What lies beneath the Moishe's sign

Workers continue to repair the facade at Moishe's Bake Shop, 115 Second Ave.

A crew removed the sign late Friday night/early Saturday here near East Seventh Street.

Owner Moishe Perlmutter told WPIX that the sign sustained damage following the deadly gas explosion on March 26. (The sign seemed rather battered before then.)



"We got a violation last week that it’s shaking. We have to take it off and fix it," Perl told the station.

Meanwhile, Matt Rosen shared this photo... workers uncovered some stained glass underneath the facade...



We're unsure how old this glass is. Here's a shot of Moishe's from 1980 via EVG contributor Michael Sean Edwards...



According to the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District Designation Report (PDF!), the Greek Revival building (with Queen Anne style alterations) dates to 1842-43 as a one-family row house. The storefront was likely added in 1908. Moishe's has been here since 1972. (Check out Off the Grid for more history of the building.)

And as we understand it, the sign will be repaired and returned to the storefront.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After midnight, workers remove the Moishe's Bake Shop sign (18 comments)

More about Babu Ji, opening next month on Avenue B

The transformation of 175 Avenue B at East 11th Street continues.

As we noted at the beginning of the month, an Indian restaurant called Babu Ji is in the works.

The wife-husband team of Jennifer and Jessi Singh, currently based in Melbourne, Australia, will be opening their first U.S. restaurant here next month.

Melbourne-based online publication Broadsheet spoke with the couple for an article published yesterday:

“We’ve loved bringing an elevated level of Indian dining to our guests in Melbourne,” says Jennifer. “But coming back to my hometown (of NYC) has been a long-time dream of ours.”

So, Babu Ji NYC was born. Like the Melbourne restaurants, the New York outpost will offer modern Indian classics as well as Indian street food created by Punjab-born Jessi.

Melbourne favourites such as papdi chaat, India’s take on nachos – with mini pappadums and chickpeas topped with salsa, slaw and pomegranate – will feature on the menu in New York. House-made kulfi Indian ice cream made with cardamom, honey and pistachio will also make an appearance.

“We’ve always been baffled by the state of Indian dining in some of the world's greatest cities, like New York. Although there are some great Indian restaurants at the low and the fine-dining end of the spectrum, there is a void in the middle,” says Jennifer.

Italian specialists Spina quietly closed here late last month after six years on the block.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Spina's Italian fare exits Avenue B; Indian food on the way

5 weeks in, Long Bay closes for now

After a promising start, Long Bay, the reasonably priced Vietnamese restaurant that opened March 12 at 503 E. Sixth St. just east of Avenue A, has closed.

Long Bay has been dark all this week. Bill the Libertarian Anarchist spoke with a manager, who said that they might be closed permanently — one of the owners wants to sell his piece to the other … and apparently there's some kind of disagreement.

SenYa now open on 1st Avenue

The Japanese restaurant opened Monday at 109 First Ave. between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street.

Per SenYa's Facebook page:

SenYa is committed to provide the highest standards of Japanese Food Dining. We prepare our meals freshly and with the finest ingredients of the season.

We don't know anyone who has eaten here just yet. (There are two enthusiastic 5-star reviews on Yelp.) Please let us know if you do try it.

The small space was previously home to Ginger, whose owners decided to sell the business for family reasons.

A Christodora House flyby

Anton van Dalen's pigeons out for a spin this afternoon... Photo by Grant Shaffer

A sign that 2nd Avenue is trying to get back to normal

Photo on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place today by Peter Shapiro...

EV Grieve Etc.: Appointing new CB3 members; fighting on 3rd Avenue

[The view downtown early this morning by Bobby Williams]

Here are the new CB3 members (The Lo-Down)

Petition surfaces to oppose CB3 reinstatement of Ariel Palitz (BoweryBoogie)

The East Village resident who builds tree houses for a living (Daily News)

The budget-friendly sandwiches of Schnitz on First Avenue (Fork in the Road)

Check out "East Side Stories: Real Estate" at the Metropolitan Playhouse on East Fourth Street (Metropolitan Playhouse)

A message for Icon Realty on East Ninth Street (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, previously)

Tenant Coalition files four lawsuits against LES landlord for harassment (DNAinfo)

Two major cinema chains want to serve alcohol in NYC theaters (Eater)

... and a reader shared this video with us...



The description via YouTube:

April 18, 2015, 1:58am, St. Marks Place in the East Village, NYC. No idea, two men get involved in an altercation, an unmarked police car pulls over, but the plainclothes cops decide this dispute is not worth the time. The block where this dispute took place is located on the east side of Third Ave, between st. Marks place, and E. 9th St.

The Wall Street Journal on the ongoing issues at Icon Realty's 128 2nd Ave.

The Wall Street Journal checks in today with a piece on 128 Second Ave., the troubled building between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place owned by Icon Realty.

A few excerpts from the article by Rebecca Davis O'Brien:

Since the explosion, 128 Second Ave. has accrued 87 violations with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, along with two additional violations and a stop-work order from the Department of Buildings, according to city records. The building has been without heat, hot water, or cooking gas for three weeks.

Residents of 128 Second Ave. say Icon has neglected the building, bullied rent-stabilized tenants and hired unqualified workers to do construction without permits. Icon denies the claims.

In court last Tuesday, Manhattan Housing Court Judge Cheryl Gonzales expressed impatience with Icon’s lawyer, who asked for 45 days and a “right of extension” to repair the boiler, citing aging infrastructure, warmer weather and lengthy waits for permits.

“People have to take showers every day,” Judge Gonzales said. “Make it work.”

Judge Gonzales also showed concern about the building’s 89 open violations with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development violations, including 58 the department considered “immediately hazardous” and must be fixed within 24 hours. The bulk of the violations relate to gas and deteriorated external fire escapes.

According to the article, the tenants and Icon and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development signed a consent decree: "fully restored gas and repaired fire escapes in 45 days, hot water within 24 hours, electric space heaters, and three days’ notice before any repairs in apartments. As of Monday afternoon, residents said they still had no hot water."

The article does not include any updated information on the Stage, which Icon recently served an eviction notice.

You can find the whole article here (subscription required)

Previously on EV Grieve:
The possibility that the Stage won't reopen on 2nd Avenue

City serves stop work order on Icon Realty-owned building for installing gas pipe without permit across from deadly 2nd Avenue blast zone (48 comments)

Petition to help reopen the Stage

Tenants at 128 2nd Ave. file suit against Icon Realty in housing court

Troubling talk about 128 Second Ave, and the long-term future of the Stage

[Updated] Report: Icon Realty serves the Stage an eviction notice

Stage owner Roman Diakun responds to allegations of illegally siphoning gas

Petition to help reopen the Stage

Ben Ari Arts is a shell of its former self on Avenue A

Been some time since we checked in on the former religious articles store at 11 Avenue A between East First Street and East Second Street… Ben Art Arts, which had been at this location since 1960 (opened on Allen Street in 1945) closed at the end of 2013.

Workers have gutted the space ahead of a residential conversion (with retail on the ground floor) …





We haven't spotted much activity here of late. There are DOB permits pending for a six-unit residential building with an additional floor. (The DOB last disapproved the plans in January.)

As BuzzBuzzHome first reported back in January 2014, the developer is Abraham Soudry's Better Living Properties and Robert Strong Architect is designing the conversion. (Soudry reportedly pleaded guilty in 2010 to bribing an undercover investigator who was posing as a building inspector.)

Ben Ari Arts owner Yakov Melmed, who started helping his father sell an array of menorahs, ceremonial wine cups and prayer shawls at the store in 1973, made the decision leave the neighborhood. He sold the building for $3.4 million.

And as far as we know, this was the last of the Judaica shops in the Lower East Side.

NatureEs calls: About the organic cafe coming to where Mars Bar 2.0 was in the works

The other day we were admiring the new numbers at 21 E. First St. …



… and wondering when there might be some news about the incoming business — some kind of a two-level cafe-restaurant-lounge-acai-bowl-dispensary combo.

And just like that BoweryBoogie got the scoop on the juice bar part of the space — an organic cafe called NatureEs, serving organic, all-natural, fresh, etc. items …

The NatureEs website offers some rather generic branding for the new venture…



And what of the bar-club portion? Per BB:

Even though the crew still carries a full-blown liquor license, the cellar club isn’t happening. At least not yet. Instead of libations, this space is designated as an in-house spa of sorts. Patrons can take advantage of massages and facials, so we’re told.

A Boogie birdie tells us that Naturees is two weeks from opening...

NatureEs is located in Jupiter 21, the residential building that rose from the grave of the Mars Bar and several other businesses here between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

CB3 OK'd the new liquor license here last May. During that meeting, Mars Bar attorney Frank Palillo said that the new venue will be "a variation of Mars Bar" but will keep the same name, DNAinfo reported at the time. Former Mars Bar owner Hank Penza has a stake in the rebooted business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Will the new Mars Bar be another location of The Pink Elephant?

Work starting on Mars Bar 2.0

That's it: The Mars Bar is closed for good

A quick check on the incoming Black Seed bagels on 1st Avenue

[Via the Black Seed website]

We read over at Grub Street yesterday that Black Seed bagels on Elizabeth Street is celebrating its one-year anniversary this week.

Meanwhile, as you probably know, the Black Seed owners are opening a bagel shop/cafe in the former DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe at 176 First Ave. near East 11th Street.

Here's a look inside the under-renovation space from Friday…


[Photo by Ali Smith]

The 110-year-old DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe closed this past Dec. 5 after 110 years in business. Black Seed owners Noah Bernamoff and Matt Kliegman have said that they will keep as much of the original architectural elements intact as they can.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Black Seed bringing bagels to the former DeRobertis space on 1st Avenue (43 comments)

A last look at DeRobertis before its conversion to Black Seed bagels

Starting work to bring Black Seed bagels to the former DeRobertis space on 1st Avenue

Let's just keep talking about bagels on 1st Avenue

[Ess-A-Bagel photo from March 22]

Here's a follow-up to our previous Ess-A-Bagel/Tal Bagels post from March 30...

Ess-A-Bagel closed up their home of nearly 40 years on March 20 at First Avenue and East 21st Street.

There is now a coming soon sign up for Tal Bagels at the former home of Rose, a chicken restaurant, adjacent to Ess-A-Bagel...



... as well as in the former Ess-A-Bagel space...



There was also a Tal Bagels sign up a few storefronts to the north at 365 First Ave. ... next door to where the new Ess-A-Bagels MAY open...


[Photo from March 28]

To make this even more confusing... the Tal Bagels sign is no longer up on the plywood.



Thankfully the Town & Village Blog has it all sorted out for us from a post on Friday...

Tal Bagels, which has three other locations in NYC, will be opening in part of the old Ess-A-Bagel space (along with 350 square feet for a Bank of America branch).

And what about No. 365? To Town & Village:

Tal will be opening a shop/restaurant for smoked fish, similar in style to downtown institution Russ & Daughters. That business will go into the space at the former Beehives & Buzzcuts at 365 First Avenue, which has about 2,000 square feet... It may not be called Tal and there is not yet a planned opening date.

“It’ll be fish and salads, European smoked fish like herring,” said [Tal partner Mohammed] Kamal. He explained that in just the bagel shop space, there wouldn’t have been enough room for bagels as well as “the full line” of fish.

No word yet on a new home for Ess-A-Bagel.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Report: Landlord forcing Ess-a-Bagel from its longtime home (46 comments)

1 week left for Ess-A-Bagel at its current 1st Avenue location

[Updated] Ess-A-Bagel has closed for now on 1st Avenue

Tal Bagels opening soon next to possible new home of Ess-A-Bagel

Fog bound

Tompkins Square Park tonight...



Photos by EVG contributor Michael Sean Edwards ...

First look at Pancake Paradise on Avenue C

Crews have transformed Esperanto on Avenue C and East Ninth Street into the Pancake Paradise for a film shoot (the tipster who sent along these shots didn't catch the name of the project) …



As the sign shows, Esperanto will be back in service Wednesday evening…

Updated: A readers says the shoot is for "How to Be Single" starring Dakota Johnson.