Anyone ride an 'Annie'-branded Citi Bike today?

We spotted one this morning on East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Well, you can always ride one Tomorrow. Haha.

Fifty of the "Annie" bikes (to coincide with the movie remake out this December) will be in circulation until the end of the year.

The New York Cares 26th annual Coat Drive is now underway

Per NY1:

With greater urgency this year, New York Cares is launching its 26th Annual Coat Drive.

The agency says it has received requests for 100,000 coats for men, women, and children.

Typically it collects 80,000.

Through December 31, donations of gently used, freshly laundered coats will be collected at hundreds of locations throughout the five boroughs including all NYPD precincts, New York Penn Station, Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center, and Grand Central Terminal.

You may search for a drop-off location here. Around here you can take coats to the 9th Precinct at 321 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... or the Police Service Area 4 at 130 Avenue C at East Eighth Street.

Report: CB3 OKs liquor license for a David McWater-owned d.b.a.

As we reported earlier this month, David McWater, a local bar owner and former longtime member of Community Board 3, emerged as the new proprietor of d.b.a. at 41 First Ave.

And last night, he went before CB3's SLA committee for a new liquor-license approval.

As BoweryBoogie reported: "Nothing about the bar is changing; it’s the same name, same method of operation, and same staff."

CB3 OK'd the new license, though there was debate about the legality of the bar's backyard. (You can head to BoweryBoogie for the back and forth about that issue.)

Paperwork (PDF!) on file at the CB3 site shows that McWater, who also owns part of The Library, Doc Holliday's and Milano's, and Tower Brokerage's Bob Perl as the principals for d.b.a.

Ray Deter and Dennis Zentek opened d.b.a. in 1994. Deter died in July 2011 from the injuries he suffered in a bicycling accident. Zentek died on March 23 from head injuries he sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs.

According to BoweryBoogie, the heirs of d.b.a. had reached out to McWater about taking over the ownership.

Gracefully has closed

[Photo via @thebsap]

That's it for the market at 28 Avenue A between East Second Street and East Third Street. Several readers spotted workers removing contents of the store last evening… workers on the scene confirmed that they were shutting down in a few hours.

We first reported the impending closure on Nov. 10. At the time, the closing date was still unknown.

The shelves were getting empty during our last visit on Friday…





We didn't hear any official reason for the closure. One worker claimed that it was because of the New York Sports Club opening soon in the building's upper floors.

There is a Gracefully on First Avenue in Stuy Town … and one remains under construction on East 23rd Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Gracefully is closing on Avenue A

[Updated] 174-176 First Ave. is in contract

174-176 First Ave. arrived on the market in June 2013 with an asking price of $12 million.

Since 1904, No. 176 has been home to DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe. The DeRobertis family owns the building, so it seemed likely that the bakery would remain despite the sale... until a real-estate listing circulated in May showing that the retail spaces in the basement and first floor of No. 176 would be delivered vacant once the buildings sell. (However, workers there have told us several times that they were not closing... and that the building wasn't even for sale.)

According to the listing at Corcoran, the building is now in contract.



Streeteasy notes that the building entered into contract on Oct. 31...



DeRobertis is one of our favorite places around. So we do hope that they will live on with the new owners.

One troubling sign, though — the DeRobertis website is no long active...



Updated: DeRobertis reportedly will close after Dec. 5.

Papaya King will start serving beer next Monday on St. Mark's Place

Via the EVG inbox yesterday...

Starting Monday, November 24, you can have a beer with your meal at 3 St. Marks Pl. 12oz Heineken Light Bottles and 12oz Brooklyn Lager Cans will be available to start, with new items being added each season.

The beer will be available Sunday through Thursday from 11:00AM – 10:00PM and Friday & Saturday from 11:00AM – 11:00PM. You must purchase a food item off the menu to buy and enjoy a beer.

Unlike the other Papaya and Hot Dog copycat restaurants in New York City, Papaya King on St. Marks Pl. is more than a grab and go location. With a giant projection screen along the back wall, old school arcade games in the front, foosball in the back, loud music and a long picnic table down the middle, it is a place to rub elbows with your friends, neighbors, classmates and someone new.

The Papaya King owners were turned down for a beer license back in May 2013. According to CB3 documents, the St. Mark's Block Association and 8 St. Mark's Tenants' Association submitted letters and testimony in opposition to this application.

CB3 again turned down their application in September 2013, citing a failure "to provide substantial community support from area residents." While five people spoke out in support of the license, only one of them actually lived within the CB3 boundaries, according to CB3 documents.

So it looks as if Papaya King made some concessions, cutting back the proposed hours for beer sales. (They originally wanted to sell beer until 4 a.m. Thursday through Sundays.)

Papaya King opened in the East Village in May 2013. Papaya King opened on East 86th Street in 1932.

122 E. Seventh St. is for rent

The storefront here between Avenue A and First Avenue has been on the market since May... however, the for lease sign is up in the window now that the previous tenant, La Belle Crepe, recently closed.

The rent for the 300-square-foot space is upon request.

Did anyone ever try La Belle Crepe? A veteran street-fair vendor ran the place. We honestly never saw any customers inside. Crepes also seem like a tough sell around here.

Today

Photo from Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams...

Report: SantaCon isn't coming to this part of town in 2014

[SantaCon 2013 via EVG reader Steven Sonnenblick]

SantaCon, the annual charity event beloved by all save for a few curmudgeons who don't like to have fun, is apparently bypassing the East Village/Lower East Side this year.

This year's destination on Dec. 13? Bushwick, as Bushwick Daily first reported today.

So far, it looks like bar owners there are psyched, as they should be.

One bartender told Bushwick Daily:

“I’ve worked on SantaCon while bartending in the East Village. It’s the absolute worst thing ever. Worse than Saint Patrick’s Day! I literally can’t believe it’s coming to Bushwick!” he continued. “I can’t think of anyone that would let drunk vomiting Santas into their bars in this hood. I’m guessing they will be aimlessly walking around.”

As you know, most of the Santa-clad revelers are on their best behavior… of course there are always one or two bad apples as you'd expect in any crowd. (Good God! That Armory Show last year!)



Woo!

Anyway, Christmas came early here.

Per Jessica Roy at Daily Intelligencer:

East Village bars, which have long fought to ban the daytime bar crawl and will be spared this year's vomit puddles, must have made Santa's Nice List this year.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[On the L via Grant Shaffer]

Essex Crossing update (The Lo-Down)

Some places that people worry will close (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

East Village Alchemy (Dorian Grey Gallery)

Calls for public hearings over expansion plans by the Success Academy charter school (DNAinfo)

Christo's early evening hunt in Tompkins Square Park (Gog in NYC)

When Five Points was the city's worst slum (Ephemeral New York)

77 Bowery is up for grabs (BoweryBoogie)

There are now red Citi Bikes to promote the "Annie" remake (Gothamist)

On Wednesday night, The Stop Shopping Choir, Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir and The Lower Eastside Girls Club Choir will perform a concert to raise funds for activists in Ferguson, Mo. (Middle Collegiate Church)

… and for those of you into yoga … there's a new yoga class over at the Ashtanga Yoga Shala on East Eighth Street at Avenue B… find details about The Bridge Yoga Class here.

Parts of Avenue C and D now with a SkyWatch tower, additional NYPD lights

[Photo via Magic Brian]

Several readers noted the arrival last week of an NYPD patrol tower (SkyWatch) on East Third Street at Avenue C… and additional lights on East Fourth Street at Avenue C…



Their arrival coincides with the report of a shooting on Nov. 7 outside the Mariana Bracetti Plaza public housing development at 251 E. Third St. west of Avenue C. According to CBS New York, the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries. There hasn't been any further information about this shooting.

Meanwhile, the NYPD also set up a light tower on Avenue D at East Fifth Street last Wednesday…





There are unconfirmed reports of a recent shooting on this corner.

Resident Bill Morris pointed out that the lights appear to be trained on his bedroom… (the lights and generator stay on even after sunrise…)



Morris asked the NYPD if the lights could focus more on the street and less on the building. So far nothing doing. He says a call to the 9th Precinct about the lights generated this suggestion: Call Commissioner Bratton's office.

The changes to 3 Bowery mainstays

Just adding up the changing Bowery landscape along East Third Street and East Second Street…

Workers continue jackhammering away at the Salvation Army's former East Village Residence on the Bowery at East Third Street. The site will one day yield a 13-floor, 30,000 square-foot mixed-use residential development.



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The Whitehouse Hostel at 338-340 Bowery closed for good in early September. The building was sold. There are pending plans to build a 9-floor hotel in its place. Otherwise, there's not much activity here. There's still someone sitting behind the front desk … and the Pepsi machine remains in the lobby…



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On Friday, workers erected the sidewalk bridge outside the former Amato Opera building at 319 Bowery just below East Second Street…



Landlord Steve Croman received DOB approval in September to convert the former theater into a commercial and residential building. Documents show that there will be one residence on each floor above the retail space. Amato Opera ended its long run on May 31, 2009.

And these are just the changes on one block. Curbed documented more of the Bowery's changing landscape back in August.

Noted

An Urban Etiquette Sign from inside an East Third Street building via EVG reader Philip Treviño, who notes the flyer is still fresh and unmarked by a Sharpie. (And not just to copyedit.)

Ben Shaoul's latest gift to the neighborhood: A 10-floor residential building

News broke Friday about the new retail-residential complex coming to the one-level strip on East Houston between Orchard and Ludlow: a 10-floor building with 83 residential units.

In addition, the new building will feature 13,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and nearly 5,000 square feet of community facility space, according to New York Yimby, who first reported on Ben Shaoul's plans now on file with the city.

The address for this Shaoulville will be 196 Orchard St.

As BoweryBoogie (who first learned that Shaoul was behind this project) has been reporting, the businesses along here (Bereket among them) have closed or moved to make way for the development. Pretty much everything you see will be gone — except for Katz's, whose co-owner sold their air rights to Shaoul.

Ismael Leyva is the architect of record.