Gem Spa needs to buy a new vowel!

Flooding KOs the Local 269 for now

Several readers let us know that The Local 269, the nice little live music venue on East Houston and Suffolk, is temporarily closed.

A band playing at 269 later next week noted on Facebook that their show "has been canceled due to a flood at Local 269 that destroyed their sound system."

We called the 269 for more information, but the number isn't in service now. And there aren't any messages about the flood on their website or Facebook page. Additionally, they didn't respond to emails asking for more information.

Last week, BoweryBoogie reported that 269 E. Houston, the six-story apartment building where the Local lives, is for sale. Current asking price is $9.95 million. The Massey Knakal listing notes that the commercial unit is leased out through December 2013.

The Local 269 space was previously home to Meow Mix and Vasmay Lounge. The Local opened in February 2009.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Vasmay Lounge space is now the Local 269

Today in photos of rats scratching their ears in Tompkins Square park

Near the men's room in Tompkins Square Park ... photo by Bobby Williams.

Amazing

East 10th Street near First Avenue this evening. Photo by Steven Hirsch.

Are car bumpers recyclable?

Spotted on East Seventh Street this morning. Maybe you already saw the "Missing Bumper" flyers posted around the area...

Benefit for East Village photographer Shell Sheddy tonight at Tompkins Square Bagels

[Photo by Shell Sheddy via Facebook]

Via the EV Grieve inbox... New York Councilmember Rosie Mendez is hosting a benefit tonight from 5-10 at Tompkins Square Bagels (165 Avenue A) for East Village-based photographer Shell Sheddy.

Per the invite:

Shell Sheddy embodies the very soul of the East Village and we will gather to honor her contributions and fundraise for her endeavors and livelihood. She is an artist, activist, humanitarian and East Village cultural historian of the very highest pedigree, photographing everything from punk shows at CBGBs to political events, nightlife, streetlife, and seemingly everything in between.

"Photos by Shell Sheddy" will be on display for sale for the night, and a percentage of the proceeds from Tompkins Square Bagels during those hours will be donated to Sheddy. There is also a raffle, featuring "Dinner w/Rosie" and selected prints as prizes.

The East Village will soon be down to 1 gas station

Back on April 10, we wondered how much longer the East Village would have any gas stations. There are currently two — the BP at Second Avenue and East First Street... and the Mobil at Houston and Avenue C.

[EVG file photos]

Well. you can kiss that Mobil goodbye.

The Real Deal reports that the station has been sold to a brokerage firm for $8 million.

To the article:

The site, at 350 East Houston Street on the corner of Avenue C, is a 6,000-square-foot lot that is home to an Exxon Mobil station whose lease is coming due in the near future, a source close to the deal, which closed Friday, said. Existing zoning allows for 43,000 square feet of residential development on the parcel, which has 120 feet of frontage on Houston Street.

The article also notes that the Seiden family has owned the site for about 50 years.

Not a surprising bit of news, really. As we mentioned before, with the unused air rights, gas stations are just too valuable to be gas stations on such prime real estate in Manhattan, where Crain's noted there are just 40 or so left.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How much longer will the East Village have gas stations?

h/t Curbed

The Nicoletta effect?: Another East Village pizza place calls it quits

Last month, Closed for Renovations signs went up at Pomodora, the "pizzaria" on Second Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street. We saw crews working inside, and it did seem like a renovation was taking place ... and we didn't note it at the time.

However, a supervisor at the scene told Blue Glass yesterday that the space would soon become some kind of "Italian-French fusion" restaurant. What that means... we have no idea.

Pomodora and its misspelled pizzeria opened in May 2010, taking over part of the former beloved Dunkin' Donuts space.

Not for nothing... but this is the second pizza place within a half block of Nicoletta that has closed in recent weeks. As we noted Tuesday, Plum Pizzeria on the west side of Second Avenue near East 10th Street has also closed. Nicoletta opened to some fanfare on June 15.

Still, Pomodora and Plum didn't seem all that crowded before Nicoletta arrived...

The campaign to 'Save our Neighborhood Diner' on University Place

As you may have read at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York and Flaming Pablum, University Diner on University Place at East 12th Street shuttered after 60 years of continuous service. The diner closed yesterday for good at 4 p.m.

Eater noted that the landlord is seeking $40,000 a month in rent.

Regardless, some fed up neighbors are petitioning the landlord "to only consider renting to a similar diner/restaurant: One that is low-key (soft lighting), affordable, with the same welcoming, friendly feeling."

And "NO! to franchises, bank fronts, noisy bars, phone stores..."

[Thanks to EVG reader Scott for the photo]

The sad last few weeks of Pete Wentz's former hotspot Angels & Kings

[Former East Village bar owner Pete Wentz]

We noted yesterday that 7-Eleven (and maybe some other franchise?) was taking over the space previously held by Bar on A at 170 Avenue A and the adjacent Angels & Kings at 500 E. 11th St.

Aces & Eights Angels & Kings quietly closed in late April... a fact that no one reported on for several weeks.

Quite a contrast to when Angels & Kings swaggered onto the scene in the spring of 2007 with the requisite UrbanDaddy d-baggery:

Launched in part as a hangout for the members of Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is... and Gym Class Heroes, Angels and Kings — or AK-47, as the kids are calling it — is your chance to sip a cheap bottle of beer and chat up attractive TRL aficionadas.

To no surprise, that premise eventually fizzled. And it maintained its status as yet another bar to avoid in the neighborhood, the kind of place Yelpers grumbled about because of "hearing some d-bag nyu student show off his AWFUL rendition of 'The Humpty Dance,' or watching this Finnish girl sing 'Mambo No. 5.'" And don't forget the beer pong tourneys!

By last fall, the space was being used to show Penn State football games on Saturday afternoons (and the Steelers on Sundays!).

In January, the CB3/SLA gave the OK for the people behind Keybar on East 13th Street to take over the Angels & Kings space and open a bar-restaurant serving Hungarian food. We never heard what happened to those plans.

This past summer, we noticed that the building's super started using the entryway to store trash and recyclables...

And people took notice that this was a good space for trash.

Anyway, the space is now in plywood hell, resigned to another life of suburbia hell, this time as a 7-Eleven.

Here kitty kitty

We posted a few photos last week of the gorgeous cat seen at times hanging around Tompkins Square Park ... Bobby Williams spotted the cat again yesterday, and he/she was happy (mostly) to pose for a few more photos...

City approves new building for Mystery Lot

Construction equipment arrived at the Mystery Lot back on July 23. As you are painfully aware know by now, the space will be home to an 82-unit, eight-story development.

While workers have been digging into this sacred ground, the developers were still waiting for the city to OK the final plans for the building. Just a formality. After a few disapproved marks from the DOB, the examiner finally signed off last Friday...

Now we're just waiting to see the renderings for the building. BKSK Architects are behind the designs. Their previous work includes The Tribute WTC 9/11 Visitor Center and 25 Bond Street (below)...

Know anything about the plans here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Taureau has moved away from the East Village

Taureau, the BYOB fondue place at 127 E. Seventh St., recently moved away from the East Village. The place opened in April 2010, and I never met a person who had eaten here. Myself included. Not a dig. Just never quite in that fondue mood.

According to the sign on the door, the eatery relocated to 558 Broome Street. The Taureau website says "the new location is more spacious, more romantic and more convenient to the subway, and still BYOB!"

More romantic? What could be more romantic than being located right next door to the Peter Jarema Funeral Home on East Seventh Street?

No one EVER said moving was easy

Contrary to what the slogan says on the moving truck. On East Fourth Street at Second Avenue.

Photo by Bobby Williams.