Art around the Park

Photo this morning on East Seventh Street and Avenue A outside Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg ...

RIP Brian Fair

[Photo outside the former Sounds at 20 St. Mark's Place by Panda Cat]

Brian Fair, owner of St. Mark's Sounds, passed away Thursday after a brief hospital stint, according to friends. (We'll add more biographical information as it becomes available.)

Sounds opened at 20 St. Mark's Place — above the Grassroots Tavern — in 1979. (He also ran an annex for several years in the early 1990s at 16 St. Mark's Place.) Sounds closed for good on Oct. 11, making it the last record store on St. Mark's Place.


[Photo by Alex via Flaming Pablum]

We asked three former employees at Sounds for their remembrances of Fair.

Michael Dolan:

Brian was a curmudgeon, but a lovable one. Think of all the record store clerks you have encountered in your lives. He was the alpha of all of them.

I worked for him for seven years and I'm grateful for that time and experience. I learned a lot about life and music and had a lot of laughs. When I started touring and leaving New York every year, Brian always had a job for me when I returned. I always tried to swing by the store when I was in the neighborhood to say hi or exchange Christmas presents in years to come. We would linger on the steps and share stories and he always made me happy.

I can only imagine after 30 years of selling records and the decline of the industry closing the store left Brian with a void in his life. I only wish he had the time to relax and enjoy his retirement before leaving us so soon.

Paul Kostabi:

My first job in NYC 1984 was working for him remodeling record bins and building Sounds Video from the ground up. The mahogany cabinets at the store survived. A few weeks ago I was there and he said, "you know, what killed me — with a tear in his eye — the mp3. The mp3 fucking killed me."

[He was] a great person.

James Lawrence, who worked at Sounds since 1995, and alone with Fair the past eight years:

He loved rock music, especially hard rock — Motörhead. And since he worked so much in the shop he didn't get to go to many shows. Well, Motörhead sister group Girlschool did a mini tour of the states a few months ago. I knew the Girls from back in the day so we took the day off and went to Brooklyn to see the show. We went early and I was able to introduce him to the Girls. I could tell how happy Brian was. It was the last show he got to see, I believe.

That makes me happy.

Brian loved music. It was his life. He cared about people underneath his gruff appearance. I remember Kembra from Karen Black gave him a homemade card thanking him for his support in the East Village music scene. When he read the card he started to cry.

That's the Brian I knew.

So you want to buy a tree for the holidays in the East Village

[Tree Riders on 2nd Avenue]

EVG correspondent Stacie Joy braved the wilds of the East Village tree stands in recent days. Here's a look at what some of them have to offer...

------

Location: Rite Aid, 5th Street and First Avenue, Evergreen’s temporary homemade hut’s address is 77 First Ave.
Name: Evergreen
Vendor: Jonathan Papillon Blanc, you can contact him by email



Jonathan (above), and his business partner, Ben, have been selling trees and Christmas goods at this location for five years. From Canada, they come down to sell holiday supplies for the season. They have everything from tiny $5 Charlie Brown “trees” (think a branch or two on a wooden base) and homemade reindeer sculptures, $30 3-foot Douglas firs to $65 6-foot balsams.

There are $20-$25 tabletop trees with stands (a popular choice while I was there), and wreaths in the $15 to $20 range depending on ornamentation level. Also at this location: garlands (2 feet for $5), homemade swags decorated with bows and a hook for $5, tree wrapping/netting, and some of Jonathan’s girlfriend’s homemade sand dollar-based tree ornaments.







Trees are sourced mainly from North Carolina and Tennessee, and delivery options exist. Jonathan is especially eager to help people get the right tree for their needs, and was willing to work within people’s budgets. This was the only place I saw frosted Fraser firs for sale.

------

Location: Key Food, 4th Street and Avenue A
Vendor: Raymond



Most of the trees here are North Carolina based, with Fraser firs going for $35 for a 3- to 4-foot tree, and living, potted mini-cypress trees at $30. Also for sale, large decorative pine cones for $5, holly boughs for $6, poinsettia for $8, and 6- to 7-foot Frasers for $70. Christmas cacti from $5 to $10, Charlie Brown trees with wood stands for $20, decorated wreaths from $15 to $25, depending on size.



Raymond will trim the trunk for you, and offers local (note: very local) delivery options. There was also the new-to-me swag with juniper berries named Daddy Burger for $10 (I would love to know the story behind the Daddy Burger but wasn’t able to find the etymology online).



While I was visiting, living potted mini spruce trees ($10 to $30) with large red bows seemed to be selling fast, as well as $10 Christmas amaryllis plants wrapped in holiday foil, and a bunch of $40 tree-based reindeer sculptures were just being delivered to people’s delight. Lots of options for home decoration are available here, and they are open 24 hours per day.



------

Location: Sunny & Annie’s Deli, 6th Street and Avenue B
Vendor: Juan, with assistance from local building super, also named Juan



Sunny and Annie’s has a small selection of trees, wrapped and ready to go. They were a bit shy regarding images and information but they offer balsam and Fraser firs, with a 4-foot tree going for $35, and a 6-footer for $60. They will trim the bottom of the tree for you and wrap it, and they offer stands for $15 to $20. No delivery or decorations at this time.



------

Location: St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, 10th Street and Second Avenue
Name: Tree Riders NYC
Vendor: (from left below) Kevin, Joseph and Edward



The Tree Riders, selling at this location for the past five years, had the largest selection of trees and Christmas supplies I saw, a staff of people who prided themselves on their commitment to the environment, and were very knowledgeable about the trees they sold.



They sell a wide selection of trees from family-farm Fraser firs from Virginia, Pennsylvania-raised Douglas firs, and the Canaan fir, a balsam-like, East Coast-based affordable hybrid. Prices were also wide ranging here and a bit higher than other tree sellers, from the 2- to 4-foot trees in the $25 to $55 range, 6-foot trees from $70 to $120, and 9-footers from $120 to $250. The Charlie Brown trees here weren’t tree tops; they were small but fully grown harvested trees.

All the trees I was shown had been hand-selected and cut within the past 72 hours, and the vendors offered a lots of add-on services, such as custom tree decoration at your home or office, tree set-up and removal (which is then mulched), specialty tree orders (I spied a 20-foot-tall tree), plus delivery all over Manhattan, often by custom cargo bike.



Wreaths were available in heart shapes, peace signs, and traditional rounds in varied sizes, made on-site by Erica, and priced from $15 to $130. This was the only place that sold mistletoe, which I was informed, was hand-harvested recently in Oregon. Lights, tree-disposal bags, decorations and holly boughs also available, as were instructions on the care of the tree.



------

Location: East Houston and Essex Street
Name: Holiday Tree Stand
Vendor: Tim (on left) and Brian



This family- and friend-run stand (staffed by folks from Brooklyn) has been at this busy and well-trafficked location for nine years and while they sell a wide range of trees and supplies, they would not quote any prices (but from what I overheard during my visit, prices seemed competitive). Available trees were Fraser firs and balsams, from 2.5 feet tall up to approximately 10 feet.



Trees were sourced from Nova Scotia and North Carolina. All the Charlie Brown trees were sold out, but there were some tabletop trees. Local delivery available, wrapping and netting, trunk trimming and plenty of lights, decorations, and wreaths for sale.

Plus, tags supporting TreeCycle/MulchFest 2016 (January 9-10, see nyc.gov/parks/mulchfest for more information). I also spied some “snow in a can” here, which I didn’t see at other locations. Tim reminds tree buyers to keep their trees standing in fresh water, and far away from radiators and heat sources.



------

Location: Whole Foods, East Houston at Bowery
Vendor: Dario



Whole Foods has some rules about photographing their employees, but they were happy to have me take photos of their merchandise. Only Fraser firs available at this location, and sizes from tabletop (complete with stand) for $20, and 5 to 6 foot firs for $50, 7 to 8 footers at $60, garlands at 20 feet for $7.50.



Wreaths with red bows were also available for $12. Whole Foods offers wrapping, trunk trimming, delivery below 20th Street, and also had some potted lavender trees, living Euro cypress (in burlap) and potted lemon cypress for $6 to $16. Decorations and additional foliage for sale indoors and upstairs.

------

Location: St. Mark’s Market, 21 St. Mark’s Place between Second and Third Avenues



No one was available to talk to me, but there was signage indicating that unwrapped trees were $40 for a small and $60 for a large, and stands and wreaths were $14 apiece.

------

Location: 14th Street and First Avenue



This vendor refused to speak to me, so I don't have any information or anything except for some images, which I was permitted to take. Despite the festive nature of the giant blow-up Santa, snowman and nutcracker, the vendor didn’t seem too happy to be there. The trees and wreaths looked nice though.

------

Location: TD Bank, 1st Street and Second Avenue
Name: Wulfgang and Beyon’s Fresh Cut Trees
Vendor: Wulfgang (left) and Beyon



This artistic duo, whose tree shop is new this year, has been operating 24 hours per day since Thanksgiving. Available trees are the Fraser fir and Douglas fir, sourced from upstate New York and western Massachusetts. There appeared to be some confusion between the two owners over pricing, but in general, Charlie Brown trees go for $20 to $25, 3-foot trees for $30 to $35, 6-foot trees for $60 to $100, and larger trees anywhere from $150 to $250. Wreaths and handmade wooden ornaments (some secular ones too) available for sale here, plus tree trunk trimming, tree wrapping/netting, and local delivery (that is, anywhere within East Village “walking distance”).



What made this tree-selling stand different was that they named their trees, mostly after friends’ dogs. You could take home a large Lieutenant Dan tree, or a sweet 5-footer named Doughnut. A bushy Gandalf was being looked-over when I visited.



All photos by Stacie Joy

Report: Designer Patricia Field closing her Bowery storefront

[Photo from August 2012 by Bobby Williams]

You may have seen the news earlier today that designer Patricia Field is calling it quits, with an announcement that she will close her retail space at 306 Bowery between Bleecker and East Houston in the Spring.

Per the Daily News:

“I know that my clients are going to be sad, because they come in and tell me that there’s no store like this in the world,” the 74-year-old fashion icon told the Daily News. “But I’ve gotta watch out for my health and myself.”

The native New Yorker responsible for making Manolo Blahnik and Oscar de la Renta household names by strapping them onto Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City” revealed that she is shuttering her 4,000-square-foot shop.

The fiery-haired Field opened her first store in the West Village in 1966 before moving to 10 E. Eighth St. in 1971, where she catered to fashionistas for 30 years.

She moved from 302 to 306 Bowery, a space that she owns, in the spring of 2012.

And via Vanishing New York, here's a video from Nelson Sullivan in the mid-1980s showing the Field shop on Eighth Street...

[Updated] Paper plate: 2 Bros. will return tomorrow

EVG $1 pizzeria correspondent Steven noted today that the 2 Bros. Pizza on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was not open for business.

However, the paper plate on the door points out they will be back open tomorrow...



Well, there is some precedent for thinking that this location might be closed for good. The $1.50 2 Bros. a few storefronts away went under back in February... before reopening as Fasta ("Pasta Your Way") then a Belgian fries shop.

Updated 12/8 1:04 p.m.

Steven notes that a new paper plate says that 2 Bros. remains closed...



Updated 12/9

And they are back open, per Steven...

Politicos still calling on SantaCon to adopt good-neighbor principles

[SantaCon 2013 via EVG reader Steven]

Via the EVG inbox...

Today, State Senator Brad Hoylman, along with City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senators Adriano Espaillat, Liz Krueger and Daniel Squadron, Assembly Members Deborah Glick, Richard Gottfried and Linda Rosenthal, and Council Members Daniel Garodnick, Corey Johnson and Rosie Mendez sent letters to SantaCon and the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) calling for greater oversight and accountability in an effort to rein in the annual pub crawl.

The coalition of lawmakers, building on similar efforts in 2013 and 2014, proposed a set of guiding principles for SantaCon’s organizers, including better coordination with officials, greater accountability on the part of the organizers, and stronger efforts to mitigate risks to pedestrians. SantaCon, an annual bar-crawl that draws thousands of participants dressed as Santa Claus, regularly draws the ire of local residents and law enforcement for its disruptive effect on local communities as well as its perceived threat to public safety.

"SantaCon needs to grow up," said State Senator Brad Hoylman. "An organization that brings over 25,000 people to our neighborhoods should show us respect by sharing its routes with community boards and local elected officials and working together with us well in advance to determine how we can mitigate the negative impacts of this bar crawl on our local communities and small retail businesses, whose annual sales depend heavily on this time of year."

The local officials also reached out to SLA Chairman Vincent G. Bradley, urging the agency to take a “proactive approach” to this year’s event by reminding participating licensees to be mindful of potential violations and committing additional inspectors along the route to ensure adherence to local regulations.

###

To Whom It May Concern:

For a third year, we write to express our concerns regarding the annual SantaCon bar crawl and the negative impact it has on the residential communities where it takes place. Each holiday season, local elected officials, community boards and local precincts face a wave of complaints as the SantaCon bar crawl passes through their neighborhoods.This year, we are again hoping to take preemptive action.

We appreciate that the SantaCon bar crawl can provide additional short-term sales to a small group of local business establishments. However, we also recognize that the event’s many adverse effects significantly disrupt the quality of life of entire communities. While the SantaCon bar crawl has pledged to take proactive steps in the past, the organization’s efforts have not mitigated the bulk of the event’s deleterious impact. There is still more that can and must be done to ensure that the event is positive and safe.

Previously, we requested that the SantaCon bar crawl adhere to a set of common-sense principles. We urge you to agree to a similar set of guidelines this year in anticipation of the event’s 2015 iteration. The three principles are as follows:

• Share defined routes with the community – The SantaCon bar crawl’s path often comes as an unwelcome and last minute surprise to community members, the NYPD, and local businesses. We ask that the SantaCon bar crawl make its routes and timetable publicly available far in advance in order to give all of these stakeholders time to adequately plan for the arrival of SantaCon bar crawl participants.
• Ensure responsible participant behavior – While the police can certainly play a role in ensuring SantaCon bar crawl participants abide by laws regarding public intoxication and urination and overly aggressive behavior, the NYPD is responsible for serving the public at large rather than providing security for a private event. The SantaCon bar crawl’s organizers must make a concerted effort to self-police at establishments along the route and should expel overly intoxicated and badly-behaving participants.
• Mitigate pedestrian safety risks – The Santacon bar crawl’s participants often overwhelm sidewalks that were designed to accommodate smaller crowds, posing serious safety concerns for participants and other pedestrians. The SantaCon bar crawl should identify opportunities to reduce these risks. For example, staff members or trained volunteers can be present along the route to ensure the free-flow of pedestrian travel and to prevent individuals from walking into busy vehicular traffic.

With the date of the event rapidly approaching, we urge the SantaCon bar crawl to act swiftly to adopt these guidelines and make its programmatic and safety plans public.

To date, the SantaCon route has been shrouded in secrecy. DNAinfo reported that the event to take place this Saturday will start in Bushwick, and wind up in the East Village.

Previously on EV Grieve:
SantaCon 2015 set for Dec. 12 in NYC, says SantaCon

Local politicians call on SantaCon 'to adopt good-neighbor principles'

Danny's Cycles closing East Village location

The moving sign arrived in the window Saturday at the longtime cycle shop at 332 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue...



Per the sign, Danny's — with a dozen locations in NYC and Connecticut — is moving to Sixth Avenue and 15th Street. However, regulars count this as a closure as opposed to a move — the Chelsea location has been there for a number of years.

According to several customers of Danny's (formerly Metro Bikes), the closure/move comes as the result of a rent increase via the landlord. (ID'd as the Brusco Group, an afflilate of Westside Management Corp.)

There are also approved permits on file with the Department of Buildings to "add horizontal extension at floors 1-5" that will increase the overall square footage of No. 332.

Photos via Edmund John Dunn

Biang! is hiring, and looks to be open soon in the former Alder space on 2nd Avenue

As we first reported last week, Xi'an Famous Foods owner Jason Wang is moving Biang!, his family-style Chinese restaurant, from Main Street in Flushing to 157 Second Ave.

The sign on the restaurant front here between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street notes that Biang! is now hiring servers and buspersons... with a December 2015 opening date.



So it sounds as if they are quickly converting the space of the previous tenant, Alder, chef Wylie Dufresne's bistro that closed after two-and-a-half years at the end of August.

As Eater noted, the well-regarded Biang! — which specializes in skewers and noodles — received one star from The New York Times. Biang! was also included on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list.

Biang! is on tonight's CB3 SLA committee docket for a beer-wine new liquor license.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Jason Wang bringing Xi'an Famous Foods offshoot Biang! to the former Alder space on 2nd Avenue

A look at the rest of the December CB3-SLA agenda for tonight

Ahead of tonight's CB3 SLA committee meeting, we've looked at four of the applicants:

• Biang!, 157 Second Ave.
• Bagel Belly, 114 Third Ave.
• Unnamed concept, 131 Avenue A
• IL Mago, 234 E. Fourth St.

So the meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

You can find the whole meeting docket here. Otherwise, what follows are a selection of what the committee will hear tonight...

Renewal with Complaint
• Revision Lounge and Gallery (219 Avenue B Music Lounge Inc), 219 Ave B (op)

• Poco (Becaf LLC), 33 Ave B (sidewalk cafe)

CB3 recommended to deny Poco's liquor license renewal back in July. You can find the minutes of the meeting here.

From those minutes:

Community Board 3 has now received complaints from residents from April of 2014 through July of 2015, about the failure of the business to oversee the sidewalk, unruly drunk patrons from the business blocking the sidewalk, excessive noise from patrons and music emanating from the sidewalk café, which has an open façade, all you can drink brunch specials, the sidewalk café operating past its permitted time of 10:00 P.M., the service of alcohol at the sidewalk café after its permitted closing time and the café taking up too much of the sidewalk;

...and, in May of 2015, the Department of Consumer Affairs issued two (2) violations against this business for its sidewalk café exceeding its permitted footprint on the sidewalk and having ten (10) too many tables when it was permitted for ten (10) tables and twenty (20) seats with a closing time of 10:00 P.M. every day; and, this business has received eight (8) 311 commercial noise complaints between April 13, 2014 and June 25, 2015, between 3:30 P.M. and 1:00 A.M., six (6) of which resulted in police reporting that they took action to correct a nonprime ...

Poco's website advertises that they are "NYC's favorite boozy brunch."



The sidewalk cafe renewal is up for discussion tonight.

• No Malice Palace (197 Artichoke Corp), 197 E 3rd St (op)

Sidewalk Cafe Application
• Schnitz (DY Schnitz LLC), 177 1st Ave

Alterations
• Russ & Daughters Cafe (FourthGen LLC), 127 Orchard St (op/minor alt prior to opening to reflect final layout)

• Russ & Daughters Cafe (FourthGen LLC), 127 Orchard St (op/add live music once a month/display liquor bottles)

• Juke Bar (Maddsg LLC), 301 E 12th St (op/add live music)

• Turntable 50' and 60' (Vintage B Inc), 56-58 Ave B aka 235-237 E 4th St (wb/extend hours to 1am)

New Liquor License Applications
• Numero 28 (La Meridiana I LTD), 176 2nd Ave (upgrade to op)

• Villa Cemita Inc, 50 Ave A (wb/legalize alt)

Items not heard at Committee
• Akina Sushi Inc, 424 E 14th St (wb)

-----
b=beer only | wb=wine & beer only | op=liquor, wine, & beer | alt=alterations

605 E. 11th St. is for sale

Wiechert Properties has the listing for the building between Avenue B and Avenue C.

GREAT INCOME PRODUCING APARTMENT BUILDING: 20 Units, 5 newly renovated vacant apartments, New electrical throughout building, New video security system, upgraded roof, gutters, heating system.

The listing also includes the annual expenses for No. 605, which is interesting to note, though the punctuation appears to be off. This is exactly as it appears:

Current Expenses Inc. 14, 562-Taxes 77, 394 Fuel 35, 403-Water Sewer 3, 939

In any event, the asking price for the building is $16 million.

Image via Streeteasy

What's going behind 43 St. Mark's Place?

EVG reader Danny writes in...

Something strange is going on in the backyard of 43 St Mark's Place. The concrete patio has been been removed, and dozens of orange five-gallon buckets full of dirt are stacked in its place.

Does anyone know what's going on here? Is it a police investigation of a decades-old crime scene? Have archaeologists found the location of Peter Stuyvesant's outhouse? Or maybe the owners just decided that they have more dirt back there than they need, and they're getting rid of some. There's probably no room for a wheelbarrow to maneuver through the building, so buckets are the only way out.

Ramen Zundo-ya softly opens tonight on East 10th Street

Over at 84 E. 10th St., the sign is up noting that Ramen Zundo-ya is having its soft opening tonight here between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

This is the first U.S. restaurant for Tatsuya Hashimoto, who launched Ramen Zundo-ya in 2002… there are now 15 locations throughout Japan.

You can read more about the restaurant chain here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ramen Zundo-ya opening first U.S. outpost on East 10th Street

[Updated] Air pollution today?

EVG reader George Cohen says that early this morning, from after midnight to the time he went to bed, "a severe air pollution smell came through my windows" in his East Village apartment.

"I was in Beijing in 2013, and the air smelled like this. At about 10 am I went out, and Avenue D, down past Houston Street was in a THICK STINKY SMOG."

He took the above photo late this afternoon, "and I still could smell polluted air."

Cohen said that he checked the air pollution stats online, which received a "good" rating on one site and "moderate" on another...

"I beg to differ. This is f----d up. This could be an example of faulty air monitoring, or it's a coverup. Not likely, but I certainly did not imagine the smell and the visuals. I wonder what's up?"

Updated 12/7 11 a.m.

Via the Weather Channel... in ALL CAPS:

... AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT THROUGH MIDNIGHT...
THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION HAS ISSUED AN AIR QUALITY HEALTH ADVISORY FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...
RICHMOND... KINGS... QUEENS... NEW YORK... BRONX... WESTCHESTER... ROCKLAND.

AIR QUALITY LEVELS IN OUTDOOR AIR ARE PREDICTED TO BE GREATER THAN AN AIR QUALITY INDEX VALUE OF 100 FOR FINE PARTICLES. THE AIR QUALITY INDEX... OR AQI... WAS CREATED AS AN EASY WAY TO CORRELATE LEVELS OF DIFFERENT POLLUTANTS TO ONE SCALE. THE HIGHER THE AQI VALUE, THE GREATER THE HEALTH CONCERN.

WHEN POLLUTION LEVELS ARE ELEVATED... THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RECOMMENDS THAT INDIVIDUALS CONSIDER LIMITING STRENUOUS OUTDOOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS. PEOPLE WHO MAY BE ESPECIALLY SENSITIVE TO THE EFFECTS OF ELEVATED LEVELS OF POLLUTANTS INCLUDE THE VERY YOUNG, AND THOSE WITH PRE-EXISTING RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS SUCH AS ASTHMA OR HEART DISEASE. THOSE WITH SYMPTOMS SHOULD CONSIDER CONSULTING THEIR PERSONAL PHYSICIAN.

A TOLL FREE AIR QUALITY HOTLINE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED SO NEW YORK RESIDENTS CAN STAY INFORMED ON THE AIR QUALITY SITUATION. THE TOLL FREE NUMBER IS: 1 800 5 3 5, 1 3 4 5.

Openings: Hou Yi Hot Pot, Kingsley

Hou Yi Hot Pot is now open at 97 Second Ave. between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street...



This is the second location for Hou Yi Hot Pot, which also has a spot on Hester Street in the northern fringes of Chinatown. Serious Eats called Hou Yi "comfortable and friendly" and "This is your Manhattan Chinatown go-to for hot pot."

And at 190 Avenue B between near East 12th Street, Kingsley, a seasonal French-American restaurant, opened this past Wednesday...



Here's the Times with some thoughts on the restaurant:

Three spaces — a dining room with a long bar, a loungelike area and a back room, all softly done in neutral tones — serve the same menu that the chef Roxanne Spruance delivers from her semi-open kitchen. She worked at Blue Hill, WD-50 and Alison Eighteen. Gallic touches show through in roasted bone marrow with shallots and tarragon, monkfish with melted leeks and a chicken thigh napoleon.

Kingsley's website is here and the menus are here.

The previous restaurant at No. 190, the 7-year-old Back Forty, closed for good after service last Dec. 21.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Modern American in the works for former Back Forty space on Avenue B

A look at Kingsley, opening this fall on Avenue B