[Updated] 3 photos of 51 Astor Place from Jan. 12

Updated 1-14
Well! Turns out that The Wall Street Journal has a feature today on 51 Astor Place. (Thanks to the reader for the link). The article's headline: "Mixed Messages In New Geometry At Cooper Square."

To some excerpts!

Says developer Edward J. Minskoff: "This was a classic case of an opportunity to take a wonderful site and really put a special building there. It's dramatic, it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing."

And!

"When I moved here, there were buildings that were not known by their addresses. Lever House, the GM building, the Pan-Am building. I think 51 Astor Place has the opportunity to go down in history as to be referred to by the name of its tenants," Mr. Minskoff says, though he has declined to name any potential tenants with whom he is in discussions. "I don't like to build mediocre boxes. I want to build buildings that will be great on year 1 and great on year 30."

The structure going up at 51 Astor should not be viewed as mediocre, but it's a far cry from the type of ground-breaking design that earns a place in the pantheon of the city's name-brand buildings.

Previously.

Duane Reade's First Avenue Grand Opening is Friday

The time (heh) is coming for the Brand New Duane Reade on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street... the Duane Reade around the corner is relocating... per the sign on the soon-to-be-moving Duane Reade...

Meanwhile, we looked in the store to see if anything was on sale.

Not yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking: Former bank branch to become a Duane Reade on First Avenue

Social Tees has moved into the former Gimme Gimme Records space

[Bobby Williams]

As you may have noticed, Social Tees has a new home now over on East Fifth Street next door to the 9th Precinct ... in the former home of Gimme Gimme Records. Slum Goddess noted this move last week. (Read her post here.)

Social Tees had moved into an East Second Street storefront in December 2011. And that Second Street space is on the rental market. Per the Massey Knakal listing, "most uses considered." Rent for the 950-foor-square space is available upon request.

Gimme Gimme closed last fall after being Cromanized. The store, which had celebrated its 18th year here, has reopened in Los Angeles. If you happen to be in the area...

[Via Facebook]

The week in the life of some plywood on Avenue B and East 7th Street

[Via Robert Miner]

Last Tuesday, the above plywood arrived on the corner of Avenue B and East Seventh Street ... outside Amaran, the home-goods store that is closing soon ...

Work permits pointed to something about: "ENCLOSE A SMALL PORTION OF THE EXTERIOR WALL."

By Thursday, there was a partial stop work order. "THE SIDEWALK SHED ALLOWS 19 INCHES OF PASSAGE. IT WRAPS AROUND THE BUILDING AND WAS TO ONLY BE ON 7 ST. ONE INCH SCREW ARE STICKING OUT OF THE PLYWOOD."

OK. On Friday, workers arrived to move the plywood off the sidewalk...

Now, perhaps, all is well.

As for Amaran, they have the misfortune of looking as if they're already closed. The store's last day isn't until Jan. 27, per the homemade signs on the plywood...

EV Grieve Eatery Etc.: 1st sign of Pride and Joy; $1 slices at Vinny Vincenz; and more

As we first reported in November, the former Lucky Cheng's space on First Avenue will become the first NYC outpost for renowed BBQ chef Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ... and signs are up to help direct traffic for deliveries...

... we don't recall the part about "draft house" and "honky-tonk" ... why does that put the fear in us?

Anyway, hopefully Pride & Joy will have good ventilation...

-----

You've noticed the proliferation of $1 (or 99-cent!) slice places around... especially on East 14th Street and nearby First Avenue... Papa John's and Joey Pepperoni both offer cheap slices on First ... and on East 14th Street, there's the new 99-cent place as well as another Joey Pepperoni... not to mention 7-Eleven...

So it may not be a huge surprise that Vinny Vincenz Pizza on First Avenue near East 14th Street is now selling a $1 slice, as Crazy Eddie pointed out last week...

Well, we'll take anything from Vinny's anytime over these other plastic factories...

-----

Several people have asked if we know when the new Nevada Smiths space is opening on Third Avenue near East 13th Street... to be honest, we've lost track of what's happening here... DNAinfo got an inside look at the new space last summer, and the projected opening date was August at that time... According to a Sept. 5 post on the Nevada Smiths Facebook page: "The new location should be ready by October." A Dec. 22 post said that they'd be open in January...

Here's how it looked this past Thursday...

Meanwhile, you can still watch the matches at Nevada's temp home at Webster Hall...

Previously on EV Grieve:
100 Third Ave. looks to be Nevada Smith's new home

Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smith's

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

100 Third Avenue's lonely add-on

[Updated] Reports of a fire at Whole Foods Bowery

Word is spreading late this afternoon that there was a fire inside the Whole Foods Bowery...

What's going on at the Whole Foods on Houston? Ambulances, FDNY on scene. @boweryboogie @evgrieve

— Matt Friedlander (@MattyFLES) January 13, 2013

Not sure of the cause just yet... There seems to be a lot of confusion about what happened...

Fire in whole foods. Not a single person including us took the alarms seriously until the sprinklers came on... twitter.com/jameschororos/…

— James Chororos (@jameschororos) January 13, 2013

BoweryBoogie has collected information here.

More information as it becomes available...

Updated 9:09

You may have heard there was a fire at Bowery - luckily it was small & all are safe. The Bowery store will reopen very soon, 30 min ETA

— Whole Foods NYC (@wholefoodsnyc) January 14, 2013

Gothamist has a video from inside the store here.

Week in Grieview

It was a busy week. We received some really excellent tips. Thank you for sharing. We love tips. Which you can send here. We also received many comments. Thank you for sharing your opinions, making a joke and being part of all this...

Street fight at memorial service of teen slain for his jacket (Wednesday, 27 comments)

Is Ben Shaoul unloading some of his East Village properties? (Thursday)

Max closes on Avenue B (Monday)

Those anti 7-11 stickers (Tuesday, 72 comments)

Boulton & Watt opens (Thursday, 32 comments)

Second on Second is closing (Monday)

Coyote Ugly turning 20 (Tuesday)

Out and About with Lee Schramm (Wednesday)

Ukrainian Christmas, and a look at the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church (Monday)

Aerial Moose Head (Friday)

Remembering Elvis Presley in NYC (Tuesday)

Those two new floors for 205 Avenue A (Monday)

The future of East 14th Street and Avenue C (Friday)

If you're reading this, then you probably have the flu

Just jumping on the Scary Flu Headlines Bandwagon.

According to the CDC, we're having a flu epidemic. As you probably already know. And Gov. Cuomo, who waited until last week to get a really public flu shot, declared a state of emergency. (Aren't you really supposed to get your flu shot in November?)

The Post, leading the way in we're-all-gonna-die-from-the-flu headlines, reported that the Upper West Side and East Harlem are experiencing the most "flu-like" symptoms in Manhattan. Other high risk neighborhoods include: the East Village. Uh-oh! (We also lead the pack with the most "woo-like" symptoms.)

Yes, we all should be taking this flu business seriously. Still. Gail Collins provided some level-headed thinking in the Times yesterday:

"It’s hard for the media, or the elected officials who are currently terrifying their constituents with dire flu warnings, to know where to draw the line between encouraging preparedness and scaring the public out of its wits."

And!

“We have an epidemic of flu every year,” said the New York City health commissioner, Thomas Farley. If there are alarming headlines, he added, it’s because public officials are “trying to get out the message to get your vaccine.” In a phone interview, Farley explained that the city declares an epidemic when more than 5 percent of the people going to emergency rooms are complaining of flu symptoms, which is unusual only in the sense that it doesn’t happen in warm weather. He also managed to work “get your vaccine” into virtually every sentence.

And people are apparently taking his advice. There's talk that you can't find a flu shot in the East Village right now... at least at drug stores.

@evgrieve are all EV drug stores really out of flu shots? 1st ave Rite Aid just said yes

— Sparber (@sparber) January 12, 2013

Well, maybe. We noticed this outside the Duane Reade on Avenue B.

Anyone else spot similar signs at other drug stores?

Meanwhile, here's everything you need to know about the flu via the CDC website.

East 12th Street now has beachfront property

Spotted this morning between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...

Fares (Sahara) Deli back open on Avenue A

[Bobby Williams]

Back in July the State seized Fares Deli on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place for "non payment of taxes." However, word came soon enough that longtime owner-operator Tony (Abdul) would be reopening the space...

EVG reader Marc Kehoe saw Tony last week in the shop, and heard that it was opening soon... albeit with a new name...

[From Friday via Bobby Williams]

Marc told us that the deli reopened yesterday...

Bring your dead Christmas trees to Tompkins Square Park, or we're mulching the police car

It is Day 2 of the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park ... until 2 p.m. today ... And we didn't see many many trees piled up left to mulch. So. There may not be much mulching.

Meanwhile, the gardeners have spread the mulch on parts of the Park...

..while others have spread their unwanted pizza...

[Updated] Heavy FDNY presence on Broadway; Heather Graham's bathroom candles reportedly spark blaze

Several readers are sending us photos of the FDNY responding to a situation at East 13th Street and Broadway around 10:20 tonight ... no sign of smoke or flames.... per EVG reader John who sent these shots: "something going on — every type of truck, including hazmat, is here..."

Updated:
Well! Thanks to the readers for the links... The Post reports that the fire started in actress Heather Graham's penthouse.

[Via the Post]

Per the Post:

A blazing fire in the sexy actress’ Union Square pad was sparked when burning candles left on her bathtub ignited nearby clothes, according to FDNY officials.

The fire in the 12th-floor Broadway home started at about 10 p.m. and took 45 minutes to put out.

“It was candles that maybe caught some clothes that were left near the tub,” said FDNY Chief John Bley.

Heather Graham's Bathroom Candles. Future band name?

The ides of mulch

And here's the scene after Day 1 of the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park...

Will there be enough to mulch tomorrow, or will we have to dig into our tax records....?

Photos by Bobby Williams.

When you chain your bike to itself on Avenue C

What do we have here on Avenue C between East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street? Well, for some reason, a cyclist locked his/her bike to itself... instead if to something else, which would make it more difficult for someone to steal...

... and a few helpful neighbors left friendly notes offering some advice/warning...

Reads one: "Dumb ass. I could have stole this if I had a car."

Many thanks to EVG reader Kyle for the headline and photos via Twitter.