RIP New York Press; welcome back Our Town Downtown

Over at the Observer, Kat Stoeffel reports that Manhattan Media is shuttering New York Press and, on Sept. 1, relaunching Our Town Downtown — "a magazine/community newspaper hybrid."

In a telling statement, Publisher Tom Allon said: "Downtown has changed, it's more ripe for a community paper than an alternative paper."

Here's more from Mr. Allon:

"It'll compete with the Voice for hipsters, Downtown Express for community activists, and New York magazine for intelligentsia who care about real estate and their home values."

Uh-huh.

Read the whole Observer piece here.

Even Cowgirls get the...

[Atron]

Outside Cowgirl's Baking on East 10th Street this afternoon...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Union Square yesterday via blue glass]

A chat with the Tompkins Square Park Rat Lady (Runnin' Scared)

WPIX brings up the rear in TSP rat coverage (WPIX)

World Famous Pee Phone is out of order (East Village Corner)

Sturdy diner replaced by joint with a $65 prix fixe menu (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Elvis on A (Neither More Nor Less)

The historic Art Deco meatpacking building to be demo'd for shitty glass tower (Off the Grid)

Anyone wanna challenge Daniel Squadron? Anyone? Anyone? (The Lo-Down)

Marty visits the Coal Yard (Marty After Dark)

Die Hard 5 will likely happen. Woo? (BoweryBoogie)

A Cure photo mystery (Flaming Pablum)

If the white breeches fit ...: Chris Christie maybe called Bloomy "Napoleon" (Gothamist)

And in case you haven't seen the new commercial filmed at Billy's Antiques that has been making the rounds...

Bowery Beef likely pulling out of the Bowery Poetry Club

Bowery Beef opened up in the Bowery Poetry Club back in February ... And, well, we rather liked their $5 roast beef sandwich (so did Sietsema!) and coffee...

Anyway, the place wasn't open the last few times we stopped by.

So we asked one of the owners, Ray LeMoine, a few questions via email ... and turned it into a handy-dandy Q-and-A:

Is Bowery Beef closed for good at its current location?

Not 100 percent sure yet. But it looks like we may move to another location.

What happened?

We were robbed four times in one week. Bowery Beef was located in the entryway of the Poetry Club, and they stay open until 4 am. We closed due to the robbery losses and the lack of security. On top of that, we never hit the dinner rush we needed. Since there's no wall between the cafe and stage, it was essential that Beef was virtually silent during readings, which wasn't suitable for dinner.

How would describe your experience at the Bowery Poetry Club?

They had like seven managers and we never felt cohesion. But we're still working with Bob Holman, the owner of Bowery Poetry Club. Holman has taken over the club's booking and we are placing readings and events in an increased capacity. So our experience is ongoing.

Holman wants to turn the Beef space into a bookstore, and we'd help with that. Our neighbors, The Hole Gallery, have a book shop, carrying mostly art titles. Bowery Poetry Club's shop would be more literary fiction/non-fiction and of course poetry. A mini-book row on Bowery seems like a wonderful thing.

A lot of people really liked your food. Are you planning on reopening in a new location?

Thanks. We have a handful of options on Bowery and want to stay in Noho. We're talking with friends and neighbors about a Bowery Beef hybrid similar to what we did with Poetry, meaning a cultural component.

Longtime operator Greg Brier is our partner and we are scouting for all sorts of projects, not just Beef-related, and not just in Manhattan. One of our ideas is an artisinal whorehouse/casino pop-up, called Area 69, with male hookers dressed as sexy vegan aliens, sustainable poker chips and a green building made of composted human shit. We have a great secret location in Nevada. We'll be open for NYE 2012 baby!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Where's the Bowery Beef?

Bowery Poetry Club to get literary cafe, roast beef

Bookstore-cafe wanted for the Bowery Poetry Club

L'asso EV thinks it will make the local pizza competition 'a little worried'

The folks behind Mott Street pizzeria L’asso aren't timid about entering a crowded pizza market.

"I think we're definitely going to make people a little worried," partner Greg Barris said of the competition yesterday in an interview with Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo. "There’s an endless amount of pizza in that neighborhood, but there really isn’t anyone doing what we’re up to."

L'asso EV is opening an outpost on First Avenue near Seventh Street in the fall, as Hedlund noted. (L'asso is taking over the former Bonjoo space.)

And what makes it so special?

"L’asso prides itself on serving D.O.C.-certified pies — a designation reserved for pizza made to the standards of the Italian government. The restaurant also uses non-bromated flour not typically found in pizza doughs, despite the fact that the additive, potassium bromate, is a known carcinogen."

Their pizzas include specialty toppings like homemade potato chips, truffle oil, mascarpone and walnuts.

(Anyone who has eaten their pizza want to chime in?)

Anyway! Our friend Rebecca Marx asks a very reasonable question over at Fork in the Road: How much more pizza does the East Village really need?

She notes there are 44 pizza places in the East Village. (And no — we're not counting Roberta's at the Urban Dunk Think Tank.)

Per Marx:

"[W]hile we appreciate the plenitude and variety, the whole thing is getting a bit rote: fancy pizzeria announces intentions to open/expand into the neighborhood, promises to forever alter the pizza landscape, opens, gets blogged about, and settles into comfortable mundanity. If you want to worry people, open a slaughterhouse."

+1 on the slaughterhouse please!

P.S.
Anyway, we still miss Five Rose's Pizza.

Meanwhile, next door, Veloce Pizzeria is 'closed for renovations'

So the sign on the doors says... Perhaps they're upgrading to meet the standards of the Italian government?

Tonight in Tompkins Square Park: Rosemary's Baby (He has his father's eyes!)

Tonight marks the eighth of the free music-movie nights in Tompkins Square Park. This evening's photodrama: "Rosemary's Baby."

Yes!



We're your friends, Rosemary. There's nothing to be scared about. Honest and truly there isn't!

And upcoming...

Aug. 25 — The Godfather
Sept. 1 — Stake Land

Here's the official website for the summer movies.

Is Scarano's 52E4 falling apart on the Bowery?

That's what a reader asked who sent along the above photo on the Bowery at East Fourth Street ... Well, yeah — looks like a few of those slats-like things are missing ... We'll ask Chrissy.

TV on the Radio on a billboard

[Photo by John Marshall Mantel]

Twitter was blowing up a little bit ago over the news of the TV on the Radio "pop-up" concert/Heineken Light commercial at Lafayette and Great Jones tonight at 8 ... Did they do their cover of "Mr. Grieves"?

Crusty down

EV Grieve reader Steven just snapped this shot on Second Avenue between Ninth and 10th ...

Cooper Union's plan to remake Astor Place — and the East Village

In case you haven't read it yet, head on over to Jeremiah's Vanishing New York for his take on Cooper Union's plan for Astor Place — and the East Village.

An excerpt!

The redesign of Astor Place is part of the Bloomberg program to remake the East Village into a haven for the upper classes and safety-seeking suburbanites. When considering what's about to happen to Astor Place, we must look beyond the pretty green trees to the motivations behind the plan. Why is it really being done and for whom? Who will benefit the most from it? What will the East Village lose in the long run?

Read the post here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village — the new Midtown?

That overarching feeling of nostalgia

Back in February in February 2010, we came across the Flickr page of East Village resident Michael Sean Edwards, who had uploaded an array of neighborhood photos from the late 1970s and early 1980s...

Michael, who still lives in the neighborhood, let us know that he now has a website with various galleries of his work. You can find his site here.

As he wrote: "This gallery is fairly eclectic. Between what seemed very brief periods of being gainfully employed, I roamed around the Village taking photos, day and night. If I had to describe the overarching feeling that inhabited me, I would call it nostalgia."

Meanwhile, here are a few of the photos that you'll find...

Like this one of Ray's...



...the Gem Spa...



the East Village Fruit Exchange, Seventh Street and First Avenue circa 1979 ...



Avenue A and St. Mark's Place, circa 1979...



and my favorite... our favorite bar owner circa 1985...



For more EVG posts featuring Michael's photos... you can go here ... and here

Your 'Lower Manhattan Theme Song 2011' (Woo Hoo!)

Chuckle Cakes NYC shared this video with us. Per the YouTube description:

This is a song that attempts to capture the current zeitgeist of the areas below 34th street in Manhattan (as well as certain areas in West Brooklyn and Manhattan above 96th street.) Anyone who has been here in the last few years will recognize the eclectic mix of people who draw their inspiration from an overlapping medley of 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s fashion, movies and music. These areas now see a a mix of clean-cut street looking kids of West Side Story and Buddy Holly-lookalikes; 90s/oughts Indie rockers; 70s handlebar-mustachioed porn-star types; Woodstock worshiping quasi-hippies and "folksters", endless variants of 80s "Wall Street" style people; rehashed grunge types; a plethora parade of would-be Lady Gagas; a voluminous number of "Gossip Girl" dreamers; "Jersey Shore" clones; curious tourists; and a smattering of everything else you care to name. One common thread, however, is their penchant for hard partying, and screaming "woohoo!" and "woo!" at all hours while stumbling around drunkenly.

It's a microcosm of the urban and suburban American culture of the naughts and oughts.

Manhattan, this is for you.

18th nail salon opening on Avenue A

OK, I'm kidding about that headline... this would be the fifth...

Anyway! RyanAvenueA points us to this sign for the coming-soon Joyful Nails arriving at the long-empty First House storefronts between Third Street and Second Street...

So, what do you think? Good news that it's a business that will be open during the day... and not related to nightlife? (Unless you go for a mani before that Bridesmaid or Bachelor Pub Craw...) Or do you think they're already enough nail salons around here...? Like the two on First Avenue between First Street and Third Street?

Yes, we walked the streets last night counting nail salons.