Random Accessories celebrates 25 years

Photos by Stacie Joy

Random Accessories, the well-stocked gift shop at 77 E. Fourth St., celebrates its 25th anniversary this weekend. 

"I must admit, I wasn't sure we would make it to 25," owner Lynn Freidus said in an email, "and in these times, we feel it is especially important to celebrate."

And so to celebrate, on Saturday and Sunday (noon to 7:30 p.m.), customers will receive a 20-percent discount on the entire stock (with 5 percent of the profits going to Meals-on-Wheels).

There's also a free gift for every $10 purchase; a tote bag with a $75 tally.

... the shop has an extensive selection of baby gifts...

... not to mention celebrity prayer candles...

Random Accessories is between Second Avenue and the Bowery. Visit the shop's website or Instagram for more info.

Openings: Bar Lula on 1st Avenue

Bar Lula debuts this evening at 132 First Ave. on the SE corner of St. Mark's Place (the former Wild Son, which moved next door to a new lunch counter space last week). 

As previously noted, the new venture from the Endless Hospitality team (The Wayland, Goodnight Sonny, the Wild Son, Pop's Eat Rite) takes "inspiration from French and Mexican culinary traditions." 

Per a Bar Lulu rep:

This is a passion project from executive chef Luigi Petrocelli, chef Ricardo Arias and partner and beverage director Julio Xoxocotla. 

Chefs Petrocelli and Arias wanted to combine their knowledge of French technique with their love of Mexican ingredients to create something new and vibrant. Most of the menu's dishes are smaller and meant for sharing...

You can find the menu here. And you can check up the new-look interior Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

The Irish breakfast makes triumphant return to St. Dymphna's

The Irish breakfast is once again available at St. Dymphna's at 117 Avenue A. 

This was a popular menu item at the pub during its 24-year run at 118 St. Mark's Place. SD1 closed on St. Mark's in the fall of 2018, reopening in its new home around the corner in August 2019.

For whatever reason, the popular dish wasn't available until now (or yesterday)... SD introduced several other new menu items as well... they open for lunch now at noon...

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Gallery Watch: 'If Death Ever Learn' at Someday Gallery

Text by Clare Gemima (photos courtesy of Someday Gallery)

'If Death Ever Learn' by Brittni Ann Harvey

Someday Gallery, 120 Walker St.

"If Death Ever Learn," produced by Brittni Ann Harvey, is the first exhibition to show in Someday, an engaging new space joining the Walker Street gallery gang. Excitement can be felt merely in the space's infancy, let alone how much Harvey's work sets such a bold precedent for every show to come. 

Harvey's show immediately suggests the artist is well-versed and extremely literate in her research. Creating objects that curve, hang and twine, Harvey sets up a debate between man-made and digital intervention on a very symbolic scale. 

Harvey leads us through an array of problem-solving artifacts that relate to the contractual marriage between artificial intelligence and industry. Her dogs are adorned with architectural soft sculpture, preluding an identifiable canine cuteness that contrasts with the terrifying idea that manufactured four-legged robots could be weaponized. 

Through military-driven initiatives that Harvey extrapolates in "If Death Ever Learn," the audience is exposed to the slippage between the industrial revolution's residual downpour and technology's constant responsibility to be used for the greater good. 

Through her paintings, tapestries, braided bronze, and dog-like sculptures, Harvey toys with mass engineering and the advancement in bio-tech through an effeminate showcasing of corporal colors, sculptures and decor. 

I asked Someday Gallery Director Rosie Motley for her thoughts: 

The show brings together new oil on burlap paintings, embroidered collages, and three free-standing bronze sculptures that are loosely based on robotic dogs, the most familiar of which are produced by the Massachussettes based company Boston Dynamics.

In all of the works, Brittni combines both analog and digital processes — first sketching by hand and then scanning her drawings and manipulating them in a computer program to produce digital embroideries and jacquard-woven fabrics. 

While Brittni Ann Harvey's show ends Saturday at Someday Gallery, keep an eye on this new space for more exhibits in the future. For more information, visit the gallery's website here. Someday is open Thursday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ 

Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com 

EVG Etc. Filing another East River Park lawsuit; Calling for more Citi Bike docking stations

Photo by Steven yesterday at the 6th & B Community Garden

• ICYMI: A nonprofit sued the city for allegedly not including enough minority- and women-owned businesses in the construction contract for the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (NY1) 

• A higher waterfront and a lower FDR may be on tap for Lower Manhattan (The City) 

• The debate continues over outdoor dining (The New York Times) ... while the City Planning Commission voted unanimously for a zoning text amendment (Gothamist) 

• Opinion: The East Village needs more Citi Bike docking stations (amNY) 

• An unnamed, pro-Eric Adams labor source alleges the next mayor's inner circle is running a campaign to block Carlina Rivera from becoming City Council speaker "because she's a former dues-paying socialist who voted to defund the NYPD" (The Post) 

• And see Adams on Colbert (here and here)

• A trip to the just-opened Via Della Scrofa on Fourth Street (TONY) ... first reported by EVG here 

• Suspect wanted for robbing a 24-year-old woman and dragging her down the stairs in 2nd Ave. building (PIX 11)

• Drivers are "continuing to speed like mad" on NYC streets (Streetsblog) 

• Inside Chinatown's newest food court (Eater) 

• Check out the film series "Punks Don't Go Home For Thanksgiving" (Metrograph)

The in-person tree lighting ceremony returns to Tompkins Square Park; save the date for Dec. 12

Photo from 2019 by Stacie Joy

After a year off due to the pandemic, an in-person tree lighting is on tap for Tompkins Square Park on Sunday, Dec. 12 from 4-5 p.m. ...

As usual, you can expect the Carolers of Olde New York from Theater for the New City... music from the Mandel & Lydon Trio ...refreshments via Veselka and C&B ... and 457 EVG posts on the topic. 

The Parks Department turned on the lights to the tree in an undramatic fashion (not even a "joy to the world") last Dec. 9 in what would have been the 29th annual lighting ceremony. 

Albert Fabozzi started the event in 1992. He planted the tree in memory of Park advocate Glenn Barnett, "and each of our neighbors whom we have lost to AIDS."

[Updated] Sidewalk bridge arrives ahead of planned demo of former Red Square storefronts

Workers yesterday started erecting a sidewalk bridge outside the now-vacant former shops at 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. (Thank you to the EVG reader for the photos!)

As previously reported, a demolition permit is on file with the city for the address. 

And as we've been noting, there's been a storefront shuffle along this renovated retail stretch. Kapri Cleaners and the FedEx Office Print & Ship Center moved from the unrenovated spaces a few doorways down East Houston. Other businesses, such as Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins, Subway (sandwich shop) and China Town, closed.

The old section of this one-level strip — starting at the former Mattress Firm — will eventually come down to make way to an unspecified residential development. There's nothing new on this front to note just yet. 

The 13-floor residential building at 250 E. Houston St., the former Red Square, changed ownership in the fall of 2016 ... and underwent extensive renovations.

Updated 7 p.m. 

That's a wrap... a plywood wrap anyway... Stacie Joy shared these photos... the old spaces are now boarded up (and no full-on sidewalk bridge — yet?)...

... but there is a blogger portal! 😍

Tuesday's parting shots

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Letter-changing day today at the Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue at 12th Street...

And opening on Thanksgiving: P.T. Anderson's "Licorice Pizza" in 70MM.

Fall views

A late-afternoon fall view of Tompkins Square Park and Midtown courtesy of N&Lon7th (click on the image for more detail)...

Dress Shoppe II will close in early January

Photos from 2019 by Stacie Joy 

Updated: The shop's last day is Jan. 31.

Dress Shoppe II, the Indian boutique at 83 Second Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, is closing at the start of 2022, ending a 20-plus year run in the East Village. (The business dates to 1978, first starting on Broadway, per this 2016 feature in The New York Times.)

Over the weekend, NBC News checked in with a feature on Dress Shoppe II, where Saroj Goyal has been doing her best to keep the shop going since her husband of 50 years, Purushottam Goyal, died in September 2019. 

The story confirmed the closure. (There have been signs up in the store as well. On a recent trip, Goyal told us of her plans to close in January. There was also talk that she'd relocate to a smaller location.)

You can read the NBC piece here.

Here's an excerpt focusing on clearing out the space...

Goyal is worried. The sheer number of things that need to be moved out is dizzying. Her husband was a collector, and his life's passions are housed in the shop's back storage area, reminiscent of the Room of Hidden Things from "Harry Potter."

But for now, it's business as usual. The shop is still a colorful, warm haven for regulars and the city strollers who happen to stumble inside. With a small team of employees, she's keeping the spirit alive while she can.

In July, Brandon Stanton, the creator of the Humans of New York storyteller series, featured Saroj on his @HumansofNY Instagram account. He also got involved in helping her business, launching a crowdfunding campaign in the process.

Amplified by Nicolas Heller, aka @NewYorkNic, the campaign raised more than $412,000 in the first 17 hours.

In the previous post, you can read more about this, including the financial arrangements with the landlord, the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association II.

You can find the Dress Shoppe II Etsy account here. The storefront is open from noon to 8 p.m. daily, with 1-6 p.m. hours on Sunday.

Your chance to check out Jimmy Webb's collection of iconic music photography

Here's a chance to check out the personal photo collection of Jimmy Webb, who kept the punk-rock spirit alive in the East Village and on the Lower East Side.

Webb, a familiar figure in the neighborhood during his long tenure as the manager and buyer at Trash & Vaudeville and later as the owner of the boutique I Need More, died of cancer on April 14, 2020. He was 62. 

Starting tomorrow, the Morrison Hotel Gallery unveils a week-long exhibit of Jimmy's rock photos in an estate sale to benefit Road Recovery, a nonprofit helping young people battle addiction and other adversities.

Here's more via the Morrison Hotel Gallery:

A punk icon on par with those he called collaborators and companions, the late-great Jimmy Webb is a New York City institution whose personal collection of music photography rivals our own. 

As such, it is only fitting that we continue to honor the legacy of this rock & roll guardian angel with a special estate sale of these works in collaboration with Road Recovery...

Outfitted in personal affects of rosary beads and feather boas, this historic collection which first made its MHG debut last December sees a long-awaited, in-person unveiling...

The exhibition is open for viewing from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with hours on Sunday starting at noon. The Morrison Hotel Gallery is at 116 Prince St. between Greene and Wooster. 

Drunken Dumpling returns

Drunken Dumpling reopened this past Thursday at 137 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. 

The family-owned restaurant specializing in Chinese potstickers, pork buns and jumbo soup dumplings had been closed since the NY PAUSE of March 2020. 

According to its Instagram account, DD is in a soft-reopen mode at the moment with a more limited menu. New hours: Sunday-Thursday from 2 p.m. to midnight, with a 2 a.m. close on Friday and Saturday.

TBH, the place looked like a goner in late 2020 and early 2021 with stacks of mail piling up inside. However, DD announced earlier this fall that they'd be back.

DD opened in the fall of 2016 and received favorable press for its gigantic soup dumplings created by the mother-son team here. 

H/T Steven

Cafe Sandra is closed for now

Several readers have now noted that Cafe Sandra hasn't been open of late at 194 First Ave. 

A sign on the door states they will be temporarily closed for a few weeks... there isn't any other explanation for the closure...

The cafe debuted in early June here between 11th Street and 12th Street. Several EVG readers have had good things to say about their food and service... not to mention the occasional live jazz. 

You can follow the Cafe Sandra Instagram account for updates. 

Thanks to Lola Sáenz for the photos.

Beyond Sushi will not be reopening on 14th Street

Beyond Sushi has closed for good here at 229 E. 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

We noted in early October that the vegan restaurant had not been open in recent weeks. This location was no longer on the Beyond Sushi website, and Seamless lists them as closed. A Beyond Sushi rep did just confirm the permanent shutter. 

Beyond Sushi, part of a chainlet of plant-based quick-serve restaurants, opened here in July 2012. Four other locations remain open in NYC, including at 215 Mulberry St. near Spring.