Bibi Wine Bar takes a winter break

Bibi Wine Bar is the latest local establishment to go on hibernation with the indoor dining ban and colder weather setting in ... the cafe on Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B closed after service on Saturday... when Stacie Joy took these photos...

Bibi Wine Bar was able to reopen in June with outdoor seating... then with limited indoor service at the end of September. Despite that little bit of normalcy, they launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them get through this. (They have reached nearly $4,700 of their $6,000 goal as of this morning.)

According to their fundraiser: "We plan on reopening ASAP, but certain things need to align to make that happen, and there is a good chance it won't be until the weather warms up enough to get outdoor dining going again (March?!?)."

In other hibernation news.... multiple readers shared photos from the southwest corner of 11th Street and Third Avenue, where high-end sports bar chain the Ainsworth went dark at the start of the year... the corner bar has been boarded up, as this photo by Steven shows...

And EVG reader Doug shared these pics...

The Ainsworth's ample curbside dining setup remains in place...

There's no word about any kind of closure on the Ainsworth website or social media properties. They did not respond to requests for comment about their plans.

Van Leeuwen reopens post-fire on 7th Street

The Van Leeuwen scoop shop has reopened at 48 1/2 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The storefront had been shuttered since the fire wiped out the neighboring building and severely damaged Middle Collegiate Church on Dec. 5.

Van Leeuwen, along with the residents upstairs, had to vacate the address during the demolition work next door. 

It appears that the residents here are back as well. A mobile boiler is now connected to the building. 

Tio Pio debuts on 14th Street with quick-serve Latin cuisine

Tio Pio debuted on Sunday here at 250 E. 14th St. just west of Second Avenue... we first spotted this signage back in February 2020. The pandemic put the brakes on the opening plans for last year. 

The quick-serve Latin-American restaurant offers inexpensive comfort foods like roasted pork and rotisserie chicken with sides of rice, beans and plantains. You can find their menu here. 

Tio Pio, which also has a location in downtown Brooklyn, took over the space from Mi Casa Latina, which closed in the fall of 2019 after 10 months in business.

Thanks to Steven for the photo yesterday! 

Local artists give kids something to smile about at new dental outpost on Avenue A

Kids Dental is now open in the large storefront on the southwest corner of Avenue A and Fourth Street.Locval 

A few weeks back, EVG contributor Stacie Joy spotted local artists Leah Tinari and Ori Carino painting murals inside the space...

As previously noted, the dental practice for children also has outposts in Washington Heights and Bensonhurst.

A Santander branch was here until April 2018. Between full-time tenants, ChaShaMa — a nonprofit that partners with property owners for pop-up galleries — was using the space.

Juvenile attention

There have been reports of an immature (juvenile!) red-tailed hawk in the area... especially along Sixth Street, where Kevin R. Frech got a good upclose look. 

Steven shared this photo below ... taken at the Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden ... (click on the image for a better view) ...

I asked Goggla if this might be one of the 2020 offspring of Amelia and Christo, the resident red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park ... not sure! 

As always, check out Goggla's site here for all your hawk needs and news!

A new era for Via Della Pace on 4th Street

Via Della Pace, the 17-year-old Italian restaurant that lost its home during the devastating fire on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street last month, has designs on a new East Village home.

According to public documents posted on the Community Board website, the owners are on this month's CB3-SLA docket for a new liquor license for 87 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery. (The item was a scratch from the November agenda.)

A notice about the virtual meeting next Monday is also on the door for neighbors...

Via Della Pace had been closed since the previous fire on Feb. 10, 2020. At the time, the owners were unsure if they would reopen on Seventh Street. The fire on Dec. 5 took care of that, as workers had to demolish the five-floor building. (Giovanni Bartocci, the restaurant's co-owner and chef, was able to salvage the Via Della Pace sign, per an Instagram post.)

The CB3 questionnaire shows that the new Via Della Pace, if approved, will have 20 tables with 45 seats. Once hours are back to normal... Via Della Pace will be open for lunch starting at 11 a.m. with proposed closing times of 12:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday; 2 a.m. Friday through Sunday. 

87 E. Fourth St. has been vacant since Cucina di Pesce closed in September 2018.  

The gas is back on at Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A

On New Year's Eve day, ConEd arrived to restore the gas service at Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street... ending a nearly two-month odyssey. 

A quick recap: On Nov. 11, a carbon monoxide sensor went off related to the storefront's hot water heater. Workers discovered a hole in the flue that brings in replacement air. Because of the hole, replacement air wasn't getting into the basement, thus the high carbon monoxide reading, owner Christopher Pugliese said. Regardless of the find and fix, ConEd still turned off the gas to the storefront. 

To keep the popular shop running, Pugliese, who helped feed the homeless and essential front-line workers during the pandemic's worst days in the spring, spent $7,000 to buy three electric grills and have three 220-volt power lines installed so his team could cook. 

While Pugliese was annoyed that he had to close the shop from 10 a.m. to noon on one his busiest days of the year ("Yes, I'm complaining") when ConEd showed up, he's extremely happy to be back up at full cooking power.

He's also thankful to the encouraging comments and insights that EVG readers left on the previous posts about the situation (links below). 

"I'm really grateful to all the people who wrote letters and gave advice through those comments," Pugliese said. 

He also said he received helpful assistance in navigating the bureaucracy from local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and her staff member Pedro Carrillo. "They pushed hard for me and Pedro really seemed to genuinely care," Pugliese said. "He called me three times a week and gave lots of help."

"This whole ordeal stunk and it cost me more money than I want to think about but it could've been so much worse," Pugliese said. "Thank you and happy New Year."

 Previously on EV Grieve: 

 • Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A continues on without gas — or help from the city 

• With gas shut off, Tompkins Square Bagels owner wonders why the city isn't helping small businesses during pandemic

Citing 'restrictions, bans and curfews for the restaurant industry,' the Dumpling Shop closes

The Dumpling Shop has wrapped up its two-plus-year run at 124 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place. 

The quick-serve restaurant announced its closure on New Year's Eve via an Instagram post, citing the constraints of a small business trying to stay afloat during the pandemic. 

"As weeks turn to months and months turn to almost a year, the challenges of operating a small family-owned business became ever more difficult, especially with new restrictions, bans and curfews for the restaurant industry."  

EVG reader 2ndAvenueSilverPanther was a regular.

"This place felt like family. Jace, the owner, was a gem. Before opening, he installed an expensive, efficient and quiet exhaust system that spared building residents the heat and odor — pleasant as it was — of the cooking. The food was exceptional, and I will really miss this place."

The east side of this block is pretty quiet for businesses these days. The only other food operation, Nolita Pizza, left back in June.  They also had to contend with a storefront-obscuring sidewalk bridge here for too long and the encampment a few doors away outside the currently closed Orpheum Theatre. 

The Boilery has closed on 3rd Avenue

 The Boilery Seafood & Grill has closed at 58 Third Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street. 

A homemade for rent sign (call George!) is in the front window...

The Boilery, part of a chainlet with multiple outposts in the city, opened here in September 2019, offering communal seafood boils and a variety of grilled seafood. Despite this closure, the other locations remain open, including in Las Vegas and suburban Nashville. 

As previously noted, this address has been a tough one to make work, with Jin Kitchen and Bar, Shu Han Ju II and Mulan East also giving it a try these past five years.

Sunday's parting shot

Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg...

Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse has closed for now on the Lower East Side

Word circulated this weekend that LES staple Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse had closed for good on Chrystie Street after 47 years of serving up ice-encased vodka, smeared pitchers of schmaltz and enormous platters of meat to the backdrop of Yiddish sing-alongs. 

This afternoon, Sammy's ownership (David Zimmerman) responded to the rumors in an Instagram post. (East Village-based storefront photographers James and Karla Murray initially observed what appeared to be a closure.)  

It is with great sadness that we announce that the rumors are true and we have had to shut the doors to the infamous basement. 

Sammy’s Roumanian is more than just a restaurant. It's a community. A celebration of tradition. An experience difficult to put into words. It's where families come to dine weekly, where partygoers begin their night (if they survive the frozen vodka), and where Simchas are celebrated. It's a place where you can be yourself, make friends, discover what a Shiksa is, and maybe even get called out as one too. Above all, it's a place where everyone feels at home, welcome, and part of a larger family.

However, it sounds as if Sammy's is leaving the door open for a return some day in a new location.

So chins up fellow schmaltzers. All the years of devouring chopped liver with our special schmaltz, schmered on rye bread with a side of pickles and a shot (or glass) of frozen vodka to wash it down will be remembered fondly. We may be closed now, but when all this is over and we feel safe enough to hold hands during the hora, we will be back stronger, louder, and tastier than ever before. We are New York. We will survive this. We will always cherish the memories we shared with all of you.

He confirmed as much in a text message to Gothamist. 

Sammy's had closed when the PAUSE went effect last March, and was never able to reopen. And this is not the kind of food that works for delivery. 

Week in Grieview

Posts from the past week included ... (photo from Third Street at First Avenue)...

• Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2020 (Friday) 

• On 2nd Avenue, B&H Dairy wraps up a trying year, ponders its future (Thursday)

• A holiday variety show — and benefit — for Pangea (Monday) 

• Morning-after look at the damage caused by the broken water main on 1st Avenue and 7th Street (Thursday) 

• So long Milon (Thursday) 

 

• This week's NY See panel (Thursday) 

• Have you been pining away for MulchFest 2021? (Tuesday) 

• New Year's Eve at Club Cumming (Saturday) 

• Report: Chain stores decrease citywide (Tuesday) 

• Sweet Generation has left the East Village (Monday) 

• New development (Stella!) at Houston and Avenue C finally sheds its sidewalk bridge (Monday) 

• E7 Deli & Cafe receives 2020 welcome (Thursday) 

• A rent increase is forcing Avenue C Studio to close its doors (Tuesday) 

• 3 for-rent signs along a once-popular stretch of 7th Street (Monday) 

• Closings: The Dip, Williamsburg Pizza (Monday)

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Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

Saturday night, Avenue A pic.twitter.com/pD55GBi1uN

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 3, 2021

Sinkholes forming in the freshly repaired intersection on 1st Avenue and 7th Street

Last Wednesday night and Thursday morning, DEP crews repaired the ruptured water main on First Avenue and Seventh Street — the second such break in a week. 

Now just a few days later, a tipster points out two budding sinkholes in the intersection...

Hopefully none of this leads to another disruption for nearby residents or businesses ... the water that gushed for several hours from the broken main last Wednesday night flooded basements along Seventh Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

Also, as a reminder, this intersection saw several sinkholes (and a broken pipe) in March 2018. Revisit our post on it here.

Saturday's parting mulch shots

At the chipping fest today in Tompkins Square Park... Steven took these photos...

You can still bring your tree to the Park this week... the city will be mulching it up again next Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.