Spotting some 'Deuce' coupes on 2nd Avenue

EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted some of the vintage cars used for filming "The Deuce," HBO's upcoming drama series starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, in parts of the neighborhood today (like on Seventh Street)...







Here's more on the series via Deadline:

Written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and longtime collaborator George Pelecanos and directed by Michelle MacLaren, The Deuce follows the HBO blue logostory of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic, and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

And are some props from Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...

Reader report: Workers dig up streetcar tracks on 3rd Avenue

An EVG reader/tipster shared these images from last evening... where workers have been putting in a new roadway on Third Avenue between Astor Place and Ninth Street/Stuyvesant Street as part of the Astor Place Reconstruction project ...

The reader thinks that workers have unearthed the former streetcar tracks along here...

"In digging out the roadbed for Third Avenue near Stuyvesant crews uncovered what I believe to be crossovers for the Third Avenue and crosstown streetcars. It may be difficult to see in the photos but one axis runs east/west (Stuyvesant) and the other runs parallel to Third Avenue."

When the Stuyvesant and Ninth Street mini-parks were built I remember Stuyvesant Street tracks being dug out."

These crossovers are still so well anchored that workers couldn't pull them out. Per the reader: "The crew has been cutting them into small pieces. They are at it again today."



No word on how this might delay the project...

According to the Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition: "The 8th St. line ran its last streetcar on March 3, 1936, clearing the way for the crosstown bus and ever-increasing swarms of automobiles and trucks."

Off the Grid has some nice trolley history here.

A Hollywood print shop for 7th Street

An EVG reader noted the arrival today of signage for a new business coming to Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue — a print shop... don't know anything else about the place at this time, such as if it is a new business or one that relocated.

The previous tenant at No. 76 was the Jasna Hair Studio.

Updated 1:53

Never mind! This is just a set dressing for the new David Simon series filming on the block today...

Defunking defunct Funkiberry

Yesterday afternoon, workers removed the iconic Funkiberry signage from its former home of nine months at Third Avenue and 12th Street.

As previously noted, workers are renovating the corner space to make way for a pizzeria.

Thanks to Harry Weiner for the photo and headline!

Enjoy 'A Summer in Paris' next month in Tompkins Square Park

The Films on the Green series — the free outdoor French film festival produced since 2008 — is underway again this summer (OK, late spring) in city parks.

With the theme "A summer in Paris", Films on the Green 2016 will offer a striking portrait of the City of Lights, its urban landscape, and cultural diversity. A selection of classic, New Wave, and contemporary films will showcase the city’s aesthetic, cultural, and cinematic history from a dramatically unconventional angle through stories of love, romance, adolescence, female identity, and urban life in Parisian and its surrounding suburbs.

Tompkins Square Park will host two excellent movies next month by Agnès Varda and Eric Rohmer ...

Friday, July 22, 8:30 pm
Cleo From 5 To 7
By Agnès Varda, 1962, 1h30
________________________________________

Friday, July 29, 8:30 pm
Boyfriends and Girlfriends
By Eric Rohmer, 1987, PG, 1h42

People's Pops not returning to the East Village

Back in July 2011, the team behind Brooklyn Flea and Chelsea Market regular People's Pops opened a, uh, pop-up stand on Seventh Street near First Avenue...

To date, the People's Pops pop-up stand has been quiet so far this season. Word is People's Pop will not be returning to this location. (We reached out to PP for comment.)

There are still numerous locations for PP's locally sourced fruit pops and shaved ice, such as in Park Slope or on the High Line.

And no word on what might become of the PP structure alongside Golden Food Market here.

Thanks to EVJackie for the tip!

Zadie's Oyster Room opens tonight on East 12th Street

Hearth owner Marco Canora has revamped his nearby wine bar Fifty Paces .... he is reopening the space as Zadie's Oyster Room tonight.

Per a Zadie's rep:

Inspired by the oyster houses prevalent in late 19th Century/early 20th Century New York, Zadie's will serve oysters every style: raw, baked, broiled, steamed, fried, pickled & poached, accompanied by dishes like caesar salad, kelp coleslaw + brown bread with anchovy butter, washed down with a selection of beer, wine and champagne.

You can find the menu and hours at the Zadie's website here. Zadie's is at 413 E. 12th St. between First Avenue and Avenue A.

GG's introduces a Garden Dinner Kit with ingredients from its backyard garden

[Image via the GG's website]

GG's, the restaurant on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and B that sources ingredients from its 18-bed backyard garden, is launching the following starting today:

The Garden Dinner Kit is a CSA meets meal planner: order online and pick up your box every Thursday. All ingredients​ will be included with a detailed pamphlet on how to prepare your meal. Each kit includes everything you need to make a pizza, salad and side dish with GG's homemade dough, sauces and garden grown vegetables. The menu changes monthly based on what the garden is producing. A detailed preparation pamphlet will be included.

Ordering: Each box is $40 for a dinner for four, and they can be ordered on the website with pickup every Thursday from 4-7 PM.

The first Dinner Kit menu features ingredients for Black Radish & Pea Shoot Square Pie with Chimichurri; Ricotta Stuffed Grape Leaves; and a Garden Salad with Garden Berry Vinaigrette.

Find more details at the GG's website here.

Pianos in the Park today

Photos by Derek Berg

Brick Lane Curry House debuts sidewalk cafe

Sidewalk seating is now available here at 99 Second Avenue between Sixth Street and Fifth Street, per EVG correspondent Steven.

CB3 signed off on the sidewalk cafe in June 2015.

Report: Cuomo clears way for brunch drinking to start at 10 a.m. on Sundays

As you may have heard, Gov. Cuomo and the NY Legislature agreed to reform the state's Alcohol Beverage Control Law that reportedly dated back some 80 years.

So, soon, bars and restaurants in the city will be able to start serving drinks at 10 a.m. on Sundays instead of noon.

To the Post:

“Before I was in the [restaurant] industry, I would order a drink at 11:30 a.m. And I would say, ‘What do you mean you can’t serve me?’ ” said Danny Mena, 36, who co-owns Hecho En Dumbo in the East Village. “It was quite an archaic law.”

Nicolas Lorentz, 35, general manager of Lafayette in the same neighborhood, said the extra two hours would boost the bottom line.

“The brunch crowd is a drinking crowd. This is helpful to any brunch restaurant in New York City. We will get more people coming here early,” Lorentz predicted.

This may go into effect as early as this coming Sunday. Which means that you may have to avoid parts of Avenue B even earlier now.

Report: 2nd Avenue residents file $17 million lawsuit over deadly gas explosion

[Photo from March]

Several dozen former Second Avenue residents have filed a $17 million lawsuit in the wake of the deadly March 2015 gas explosion, the Daily News reports.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges the city and Con Edison, along with the owners of the restaurant Sushi Park and contractor Neighborhood Construction Corp., failed “to observe significant and dangerous ‘red flags’ … failing to take any steps to protect the public and their property.”

The city and the others also failed to “properly test the gas lines” and relied “upon an illogical and antiquated system of enforcement, inspections and unreliable self-certification,” according to the suit.

The Daily News article mostly focuses on actress Drea de Matteo, who lived for 22 years at 123 Second Ave., one of the three buildings destroyed in the blast.

In April, the estate of Nicholas Figueroa filed a wrong death lawsuit. (The Daily News notes that there have been dozens of lawsuits filed regarding the explosion.)

Authorities have said that siphoned gas at 121 Second Ave. is to blame for the explosion, which killed Figueroa and Moises Ismael Locón Yac and injured two dozen other people.

On Feb. 11, the DA charged No. 119 and 121 landlord Maria Hrynenko and her son, Michael Hrynenko Jr., with involuntary manslaughter ... as well as contractor Dilber Kukic and an unlicensed plumber, Athanasios Ioannidis. (A fifth person, Andrew Trombettas, faces charges for supplying his license to Ioannidis.) All pleaded not guilty.

In early March, George Pasternak, the landlord of 123 Second Ave., put his vacant plot of land up for sale, asking $9.7 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'

Former residents talk about landlord Maria Hrynenko: 'it was clear she wanted to get rid of anyone with a rent-regulated apartment'

Report: 123 2nd Ave. is for sale

Selling 123 Second Ave.

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

Name: Joe
Occupation: Retired, Teacher
Location: Village View, First Avenue
Time: 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 21

This is part 2 of the interview with Joe. Find part 1 here.

When I went to high school, I didn’t pay any tuition because I used to help out in the church, in St. Patrick’s — the original cathedral on Mott Street. I would suggest anybody, even if you’re not Catholic, to go over there because there’s a lot of history, and not only in the church but underneath. They’ve got catacombs and people buried down there.

I went to cathedral school, which was where you went to become a priest. Then when I graduated, I didn’t want to go to cathedral college because that was where you went before you went to the seminary. So I gave it up and I went to NYU.

We moved to Village View in 1964, when the co-op first went up. This area here on First Avenue, before they built these co-ops, they were all low buildings like the ones across the street. Mostly all the stores were carpet stores. They used to sell carpets, rugs, and across the street they had two Army-Navy stores. When World War II was over, they bought all that surplus stuff and sold it in the stores.

These buildings were supposed to be city projects. Lindsay became mayor and there was no more money. Just the concrete frame of the building was up and not the walls, and it stood like that for almost two years. Finally they made some kind of deal. NYU took over half of the mortgage of this place. They still own it. They don’t want to give it up. Then they made it co-ops. They took away a lot of the living room space and put terraces in.

These buildings became co-op, and a lot of good people from the city moved in here. They gave the people who lived in the neighborhood first choice, but a lot of people didn’t have the money to buy the apartments. Many people who came into the building at first were originals. That’s why you had a lot of Polish, Ukrainian and Italians in the building. It’s like a melting pot in here.

I worked at NYU. I was an anatomy teacher, and after that I retired. Most of the school was very small here at one time. They only had a little part of Washington Square. Most of their buildings were up in the Bronx in University Heights. When the real estate transition came about, NYU sold most of those buildings up in the Bronx and with all the money that they got, they bought all those factory buildings down here when the factories moved out. On Broadway they had all these hat companies. That was big in those days. So NYU bought those buildings, they renovated them, and they made classrooms.

NYU happens to be a very, very wealthy institution. In fact, it’s the second biggest private school in the United States. Between the night, the weekend, the part time, NYU has over 50,000 students. They own quite a number of businesses. They’re landowners and besides that they own businesses that people will to them. They owned Mueller Pasta. Langone gave them $200 million dollars just to put his name on the medical center.

I made my money and got out. It was good in a way and it stunk in another way. It was close for me, but it was very cliquish. It was not what you know, it was who you know.

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

Report: Wagamama coming to 55 3rd Ave.; M2M to depart?

[EVG file photo]

The second Manhattan location of Wagamama, the London-based chain of Japanese restaurants, is reportedly coming to a retail space at 55 Third Ave., aka Eleventh and Third, the 12-floor building that recently went through a top-to-bottom luxury renovation.

Per the Commercial Observer, who first reported the deal:

The popular Japanese-inspired Wagamama has taken 3,150 square feet at grade and 2,000 square feet for storage in the basement in the East Village at 55 Third Avenue at the corner of East 11th Street, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The lease is for 15 years and the asking rent was $250 per square foot.

No 55, which is between 10th Street and 11th Street, is currently home to two retail tenants: M2M, the Asian grocery chain, and The Smith. Reps for both businesses said that they were not closing, as Gothamist reported. (The Observer article didn't mention which business would be departing.)

In 2014, these commercial spaces hit the market for $25.5 million. The listing at the time noted that M2M's lease was up in 2017 (The Smith's lease is through 2027.) The listing also noted this:

The plans call for the existing lobby space to be moved further east along 11th Street which will allow the current lobby to be incorporated into the corner retail space upon vacancy, thus increasing the most valuable Third Avenue ground floor retail footage by approximately 1,314 square feet. Upon M2M vacating and the implementation of the proposed strategy, there is potential to instantly double the asset’s net operating income.

The other Wagamama, which serves Japanese comfort foods including several types of ramen, will open on Fifth Avenue between 25th Street and 26th Street.

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

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

Eleventh and Third indulges in some nonsensical branding

Rebranded 'Eleventh and Third' will have rentals upwards of $10k

Retail space housing The Smith and M2M asking $25.5 million on 3rd Avenue

Luxurified 55 3rd Ave. now on the market for $65 million