Steve Croman gift ideas for everyone on your list

An EVG reader shared the following... over at Redbubble, the online marketplace for print on-demand products, seller SansComicSans has created a series of gift items that feature landlord Steve Croman's mugshot.

There are throw pillows (above) ... as well as hoodies...



... iPhone cases...



... and travel mugs...



Find the whole gift gallery here.

Steve Croman, who's always in the discussion for NYC Landlord of the Year, was hit in May with a 20-count indictment on charges including grand larceny and filing false documents.

Croman, whose real-estate empire includes 47 buildings with 617 units in the East Village, is reportedly due back in court next month.

EV Grieve Etc.: Raphael Toledano's tenants come together; Feltman's is NYC's best hot dog

[Photo on 6th Street by Derek Berg]

Tenants sound off on notoriously shady landlord Raphael Toledano (Brick Underground)

Feltman's at Theatre 80 "is NYC's best hot dog" (Gothamist ... previously)

Haircuts, coffee and art at the Vacancy Project on East 10th Street (Sprudge ... previously)

A visit to Kingsley, "an inviting restaurant" on Avenue B (The Village Voice)

Corrupt lawmaker Sheldon Silver can remain free until appeal is heard (The New York Times)

Construction starts at the future home of the Essex Street Market (The Lo-Down)

Hawk action winds down in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)

Man busted for alleged heroin deal on 14th Street and First Avenue (Town & Village, 2nd item)

NYU study offers some L train alternatives (Patch)

Interview with Tim Murphy, author of "Christodora" (B+B ... previously)

Retrospective devoted to Catalan filmmaker José Luis Guerín (Anthology Film Archives)

Lady Bunny's new show (The New Yorker)

Madonnathon at the Metrograph on Ludlow Street (Official site ... read our Q-and-A with "Desperately Seeking Susan" director Susan Seidelman here)

Black Flag at Maxwell's circa 1984 (Flaming Pablum)

Random diversions: When David Lynch did daily weather reports (Dangerous Minds)

...and ahead of the Chi Snack Shop debut in the former Mamoun's space at 22 St Mark's Place... the branded ATM shelter has arrived...



... and at 2 St. Mark's Place, the Greek restaurant that is opening in the St. Mark's Ale House space is hiring ...




[H/T Steven]

Sept. 2 is the last day for New York Central Art Supply

New York Central Art Supply has set Sept. 2 as its last day in business...



On July 11, the Steinberg family, who has run the art supply store for three generations, announced that they were closing the 111-year-old business for good in September. They cited "poor business conditions" and the pending sale of the building at 62 Third Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street as the primary reasons behind the closure.

"We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring and support of the community and our customers," family member Doug Steinberg told me via email. "We are continuing to see if we can find a new home for what's left of our inventory and our paper collection."

For now, there are items up to 60 percent off... they are also selling fixtures and furniture such as flat files.

As for who might be the new owner of the building, there isn't any transaction in public records just yet. One source claimed that the Lightstone Group had purchased No. 62, and that the developers would use the space for part of the Marriott sub-brand Moxy Hotel planned nearby at 112-120 E. 11th St.

Doug Steinberg said that he was not sure who was buying No. 62. "But I am 99 percent sure it is NOT Lightstone," he said. "They actually looked at it and passed. Whoever is buying it is — as far as we know — unrelated to the hotel mania around the corner."

Blink opens a sales office on Avenue A

[Photo via @edenbrower]

Blink Fitness is opening at 100 Avenue A this fall... ahead of that, the gym unveiled a temporary sales office yesterday nearby at 115 Avenue A ... The Blink website for this location shows a rate of $20 a month for an all-access membership ... and $15 a month for access to just the Avenue A gym.

The No. 115 space previously served as a sales office for Ben Shaoul's condoplex at 100 Avenue A.

Tompkins Square Park hosts the annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival on Sunday

[Photo of Ron Miles in the Park last year by Stacie Joy]

Info on the 23rd annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival via the EVG inbox...

City Parks Foundation is proud to announce the 2016 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. The festival is New York City's annual salute to the legendary saxophonist, featuring contemporaries of Charlie Parker as well as young jazz musicians that continue to shape and drive the art form.

In a world of modern music — not just jazz — few figures loom as large or cast as long a shadow as saxophonist Charlie Parker, best known as "Bird" (short for "Yardbird") to generations of musicians. He was born in 1920 and almost 60 years since his death in 1955, he is universally celebrated for single-handedly inventing bebop and bringing jazz into the modern era.

The festival is particularly significant this year given the upcoming centennial of the musical dawning of the term “jazz,” as well as what would have been the 100th birthdays of late jazz greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Ella Fitzgerald.

On Sunday in Tompkins Square Park, audiences will be introduced to DeJohnette - Moran - Holland, the first-time collaboration of influential jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette, innovative pianist Jason Moran, and prolific double bassist Dave Holland.

Listeners will be delighted by performances from award-winning jazz vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Allan Harris and acclaimed saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who will perform his newest album accompanied by his group.

The complete Charlie Parker Jazz Festival schedule can be found on the City Parks Foundation website here.

The Festival is 3-7 p.m. here on Sunday. The Festival is in Marcus Garvey Park tonight and tomorrow afternoon.

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-54.

The $29.5 million triplex penthouse on Cooper Square

[Image via Streeteasy]

62 Cooper Square was home, starting in 1926, to sheet-music company Carl Fischer. The 12-story building was converted to condos (26 in total) in 2001.

The building's crown jewel, the three-level penthouse, hit the market back in the late spring. And, as I learned in a post at Luxury Listings (h/t The Real Deal) yesterday, the home remains on the market. Perhaps because the asking price is $29.5 million?

Here are some details via the listing at Stribling:

The Penthouse at 62 Cooper Square ... covers 15,781 interior square feet, with an additional 2,400 square feet of beautifully landscaped terraces. Located on the top three floors of the Carl Fischer Building, this triplex penthouse offers soaring 10'8 ceilings; 90+ windows; North, South, East, and West exposures; and includes 2 guest apartments and an adjacent guest suite. This truly extraordinary home currently consists of 8 bedrooms, 8 full bathrooms, 3 half bathrooms, 2 private terraces, a billiard room, library, and personal yoga studio.

And a photo or two...





Move in now and you'll likely be able to watch the last few years months of the Astor Place-Cooper Square reconstruction.

Images via Stribling

The Village Pourhouse looks closed but it's not

An EVG reader noted late this afternoon that the Village Pourhouse on Third Avenue at 11th Street was looking rather closed with the brown paper in the front windows...

However! The sign out front notes they are doing some renovations or something...in conjunction with their 10th anniversary... as well as the new season (Fall TV? Hurricane season? Fall turkey hunting?)

A small request to clear the weeds from the 2nd Avenue explosion site

Last week, workers removed weeds from the empty lot at 123 Second Ave., one of three buildings destroyed during the deadly gas explosion on March 26, 2015.

There's now a new memorial sign on the fence of the adjacent properties, 119 and 121 Second Ave., which are owned by Maria Hrynenko, who faces various charges, including involuntary manslaughter.

A message at the bottom of the sign reads: "Somebody cut the weeds please!"

Nearby resident Lola Sáenz placed the sign this morning. "I made a new flyer. Since the weeds got cut on the right side lot, I'm hoping someone sees the note, and cuts them [at 119-121 Second Avenue]. It's starting to look like a forest."

In April 2015, Sáenz created an In Memoriam and left flowers for Moises Ismael Locón Yac, one of the two victims in the explosion. Sáenz said that she did it because his family is in Guatemala, and likely wouldn't have the opportunity to create a memorial at the site themselves.

RIP Richard Kopperdahl

Longtime EVG reader Scuba Diva shares the following...

After a long, 10-year-battle with cancer, Richard Kopperdahl died on Sunday afternoon a little after 4.

He was 83 and had managed to keep the cancer in remission for several years with the help of his oncologist, Dr. Hai Sun Park. ("Hi, Sunshine," Richard liked to call her.)

He was generally in good humor about it, and always managed to make it up the hundred stairs to his home. He had lived in the same sixth-floor apartment since 1976.

He went once, even twice a day to the Odessa on Avenue A — all the waitresses loved him. Yesterday morning I went to tell the waitress there he'd passed, and she said she had visited him when he was in Beth Israel last week. When she came into his room, he saw her, recognized her, and said, "Oh, I don't need anything else."

There's a viewing Friday evening at the Peter Jarema Funeral Home, 129 E. Seventh St., from 5-9 p.m.

One more month for The Edge

Earlier this month, we reported that The Edge, the 29-year-old bar at 95 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, was closing for good at the end of August.

"We'll just say [the landlord, Thermald Realty Associates] found an opportunity to sue us for a bunch of money that we can't pay," a bar rep told us at the time.

However, after a little legal wrangling yesterday, the bar was given one more month: The official closing date is now Saturday, Sept. 24.

Cava Grill opens today on 4th Avenue

Back in May we noted that a Cava Grill was coming to Fourth Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street. And now, the D.C.-based Greek-Mediterranean restaurant chain, which serves grain bowls, pita wraps and salads, opens its first NYC location today.

Our 1st #NYC location at Union Square opens THURSDAY, August 25, FREE lunch! https://t.co/wufVvJ06uw @UnionSquareNY pic.twitter.com/kmI4SXoWOL

— Cava Grill (@CavaGrill) August 20, 2016

The Wall Street Journal had a brief preview yesterday:

“We want customers to have the ability to choose ingredients that fit their nutritional needs or dietary attributes,” said Cava Grill’s chief executive and co-founder Brett Schulman, adding that the average cost for lunch is about $10.

For its New York location, Cava Grill is hoping to keep things as local as possible, getting produce from Hudson Valley, Long Island and New Jersey farms.

The official opening is tomorrow (Friday). Cava is offering a free lunch today ... while encouraging diners to donate to Grow to Learn, an organization that helps NYC public schools set up gardens.

Cava sells various dips and spreads at retail outlets, such as the Whole Foods Market Union Square®.

The space here at 143 Fourth Ave. was previously Lan's Spa.

Cava Grill is the latest quick-serve restaurant to open along Fourth Avenue. PokéSpot debuted on Fourth Avenue and 12th Street on Aug. 12. And a Melt Shop is coming soon to 135 Fourth Ave.

Restaurant space that has been a lot of things lately ready to be something else

The for rent sign recently arrived at 189 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Since May 2014, the address has been home to Lumiere, Casablanca and Tut, which closed in February after just a few months in business.

Doomed location for a restaurant? It's interesting that the sign says "store for rent" and not "bar-restaurant for rent."

New Museum announces exhibition on the work of Raymond Pettibon

Via the EVG inbox today...

In February 2017, the New Museum will open a major exhibition focusing on the work of Raymond Pettibon. For over thirty years, Pettibon has been chronicling the history, mythology, and culture of America with a prodigious and distinctive voice. Through his drawings’ signature interplay between image and text, he moves between historical reflection, emotional longing, poetic wit, and strident critique.

Although Pettibon is unquestionably a pivotal figure of American art since the 1990s, he has never before had a major museum survey exhibition in New York. “Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work” at the New Museum will be the largest presentation of Pettibon’s work to date, featuring more than 700 drawings from the 1960s to the present. It will also include a number of his early self-produced zines and artist’s books, as well as several videos made in collaboration with fellow artists and his musician friends. This unique collection of objects and distinctly immersive installation will provide insight into the mind of one of the most influential and visionary living American artists.

Occupying the three main floors of the New Museum, “Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work” will be on view from February 8 to April 16, 2017.

The New Museum is at 235 Bowery between Stanton and Rivington.

You can check out a gallery of flyers Pettibon created for Black Flag here.

And here's a video on the art of Black Flag from 2013...

Report of a fire at 104 Avenue B

[Photo by Mike H. on 9th Street]

The FDNY is responding to a report of a fire at 104 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street ... (the building one south of where Vazac's/7B/the Horseshoe Bar is...)


[Reader submitted]

Fire on Ave B, right near 7B (but doesn't look like 7B building) cc @evgrieve @chelsa 🔥🚒 pic.twitter.com/X4WRvFPhYJ

— Dennis Crowley (@dens) August 24, 2016

No word on the cause or the extent at this moment. The fire, which appears contained to the roof, did not make it to the @FDNYalert... One witness said that the smell of smoke is strong for several blocks.

Updated... via the comments: "according to neighbors who eye witnessed the event, an air conditioner caught on fire. firemen had to ascend through the adjacent building and douse the flames from the roof."