Honest Chops opening on East 9th St., 'first all-natural halal meat store in Manhattan'

There's a new business opening as early as today in the subterranean retail space at 319 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (The space was previously home to Little King Jewelry.)



Here's the word via the business's placeholder website:

Honest Chops is the first all-natural halal meat store in Manhattan with delivery service to all five boroughs. We pride ourselves in being completely transparent in our services — from our farms to your dinner table.

We signed up to learn when Honest Chops will open… and received this message in reply:

Salams!

Thanks for joining us in this adventure.

We'll start by being more honest than we should: we are new to this.

We have never opened a meat shop before nor do we claim to be experts. But we were frustrated by the lack of affordable and accessible halal meat options in the city. We felt it was time that someone worked towards a better alternative.

Welcome to HONEST CHOPS. When you buy our meat, you have our honest-to-God guarantee that it is hand-slaughtered, all-natural, free-roaming, vegetarian or grass-fed.

We will be opening doors to our store and website very soon.

Your friends,
Khalid, Anas, and Bassam

[H/T EVG readers MP, Steven Sonnenblick and Jose Garcia]

Report: More support for protected bike lane on Lafayette Street/Fourth Avenue

A quick note from the coverage that Streetsblog provided from last Thursday night's Community Board 2 meeting:

In a unanimous 9-0 vote last night, Manhattan Community Board 2′s transportation committee endorsed a DOT plan to upgrade a buffered bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to a parking-protected lane, complete with new pedestrian islands, car lanes of an appropriate width for the city, and improved signal timing for pedestrians. The plan now moves to CB 2′s full board meeting on March 20.

The protected lane would run from Prince Street up to East 12th Street. The proposal would not remove any car lanes, but instead narrows them on the avenues, per Streetsblog.

Find a PDF of the proposal here. Read the whole Streetsblog post here.

How are we feeling about protected bike lanes these days? Anyone? Comments?

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Looking at the First Avenue's new bike lane and 'floating lane' (64 comments)

Protest planned for reconfigured Avenues (153 comments)

Painting over the SMELLS on Avenue A

Back in January, the NYPD arrested five people for tagging the roof of 201 Avenue A … A police spokesperson told Gothamist: "Officers observed the word 'Smells' painted in letters six to seven feet tall, and around 10 feet wide."



Anyway, EVG reader dwg points out that workers just painted over the SMELLS tag… as well as the one that had already been up there…



The Post reported that the NYPD charged all five with "making graffiti, criminal trespassing and resisting arrest."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Reader report: Taggers nabbed on Avenue A (36 comments)

Au Za'atar officially opens today

We noted last Tuesday that Tarik Fallous, the owner of Table 12, had changed concepts, converting the cafe-bistro on Avenue A and East 12th Street into Au Za'atar.

Here's the restaurant's description via Facebook:

Au Za'atar is a Middle Eastern restaurant with a French twist. Our menu offers everything from Lebanon's national dish (Kibbe Kras) to classical Parisian fare with influences spreading from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean Sea.

At the time of our post, the restaurant was still in soft-opening mode … and the menu we posted from the Au Za'atar website hadn't been finalized. (You can find the menus now at the website.)

According to a restaurant representative, there was an official soft opening at Au Za'atar this past weekend… and today is the official opening day… they also supplied us with photos of the interior, which was designed by local resident Frank Linkoff, who's an artist and filmmaker/producer.







Fork in the Road had a preview Friday:

"I always looked for a place where we could have these kinds of dishes the same way we had them back home," Fallous says. He craved lamb shank and lamb chops sprinkled with za'atar and roasted, tabbouleh at every meal, hummus and fresh babaghanoush, and escargot cooked with herbs and white wine (there is a lot of French influence in the culinary traditions of these countries, Fallous explains).

Au Za'atar offers all of those dishes, divided into small mezze plates and larger platters, as well as a number of daily specials, spicy stuffed fish, different kinds of kebabs, and kebbe kras, a blend of bulgur wheat and beef that is Lebanon's national dish. "We're trying to make it a place where people will come to have a meal once or twice a week," he says.

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Meanwhile, aside from the concept change at Table 12, Kool Bloo, the fast-food takeout specialist that shared the back of the space, has also disappeared in recent weeks with the renovation…

Ghost signage uncovered on Third Avenue and East 12th Street

AAA (New) Amici Pizza was rent hiked out of business here last July. Workers have been renovating the space for the new tenant… uncovering some ghost signage in the process… per these photos courtesy of EVG reader Dave from 14th Street…



Trying to remember this place… Lawrence & Paul's Pizza & Restaurant. The space was Due Amici before New Amici in the early 1990s … Anyone recall Lawrence & Paul's?

As for the new tenant [sadly chuckling] … soon to be home to Funkiberry Premium Frozen Yogurt. Yes, it's true.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Stuff that you can't make up: More FroYo for the East Village

[UPDATED] Black Hound New York closes East Village retail location today

As we pointed out on Wednesday, the 26-year-old dessert-cake shop is closing its retail location at 170 Second Ave. near East 11th Street today.

The sign on their window says Black Hound will be open until 10 tonight. (EVG reader Andy, who took this photo, says there wasn't much left for sale. So maybe you call ahead before making a special trip…)

Per the sign:

"The East Village has been out retail home since 1988, and we've seen out neighborhood evolve from eclectic to trendy."

Also, local customers can "still enjoy Black Hound treats" via a delivery service from their Greenpoint bakery. You can also pick up orders by appointment there.

From their Facebook page Wednesday:

We’ll continue connecting with you through Facebook, emails, friends@blackhoundny.com, 800.344.4417, and www.blackhoundny.com. Thanks to our loyal customers and friends for your support!

And back to the sign, which states, "Looking ahead, we want to resume our retail presence in NYC and will seek investors to help us on this journey."

UPDATED 5:54 p.m.
Per our Facebook friends, Black Hound sold out of everything and closed around 5.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Black Hound New York closing Sunday after 26 years in the East Village (26 comments)

Week in Grieview

[East 7th Street the other day via Derek Berg]

Cab crash on Second Avenue (Sunday)

A Gathering of Tribes looking for a donor to buy its East 3rd Street home (Tuesday)

A tour of Kossar’s Bialys (Friday)

No 7-Eleven for the retail space at Arabella 101 (Monday)

A new art and performance space on East 4th Street (Thursday)

New residential building for East 7th Street (Wednesday)

Out and About with Eric Danville (Wednesday)

Black Hound New York is Closing (Wednesday)

A knockout attack on the Bowery? (Thursday)

Irish guy steals Sabrina's bear coat (Sunday)

Behold the sofritas from Chipotle (Monday, 18 comments)

SVA dorm for sale on Third Avenue (Friday)

Views from the World Trade Center in 1978 (Friday)

FREE PANCAKES (Tuesday)

A tiny roof deck with a lawn and phone booth? (Thursday)

Ashes to go on Astor Place for Ash Wednesday (Wednesday)

Some people can't figure out where the new USPS retail store is on East 14th Street (Wednesday)

HiFi launches monthly Reading Series (Tuesday)

Laundro-cafe opens on East 1st Street (Thursday)

Lindsay Lohan gives us the middle finger at the Houston/Bowery mural wall (Sunday)

Former 7A looks to keep sidewalk cafe (Thursday)

Noted

East Village PSA: The gunshots you hear on E 3rd St are actually some dude walking down the street cracking a whip /cc @evgrieve

— Anoop Ranganath (@anoopr) March 9, 2014

Spring for a day

Tompkins Square Park this afternoon… photo by Bobby Williams…

Reminders (Or, A Reminder)

My neighbors will have 1 less hour to yell Wooooooooooooo! tonight. pic.twitter.com/p9MpaeG64p

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) March 8, 2014

Clocks forward at 2 a.m.!

[H/T Stack of New York Times at Associated]

Up in smoke

Second Avenue and East 13th Street … photo by Grant Shaffer. (Steam courtesy of Con Ed.)

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[The old Mars Bar space via Goggla]

How hipsters ruined the Bowery (Gizmodo)

At the William Barnacle Tavern on St. Mark's Place: "It feels both experimental and trapped in time" (The New Yorker)

The Mexican First Lady and a Jewish Anarcho-Feminist Walk Into An East Village Tenement… (Off the Grid)

Local chef's favorite EV food spots include Sunny & Annie's, Ray's Candy Store and Zaragoza (Serious Eats)

More about the hawks nesting at the Christodora House (DNAinfo)

Work by members of Murphy's Law now on display at the Art on A Gallery (NY1)

The East Village of "200 Cigarettes" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

24 people applied to be on Community Board 3 (The Lo-Down)

Citi Bike may raise its rates (Gothamist)

Want to take a Tom Waits-themed vacation? (Dangerous Minds)

… and important tweets from the morning…

While standing in front of Gem Spa, a man passed by & said Zoltar was a liar! Slander!

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) March 8, 2014

… also, it's really nice outside.

A new design for Citi Bikes?

EVG reader Mark Smith spotted this today at the Citi Bike docking station on East Fifth Street at Avenue C … a new spring-look for the bikes? A rogue Citi Bike artist? What is going on…?

The Citi Bike blog has the answer:

For the first time, a handful of Citi Bikes will shed their iconic blue for a springtime hue. In celebration of Armory Arts Week, ten Citi Bikes will don artwork created by The Armory Show‘s 2014 commissioned artist, Xu Zhen. While eight of the special bikes circulate in the Citi Bike system, two will be on display at The Armory Show, at Pier 94, through Sunday, March 9.

The 'Show' must go on

Here's Built to Spill at Irving Plaza with "Stop the Show" from 1999. The band will be at the Bowery Ballroom on May 21. Tix went on sale today at noon.