At the New York Healthy Choice grand opening today on Avenue C

This morning, we mentioned that New York Healthy Choice was opening today on Avenue C at East 11th Street.... it's owned by Jose and the folks behind Yankee Deli across the East 11th Street... EVG reader Robert Galinsky stopped by and took these photos...

Noted

Dave on 7th spotted this along Avenue A near East Fourth Street this afternoon...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[EVG reader Richard L. sends along what he calls "a lucky shot" of the hawk in flight in Tompkins Square Park]

John Holmstrom on Punk (Capital)

Facelift for an East Fourth Street townhouse (The Gog Log)

Dr. Dave helps ex-cons remove their tattoos (Narratively)

First look inside Mighty Quinn's on Second Avenue (Eater)

Can you "Houstanize" Lucky Burger on East Houston? (BoweryBoogie)

Fairway opens tomorrow on Second Avenue in Kips Bay (DNAinfo)

More liquor-license drama for 106 Rivington (The Lo-Down)

You never get used to seeing new IHOP signage (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Reverend Jen's Anti-Slam is back; starts tonight at the Pyramid

Starting tonight, Rev. Jen's Anti-Slam will be holding forth at the Pyramid Club at 101 Avenue from 7-9:30 (followed later by the BritPop/New Wave night).

Here's the official news release:

REVEREND JEN'S ANTI-SLAM IS BACK!
Thursday, December 20, 7-9:30 p.m. (and every Thursday thereafter)
Still only $3

After evil developers bulldozed the Anti-Slam's first home, Collective: Unconscious (where it was held for nine years), things haven't been easy on the little open mic that could. It has moved to a theater that closed, to several different bars, to a hair salon (for 2 nights) and finally to Bowery Poetry Club, which closed this summer for renovations. Now after a five-month hiatus, the Anti-Slam is back and it's staying downtown!

For over 16 years, the Anti-Slam has continually provided audiences with some of the best entertainment the city has to offer. Pros and amateurs alike share the stage, and both are given equal respect and a place to try out new things. Each performer gets 6 minutes of stage time and a perfect "score" of 10. Everything is welcome – comedy, poetry, music, interpretive dance, primal scream therapy, prose, genius and stupidity. It is truly the home of the visionary, downtrodden and tired. As always NYC's only "It Elf" Reverend Jen hosts.

On this occasion, we asked Reverend Jen a few questions ...

On the changing Lower East Side/East Village nightlife dynamic:

"We haven't let gentrification stop us from being a vibrant community. It's been tougher to find venues, but in the past year, we have seen the birth of ASS Studios (Art Star Scene Studios) the most underfunded motion picture studio in history, the Assdance Film Festival and Faceboyz Folliez,which celebrates its one-year anniversary this Saturday at Bar 82.

"The only changes to the latest incarnation of the Anti-Slam are the day of the week it falls on (Thursday instead of Wednesday) and the fact that it's only two-and-a-half hours long instead of 5 or 6. Nothing will ever replace the old Collective (which, by the way, is still an empty lot) but the spirit of mad eccentricity and creativity is still alive. Everyone will still get a 10."

On returning from "retirement":

"Taking a break from the Anti-Slam is a necessity every once in a while. Promoting my book 'Elf Girl' while also making movies, working a day job, writing a screenplay, making paintings and finishing two other books exhausted me.

"Then the Bowery Poetry Club closed and I took it as a sign from the universe. I was planning on continuing the break when someone from Pyramid contacted me so I thought why not. Like post-"Glitter" Mariah Carey, I will likely be hospitalized for exhaustion. But I miss everyone so it'll be worth it."

[Photo via RevJen.com]

Deck the walls!: Santa and his reindeer visit the Mystery Lot

Hey! Look who showed up at the Mystery Lot this holiday season...

Festive, yes?

All together now!

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to the Mystery Lot

Thanks to EVG reader Katja for the photo...

More bike corrals on the way for East Village businesses

CB3 has OK'd bike corrals (CityRacks!) for two East Village businesses — the 4th Street Food Co-op and Continuum Cycles on Avenue B.

These will be similar to the ones that the DOT installed in front of Mudspot on East Ninth Street back in April ...

[Photo via EVG reader Robert]

Jill Woodward wrote this last week at the The 4th Street Food Co-op blog:

We need the parking because so many of our members and shoppers arrive by bike, and it can be difficult to find a parking place near the store.

[Outside the 4th Street Co-op last night, via EVG]

The tradeoff is 1-2 fewer spaces for automobiles in exchange for up to 20 spots for cycles. That calculation can result in more business for the neighborhood, according to a recent report by TA.

We also understand that Mudspot and Bluestockings on Allen Street have the go-ahead to expand their current bike corrals... No timelines on when the DOT will install any of these bike racks ... word is early 2013.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's your new East Ninth Street bike rack (18 comments)

Good Guys now open on Second Avenue

Subway-replacement Good Guys opened yesterday on Second Avenue near East Ninth Street, per Blue Glass... they are open 24/7, and feature an extensive number of menu items, like wraps, burgers, salads, etc.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Second Avenue Subway now a Good Guys Burger

Another East Village Subway closes

New York Healthy Choice opens today on Avenue C

Several of us have been curious about what to expect from New York Healthy Choice, the new market opening on Avenue C at East 11th Street. Bobby Williams notes that the store opens this morning at 7.

Per an EVG commenter on last week's Healthy Choice post:

The owner of this is the same person/people who own Yankee Deli and the incoming Yankee Pizza across the street.

I spoke with a couple of people at Yankee Deli a few months ago about it and it is essentially going to be a fancier grocery store for the neighborhood with a — their words — "HUUUGEEE butcher counter". So, yay!, good meat.

Was only a week or so from opening at the time of Sandy, but obviously that timeline had to be changed.

The last tenant, the Monk Thrift Shop, closed in December 2010. At the time, neighbors heard that a bank branch would open here.

EV Grieve's last-minute holiday gift ideas

Spotted in the window at Brickman & Sons on First Avenue...

You know how it is sometimes. You're at the bar with your friends, and everyone seems to be talking at once! You need to cut through the clutter and make your point! Then look no further than the Mega-Sound Megaphone, which will slip easily into one of the three or four bags that you're carrying. It's also good for tracking down your friends who may have stranded you on a quiet side street at 3 a.m.

Perhaps you can think of other uses for it. Regardless, it's $9.99.

* Requires four C batteries

A gift idea for the Mama's Food Shop lover in your life

And now a more serious gift idea... Yesterday we heard from Jeremiah Clancy, the former owner of Mama's Food Shop, which closed after 15 years in July...

We are selling a Mama's commemorative tee for any one that misses the old Shop on East 3rd Street. They are $35 and can be ordered by contacting the Mama's email through Jan. 1. The shirts are unisex and are light gray – they come in XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL.

His friend Alexia Stamatiou designed the shirts.

On the horizon

A view downtown from the East Village ... via Bobby Williams...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[St. Mark's Place via Bobby Williams]

Nuyorican Poets Cafe will hold a benefit tomorrow to raise money to replace its heating system (The Lo-Down ... NY1)

SantaCon's citywide reign of terror and stupidity (DNAinfo)

Relive the Hell of SantaCon — in video! (Slum Goddess)

Wisdom from "While We Were Sleeping: NYU and the Destruction of New York" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Just how loud is The DL on Delancey? (BoweryBoogie)

Union Square parking garage will be converted into condos (Curbed)

Another MTA fare hike (Gothamist)

City wants seasonal indoor trapeze program at the Hamilton Fish Park Recreation Center (DNAinfo)

Holiday lights at One World Trade (The Gog Log)

...and the Mighty Quinn opened this morning at Second Avenue and East Sixth Street...

We are proud to announce that we'll be opening the doors of our East Village restaurant tomorrow @ 11am.Come join us! yfrog.com/oc1rgwpbj

— Mighty Quinn's BBQ (@MightyQuinnsBBQ) December 18, 2012

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Ben Treuhaft (and Zsofi)
Occupation: Piano Tuner
Location: 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave.
Time: 12:15 on Saturday, Dec. 17

I’ve lived in the neighborhood since 1998. I’m from Oakland. I’m a piano tuner and I had my piano shop in Berkeley for about 25 years. And then I got sick to death of the Bay Area. I was 50 years old and 50 years was enough, so I rented a Ryder truck and drove my whole piano shop out this way.

When I arrived I didn’t have any customers, although I was the big fish in Berkeley. My background was with the Steinway Concert Department and I had no trouble getting a gigantic clientele over there. I worked with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music even though I didn’t wear shoes until I was 35 years old. I was barefoot. I was a hippie, you know. Everybody put their shoes back on but I didn’t. I just went around with no shoes on because I figured it was so much more comfortable. It became almost a religion with me. I would go to the Conservatory of Music and I would pat around with no shoes. Then, I figured when I was 35 years old that I could make a little bit more money if I put shoes on. So I sold out and wore shoes after that.

I also started an idea called Send a Piana to Havana. I named it after Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army. It was an enema for Clinton’s blocked up Cuba policy. It was great for awhile. We got famous. We were all over the news. We were famous in Cuba too and everybody loved us.

Then everybody got bored with us. We started a piano tuning school there that was accredited. I was getting these big huge piano tuners to come in and do these annual brigades in Cuba. And it turns out that the Cuban authorities were pissed off rather than enjoying it because they stopped helping us. We now think that they think that we were corrupt, which is really weird. We’re finding this out now. We don’t know the end of the story yet. We still get thanked all around the world in concert.

Let me tell you the best thing about moving out here. When I got here, even though I didn’t have any customers, the few I had were jaw-droppingly better than the ones I had in Berkeley. The people are much more interesting here than my cohorts in the Bay Area. It took me four years before I got any clientele, and then it blossomed from there. I have a little piano shop on the Lower East Side, on Essex and Rivington. It’s a little rat hole. I’m going to keep it even though we’re moving to Edinburgh [this week], to Scotland. We’re having a garage sale now of our furniture and seven pianos.

My wife is a scientist and she got a job at The University of Edinburgh. We’re moving there for a few years at least. She moved to the neighborhood the year before I did. She was from Hungary. I'm Hungarian also, and in 1999, I was in Moishe’s around the corner and my wife-to-be was working there ... I said, “Hey listen, I like you Olga ... come and work in my piano shop.” And she said okay and we worked together until she said, “You know, my dream is to be a biologist.” I told her to pursue that and six years later she’s written nature articles, she’s like a big Ph.D., and she’s got post-doc offers in Japan and Scotland. She’s amazing.

Paul’s "Da Burger Joint" — that is one of my favorite places in the world. Also, I like McSorley's but it’s only good in the afternoon. And one last favorite thing, Colin Huggins — the Crazy Piano Guy. He plays under the arch in Washington Square Park and he’s one of my absolute favorite customers. You tune the piano outside with everybody around and it’s so nice and when I’m done he lets me sit under the piano and lie there for awhile and listen to the music. He’s a very good pianist. Under the piano, under a grand piano, is the best place to listen to music. That’s my other favorite place in New York, under his piano.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Iris Bakery Cafe replacing Rockit Scientist Records on St. Mark's Place

The sign is up here now ... and as you can see, they are hiring... Not sure what kind of bakery this will be ... we heard in the fall that it will be a bubble tea shop... Or perhaps it will be one that sells bread. Or it will be more like Eastside Bakery.net a few storefronts away. Or a bakery that will become a bar after they receive a liquor license just to pair with their croissants.

Rockit Scientist owner John Kioussis decided not to renew his lease here, as Jeremiah Moss first reported.