Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street. Perhaps there was a soft landing?
Photo by Doug Quint
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Noted
Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street. Perhaps there was a soft landing?
Photo by Doug Quint
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
234 E. Seventh St. hits the market for $6.7 million (Commercial Observer)
About the Bum Phillips opera at LaMama (Deadspin)
RIP King Glassware on the Bowery (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
Can NYU ever make peace with its Village neighbors? (Curbed)
A record sale at 151 Bowery (BoweryBoogie)
Details on the Triangle Fire Tribute Concert (The Lo-Down)
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… and via the EVG inbox...
Surrealist painter Wayne Krall shows his latest works this Sunday at his spring art show "Collage By Krall" at dba bar. Krall, who has lived in the East Village the past 25 years, tends bar at dba, and has worked at many infamous watering hotels in the neighbourhood including Milano's, Banjo Jim's and the Mars Bar. This upcoming show features new works where he incorporates collage into his paintings. The show and opening is one day only from 2-7pm(?) at dba, 41 First Ave.
Reader report: Xi’an Famous Foods closed for renovations
[Photo by @charli via Twitter]
Disappointed diners have learned that the popular Xi'an Famous Foods at 81 St. Mark's Place is closed for renovations.
@evgrieve Did you see that Xian Famous is closed for renovations? I went there yesterday and saw another shocked would-be patron. Horrible!
— Adrianne Jeffries (@adrjeffries) March 20, 2014Their official message via Facebook:
Our East Village store will be CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS starting Monday (3/17)!
We hope to be back up and running in 3-4 weeks, with a few more seats and a more open kitchen!
In the meantime, head to our nearby Chinatown spot, open regular hours.
And this is a legit "closed for renovations," not one of those stop-gap messages to help the proprietor hustle out of town.
Xi’an CEO Jason Wang has ambitious plans to expand his growing noodle empire, with possible locations in Boston and Washington, D.C.
East Second Street rooftop addition going for that shipping container look?
A few of us have been keeping an eye on the progress at 80 E. Second St., where there are city-approved plans to add two floors to the existing 4-floor building just west of First Avenue.
Here's a shot from last December, showing a few measly beams…
[Photo via EVG reader Spike]
And, well, now…
[Photo via EVG reader B H]
Hmm, OK. Not sure what to make of this addition so far. The permits say "To enlarge the existing 4 story to a 6 story, 5 family dwelling." Is the two-floor addition then just for one residence? No clue as to what's shaping up here on the website of the architect, Damir Dan Sehic of C3D Architects PLLC.
In any event, the bar has been set pretty high on East Second Street for rooftop homes. Directly across the street is the penthouse featuring the deck, lawn and 4-foot-deep resistance pool.
East 8th St. apartment, now with red suspension bridge, back on the market
When we last checked in on 337B E. Eighth St., the Sandy-ravaged apartment near Avenue C was getting a post-superstorm gut renovation...
As Curbed noted this week, there's a new listing for the 2,300-square-foot residence. Here's a look at the description:
Architectural Masterpiece 2BR 1.5 BATH LOFT in East Village!!!
You really need to see this to understand it.
ALL NEW RENOVATIONS
Private entrance. Entire floor of a building.
Live Work permitted. Suspension bridge, W/D, DW, radiant floors, stainless steel, heated solarium space, sky lights, home office.
Many of the light fixtures in pics are going to be changed. Owner is installing a granite and stainless steel island in the kitchen area
The price per month: $7,999.
Here's when the suspension bridge was white... back in March 2012 when the rent was only $6,950.
And as noted here several times previously, this was the site of 8BC, the performance space/club/gallery that saw the likes of They Might Be Giants, Karen Finley and Steve Buscemi take the stage during its run from 1983-85...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Gutting an apartment at 337 E. 8th St., former home of 8BC
21 long years! Archangel Antiques announces retirement, store to close at the end of June
After nearly 21 years selling vintage cufflinks, eyeglasses and buttons on East Ninth Street, Archangel Antiques is calling it a day… the sign out front explains it all…
Check out our Out and About in the East Village feature with store manager Michael Duggan here.
Thanks to EVG regular William Klayer for the photos.
Has The Red Pepper closed on East 6th Street?
A few readers have asked us about this… the note out front says they are temporarily closed for "mandatory repairs" in the building…
Red Pepper's phone number is currently not in service … and there isn't a mention of the closure on their website. And the city hasn't issued any work permits for the address in the past 11 months. (Not that you need permits to make mandatory repairs.)
The Sichuan restaurant just opened last September at 324 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
A long night ahead on Avenue A and East Second Street
Con Ed is apparently ripping up part of East Second Street this evening… and into the wee hours of the morning. Neighbors can feel the jackhammering in their teeth.
Per RyanAvenueA: "And on the same day I got my Con Ed bill. Still getting used to the new triple your rate package."
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
[Emergency repairs on 8th and B last evening ... via Fallopia Tuba]
Renovations stalled at at P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School (DNAinfo)
East Village photographer Allen Henson countersues Empire State Building for $5 Million (Runnin' Scared)
Q-and-A with Bob Holman (Off the Grid)
Craig Leon, who produced the Ramones, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Blondie, etc, reissuing solo material and touring (BrooklynVegan)
Check out some unusual masterworks by great directors at Anthology Film Archives though March 30 (The New Yorker, official site)
French bistro called Dirty French opening in the Ludlow Hotel, coming soon (Eater)
Living Theatre to Debut Judith Malina's "No Place To Hide" at Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center tonight (The Wall Street Journal)
The strange looking building planned for Mulberry and Prince (Curbed)
When Madonna opened for the Smiths (BoweryBoogie)
Those Red Sauce preservationists! (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
Hunter S. Thompson shills for Apple! (Dangerous Minds)
... and the morning sky shot from Tompkins Square Park today...
[Via @evgrieve]
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
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
By James Maher
Name: Margery Teplitz
Occupation: Massage Therapist
Location: Avenue A, Between 4th and 5th Street
Time: 4:30 on Weds, March 12
I was born in Chicago. I was around 30 when I moved here. I was living in San Francisco and needed a change and always wanted to live in New York. I used to work in restaurants in those days but I’ve been a licensed massage therapist since 1992.
I have been on the Lower East Side since 1989. I lived on Rivington Street for a couple years when it was the wild wild east and I moved to Ludlow Street, just south of Houston in 1991. It was rough and ready — a lot of fun, dangerous, very old New York. Everything was negotiable with landlords and things like that. You didn’t need to prove that you made $80,000 a year in order to move into an apartment. Even though it had its dangers, it was much more fun.
My favorite aspect of the neighborhood was that anything goes. This was the land of the freaks. There used to be anarchists all over the neighborhood, but most of them have died off. One of my favorite moments was [going to] Wigstock. It was a Labor Day event that used to start in Tompkins Square Park. It was a family event believe it or not but it was all drag queens. I remember seeing RuPaul and Debbie Harry and everybody wearing wigs with their kids on their shoulders.
The past 10 years we’ve had around five construction sites on one block. I have giant holes and cracks all over the inside of my apartment — over every part of my building. All the artwork is out of their frames and the landlord keeps saying, ‘Oh we’re going to come and do it,’ but it never quite happens. It’s been that way for two or three years.
I’m very political and I like that about this neighborhood — that people seem to give a shit. Right now we’re battling this restaurant that they are trying to open in my building called Sweet Chick. They have not been able to get their liquor license but they’re building it up anyway. I met the owner at the Community Board 3 meeting and he seemed like a normal person, but he’s hired one of the biggest shark lawyers in the city, Helbraun Levey & O’Donoghue.
From the look of their plans, they want to put the exhaust system in the airshaft, which goes right next to my bedroom as well as a bunch of others. They also want to remain open 17 hours a day cooking fried food in a 120-year-old building that’s basically like a sieve. My neighbor upstairs makes chili a couple times a week and you can smell it for seven hours, so you can imagine fried chicken.
We’re trying to get pro-bono legal representation, which the state bar refused to help us with. They said they don’t do those type of things, but who needs help more than us? I volunteered for Bill de Blasio and this is his kind of issue and I emailed him. They said, ‘oh yes,’ and nothing, and I emailed the governor and they said, ‘oh yes,’ and nothing. We still hope we can turn it around.
I’m not against gentrification — gentrification is a fact of life, but if you look at cities like London and Paris they manage to gentrify and change while maintaining the architectural integrity of the city. We’re supposed to have a reasonable quality of life, which does not include a blaring exhaust system 17 hours a day and the smell of fried chicken.
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
Report of a late-night fire at 145 Second Ave.
[Photo via Bonnie DeWitt]
A fire apparently broke out in the basement of 145 Second Ave. at East Ninth Street some time around 1 a.m., according to various social media reports. Starbucks occupies the corner storefront space.
MAN ALL HANDS 145 2 AVE, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN BASEMENT,
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 19, 2014The FDNY gave the all clear within 30 minutes.
MAN ALL HANDS 145 2 AVE, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN BASEMENT, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 19, 2014
[Photo via EVG reader Josh]
[Photo via EVG reader Josh]
[Photo via @Phillyupperdecker]
… and the scene from a little east on Ninth Street…
[Photo via @copyrapper]
There's also video, via Josh…
There's no word on injuries, cause or extent of the damage yet. In any event, it made for a nice photo opp!
People are actually taking selfies with a fire while people could have lost their homes or lives. Unreal. @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/5Ux75RqOeU
— Eric Nolan (@ericnolan_) March 19, 2014Updated 7:45 a.m.
Starbucks is open for business this morning.
Former La Vie space on East First Street will be demolished
[EVG file photo from last summer]
La Vie at 64 E. First St. finally closed last June following an ongoing battle with neighbors over a variety of quality-of-life issues... Neighbors had long complained that La Vie was operating as a club under the guise of a restaurant.
At the time of the closure, a tipster on the block told us: "They are moving all of the red velvet seating out to a Budget truck out front right now! The block is rejoicing."
Not sure if people will be rejoicing over what's coming next: Plans were filed with the city Monday to demolish the (rather ugly) one-story structure. Neighbors spotted a worker in a Hazmat suit on the building's roof yesterday here between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
There's nothing on file yet to hint at what is next for this space... though you can likely expect some kind of new residential building.
DOB permits point to Ekstein Development — "a diversified and rapidly growing real estate investment firm with properties and businesses located throughout New York and New Jersey" — as the owner.
On March 4, the city served a full Stop Work Order for operating here without proper permits.
Also, given that one-level buildings are becoming extinct around the neighborhood… it's worth noting that the demolition permit is only for No. 64, and that there's nothing on file for No. 66, home to Abetta Boiler and Welding Service next door … so they appear safe for now…
[Photo by Lucia Moore via Google]
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] La Vie closed for now on East First Street
New York Supreme Court upholds revocation of La Vie's liquor license
CB3 denies La Vie; owner responds by calling Susan Stetzer a 'racist'
La Vie has closed; neighbors rejoice
Teaser site up for new East 7th Street residential building that people don't hate
[Photo from February by Dave on 7th]
Early last month, the construction netting came down at the all-new 227 E. Seventh St. just west of Avenue C.
And the reader reaction in the comments was generally positive. Example!
Giovanni said...
Now that is a great looking building, love the color and design. Note to all future developers who are planning to build in the EV or any other historic area: this is how you do it.
This is a classic brick design that reminds me of many industrial and pre-war buildings which have all stood the test of time, with a bit more glass which is fine in the smaller panes, and nice looking balconies and brickwork that blends well with the location.
Of course, a home here is very likely out of our/your price range. (Hey, but we can enjoy it while walking by!)
Anyway, there's a little more information now about the building via a sign that workers posted the other day...
The building has a website… where we learned that the "classic full floor condominium residences" have either two or three bedrooms. You can sign up to be on a mailing list. Floor plans and pricing shouldn't be too far behind.
Previously on EV Grieve:
New building at 227 E. Seventh St. — revealed (28 comments)
Go see Richard Hell at The Strand tomorrow night
Join us for an exclusive evening in Strand’s rare book room to honor the paperback release of Richard Hell’s acclaimed I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. The autobiography has been called “A candid, sometimes brutal tour of punk’s gritty early days" by The New York Times Magazine, and "radically self-aware…wielding prose keen as a diamond knife" by cultural critic Luc Sante.
Richard will read briefly from I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp before being interviewed by NYU professor Bryan Waterman (author of the 33 1/3 volume Marquee Moon), and will then take audience questions. At the evening’s conclusion, Richard will inscribe copies of I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. No other memorabilia, please.
Buy a copy of I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp or a $15 Strand gift card in order to attend this event, which will be located in the Strand's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at our store at 828 Broadway at 12th Street.
The event is from 7-8 p.m.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Richard Hell on his East Village apartment
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