Tonight's CB3-SLA committee meeting includes an applicant vying for 197 Second Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street.
According to the public documents on the CB3 website, applicant Michael Dollaway is proposing an establishment called Aces Fine Food and Spirits. The configuration for the cocktail lounge-restaurant features 12 tables for 36 guests as well as a 22-seat bar.
Dollaway's bio posted with the questionnaire shows a background in management/ownership at several now-closed upscale spots, including Provocateur in the Meatpacking District and Lily Pond in East Hampton.
CB3's SLA committee meets tonight at the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton. The festivities start at 6:30.
It's one of those kinda-seems-like-yesterday moments. I recall Goggla emailing me with the news...
The place was closing anyway to make way for the 12-story apartment building on the lot... But people thought that they had the rest of the summer of 2011 to enjoy the bar... or at least go to it.
However, a DOH visit did them in on July 18, 2011 — 54 violation points and mentions of every known type of fly. (Filth flies! Flesh flies!) And apparently, owner Hank Penza said the hell with it. And closed.
For a time, the place was the greatest, strangest, dirtiest bar around the neighborhood.
Here's what the Timeshad to say about Mars Bar once ...
[I]n its prime it was perhaps the epitome of an East Village bar: menacing, dark and covered inside and out by graffiti, stickers and impromptu spray-painted artworks. Its forbidding restroom was an urban legend in and of itself.
It wasn't always that way ... per a different feature at the Times:
When the bar opened in 1984 ... the facade was gleaming. "We thought, 'Oh no, another sushi bar; there goes the neighborhood,'" said Jim Sizelove, who was part of the rowdy art scene called the Rivington School.
We can relive the bar here for a moment... in 2016, East Village-based filmmaker Jenny Woodward released an entertaining video short titled "Last Days of the Mars Bar," featuring interviews with Penza in the days leading up to the bar's closure.
Penza shares some colorful anecdotes (and perhaps tall tales), such as how the bar got its name and how the first art appeared on the bar's walls.
And Penza doesn't seem all that broken up about the end of days here.
"Fuck the bar. What am I, crazy? There's a beginning and an end. You hear? The Mars Bar will live forever and I'll die... I feel like there's a beginning and an end, and this is the end to another chapter in my life."
Here's a rather serene slice-of-Mars-Bar life showing a few people quietly sitting while David Bowie's "China Girl" plays on the jukebox. (Thanks Alex!) The video isn't dated ... it was uploaded in April 2012. It's aptly titled in part "Sweet Memories."
The corner storefronts where Mars Bar stood were eventually demolished in late 2011/early 2012 to make way for the residential building called Jupiter 21. The corner space now houses a TD Bank and Kollectiv, "an urban retreat center" that features an herbal pharmacy and spa.
A Ferrari gets a ticket on Seventh Street at Second Avenue... and the traffic enforcement agent told EVG contributor Derek Berg that this was his first time ticketing a Ferrari...
• Pre-sale tix are available for the 50th-anniversary screening of "Willy
Wonka & Chocolate Factory" at the Regal Union Square on Aug. 15 (Official site)
Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street will be the place to be tomorrow for a community event to highlight the work of local artists.
The No_B Fest will offer up an array of live music, art, poetry and theater on the Avenue from 4 to 8 p.m.
Participating businesses including the Roost, Revision Lounge and Mona's, whose bartender (and photographer extraordinaire) Aidan Grant helped organize this event.
And some info via the EVG inbox...
From street art to photography the block will be part gallery, part stage and part dance.
A raffle and auction will allow anyone to win the artwork. All proceeds will go directly into the pockets of the participating musicians.
Overall it's a desire to once again light up the foundation these artists built careers on and inspire the power of community collaboration.
The UK-based post-punk trio Desperate Journalist released a new record earlier this month... the video here (flash warning!) is for the first single — "Fault."
The transaction was a joint negotiation among Transformco, Vornado and the new tenant, sources said. The regional grocer that will be taking over the NoHo location has not been disclosed.
However, those sources said the new tenant will be a "first-class regional grocer."
A few EVG readers already have the space fitted for a Wegmans, which opened its first NYC space in October 2019 on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn's Admiral's Row development.
On Wednesday afternoon, I was visiting with Nancy Preston, owner of Milk Money Kitchens at 50 Avenue A. (Read more about Milk Money, which provides commercial kitchen rentals and consulting services for food businesses, right here.)
Preston was prepping her space between Third Street and Fourth Street for an HBO shoot for the "Sex and The City" revival titled "And Just Like That." (You probably noticed the production trucks along Avenue A!)
Featured in the spread for the assembled cast and crew: cupcakes named after the show's main characters. Today's scene involved cast members Kristin Davis and Mario Cantone (no Cynthia Nixon or Sarah Jessica Parker here). Executive producer Michael Patrick King was also on hand and took a moment to take a photo with Preston.
And thanks to Nancy for letting me stick around to watch the setup...
The NYPD is seeking two men they say have burglarized 10 businesses, nine in the East Village, over the past few months.
According to published reports, the suspects have taken more than $15,000 in cash and electronics between March and June from the businesses — eight restaurants and one salon.
Per The Daily Mail, "In each case, one of the crooks would burst through the front door after dark, and steal cash, electronic equipment, or both."
The Mail also published this map showing the businesses that the two men hit ...
The NYPD released this video clip of the suspects during the most recent break-in — 10 p.m. on June 24 at Sammy's Halal, 109 First Ave. between Sixth Street and Seventh Street...
Per media accounts: Police described both suspects as men with light complexions between 40 and 60 years of age, standing between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall, and weighing about 190 pounds.
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 strictly confidential.
