Con Ed puts more energy into power washing its substation on Avenue A

Con Ed deployed another early morning power-washing crew to buff the graffiti-filled substation along Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street. 

This was the second time in less than two weeks in which Con Ed decided to scrub the building, maybe about 80 percent effective as the tags are still visible. (And they missed the POTATO that was sprayed on here over the weekend.) 

After the last washing, the graffiti returned within 24 hours...

This isn't quite reminiscent of the brown paint wars that dominated local headlines from 2012-2014 at the Verizon building on 13th Street and Second Avenue. Tags would fill up the wall. Someone would cover them with brown paint. The tags would return. So did the brown paint. And so on. Eventually, Verizon just gave up.

Afternoon umbrella break

As seen in Tompkins Square Park today... I guess I wasn't the only person who thought it was supposed to rain all day. 

Thanks to Steven for the photo!

RIP Dee Pop

Photo from 2020 by Stacie Joy

Dee Pop, the longtime drummer for the seminal downtown band Bush Tetras, passed away on Oct. 9. According to an announcement by the band, he died in his sleep. He was 65.

Cynthia Sley and Pat Place, who started the acclaimed no-wave-post-punk band with Pop in 1979, released this statement:

Dee Pop was a quintessential New Yorker, growing up in Forest Hills, Queens and living in New York ever since. He was not only Bush Tetras drummer, but also our archivist, owning an original copy of every Bush Tetras release and t-shirt and also maintaining the band's masters. 

In addition to Bush Tetras, Dee Pop played with Richard Lloyd, Michael Karoli (Can), The Gun Club, Jayne County, and The Shams, William Parker, Eddie Gale, Roy Campbell, Freedomland, Hanuman Sextet, Radio I-Ching and 1000 Yard Stare. He will be sorely missed by his bandmates and the many people he touched throughout his life.

Bush Tetras had a box-set release party previously scheduled for Saturday night at Howl! Happening on First Street. The band decided to move forward with the event, stating in a Facebook post: "We think he would have wanted us to carry on ... with our Bush Tetra release event. The band meant everything to him." 

The evening became a memorial and celebration of his life and attracted many fans and longtime friends.

There were plenty of tributes to Pop on social media. Among them:  

Bob Bert, who has played drums with Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, among others, wrote this on Instagram: "Completely DEVASTATED over the passing of Dee Pop ... a good friend [and] an amazing drummer who was a big influence to me! Extremely sad day!"

From singer-songwriter Amy Rigby: "Very sad to learn of the sudden passing of brilliant drummer Dee Pop. What a genuinely sweet person, the best of NYC. My heart goes out to his family and friends & Cynthia and Pat/his band Bush Tetras."

And via writer Howard Phillips Rodman: "Saddened to hear that Dee Pop, drummer for the extraordinary Bush Tetras, died ... The BTs innovative, propulsive work represents the very best of post-punk/no wave, and Dee Pop's drumming was its driving force, its heartbeat."

Pop was born Dimitri Papadopoulos in 1956. As Pitchfork noted, he "grew up idolizing Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, and Keith Moon, but it was Tommy Ramone who would inspire him to start playing despite a lack of formal training."

Pop is survived by his son Charlie and daughter Nicole.

Souen reopens today after late-September kitchen fire

Photo from June 2020 via @souen_nyc 

Good news for fans of Souen. The macrobiotic restaurant at 326 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue reopens today after a kitchen fire on Sept. 26 shut them down for these past two weeks. 

Ownership was able to crowdfund more than $8,000 to help offset expenses. 

Souen is open daily from 1-9:30 p.m. Find their website here.

And now the full reveal at 141 E. Houston St.

After a slow reveal of its façade late this past summer, we now have a full view of the new 9-floor office building at 141 E. Houston St. ...

Workers removed the remainder of the scaffolding and construction netting this past week on the 65,000-square-foot structure between Eldridge and Forsyth... showing off the floor-to-ceiling glass wall facing the street...

A narrow alleyway/courtyard separates the new building and No. 137 to the west —the longtime home of Yonah Schimmel, still obscured by a sidewalk bridge). 

According to the listing for the two retail spaces at 141 E. Houston St., this corridor is Sunshine Alley, perhaps a lame nod to the Sunshine Cinema (RIP 2018) that once stood here. (Previous marketing materials called the courtyard Houston Alley.) 

The listing notes a "built-in capacity for a commercial kitchen with venting to the roof," so a food-drinks operation is within the realm of possibilities for a new tenant. 

One more thing about the listing: it names several of 141's "neighbors," some obvious picks such as Russ & Daughters and Katz's ... as well as some more far-flung spots like Milk Bar (perhaps the mini location on Mott Street?) Not mentioned: The circa-1910 Yonah Schimmel right next door...

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Sunshine Cinema-replacing office building moving forward; demolition watch back on

• Discarded theater seats and goodbyes at the Sunshine Cinema

• The 9-story boutique office building coming to the former Sunshine Cinema space

• The boutique office building replacing the Sunshine Cinema will be 'unbounded by walls' with an outdoor space called Houston Alley

Ankara Turkish Restaurant announces itself on East Houston

Ankara Turkish Restaurant is coming to the southwest corner of Houston and Orchard. 

Signage arrived on the storefront back on Friday. 

This will be the first Manhattan outpost for the quick-serve restaurant that has two locations in Brooklyn. Their menu shows a variety of gyros and skewers combos... and sides like babaganoush and grape leaves. 

According to the Commercial Observer, ownership signed a 10-year lease for the 3,000-square-foot space (includes basement) with a monthly rent of $25,000. (This storefront was previously the health-focused Dr. Smood.) 

News of this arrival comes on the heels of the quiet closure of Eastanbul (first reported here) a block away on Allen Street.

And we had always hoped that Bereket would reopen around here as rumored after their June 2014 closure on the southeast corner of Houston and Orchard.

More prominent coming-soon signage for Afternoon on St. Mark's Place

ICYMI: Afternoon is setting up a one-stop trendy-food eating destination at 34 St. Mark's Place.

There was a coming-soon sign on the space, but it was obscured by some plywood. Workers made it easier to spot here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Brands under this roof will include Jongro Rice Hotdog, Machi Machi (bubble teas, etc.), Mochi Mochi Donut, Brooklyn Roasting Company and Croffle Haus (croissant dough baked in a waffle iron).

Afternoon currently has outposts out in Bayside and in Koreatown. Five more area locations (including St. Mark's Place) are in the works.

Our previous post on Afternoon from Sept. 29 has more info. 

Farewell to the locksmith-CBD shop on Avenue B

A for-rent sign now hangs on the storefront at 8-10 Avenue B...  bringing an official end to Top Notch Locksmith & Security's time on the block. (Thanks to Salim for the photo!)

The business arrived here between Houston and Second Street in early 2014. At some point, Top Notch expanded into the CBD arena (or at least they rented part of the space to someone else). As for locksmith services, one EVG reader said they stopped making keys during the pandemic.

Previously, M&M Variety Hardware was in this storefront for nearly 60 years.

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included (with a photo from 10th Street at Stuyvesant by Steven) ... 

• P&T Knitwear Co. bringing books, coffee and podcasts to the Lower East Side (Monday)

• Vandal on skateboard defaces new George Floyd bust in Union Square (Sunday) 

• A visit to Genshinkan Aikido (Tuesday) 

• The latest on the great aisle changeover at Key Food on Avenue A (Friday) 

• NYPD searching for 2 suspects in Sunday evening assault on 3rd Street (Thursday) 

• Weekend reopening recap: Blue & Gold, Tom & Jerry's (Monday) 

• 'Pipe Dreams' at the Ninth Street Community Garden & Park dioramas this fall (Thursday) 

• The Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade returns on Oct. 23 (Tuesday) 

• Like a bat out of hell, a Halloween shop pops up on Avenue A (Wednesday) 

• Mad for Chicken to roost on 14th Street (Thursday) 

• Sidewalk usage available again on the NE corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Wednesday) 

• ICYMI: Quartino Bottega Organica has closed on Bleecker Street (Monday) 

• Must be the season: Hitchcocktober returns to 2nd Avenue and 12th Street (Wednesday) 

• Fish story: Crab Du Jour bringing seafood boils to 1st Avenue (Tuesday)

• Drunken Dumpling will be serving up its large soup dumplings again soon (Monday) 

• Today in notes about a kitten stuck in your car's engine (Wednesday) 

• Farewell (for now!) to the sinkhole on 1st Avenue at 5th Street (Tuesday) 

• Xing Fu Tang is now open on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Monday)

• Y7 reopens along 250 E. Houston St. (Tuesday) 

• Superiority Burger vying for a liquor license for new Avenue A space (Monday) 

• The Brazen Fox becomes the Ugly Duckling (Monday) 

... and in recent days, workers buffed out the Bowery Mural Wall over on Houston... waiting for confirmation on who's next here... the previous work here, titled "To Open a Portal," had been up for the past year...

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

EVG Etc.: Continuing the debate over outdoor dining; welcoming back parishioners to Middle Collegiate Church

A few headlines from other sources this past week...

• More discussion over making streetside dining permanent (Yahoo! Finance ... CBS New York ... ABC 7 ... PIX11 ... Gothamist ... previously on EVG) 

• Rats are a growing problem at the Mariana Bracetti Plaza on Third Street (PIX11) 

• NY State decriminalizes the possession and sale of syringes and hypodermic needles (City Limits) 

• Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue holds an outdoor service — first in-person since last December's fire (ABC-7 ... amNY) 

• NYPD now patroling Duane Reade on Avenue B amid a surge in shoplifting (The Post) 

• An interview with the director of NYC classic "The Panic in Needle Park" on the film's 50th anniversary (Westside Rag) 

• Local artist Seth Tobocman is teaching a weekly class (starting Tuesday) titled "Comics as Political Expression." Per the description: "This class is for people hoping to express their political convictions through comics, cartooning, or illustration." The class takes place at the Museum of Reclaim Urban Space at 155 Avenue C. Details here.

Saturday's parting shots

RebelMatic (check them out here) brought their punk and funk to First Street Green Art Park this afternoon ...

Thanks to Stacie Joy for the photos!

An open door at the former Essex Card Shop on Avenue A

Several readers pointed out that something (or something?) pushed in the front door at the former Essex Card Shop at 39 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street... offering access — as of this morning — inside the very empty city-owned storefront...

The card shop moved to 47 Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street in June 2020. And whatever happened to their great old sign?

A note for the tomato thief on 3rd Street

A note as seen on Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue: 

To tomato thief 

You are breaking my heart. 

Please don't do that again. 

Took me months to grow. 

Please bring it back. 

Can exchange w/$ 

Thanks to Michal Pasternak for the photo!

Fall plant & zine fling on 1st Street

A lot of people seemed to enjoy/appreciate this event last time around (June 5!) ... so, the First Street Garden between First Avenue and Second Avenue is hosting another zine and plant swap today from 1-3.