Watch a lot of people speak out against Steve Croman and 9300 Realty

[Photo via an Angry Croman Tenant]

This past Saturday, a few dozen residents gathered in Tompkins Square Park for an "East Village Tenant Parade" … the group's target — notorious landlord Steve Croman of 9300 Realty.

There were a number of speakers, including State Sen. Brad Hoylman …



You can find other speaker videos here.

The Stop Croman Coalition and The Good Old Lower East Side sponsored the event.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Gentrification, Steve Croman targets of this East Village tenant parade

Bibi Wine Bar is now open on East 4th Street

Yes, like the headline says. Bibi Wine Bar is now open at 211 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B… The Bar, in the former JujoMukti Tea Lounge (how did they get a liquor license?), is via the owners of the 8th Street Winecellar.

Per the chalkboard sign out front, they are featuring a "don't worry Bibi happy" happy hour.

We haven't heard anything about the place just yet … but there are some enthusiastic reviews on Yelp.

h/t EVG reader Chucho

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: 8th Street Winecellar looking to open a 4th Street location

Perbacco is closed for remodeling

Speaking of wine bars on East Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B… Perbacco has been closed of late. There's no sign up on the gate, which made a few fans of the well-regarded Italian restaurant nervous.

However, the Perbacco website has an announcement explaining that they are closed until later this month "for exciting remodeling."

One thing that we have heard loud and clear from our guests is a rapidly growing interest in wine. In order to cater to this growing interest, we will be putting more of a spotlight on our wine selection. We will even be using a Coravin wine system so that we can offer every single wine in the restaurant by-the-glass (as well as by bottle). This will enable us to introduce new food and wine pairings, flights, even classes!

Without jeopardizing the comfortable ambiance our guests have come to appreciate, we will be putting our wine cellar on display with a stunning glass wall-of-wines, and adding some lounge furniture. Imagine cozy comfort meets contemporary elegance.

The announcement states that Perbacco will reopen "in late May."

TD Bank branch opening next Friday on 2nd Avenue; party with free gift for the 1st 100 visitors!

Hey, that TD Bank branch anchoring the Jupiter 21 building on Second Avenue at East First Street is opening late next week.

The new neighborly neighbors placed welcome brochures on cars around the, uh, neighborhood with more details… the trees are coming! (And how many trees went into making these brochures???)





Any thoughts on what the gift might be? (Do banks still give out toasters? Or have they downsized to toaster mitts?)

Of course this Grand Opening Celebration will cause the new Mars Bar coming to a space somewhere in this building to ramp up their own First Day/Night Extravaganza.

Liquiteria coming soon to former Blimpie space on 4th Avenue

The quickly expanding Liquiteria mini-chain announced several new locations around the city in January … including one at Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street.

The plywood is down now at the former Blimpie space on the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street … revealing the Liquiteria signage.

No word just yet on an opening date. Liquiteria's flagship store is on Second Avenue at East 11th Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village-based Liquiteria taking over beloved Gray's Papaya space

A new look for the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street

Hampton Jitney drop-off service proposed for 2nd Avenue

[Via image the CB3 website]

Tonight's CB3 Transportation & Public Safety/Environment Committee meeting includes a proposal for a Hampton Jitney stop at 177 Second Ave. near East 11th Street.

According to the proposal (PDF!), there will be three drop offs during the summer: 7:34 a.m. on Monday, 3:19 p.m. on Friday and 9:04 p.m. on Sunday. (Depending on the traffic, add up to three hours to these times.)

While we haven't heard anything about this application (hey, when are we getting a heliport anyway?), there is opposition to other items on tonight's committee agenda — specifically with new permits for Chinatown bus companies, as The Lo-Down reports here.

The meeting starts at 6:30 in the University Settlement at Houston Street Center, 273 Bowery.

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
Names: Kathy Kemp (left) and Kimberle Vogan
Occupations: Clothing designer/owner, employee at Anna
Location: Anna, 11th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave.
Time: Friday, May 2 at 4:30 pm

Kathy: I’m from outside of Reading, Pennsylvania. It was a pretty small town. I usually just tell people I’m from Philadelphia. I was 23 when I moved to Philadelphia. I went to college there and studied cultural anthropology and then I didn’t know what I was doing, so I moved here with a friend.

I never was drawn to New York City or the East Village but I was always interested. Somehow I landed here. I knew I wanted to do something in fashion but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had friends who were stylists and then someone said to me, ‘You should just do something that you love. Think about what you love and what you are good at.’ I thought, ‘Well, I’ve always made clothing and I know how to sew really well. I love shopping. I’ll open a store!’

What a great idea, because I didn’t have any money at all, but I looked around and found a place on East 3rd Street in 1995. Then it was definitely doable; there were people doing it all over. It was stupid and easy if you wanted to take the chance. If you just wanted to, you could blow the $3,000 that you had, go have fun, and meet a lot of new people and connections. Now you can’t even do that. I feel really sorry for people today who want to do this, because it’s almost impossible to do it these days.

I had less than $5,000 dollars and my rent was $600 to start but the catch was that my store used to be a drug-dealing place that sold cocaine and pot. The place had just been busted; it was broken apart. It used to be called Village Bikes — a bike shop that wasn’t really a bike shop. I walked in there and the police must have smashed everything, including the electrical box. We went back to the bathroom area and the toilet was completely smashed down to the sewer line. The only other thing that was in the space, besides smashed-up stuff and graffiti and old, smashed up florescent lights, was this huge mound of bikes in the middle, to make it a convincing bike store to be in. I had to clear those away and underneath all of the bikes was a giant hole in the floor that you could see the basement through. That was why it was $600 a month.

Then after I opened my store, for like 10 years afterwards, people used to come in and ask, ‘Is this the bike shop?’ I’d have to say, ‘No, this is a clothing shop.’ And then they’d ask, ‘Oh, well… do you sell bike parts?’ Ironically enough, the bike people had moved to the tire shop down the street. There was a tire shop where the Snack Dragon is now.

Kimberle: If your friend came into town and they got their car broken into you could just go to the tire shop and be like, ‘Yo, can we at least have the luggage back? Can you just keep what’s in it?’ And they’d be like, ‘Well, if you go down to Avenue D on the corner and look in the garbage can, it might be there.’ So you could go there to pick up your lost stolen belongings.

Kathy: People would get meth around the corner and some people would sell it on 3rd Street right out front. They’d go into the phone booths and leave the drugs in a paper bag. They all knew that nobody normal was going into a phone booth these days. Then the next person would come along and pick up the paper bag.

Kimberle: Every Monday and Friday were Meth Monday and Friday. I would go outside and just start sweeping really big and they’d plead me to stop.

Kathy: When I think about it, I was really stupid when I opened up the store, but I was also very, very lucky. I never would have done it knowing everything that I learned the hard way for 20 years. I was lucky because I landed in this spot. It was the 1990s in the East Village. Everyone was so supportive. It seemed like I landed in freelance central, where I was surrounded by writers, so people wrote about me, and stylists, who were walking home from pulling for their jobs and got stuff from my store. Even makeup and hair people would kidnap me and do makeovers on me. It was like a dream.

The first day that I opened my store so many great and amazing people came in that I left thinking it was too good to be true. I left thinking the store was going to burn down because this couldn’t be happening. It was the opposite vibe of now, where everyone walks around seeing what’s closed. It was, what’s new, what’s going on, what’s that going to be?

I opened up at 12 or 1 at the time. I was a workaholic when I first opened. I love the city so much I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t leave for three years at all until I met my husband. I’d wake up and work, do all my fabric sourcing and stuff and I’d go to work and a lot of people from the neighborhood would roll out of bed right as I was opening my gates. People would come in and have their coffee with me. It was really, really cool. A lot of the same people have shopped here since then.

Kimberle: It was like a therapist’s office. Lots of neighborhood people would come in to talk. I’ve worked with Kathy off and on for 17 years, but I shopped here every day for 3 years before I started working here. I was one of the crazies. Every day I shopped here because she got things in all of the time and for a lot of the pieces there are only one or two or three of them, so you want to know what she’s doing and you want that piece. I would come in everyday after work to look for what to wear to work the next day.

Kathy: I design all the clothes now but when I first opened up I was a vintage shop. I immediately realized that if you have a vintage shop, then everyone wants the same thing, so I just started changing everything to look like that one thing. For instance, one of the items that we did was dyed slips. We started dying slips in crazy colors. We dyed them day-glow colors. People were just crazy then. People would come in and would be going out to clubs at night and would want to wear something that was crazy. When I design something, I usually buy the fabric and make the sample on a mannequin or myself and then I give it to my sample maker who I’ve been working with for 17 years. I design everything except the jewelry.

Kimberle: I remember back in the day, it wasn’t always about going home to get ready to go out and planned out like that. You either worked or you didn’t work in the daytime, and if you did or didn’t, you just went over to a coffee shop like Café Limbo and hung out. Sometimes they’d have a sale, and then you might go down and have some Sushi at Avenue A Sushi. You’d go there and get sushi and then you’d go to Anna and somewhere else and you’d pick your outfit.

Kathy: Everyone was trying to outdo everyone, but not in a competitive way — just because it was fun.

We moved to 11th Street nearly two years ago. I loved 3rd Street and I missed my neighbors. It’s hard for me to change. I’m someone who resists change.

Kimberle: Moving to this street seems like a big upgrade to a lot of people. “Wow, you’re on shopping alley and you have all this space.” On 3rd Street we didn’t have a bathroom or a dressing room but it was home. It was the people who came there that made it home. We used to have people just walk around the store in their bras. There would be like 5 people just in their bras. They were comfortable. Those people come here now and it feels like being in a mansion. They want to take their clothes off in the middle of the store and we’re like, ‘there’s a dressing room now.’

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

NY Copy & Printing forced out of longtime E. 11th St. home, opening second location on E. 7th St.

Signs are up for a new tenant at 13 E. Seventh St. — NY Copy & Printing.

The family owned NY Copy & Printing has been around since 1992. Their home base is at 204 E. 11th St. with a second, smaller shop at 34 E. Seventh St.

However, the new owners of the East 11th Street building, sold late last year for $57 million to Benchmark Real Estate Group LLC, would not renew the shop's lease ahead of a condo conversion at 200 E. 11th St.


[EVG file photo]

The owners of NY Copy & Printing told us that they are very sad about leaving their East 11th Street location after 22 years, but "we have no choice." For now, they will operate both shops on East Seventh Street.

As for No. 13, half of this space was previously home to the D.L. Cerney boutique, which closed after 28 years in 2012. (This was NOT a closure due to a rent hike.) The other half of the former D.L. Cerney space is that cool lighting store, Bulb Concepts.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Someone actually paid $57 million for this East Village building

Reimagining this 12-story East Village building, now on the market

South Brooklyn Pizza space on the market for $18,975 (a month)

[Image via Elliman]

South Brooklyn Pizza closed for good at 122 First Ave. toward the end of April. For rent signs went up immediately.

And we just spotted the listing over at Douglas Elliman. There's not a whole lot of info, but you get the idea:

This East Village special was previously used as a restaurant and bar. Sports exposed red brick, sky lights, outdoor patio and a basement that will be sub divided. Approximately 2300sf.

The asking rent is $18,975 per month.

Signs on the storefront on April 22 indicated that South Brooklyn Pizza was moving to a new location in the East Village. However, we haven't heard anything more about that.

The Marshal seized the space on April 24. A rep for the landlord told an EVG reader that the pizzeria owners hadn't paid rent in several months. In August 2012, the company behind South Brooklyn Pizza filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Updated 10:04 a.m.
Check out the comments ... where VH McKenzie does some math to figure out how much pizza you'd need to sell a day to afford this space...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Marshal seizes South Brooklyn Pizza; space is now for rent

Russ & Daughters Cafe opens this morning

The Russ & Daughters Cafe opens at 127 Orchard St. this morning at 10.

Niki Russ Federman and her cousin Josh Russ Tupper, part of the fourth generation of the family that founded the store on the LES in 1914, will run the 65-seat full-service restaurant.

You can read Grub Street's detailed preview of the Cafe here. And The Lo-Down has a roundup of the roundups about the Cafe here.

Meanwhile, The New Yorker takes a look at the cafe's new neon signage…



And don't worry — the mothership, currently celebrating its 100 birthday, isn't going anywhere on 179 E. Houston.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More details about the new Russ & Daughters Café coming to Orchard Street

Here is the new sign for Russ & Daughters Cafe on Orchard Street

A look at 3 new East Village sidewalk cafes

Just noting three restaurants that have recently unveiled their new sidewalk cafes… (there are others — these just seemed more prominent) …

There's Alder at 157 Second Ave. …



The Brazen Fox at 106 Third Ave. (at East 13th Street) …



… and Boulton & Watt at 5 Avenue A (at East First/East Houston) …

Hey, the Funkiberry sign is up on 3rd Avenue

Yep, here it is on Third Avenue and East 12th Street… in the former New Amici Pizza space …





Here's more about Funkiberry from their website: "Funkiberry is the land of endless yogurt possibilities, where you rule the portions, the choices and the scene."

Anyway, it certainly is a colorful sign… likely the brightest and most-distracting sign/ad since GNC's Giant Pink Sports Bra ad graced our presence above the Pourhouse in 2012…

[EVG file photo from May 2012]

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

Ghost signage uncovered on Third Avenue and East 12th Street

DOUBLE ghost signage discovered at 88 3rd Ave.

Report: Murder charge for driver who crashed into East Village Farm and Grocery

[Photo via Fox]

Queens resident Shaun Martin, who was allegedly drunk and high on PCP when he plowed his car into East Village Farm and Grocery on Second Avenue last June, has now reportedly been charged with murder.

The DA's office today upgraded the indictment to include second-degree murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, first-degree assault and other counts.

The Daily News reports that the 33-year-old Martin now faces 25 years to life in prison.

Mohammed Akkas Ali, a florist at the store at East Fourth Street, suffered serious brain trauma and died on Jan. 1 due to complications from his injuries. He was 63.

While free on bail in early December, police reportedly arrested Martin for threatening to shoot someone while possessing cocaine outside a club in East Elmhurst.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Renee White ordered Martin held without bail.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Car smashes into East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue; 6 reported injured

Crowdsourcing campaign for injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker raises nearly $19,000

Report: Injured East Village Farm and Grocery florist has lost his memory, use of his voice

[Updated] RIP Akkas Ali

An Evening with Alan Cumming at Theatre 80

Helping celebrate Theatre 80’s 50th year, actor Alan Cumming added his name and handprints to the celebrity “walk of fame” outside 80 St. Mark’s Place last night. His cement imprimatur joins others such as Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and Myrna Loy.



Cumming, an East Village resident, was introduced by actress Arlene Dahl and theater owner Lorcan Otway.



In 2010, The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation recognized Theatre 80 with the Village Award for its place in the history of the community.

Text and photos by Stacie Joy