EV Grieve

Monday, December 20, 2010

At the Mystery Lot: Spirits in the materialistic world

Ah, Jeremiah beat me to this today... an art installation of sorts along the 13th Street side of the Mystery Lot that reads MATERIALISTIC, though a few letters appear to be missing now...

Tompkins Square Park, 10:17 a.m., Dec. 20

WTF: 'Le Souk is back to Avenue B for New Years!'

A rather terrified Avenue B resident passes along this info about a New Year's Eve bash at the shuttered Le Souk...

The description mentions Le Souk's West Village location, but everything else points to Avenue B... where the restaurant/club lost its liquor license last year... Anyway, The Harem VIP Table Service Ticket is $250.

Hickey's is gone

For some reason, I found myself near Herald Square Friday evening. Enough to make anyone want to drink. Hickey's! Of course!

So I made my way over to 33rd Street near Seventh Avenue ... to the well-worn 40-year-old bar that I'll drink in any chance that I have...

Ahhhhh!. I have no idea when this happened. Another one lost. Of course, this closure has been rumored for years.

A few doors to the east, that suburbany-looking place called Stoudt NYC was MOBBED. So I went into the OK-at-the-right-time Blarney Stone next door. This was NOT the right time: Pre-Knicks game crowd. So I found a slot near the front door. An array of half-finished drinks sat there on a table next to me. A woman wondered in. I'm pretty sure she was carrying a glass of red wine in with her. She put down her wine. She started wolfing down the different drinks. Two half-empty bottles of Magners. And something that might have been a screwdriver. She asked if that was my bottle of beer. Yes it was. She nodded, picked up her wine and walked back out the door.

I felt a little better about Hickey's for a moment.

Read more about Hickey's at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York .... At A Guy Walks into 365 Bars, our friend Marty Wombacher wrote: "Hickey's is one of the last great dive bars in Manhattan. Stop by for a drink or four and let's keep this joint in existence!" You can read his recap here.

[Top photo via Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

Taqueria banner adds touch of class to Extra Place

BoweryBoogie first reported on Dec. 1 that Brooklyn-based Oaxaca Tacos opened in a storefront toward the back of Extra Place... I'm not sure how you let people walking by the alley know that you're back there... but I suppose this is one way...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Meanwhile, Extra Place continues to maintain its proud heritage

Perhaps he just saw Extra Place for the first time in 15 years or so?

Looking at Extra Place

The other morning outside Mars Bar

Kiehl's knows plywood

Our very own Kiehl's is expanding, opening a store on Lexington and 64th Street. You can read more about it at Racked.

Meanwhile, I recently walked into the flagship Kiehl's on Third Avenue and 13th Street... and I thought I had entered, say, Barneys.

Pollo Cafecito space on the market

Back in the fall of 2009, Avenue C's Cuban eatery Cafecito opened Pollo Cafecito, a take out/rotisserie chicken joint... I noticed that the space was closed this past summer for renovations or something... Now that I see the space is on the market ...

... Cafecito is still going strong, as far as I can tell...

Noted

Papa John's on First Avenue will be open on Christmas Day.

Last night, John Penley and filmmaker Vlad Teichberg hosted an event at the former P.S. 64/Charas space on East Ninth Street ... Teichberg projected work on the Charas wall ... Vlad and John provided the content along with Faith La and Ason Indigo... Shawn Chittle passed along these photos...