Paper Daisy debuts on St. Mark's Place

[Image via Paper Daisy]

Paper Daisy is now up and running (as of last Thursday) at 41 St. Mark's Place just east of Second Avenue.

The cocktail bar in the former Cafe Orlin space includes the second East Village outpost of C & B Cafe, which opened its quick-serve breakfast-and-lunch operation on Feb. 28. (The original C & B location remains in service on Seventh Street near Avenue B.)

C & B chef-owner Ali Sahin is also the executive chef for Paper Daisy, whose creative team features East Village residents Jaime Felber, Darin Rubell and Thomas Flynn. Combined, their local credits include Boulton & Watt, Drexler’s and the recently opened Mister Paradise.

Here's some info taken from the Paper Daisy opening notice via the EVG inbox...

Paper Daisy takes its name from a Beat Generation poem — "Pull My Daisy" — by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady when they were together in New York in the ‘40s.

"We thought the free form, collaborative, and tongue-in-cheek nature of the poem was a great way to anchor what we want out of this space," says Felber. "We know how beloved Orlin was. We would only ever put out a product that we care about, are proud of, and believe will add to the neighborhood. It’s our way of paying homage to what was."

Yosi Ohayon, the former owner of Cafe Orlin and the building owner of 41 St. Mark’s Place says, "When I opened this place over 36 years ago, it was so exciting to me to be a part of the fabric of New York City’s dynamic food and beverage scene. I’m ready to retire this part of my life. ... I wanted to pass the space on to someone who lived and knew the neighborhood, who would care about the space the way I did."

Owner Darin Rubell adds, "I was a regular at Orlin my entire life. I grew up just a few blocks from here and I have always admired how this space has been a real home to the diversity that is the East Village."

C & B is open at 39 St. Mark's Place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Paper Daisy has hours of 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Before Paper Daisy emerged, the space was expected to be Joya Loves Louie, a vegetarian cafe-market-bar combo, as New York magazine first reported.

Cafe Orlin closed in October 2017 after 36 years at the address.

Previously on EV Grieve:
C&B Cafe now part of new venture taking over the former Cafe Orlin space on St. Mark's Place

C&B Cafe debuts outpost on St. Mark's Place

Jiang Diner coming soon to 5th Street

An EVG reader shares these photos from 309 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... showing the signage in place for Jiang Diner, which, according to a quick exchange with a worker, will be a noodle bar...



Don't have any other information at the moment. This address was previously SobaKoh, which closed in July 2017.

Food for thought: Milk Bar's Crack Pie is not a cute name, critic says

[Image via Milk Bar]

Milk Bar, a spinoff of David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants, debuted in the East Village in 2008.

And of late, celebrity chef Christina Tosi's dessert spot has been expanding to other cities.

Devra First, the Boston Globe food writer and restaurant critic, checks in on the location that opened last month in Cambridge, Mass.

First has strong opinions on Milk Bar's most famous menu item — the Crack Pie.

If it seemed funny a decade ago to name a dessert after an addictive drug, the joke was one of privilege. The crack epidemic of the 1980s hurt largely poor, largely black communities, not the people who were heading to the East Village to spend $5 on a slice of pie (the price has since gone up to $6).

Now the country is in the grips of an opioid crisis, and a double standard. This addiction affects white communities as well — 78 percent of those who died from an opioid overdose in 2017 were white, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation — and our cultural response to it has been very different, with dialogue often centered on treatment rather than incarceration.

Regardless, here we are. Americans are now more likely to die of an opioid overdose than in a motor vehicle crash, according to a report from the National Safety Council. A bakery would never try to market something called Fentanyl Cake, and the name Crack Pie feels offensively tone deaf.

I am a photographer of rent-stabilized apartments

[Photo by Susan Schiffman]

Since July 2017, longtime East Village resident Susan Schiffman has contributed an ongoing feature to EVG titled I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant.

Susan is the subject of a Q&A today at Gothamist. To an excerpt!

What do you look for when you photograph an apartment?

I go in totally blind. With these apartments, I don't know most of the people. They don't send me pictures. We don’t talk about it. There is a text that has always been important to me. It's called the Poetics of Space, and it’s basically about how the house is a metaphor for the mind. There are few things that informed this work and that is one of them.

To get into these people’s homes and see how they arrange their jewelry, their clothing, and their books — it’s people's arrangements that make them feel safe and secure in their home. When I walk into home, I can tell a really important arrangement. It's one thing to live in a house: A house has a basement and an attic and all those rooms and closets. It's another thing to live in an apartment for 40 years, where do you house all those memories and belongings?

You can revisit her past EVG posts here.

And if you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

'To all the young geniuses breaking into this building'

An EVG reader shares this Urban Etiquette Sign-Warning combo from Cooper Square between Seventh Street and St Marks Place:

To all the young geniuses breaking into this building:

This building is equipped with numerous security cameras that record directly to HDD.

We see you in the mornings, we see you in the afternoons. If you are reading this, we see you right now.

Some of you are dumb enough to wear the name of your school right on your shirt.

This is your one and only warning, any future footage gets forwarded to your headmaster and NYPD.

Make no mistake — you will be expelled, we will press trespassing charges, and you will cry when Mommy and Daddy find out.

Spring into a new season tonight with the 10th annual Zoroastrian fire jumping event

[Photo from 2017 by Ryan John Lee]

Tonight marks the 10th Annual Zoroastrian Fire Jumping Event ... taking place from 6:30 to 8:30 in the Firemen's Memorial Garden, 358 E. Eighth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. Updated 1:30 p.m.: The event will now take once place again at La Plaza Cultural on Ninth Street and Avenue C.

Here's a recap via the EVG inbox...

Jumping over fire is a symbolic gesture to start a fresh new year. This tradition is celebrated for ringing in the Persian New Year and has been celebrated since at least 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era. There will be music, dancing and snacks; wear your best fire-proof pants.

The Rude Mechanical Orchestra will also be playing.

The event is in a different location this year with the new-fence installation underway at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden on Avenue C and Ninth Street.

I reached out to Simin Farkhondeh, a community activist and professor at the School of Visual Arts, who has choreographed and produced the event since its inception here. I started by asking her if the new location might pose any addition challenges. She also provided more background as well as her fire-jumping experiences growing up in her native Iran...

For me, this event is very spontaneous each year. It comes together because the community loves it. The very first time I did it was 2010 and people came to the garden, helped make the fires and we jumped and had a wonderfully freeing time doing it.

This year will be like every year and the change of space should not impact the experience. We strive to make it a powerful and fun and safe event.

It will be the 10th time I've worked on having this spiritually elevating, spring welcoming event. The way I experienced it in my youth, in Iran, was as a spontaneous event that the community felt necessary to do to welcome and get ready for spring. It was done without permits from any government entity or such. We would go out into the street and community members would gather tumbleweed and build fire's together. Then we would jump over them.

On my street, we had about 15 fires, from the entry of our street, down to the end of it. All the neighbors would come out. It was an energizing, freeing experience and community building, and that spirit is what I've tried to preserve each year.

It is clear that this exhilarating event speaks to people not only who come from the Zoroastrian tradition but also brings together folks from across the spectrum of cultures. What binds us is the connection to the earth and the elements.

As in past years, many people and groups are helping ... The folks from the Fireman's Garden, who have been at our event and cherish it, have generously offered their garden to us. A lot of expats from the various Middle-Eastern communities, including Armenians, Iranians and Afghans, are going to be there as well as the folks from MoRUS and Time's UP, who in the past two years have helped a great deal to make this happen.

As in the past years, the event is organized to be a lot of fun, but also safe for all members of the community, especially children and families. As in every year, I plan to have the customary dried fruit and nuts available for people to enjoy. Since about five years now, there also has been a band present at some point of the evening, so we can dance and be merry after jumping the fires and cleansing our souls from the winter blues and from last year's troubles.

Wednesday, March 20, is the vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of spring and Nowruz or New Year for people of Iran, Afghanistan and other places. We will be making ourselves ready for that.

Renovations underway in the former Grassroots Tavern space on St. Mark's Place

After nearly 14 months of inactivity at 20 St. Mark's Place, workers are now on the scene here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... a concrete crew has been spotted in recent days (all photos from yesterday via Steven...)





The interior doesn't look too different from when it was the Grassroots Tavern (KIDDING)...



A quickie recap on what's going on here: Approved permits are now on file for repair work in the lower retail space, the longtime home of the Grassroots Tavern until New Year's Eve 2017.

As we've been reporting, Bob Precious is planning on opening a bar in this semi-subterranean space with a working title of Subterranean. (Precious operates the mini chain of Irish-style pubs called the Ginger Man, including the one on 36th Street. CB3 OK'd his new liquor license in December 2017.)

Precious said last August that the former Grassroots space was in bad shape — including structural damage. The approvals for the renovations in the landmarked building had been slow going, for whatever reasons. (In November, Previous was hoping for a spring opening.)

20 St. Mark's Place, known as the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832. It received landmark status in 1971, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Since the Grassroots closed, people keep tagging the former bar's entrance.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New owner lined up for the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

20 St. Mark's Place, home of the Grassroots Tavern, has been sold

Your chance to live in this historic home above the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

Last call at the Grassroots Tavern

This is what's happening with the former Grassroots Tavern space on St. Mark's Place

The former Grassroots Tavern ready for a renovation

Citi Bike unveils new valet service on St Mark's Place and 1st Avenue; more to come

[Rando image via Citi Bike]

Starting today, Citi Bike is bringing some of its valet stations back into service ... in addition, Citi Bike is introducing several new valet stations in the neighborhood.

Background: Citi Bike offers valet service at high-volume stations during peak usage times. Each station is staffed by a Citi Bike rep ... to help reduce the frustration that riders face when arriving at a full docking station.

Here's the list of Citi Bike's new or returning valets in the area...

Today:
St Mark's Place at First Avenue (New)
Second Street at Avenue B (Returning)

Early April:
University Place at 14th Street (New)
Allen Street at Stanton (New)
First Avenue at 16th Street (Returning)

Early May:
Seventh Street at Avenue A (New)

And the valet service is ongoing on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

More details are at this link.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Docking blues: Doing the 'checking-all-of-the-Citi Bike-stations dance'

Report: No plans to remove the Michael Jackson mural from the wall on 11th Street

[EVG photo from July]

In case you haen't seen it, HBO's two-part documentary, "Leaving Neverland," features two former child performers describing how Michael Jackson allegedly sexually abused them while they were children.

However, as Rolling Stone reported yesterday, despite the horrific allegations, "Michael Jackson’s posthumous career is showing few signs of major distress" since the documentary debuted two weeks ago.

Time Out reached out to Eduardo Kobra, the prolific Brazilian artist, to see if he might have any thoughts about removing the two Michaels mural that he created last July on 11th Street at First Avenue.

Here's Kobra's statement:

"I decided to keep the mural on, for a few reasons:

First, because the mural itself is not a simple tribute to MJ. My entire idea was to show the transformations he went through during his entire life: from black to white, kid to adult, from natural to unnatural. The whole project that I did in NYC last year was about peace, and in that mural in particular I was trying to describe that people sometimes have to go through so much to be able to reach their own peace of mind.. and even then, sometimes doesn’t matter what people do, they can never reach that peace.

In the second place, I believe MJ is part of American History, and also part of the world’s music history. You can catalog music Before and After MJ, so much was his influence. He still is the biggest pop star that has ever lived, and that we have ever seen, and I believe we are never going to see another pop star like him again.

Therefore, we can’t just erase him from history. These new allegations can be true or not. It is not up to me to judge if MJ is guilty or not — and now, since he is dead, he won’t be judged by justice anymore. So I really hope that mural can do it’s part and bring us to think about it all and how we, as persons and as a community, will deal with this new fact concerning MJ’s life.

Hopefully this discussion leads us all to the desire to be a better person everyday."

I haven't heard of any movements to have the mural removed... other than a few Facebook posts where people opined that it was time for this to go — especially given that it faces the Asher Levy School.

[Updated] 2 reports of fires today

• 219 Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street. A fire broke out in the rear of the storefront this afternoon here that houses Revision Lounge. (Thanks to EVG reader @MerMerJ for the photos!)



According to Patch, about 12 units and more than 60 firefighters responded to the scene, where they had it under control in 45 minutes. One firefighter reportedly suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Updated:

It's bad. The patio is destroyed and the back of the lounge has major damage. No one in building was hurt. Smoke is dissipating. Power is back on.

— Revision Lounge (@Revisionlounge) March 19, 2019

-----

• 340 E. 13th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. There were reports of a fire in an fifth-floor apartment here tonight on this block...

MAN ALL HANDS 340 E 13 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 5TH FLR,

— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) March 18, 2019

MAN ALL HANDS 340 E 13 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 5TH FLR, UNDER CONTROL

— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) March 19, 2019

Not much information at the moment about the fire ... here are some reader photos...


[Peter M./East Village]


[Peter M./East Village]

Updated:

EVG reader Jen Pace shared this footage...

The 9th Precinct's monthly Community Council Meeting is tomorrow (Tuesday!) night

🗓 Make a note to yourself... our next Community Council Meeting will take place this Tuesday, 3/19 at 7:00pm, at the 9th Precinct—2nd Fl., 321 E. 5th Street. Come, be heard, and meet your Neighborhood Coordination Officers. #NYPDConnecting pic.twitter.com/fbJi2s0Bon

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) March 17, 2019

These are held the third Tuesday of the month over at the 9th Precinct on Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

This is an opportunity for residents to address any concerns and ask 9th Precinct officials for their input on recent crime statistics.

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest installment of NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood — and NYC.

Y Cafe has closed on Avenue B

Y Cafe, the low-key, health-focused restaurant at 182 Avenue B between 11th Street and 12th Street, has closed.

Several EVG readers (H/T Etienne and Nobel Neolani!) reported that Y's last day was March 13. On Saturday, the for-rent sign arrived.

According to a reader, the lease was up on the small space, and the owners decided not to renew. (Whether this was due to a rent increase is not known at the moment.)

As EVG reader Etienne noted: "I really enjoyed their Thai-fusion food, friendliness and prices. It sort of saved me when Life Cafe closed."

Y Cafe opened here in April 2011... they were originally Wai? Cafe on First Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Team behind the Wayland and the Wild Son eye St. Mark's Place for 2 restaurants

[The former Mr. White on St. Mark's Place]

Robert Ceraso and Jason Mendenhall have plans to open two restaurants on St. Mark's Place.

This duo behind the Wayland (Avenue C), Good Night Sonny (First Avenue and St. Mark's Place), the Lost Lady (Avenue C) and the Wild Son (West Little 12th Street) are on tonight's CB3-SLA agenda for two spaces between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Ceraso provided a quick recap of what they have lined up...

123 St. Mark's Place, the former Mr. White

"We are planning an American grill with our partner Chad Shaner as the executive chef. Chad is an alum of Gotham Bar and Grill and Union Square Cafe and most recently with his own restaurant, Freeks Mill in Brooklyn," Ceraso said. "The grill will focus more on naturally raised meats and steaks."


[Photo by Steven]

The unnamed-for-now restaurant has proposed hours of 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., according to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website. The space will accommodate 20 tables for up to 50 diners as well as an eight-seat bar.

Mr. White, the upscale, New Orleans-themed restaurant, closed in January after less than a year in business.

-----


[132 1st Ave.]

132 First Ave., former VBar, current Waiting on a Friend

On the southeast corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place, Ceraso is planning on a second location of his all-day restaurant, the Wild Son, which opened on the West Side near the High Line in June 2016.

Ceraso said the Wild Son "focuses on vegetable-driven small plates, salads, sandwiches and homemade pastas at night and breakfast/brunch foods all day seven days a week in the mornings and afternoons."

As such, the proposed hours are 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, per the questionnaire on the CB3 website.

Here's a look at the evening menu...


[Click for more detail]

The owner of the building, who was born and raised on St. Mark's Place, "was adamant that she didn’t want a nightlife concept there, so the Wild Son was a perfect fit," he said. (In addition, a partner in this project is also the GM across the street at Good Night Sonny who lives on the block "and is always available to oversee the goings on.")

The Rolling Stones-themed Waiting on a Friend opened back in the fall, taking over the space from Colibri and VBar before that. The Vbar's original 10-year lease is expiring.

Back to Ceraso and his plans: "We think that the two concepts really balance each other out and we’re excited to be able to bring both to the block."

The CB3-SLA meeting is tonight at 6:30. The location: the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.