May flowers

The Mother's Day morning scene outside Village Farm Grocery on Second Avenue at Ninth Street (not to be confused with East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue at Fourth Street) ...



And happy Mother's Day!

Thanks to Steven for the photos!

Saturday's parting shot

Sunbathing in Cooper Square this afternoon ...

A moment on Avenue A

License-plate spotting today on Avenue A at Fourth Street.

Photo by Vinny & O.

Wake up to the annual plant and bake sale at the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden

The 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden is holding its annual plant and bake sale today and tomorrow... from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Plants for outdoors and indoors. Flowers and vegetable gardening. Lots of home-baked goods from garden members. Find it on the southwest corner of Avenue B at Sixth Street.

Friday's parting tweet

@evgrieve there’s also a naked guy on Houston between 1st as 2nd ave rolling in the street and punching cars. It’s been an eventful day

— bacondevil (@bacondevil) May 10, 2019

Revolution rock

"Mercedes Marxist," the new blast by Idles (or IDLES), is available to stream now... the actual vinyl is out in August. Embedded here for your pleasure is the audio track.

The band's playing at (a sold out) Brooklyn Steel tonight.

Updated: Sidewalk bridge collapses at explosion site on 2nd Avenue; box truck culprit, witnesses say

[Photos by Steven]

The recently erected sidewalk bridge on Second Avenue at Seventh Street collapsed this afternoon around 4:20, according to witnesses.



Updated: Workers on the scene said that the collapse occurred after a box truck collided with the sidewalk bridge. (One EVG reader said that a car had cut off the truck, causing it to swerve and collide with the sidewalk bridge.) There aren't any reports of injuries, which is amazing given the time of day on a nice spring afternoon. (Last summer and early fall, this was the site of a traveler-crustie camp site that led to tabloid headlines.)





Work started in January here on a seven-floor residential building with 21 condo units and ground-floor retail. Work had recently reached the second floor.

An explosion — due to an illegal gas system — on March 26, 2015, leveled three buildings, killing two men and injuring more than 20 others. The landlord of the former 119 and 121 Second Ave. and two others are still awaiting a trial date.

Thanks to Steven for the photos from the scene. And to Edmund John Dunn for an early alert about the collapse.

Updated 5/11

Workers have replaced the sidewalk bridge...

EVG Etc.: City Council strengthens tenant protections; old Essex Street Market closes

[Photo on 1st Avenue this a.m. by Lola Saénz]

Police are looking for a man who tried to sexually assault another man in the victim’s apartment on 13th Street and Avenue B (Town & Village)

City Council — in a bill sponsored by Carlina Rivera — votes to strengthen tenant protections (Curbed)

With more cars and trucks killing people on NYC streets, Council Speaker Corey Johnson pledges vote on new legislation, known as the Vision Zero Street Design Standard bill (amNY ... Streetsblog ...The Guardian)

Comptroller Stringer’s office: Billions for NYC Sandy recovery has not been spent (amNY)

Farewell to the old Essex Street Market (The Lo-Down)

Check out the paintings East Village-based photographer Steven Hirsch created while covering the trial of "Socialite Scammer" Anna Delvey (artNet)

The International Center of Photography close on a $29 million new headquarters at Essex Crossing (The Real Deal)

Abel Ferrara’s new film about Pier Paolo Pasolini, and starring Willem Dafoe, opens today at the Metrograph (Official site)

A great sign: Ideal Glass on Second Street (Ephemeral New York)

The World’s Fair in cinema series continues (Anthology Film Archives)

And happening tomorrow (more details here) ...

Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions takes place tomorrow [May 11] with 20 site performances celebrating ecological sustainability initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood, and East River Park waterfront on the Lower East Side. Ecological City 2019 features a spectacular creative community affirmation of the community’s vision for the #ESCR (East Side Coastal Resiliency) waterfront development plan, including a 40-foot Mobile Mural – LES Ecosystem of Sustainability.

A visit to Gem Spa

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy

Updated: Since this post, Zoltar has been removed from the shop's front. Gem Spa has also reduced hours and discontinued newspaper sales.

Parul Patel is running a few minutes late for our appointment and she calls to say she’s on her way. So I use the time to take in Gem Spa, the iconic corner shop and newsstand at 131 Second Ave. and St. Mark’s Place that has a long history in the neighborhood — and not just for its signature egg creams. (Look at the Gem Spa Wikipedia entry for its sprawling legend.)

Patel, whose 76-year-old father Ray owns the shop, soon arrives, issuing a flurry of instructions to employees as she sets up the house special chocolate egg cream (seen below with pretzel stick and chocolate-covered jelly ring).









As her father’s in declining health, Parul has been handling the store’s management. The Patel family has owned the store since 1986.

Parul says the egg cream has been made for almost 100 years at this address. While chocolate is the current best-selling flavor, she also offers vanilla, strawberry, orange creamsicle, and black-and-white.

She plans to debut some new flavors soon – and scoop! – I saw the creation of the first-ever cookies and cream version.







Future flavors also include mocha and hazelnut or Nutella flavor. Upcoming offerings may include ice cream and milkshakes, and new flavors of e-cigs, as well as adding jewelry and handbags to the hats and accessories already being sold outside the shop.



Last month, Gem Spa lost its license to sell lottery and tobacco products (with the exception of e-cigs) due to an employee twice selling cigarettes to an undercover underage buyer. The state has suspended the store’s license for six months and also leaves them unable to apply for a license to sell beer.

Neighborhood icon (and EVG favorite!) Zoltar arrived in 2011, when the machine’s owner offered to license it to Gem Spa. (They keep 50% of the profits.) Zoltar seems to be busiest at night although he gets to pose with tourists often during the day.





The store recently joined Instagram — you can follow it here.

Gem Spa has also been enjoying some media exposure of late, including a deep dive on the shop's history at Gothamist... and a visit by NY1's affable Roger Clark.











“Gem Spa serves and loves its locals, tourists, and eccentrics,” Parul tells me, before sending me on my way with a chocolate-covered jelly-topped graham cracker and a smile.





Visit our previous A Visit To features here.

A new storefront for A Repeat Performance, and word about the next tenant

[Photo Saturday by Dan Scheffey]

A Repeat Performance received a new storefront last weekend.

As we previously reported, the bric-a-brac shop at 156 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street is closing on July 31 after 39 years in business.

Store founder Beverly Bronson died last May. Sharon Jane Smith (pictured below), who has worked at the shop since 1987, has said that it's time to move on...


[Photo Tuesday by Steven]

So why a new storefront for a business that's closing in a few months?

Smith told EVG correspondent Steven this week that her friend, jewelry designer Lisa Linhardt, will be moving into the space after A Repeat Performance closes this summer. "So it’s not going to be the disaster that people think," Smith said.

Linhardt originally had a shop right next door, starting in 2008, but moved to Mott Street in 2013. She misses the neighborhood.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Repeat Performance, until July 31

The Marshal visits Thaimee Table, who will return next week

Several readers (H/T Laura for the photos!) noted the arrival of a notice from the Marshal on Thaimee Table, the well-regarded Thai restaurant at 99 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street...



A similar notice — that the property is now in legal possession of the landlord — is on the front door of chef-owner Hong Thaimee's off-shoot, Thaimee Box, on 13th Street near Second Avenue.

There's isn't any mention of a closure on the Thaimee website or social media properties. But there is good news for Thaimee fans: In an email, Chef Thaimee's business partner, Matt Bruck, said that they planned to reopen next week. And those notices from the Marshal?: "We are working it all out."

Chef Thaimee, who previously worked in the kitchens at Jean-Georges’ Spice Market and Perry Street restaurants, opened Ngam in 2012 (The Village Voice named Ngam NYC's No. 1 Thai restaurant in 2013) ... the restaurant was later renamed Thaimee Table.

Capital One leaves the East Village

Capital One has closed its remaining two bank branches in the East Village. Wednesday was the last call for the outpost on 10th Street and Second Avenue (above) and Avenue C at Third Street (below).



Your CO banking business can now be done at the flagship outpost on Union Square. Or maybe the CO branch on Grand and the Bowery.

The Capital One on the southeast corner of Third Avenue and 14th Street closed in July 2016, and that prime spot is still on the rental market.

As noted in previous bank-branch-closure posts, this continues the trend where banks are pulling back from storefront services. Last June, The Wall Street Journal reported that banks across the United States have closed nearly 9,000 branches this decade "as more customers rely on digital tools to complete routine banking transactions."

Previously on EV Grieve:
What's in your empty storefront? Capital One is closing both of its East Village branches

Honeybee's debuts on Avenue A

Honeybee's is up and running now — as of Wednesday — at 95 Avenue A.

The restaurant, specializing in plant-based Texas BBQ and bourbon and rye, takes the place of Cienfuegos here at Sixth Street.

As we first reported back in November, restaurateur Ravi DeRossi said that it was time to change up concepts at Cienfuegos, which closed in January after nearly a 10-year run.

Time Out has a quick preview/review:

[T]he second-floor walk-up is made to look like a saloon from the Wild West meets a burlesque bar. The resulting effect is an environment that comes off a bit tacky, but with some damn good plant-based smoky dishes that are just as delicious and convincing as when made with real meat. The offerings which span "ribs," pulled "pork," and burnt ends (made from alternatives like seitan and mushrooms) are prepared with traditional BBQ techniques: brining, marinating, smoke-infusion and roasting.

Food & Wine also has a preview/review, only with more adjectives:

[Chef Amira] Gharib — who spent the last six months at chef Daniel Boulud Upper West Side Mediterranean fixture Boulud Sud, and before that two years at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s lauded Matador Room in Miami — prepares bites like crispy cauliflower hot wings and queso chorizo dip to pair beside longtime New York bar vet Sother Teague’s bourbon and rye-soaked libations.

And...

“I tried to keep my [barbecue] methods as traditional as possible,” says Gharib, who says that she’s conjuring flavors of the American South with a low temperature smoker, a stove top cooker, and a cold smoker. Her menu is built from a balance between vegetables and protein replacements made from soy or gluten, and enriched with house-made, plant-based takes on staple Southern ingredients like heavy cream, buttermilk, and sour cream — each made from a soy milk base.

The corner space on Avenue A and Sixth Street also houses two other DeRossi operations — Mother of Pearl and Amor y Amargo.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A concept revamp for the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A

Fruit of the (Cooper) Union

The fruit vendor returned Monday outside the Death Star on Astor Place and across the street from Cooper Union on Monday... early morning photo today via Vinny & O...