Grant Shaffer's NY See

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

A visit to Desi Galli on Avenue B

[Pria Chouhan]

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy

Admittedly, I’d not been very adventurous with Indian food and had only tried the vegetable biryani at Desi Galli before dropping in to meet owner and chef Pria Chouhan earlier this month.

Pria and her husband Vishal, hailing from Montreal and the U.K. respectively, now live nearby in Peter Cooper Village and run both locations of the traditional Indian street food spot: here at 172 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street, which opened in April 2016, and another in Murray Hill at 101 Lexington Ave.

The long, narrow, and brightly lit restaurant is perfumed with cumin, cinnamon, and coriander when we sit down to talk shop.



Self-taught cook Pria expands my vegetarian palate with a mango lassi (yogurt-based mango drink), some desipoutine (French fries with tikka sauce and grated paneer cheese) and vegan pani puri (Gujarati-style bread “baskets” stuffed with potatoes, chickpeas, and tamarind, served with mint “water” you pop whole into your mouth, “one bite, like sushi” Pria instructs) while discussing her personal and culinary history, the trials of running a small business in NYC, and her love of all things Rachael Ray.

Can you speak a bit about the history of Desi Galli?

I followed my heart to NYC from Montreal in 2009, and I did not know how to cook. We — my husband and I — were newlyweds and gained the typical love weight but ours was due to eating out all the time.

We would both crave our parents’ cooking, so I attempted to recreate them in my home kitchen. I failed many times at the beginning. I became obsessed with the Food Network and Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart became my gurus.

I started off with simple recipes and through trial and error mastered them. Then I started tackling Indian food, which is more complex with all the spices. Soon enough I made them exactly like our parents. With my newfound talent my husband suggested we start our own restaurant, and in 2012 Desi Galli was born.

Is it true that, before Desi Galli, you didn’t have any experience in the food industry other than a few years working at McDonald’s?

Yes, McDonald’s is my only food training. I am completely self-taught. The menu consists of family recipes. It’s my sister Rashmi’s pav bhaji and she came to New York from Montreal to teach me how to make it. Our addictive chicken tikka masala is thanks to my father-in-law in the U.K. I still don’t think I make it as well as he does.


[Mango lassi]


[Desipoutine]


[The vegan pani puri with mint “water”]


[Nyima Phuntsok, one of the chefs]

You have the outpost on 27th Street and Lexington Avenue. When looking over neighborhood options for expansion, what made you decide on the East Village?

We decided on the East Village because it is known as a hub for street food. I love the fact that you can pick up a slice of pizza, go for a walk and then pick up ramen noodles all in the same area. There wasn’t a spot for Indian street food and we make a great addition to the mix.

What do you like best about being in the East Village? What special considerations exist here that may not at your other location?

I love that East Village has a sense of community. We know many of our customers by name. Everyone is relaxed, not running for their next meeting and they have time to connect.

We were welcomed with open arms to the neighborhood. Our patrons did not care that there was a fine dining Indian restaurant diagonal to us. We would be their everyday meal since our price point is so affordable.

You mentioned in early May that you were working on a deal with the landlord to lower your rent on Avenue B. What is the status of that?

We are still in negotiations and new lease has not been signed yet. It is not 100 percent confirmed. (Ed note: The State of New York seized the restaurant twice this year for nonpayment of taxes. She declined to discuss that matter.)

What’s your favorite part of running the restaurants?

I love seeing the satisfaction on my customers’ faces when they take their first bite. That is what gets me out of bed every morning. Knowing that I make a fresh product that stems from our family’s history and that our patrons appreciate it.





What’s the best-selling dish on the menu? What might you encourage people to try if they are unfamiliar with the cuisine?

Best-selling dishes vary by location. Here in the East Village anything with the tikka gravy, like chicken tikka masala, paneer tikka masala and desipoutine keep our customers coming back for more.

Newbies to Indian food should start off with our samosas and kathi rolls. We have kathi rolls for all dietary restrictions, including vegan and gluten-free. Our menu can be made milder but don’t expect just salt and pepper: That would not be my Indian food.




[Making chicken tikka masala]

What’s next for Desi Galli? Any expansion plans?

We are starting packed snacks in the fall and are introducing a new vegan kathi roll made with Beyond Meat in August. We are also in talks with a few potential franchises who would love to have a Desi Galli in their area.

---

You may keep tabs on Desi Galli via Instagram.

Reader report: Designated bike lane arrives on 3rd Street

EVG reader @Jason_Chatfield shared these photos via Twitter this week... showing that city crews have added a conventional bike lane — with pavement markings and signage — on Third Street ...



He notes that the lane extends from Avenue D to Second Avenue for now...

In the swim: City pools open today

The Parks Department opens the city's 50-plus outdoor public pools for the summer today.

Nearby choices include Hamilton Fish Pool on Pitt and East Houston ... the Dry Dock Pool on Avenue D and East 10th Street (pictured in this post) ... and the Tompkins Square Pool (mini pool for kids and anyone who sneaks in after dark!).

Outdoor pools are open daily from 11 a.m. through 7 p.m., with a break for pool cleaning between 3-4 p.m. The pools close for the season on Sunday, Sept. 8. The Tompkins Square Park mini pool closes on Labor Day.

New this season: Dry Dock is now designated a Cool Pool via the city...



What does that mean? Per the Parks Dept. ...

Our Cool Pools are now more fun, relaxing and welcoming with:

• fun summer-themed wall art,
• lounge chairs for sunbathing and relaxing poolside,
• cabana-style shade structures to help keep you cool,
• plantings to make our pools greener
• fun and free poolside activities, including games, sports, arts and crafts, and fitness classes

As a reminder, the Hamilton Fish Pool has a Lap Swim program, which takes place July 5 through Aug. 30. This link has more details, such as the hours.

And as always — this PSA about the RULES for the POOLS, which include:

You’ll need to have a swimsuit to enter the pool area. We may choose to check men’s shorts for a lining if we can’t tell if they are wearing a bathing suit. Feel the need to cover up from the sun? Throw on a plain white shirt or white hat and you’re set. We don’t allow shirts with colors on them on the deck.

And...

No urinating or defecating in the pools.

The New Museum unveils plans for expanded facility on the Bowery

[Photo courtesy the New Museum. Dean Kaufman, 2015]

The New Museum yesterday revealed plans for its planned expansion slated for 2022 ... here's a look at the new structure designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas proposed for 231 Bowery, which will include a ground-floor restaurant...


[Rendering view from Prince Street]

And here's the announcement via the EVG inbox...

The design complements and respects the integrity of the Museum’s SANAA-designed flagship building and replaces the Museum’s 50,000 square foot adjacent property at 231 Bowery, acquired in 2008. The new seven-story, 60,000 square foot building will include three floors of galleries, doubling the Museum’s exhibition space, along with additional space for the Museum’s many community and education programs ...

And the funding for this?

To date the New Museum has raised $79 million toward its Capital Campaign goal of $89 million, with $63 million in construction costs. This includes $3.1 million from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, with funding provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office, New York City Council, and the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.

A total of $1.84 million has been awarded under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council Initiative, through the New York State Council on the Arts and Empire State Development. Groundbreaking for the new building is scheduled to start in 2020. The Museum will remain open and operational during most of the construction period, with a projected opening in 2022.

And what will be in the new building?

The Museum acquired the current building at 231 Bowery eleven years ago to provide additional space for expanded programs. Gradually over the past decade, the Museum has used the building to capacity for a range of activities including additional gallery space...

The layout of the building program is as follows: lower levels devoted to back of house and storage; the ground floor to feature a new restaurant, expanded lobby, and bookstore, along with a public plaza set back at street level; second, third, and fourth floors for galleries; fifth floor for NEW INC; sixth floor for an artist-in-residence studio, as well as a forum for events and gathering, which leads to the seventh floor for Education programming and additional events; and an atrium stair on the west façade, connecting each of the floors, along with an elevator core at the front and rear.

Meanwhile, per published reports, the cost of the expansion has been a point of contention for the New Museum union (formed in January), "which has alleged that its workers are not being adequately paid by the institution."

As ARTnews reported, around 50 workers attended a demonstration outside the museum on Tuesday evening, distributing flyers "claiming that management had 'disparaged' the union’s wage proposals."

The New Museum opened on the Bowery in December 2007.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The New Museum is expanding on the Bowery

How about another look inside the former Grassroots Tavern space on St. Mark's Place

[EVG photo]

Work continues inside the graffiti-filled lower storefront at the landmarked 20 St. Mark's Place, previously home to the Grassroots Tavern.



EVG contributor Derek Berg checked in on the state of those murals that workers recently uncovered inside the space — still there...



We wrote about these murals on May 21. We don't know much about them or what pre-Grassroots business they were associated with.

Here's a reminder:





As noted many times before, No. 20, known as the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832 here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. (It received landmark status in 1971, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.)

Past lives of this subterranean space — via Daytonian in Manhattan — include a theater-saloon called Paul Falk's Tivoli Garden in the 1870s... in the 1930s, the Hungarian Cafe and Restaurant resided here before becoming a temperance saloon called the Growler.

Who's next? We don't know. For nearly 18 months Bob Precious had tried to open a bar-pub here, but those plans never materialized. The space was recently taken off the rental market.

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

Last call at the Grassroots Tavern

Behold these murals uncovered behind the bar at the former Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

Discount store opens today at 47 Avenue A

In recent weeks workers have stocked the vacant storefront at 47 Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street (in one of the retail spaces of the Ageloff Towers) with a variety of housewares and toiletries.

One EVG reader says the shop will be called Essex 99-Cent Store and from the owners of Essex Card Shop at 39 Avenue A. (Of course, many of the items displayed in the front window look to cost a lot more than 99 cents.)

Anyway! Per the grand opening sign on the front window, the shop debuts today at 10 a.m.

For now, the name of the previous business, Avenue A Copy Center & Shipping Outlet, remains above the storefront. The Copy Center closed in late April after three-plus years in business.

NYPD seeks info on this burglary suspect who entered an unlocked apartment

The NYPD is looking for the following suspect... info via the EVG inbox this morning...

It was reported to police that on Wednesday, June 19 at 10:30 a.m., inside a residential building located in the vicinity of East 6th Street and 1st Avenue, an unidentified individual entered an apartment on the third floor through an unlocked front door and removed a Dell Laptop and a Michael Kors watch before fleeing through the front door, to parts unknown.

The individual is described as a male Hispanic, medium build, 50 to 60-years-old with a light complexion and grey hair. He was last seen wearing a grey t-shirt, a grey hooded sweat jacket and dark colored pants.

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online. All calls are confidential.

Looking at the new Avenue A L-train entrances; plus L repairs are reportedly ahead of schedule

Concerns over a long-term L-pocalypse may have been unfounded, a new published report says.

The Daily News reports that the Canarsie Tunnel rehabilitation is actually a month ahead of schedule — and the whole project may be finished by April 2020.

All the major demolition work on the East River tunnel should be done by the end of this month, said Wayne Faulkner of JMT, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s consultant on the project. That part of the job includes removing 6,800 feet of crumbling concrete duct bank that houses long-abandoned Con Ed power lines on each side of the tunnel’s tubes.

The broken-up concrete was taken to the MTA’s Linden Yard in Brownsville, Brooklyn via work trains, said the MTA’s head of capital construction, Janno Lieber.

“One of the advantages of the approach that was taken when the project adjusted means and methods was you didn’t have to take all that huge amount of debris out through the Avenue A exit [in the East Village],” Lieber said.

Work was expected to take roughly 15 to 18 months.

In late April, the MTA started its service reduction to repair the Sandy-damaged tubes between Manhattan and Brooklyn, ramping down L times to 20-minute waits starting at 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. during the week and around the clock on weekends.

The slowdown came about back on Jan. 3 when Gov. Cuomo made that surprise announcement that the L-train wouldn't be completely shut down as previously planned.

Meanwhile, seems like a good time to check in on the progress of the new L-train entrances — with elevators — that are coming to Avenue A and 14th Street...



... and the northern side of 14th Street...



The MTA shared this photo back in April showing an Avenue A entrance from below...


[Trent Reeves/MTA Capital Construction]

The work on a new entrance a block away from the First Avenue station started in July 2017 to help relieve congestion at the stop.

In late May, Town & Village reported that a Stuy Town resident first made a request for an Avenue A stop — in 1947!

A Stuy Town resident who moved into the complex when it opened in 1947 wrote a letter to the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation, which operated the L at the time, asking if the transit agency would expand the First Avenue station by building an entrance at Avenue A. Resident Reginald Gilbert of 625 East 14th Street argued that pressure on the station from the influx of new residents made the new entrance a necessity.

Not sure what will be open first — the new entrances or the Trader Joe's right there at 432 E. 14th St.

Previously on EV Grieve:
To L and back: Reactions and questions over Gov. Cuomo's surprise subway announcement

Report: MTA commits to a shorter work day for the 14th Street L-train rehab

Here are the rent increases for rent-stabilized apartment dwellers

[Image via 1010 WINS]

The nine-member Rent Guidelines Board voted last night on rent increases for residents living in the city's more than 1 million rent-stabilized apartments

This is what the board ultimately decided on at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, based on various published reports:

• For a one-year lease, tenants can expect a 1.5 percent hike.

• For a two-year lease, tenants can expect a 2.5 percent jump.

This year’s increases are identical to those approved last year.

The changes will go into effect on Oct. 1.

The Times had some background on the decades-old tradition:

The new increases are modest given the history of the board, which was formed 50 years ago.

The board allowed rent increases of up to 14 percent for certain two-year leases in 1980. Under the Bloomberg administration, yearly rent increases for one-year leases hovered at about 3.25 percent on average.

But rent caps have been considerably lower under Mayor Bill de Blasio.

During his first mayoral campaign, he pledged a temporary freeze on regulated rents, in order, he said, to protect low-income tenants from a roaring real estate market. A majority of rent-stabilized tenants pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent.

In 2015, the board approved a rent freeze on one-year leases for the first time in its history. It did so again in 2016, but the board approved modest increases in 2017.

This year, the board considered rent increases as high as 6.75 percent, rent decreases and another rent freeze, which tenant groups supported.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant in The New Yorker

[Photo from Sheila's apartment last October]

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant.

She started sharing them with EVG in July 2017.

Susan's feature is the subject of a Talk of the Town piece in The New Yorker this week titled "Rent-Stabilized and Nervous in the East Village."

Here's an excerpt from the piece by Paige Williams:

On a recent Sunday, Schiffman walked over to a building near First Avenue. A woman named Jenny was waiting for her on the fourth floor, in yoga pants and a hoodie imprinted with the words “Locals Only.” Schiffman took in the incense and the wood carvings from India. Jenny, a chef and an astrologer, divulged that, in the sixties, she became a “militant vegetarian” after an acid trip during which God said, “What are you doing?” as she cooked a cube steak.

“Why did you move to the East Village?” Schiffman asked. Jenny answered with a story that involved 1971, Keith Haring, “a bunch of hippies,” aids, macrobiotics, Madonna, Oprah, and “Pluto going into Scorpio.” Jenny said that when she first moved in the apartment was “all brown and lime green. Two dancers from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ lived here.”

Schiffman plucked a Nikon from her backpack and started shooting — moody light at the bedroom windows, a bouquet of bodega roses. Jenny checked an astrology app and said, “Oh! Melania Trump’s gonna have Uranus on her sun.”

You can access all the I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant features — 29 with No. 30 coming soon — on EVG here.

A new nest for Amelia and Christo in Tompkins Square Park

Amelia and Christo have been busy working on a second nest in Tompkins Square Park. I spotted the resident red-tailed hawks this past weekend in this tree near Temperance Fountain (in what is called the Sandra Turner Garden)... right up there...



I asked Goggla about this second nest. Both of Amelia and Christo's 2019 chicks died in recent weeks in their nest near Eighth Street and Avenue B. (Cause is not yet known.)

Goggla says that this is a "frustration" or alternate nest... and in the same tree where Christo and Dora raised their 10th offspring in 2017.

Here's Goggla with more via a post from Monday:

Several people have asked me if this means the hawks will lay more eggs this year. Short answer: No. The breeding time for the hawks is generally February - May, so it is too late in the year to start again. The hawks undergo hormonal changes in the spring that lead up to egg-laying, and that time has passed.

However, nest-building is bonding activity, so it's a good sign. It shows Christo and Amelia are working together and maintaining their territory and partnership. Although I'm really sad not to have baby hawks playing in the park this summer, I'm happy to see the adults staying close to home and remaining visible.

And here's a photo from Steven of (we think) Amelia from late Monday afternoon watching planes atop Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on Third Street...

A new sign for Ray's Candy Store, and a visit by Kim Kardashian West

Here's a look at the almost completed new sign at Ray's Candy Store ... NYC-based illustrator Peach Tao (with help from Will DeNatale and Shreya Gupta) started work on Sunday.

Peach said she still has a few more details to add.



This version replaces the well-weathered facade that Chico created in July 2016. Chico's previous sign here was in part a tribute to neighborhood photographer Bob Arihood, who died in September 2011.

Steven took these photos yesterday afternoon.

Early last evening around 6:45, Kim Kardashian West stopped by the shop here on Avenue A near Seventh Street with friends (besties?) Simon Huck and Jonathan Cheban to celebrate La La Anthony's birthday (this info via Instagram).

The reality TV star and makeup mogul shared photos/clips in her Instagram Stories showing the group ordering milkshakes and deep-fried Oreos from Ray, who was working behind the counter...





In true Kardashian fashion, there were reports of "a mob scene" outside the shop during the brief stopover, as Ray's was plunged into the paparazzi world ... with black sedans and bodyguards on Avenue A...




[Bottom 2 photos via @RaysCandyStore]

Last week, it was Kendall Jenner's turn to stop by Ray's.

H/T Jon-Michael!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Kim Kardashian was in the East Village on Tuesday, ever so discreetly

Tuesday's parting shot

A graduation scene on Astor Place today via Derek Berg...