[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Sushi Lounge closed on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place at the end October, as we first reported. And now a potential suitor is lining up to take over the space. A handful of signs appeared yesterday ahead of the January CB3/SLA committee meeting…



The signs point to Empellón, chef Alex Stupak's well-regarded Mexican restaurants.



No word if this will be a third space for Stupak, who runs Empellón Cocina on First Avenue near East Sixth Street and Empellón Taqueria on West Fourth Street … or he is simply moving, say, Empellón Cocina into this more high-profle corner space.

Updated 12-23
Stupak tells Eater that this will be his third restaurant... (so no one is moving) ... and that he hasn't decided on the concept for the space just yet.

Beware of 'stray voltage' here on Avenue A and East 2nd Street

You may have noticed the caution tape up around the manholes and light poles and what not on Avenue A and East Second Street (there are more manholes with caution tape further east on Second Street).



One of the ConEd guards sitting in some sort of town car told an EVG reader the reason for this presence: "stray voltage."

Noted

Spotted along East Third Street.

Dec. 21

Wow. EVG reader Mark White spotted this yesterday on East Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. And we saw it with our own Google Glass eyes and can vouch for its authenticity.

Likely a record for waiting to toss out a tree.

And how did this conversation go down?

Let's go buy a Christmas tree today.

Great, but let's throw out last year's tree first...

Can we at least enjoy the damn trees first before thinking about mulching them?

Finally just bought the damn tree and now you have to think about mulching it.

Signs are up around Tompkins Square Park for the annual MulchFest … happening Jan. 11-12.

Maybe just drag the fucker over to the Park Christmas morning. Why wait!

-----

Also!

The lonley-looking tree left by itself outside St. Mark's Market has apparently been sold!

Yesterday!



Today!



Finally, in other holiday miracles… the Second Avenue Snowman has found a second wind…

Last day for FUNKtional Art Fair at La Plaza Cultural

Today is the last day for FUNKtional Art Fair at La Plaza Cultural...

Repeat from the EVG inbox...

Looking for a relaxed and joyful holiday shopping experience? Visit the East Village's very first FUNKtional Art Fair, a holiday fair of functional art for the funky at heart.

When:Sunday 12pm-9pm, December 22
Where: La Plaza Cultural Community Garden at the southwest corner of 9th St. & Avenue C.
What: A fair that features an amazing selection of seasonal gifts; Christmas wreaths & trees, holiday decorations, clothing, costumes, jewelry, housewares, leather goods, paper goods, custom millinery & children's items.

A portion of the money raised will go to La Plaza Cultural Community Garden

Find more info about the vendors here.

You'll also be able to find work from artists such as Peter Missing and others…



[Photos by Bobby Williams from last weekend at FUNKtional Art Fair…]

There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)

Tompkins Square Park today via Bobby Williams…

Why there'll be electric guitars on East Village streets this afternoon

As part of Make Music Winter .. the Tilted Axes Mobile Electric Guitar Procession will work its way through the East Village this afternoon from 3-5.



Here's more about it:

Composer and producer Patrick Grant creates and leads a procession with dozens of electric guitarists through the East Village, with a special stop at The Alamo, the iconic Astor Place sculpture commonly referred to as The Cube. In 2014, The Alamo will be moved from its current location to another part of the plaza. To observe this occurrence, Grant introduces new repertoire that evokes the iconic guitar music that has scored sub-genre Wild West cinema. The event will be a moving, polyphonic sound cloud layered in compelling, electric rhythms to honor the season’s axial tilt.

Here's a video from last year's Tilted Axes procession…

Oh, won't someone please buy this lonely Christmas tree?

At the St. Mark's Market, one lone tree remains for sale. It would look nice in any home! I'd buy it, but I already have 11 in the apartment…



Meanwhile! So there's one tree left here… Elsewhere! Forests of trees remain for sale!







And, well, please shield the eyes of the children now.

The troubled Frosty the Snowman inflatable on Second Avenue near East Houston is… just… Maybe it's the heat? (Let's remain positive.)


[I'll be back again some day. Thumpity, thump, thump]

First discarded Christmas tree of the season (aka FREE TREE)

Hurry now. Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street. Still smells sorta piney.

Safe 'Harbor'?

Touché Amoré with "Harbor" … the band's record, "Is Survived By," made No. 2 on Andrew Sacher's Top 20 Albums of 2013 over at Brooklyn Vegan…

Take these old MTA benches off of LaMaMa's hands — or they'll be chainsawed!

An EVG reader passed along this Craigslist post…

We payed full price, $650 each — you can have them for free, you just have to pick them up. We will even help load them into your truck. They weigh ~500# each. We used them in a show and the show will be done. You MUST pick them up Sunday night or early Monday morning at LaMama theater. Otherwise they will be chainsawed...

FYI: they are 10' plus long, so you would need a box truck, not a cargo van.

Seriously, haven't you always wanted one of these in your back yard? Or you artist loft?

Today in red-tailed hawks eating a rat on a fire escape

EVG regular William Klayer caught the action on East 12th Street just east of First Avenue… Oh, that stare!

What has happened to East Village Shoe Repair?

That's the question the Confidential columnists at the Daily News are asking today. The sliver of a shoe-repair shop on St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue rather abruptly closed before Thanksgiving, as we first noted here.

And there is some fallout from this closure. To Confidential:

Model Francesca Vuillemin is one of several lower Manhattan tastemakers who recently popped into East Village Shoe Repair to pick up shoes. Hers were pairs by Balenciaga and Miu Miu that she’d left for repairs. She estimates the kicks were worth $700.

Vuillemin had been told by the store’s proprietors many times since September that the repairs were behind schedule and had been asked to come back another time.

An EVG reader heard from proprietor Boris Zuborev that they would reopen in the David's Shoe Repair storefront on East Seventh Street. (The for rent sign is off that space.) We haven't heard anything else about this.

The Daily News tried to contact Boris, but "two calls to a number registered to [him] resulted in a pair of angry hangups."