Queens College.

The East Coast is referred to as the "R-less corridor" by linguists, and other coastal cities have accents with features in common with New York, like Boston and Charleston, S.C. Those cities "were settled around the same time, and the speakers came from a certain place" — South London — "using a certain type of British English," Becker says.

-----

Then there's the curious case of the New York Honk, which Tom Wolfe wrote about in 1976. The Honk was a certain upper-class East Coast accent that persisted after WWII, spoken by wealthy prep-school types such as Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller. Wolf called it "derived in the natural Anglophile bias of Eastern social life." The unique way that New Yorkers draw out their vowels is another important feature of the dialect. Raising the vowels is one of the first exercises Gabis does with actors learning the accent.



New York-style vowels are diphthongs — meaning they change into another sound during pronunciation. That's just a boring way to describe the musical "aww-uhh" that New Yorkers bring to their vowels, pulling them apart like taffy, turning "sausage" into "sawww-sage." Words like "talk" and "walk" turn into two-syllable words: "Taww-uhk" and "waww-uuhk." Travis Bickle's famous line from "Taxi Driver" actually sounds more like, "Yoo tawwhkin' ta may?"

So, as she wrote: "Will old Noo Yawk become a museum piece, the subway token of language?"

Devomiting story: No one threw up on the Coop this past weekend, however...

Poor St. George just across Piss Alley from the newish Cooper Union academic building didn't fare so well...



Is this the work of the Serial Vomiter, who is now turning his or her sick attention to one of our favorite churches in the neighborhood?





...or just a random act of drunkeness?



Previously on EV Grieve:
Barfin' at the Coop: The Serial Vomiter strikes again

Cooper Union fit for a Caddy

Speaking of the Cooper Union, the newish building is featured in a new Cadillac CTS ad...I'm trying to get a copy of the commercial... Meanwhile, thanks to EV Grieve reader Jeremy for a screen shot...



Cool that the couple in the ad pulled over to look at the Coop's skateboard ramp. Hope that no one gets the idea to use the ramp for any car tricks...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Gleaming the Coop

Michael Huynh's alphabet guessing game on St. Mark's Place

Well! Finally a clue at the former Australian Homemade ice cream/candy shop on St. Mark's Place near Avenue A...

As Eater reported, Michael Huynh, who's opening 1,784 eateries this year, took over this space. "When asked whether or not that would be the location of his future Asian-Taco joint, Huynh said he wasn't sure, that he has three leases on St. Mark's Place to play with ... However, if he does put the tacos here, he's considering calling it Baorrito. May we also suggest South of the Baoder? Taco Bao?"

So, here's what went up last Friday...





Feel free to guess what DOB stands for... I'm going with Department of Buildings.

Stuy Town neighbors rallying to save a bank branch

At the HSBC branch on First Avenue just past 14th Street... you know, the location that has that seemingly-out-of-place suburban look and feel....



...with the clock that reminds you that you're late for work (again)...



...some HSBC account holders are unhappy that this branch is slated for closure...and moving to the former Bald Fat Chocolate Man location on Second Avenue and Ninth Street...



HSBC users are asking people to write their elected officials...

[And thanks to the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) for this tip]

Stupid Diesel ads now with side boobage

Spotted on the Bowery at Fourth Street.

Related:
Don't be stupid (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Butcher Bay now being used for low-budget film shoots

I was walking on Fifth Street this past weekend, and saw some activity at now-shuttered Butcher Bay eatery.... Did they reopen?




...turns out a small crew was there to film a scene for an independent film...

At the former Cafe DeVille, the black plastic goes up, the dead potted plants go out

EV Grieve reader Margaret noted some activity at the shuttered Cafe DeVille space at 13th Street and Third Avenue:

The windows in Cafe Deville were covered with black plastic on Friday. Dead potted palms from inside were also put out on the curb. There wasn't any sort of notice on the door, so it doesn't look a permit has been filed with the city. Intrigued as to what's going on in there.

As Eater reported last September: "The folks applying for a transfer for the Cafe Deville space received approval. The only stipulations proposed by the board do not allow for live music and set that the establishment must be run similar to the owners' other establishment Phebe's, the tavern/sports bar on 4th and Bowery."

I used to go to Phebe's a long time ago... in recent years it has become as fratty as a Murray Hill sports bar...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cafe DeVille's holiday appears rather permanent

Looking at Phebe's... and Bowery and Fourth Street

So the folks behind Phebe's, the tavern/sports bar on Bowery and Fourth Street, are taking over the old Cafe DeVille space on Third Avenue at 13th Street... When I went to the Phebe's Web site, I found these great photos and a history of the Bowery and Fourth Street corner...

Before it was Phebe's...

it was the "Old Landmark Restaurant & Bar." This establishment existed on the Bowery over 100 years ago. It was owned and operated by J&S Princiotto. Not too long ago the Princiotto family stopped into Phebe's for a burger and a beer and shared stories from the good old days. We thank Matty Princotto for the photos above. If you look closely at the photo on the bottom right you will see the "Business Mens Lunch: for 40 cents you get tomato juice, soup and a roast."

Now open on 11th Street: Tully's and a boutique

Tully's Gluten-Free Bakery opens today on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.. (Fork in the Road recently interviewed owner Tully Lewis.)



And next door, a new boutique has opened...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Tully's Gluten-Free Bakery opening on East 11th Street