The closing arrives as demolition looms for six buildings on the west side of the avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street.
Despite being on a desolate-looking stretch of Third Avenue with neighboring boarded-up retail spaces, TLK cheerfully remained in service this year mid-block, offering solid, veggie-friendly cuisine.
Owner Michelle Morgan's menu draws inspiration from her mother, who was born in Hong Kong, and her travels throughout Asia.
In announcing the closing date on Instagram, TLK also reported that they will continue with delivery and catering along with a pop-up dinner residency this fall on the Lower East Side (you can follow their Instagram account for updates)...
TLK opens today and tomorrow at 2 p.m. (Reservations here.)
As we first reported, a residential complex is expected to rise along this parcel — 50-64 Third Ave.
Only one building will remain on the block after the demolition — 48 Third Ave., the 5-story property owned by Isfahany Realty Corp. on the northwest corner of 10th Street with Healthy Greens Gourmet in the retail space.
Downed tree this afternoon on First Avenue between Second Street and Third Street — photo via EVG reader Danimal... was it a victim of today's high winds ... or a car/truck...?
Photo from last week on 14th Street looking west from Avenue A
Mayor Adams yesterday unveiled the 14th Street Community Improvement Coalition, a multi-city-agency approach to address the quality-of-life issues along the problematic corridor between Avenue A and First Avenue and surrounding streets.
A centerpiece of the plan includes the previously announced $1 million investment in a new Mobile Command Center, which will soon arrive on 14th Street. (The mayor said the command center will not be permanent.)
Adams made the announcement while flanked by a host of city administrators representing the NYPD, the FDNY, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), and the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene (DOHMH), and local elected officials. (You can watch the entire press conference below.)
"When we came into office, we had a clear mission: protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make our city more affordable and livable, and the '14th Street Community Improvement Coalition' precisely addresses these concerns — enhancing quality of life and making the East Village safer," Adams said at a press conference inside the 14th Street Y. "Our administration does not and will not tolerate an atmosphere where anything goes."
Since the stabbings, the NYPD has been a regular presence on the block, both on foot patrols and in patrol cars.
The NYPD also installed three light towers south of 14th Street between A and First. Residents have said they've seen improvements along the block.
Per Adams, the city formed the multi-agency coalition to tackle the complicated convergence of public safety issues, including illegal vending, retail theft, substance use and sales, the mental health crisis, and unlicensed cannabis shops.
In recent weeks, teams from various city agencies have conducted walkthroughs to observe these issues firsthand and engage with local community members and businesses. They have also identified individuals needing services, such as housing or medical care, and referred them to the appropriate city agencies.
To further enhance communication, the 9th and 13th Precincts have launched a WhatsApp chat with business owners along the East 14th Street corridor. The chat allows for real-time identification and resolution of concerns.
Adams outlined the following actions:
Conducting weekly NYPD operations to address homeless encampments, vendors, and persons needing assistance.
Assigning a dedicated NYPD foot post to address quality-of-life issues and maintain a visible presence along the commercial corridor of 14th
Affixing mobile light fixtures to sustain visibility.
Servicing litter baskets daily on all three DSNY shifts and addressing homeless encampments.
Deploying DSNY graffiti clean-up crews to remove graffiti on private property.
Ensuring availability of mental health units and homeless services outreach teams to support people in need of mental health support through DOHMH and DHS.
"This is not a problem that's going to come back to this area," Adams said emphatically. "What we saw here is not acceptable. This is not the city that we deserve. We deserve better, we're going to get better, but we're clear on the complexities of the problems that we're facing."
During the Q&A period with reporters, District 2 City Councilmember Carlina Rivera fielded a question about the weekend flea market at Immaculate Conception on 14th Street at First Avenue, which some residents said contributes to the quality-of-life issues.
The flea market moved to 14th Street in the fall of 2012 when the Mary Help of Christians property on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street turned into luxury housing courtesy of Douglas Steiner.
As Rivera explained, the market wasn't a good fit for the space that Immaculate Conception had available.
"It was already too large for this space, so that market spilled onto the street, and people started attaching themselves to [it], saying they were affiliated with it when they were not. So it quickly did get out of control," she said.
Rivera said officials have talked with church leaders and the Archdiocese of New York, though no action has been taken on their behalf.
"They are relying on the revenue from that market to help sustain them," Rivera said. "So while the flea market continues, we are looking toward maybe suspending it, finding a different location, or using other means for the church to [generate] revenue. Because it's not working.
"We brought in the Street Vendor Project to try to organize the vendors. That has not worked. We've brought in faith-based institutions and clergy to speak to people," she continued. "So we've tried so many different approaches and perspectives, but really ... the corridor is just way too busy and there are too many things happening on it for us to have that market continue in the capacity that it is."
The press portion of yesterday's presentation begins at the 37-minute mark...
H/T Edmund John Dunn!
Previously on EV Grieve:
• A look at 14th Street this morning after the triple stabbing and homicide (June 24)
• NYPD light tower arrives on a cleaned-up SE corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue (June 27)
• A look at 14th Street and 1st Avenue — 'a New York Block No One Can Fix' (July 10)
• From the archives: A documentary short about the intersection of 14th Street and 1st Avenue (July 11)
Ruby/Dakota debuted late last month at 155 E. Second St., just east of Avenue A.
Hannah Studnick operates the gallery and performance space.
"It has been a lifelong dream of mine to open a gallery in Alphabet City, the neighborhood my maternal grandfather was born in, the same place where my first cousin returned many years later and founded C-Squat," Studnick told EVG. "After my twin sister Emma's untimely passing in 2018, my whole world broke open. I slowly started moving toward this physical and emotional space of 'Gallerist.'"
The retail space, whose tenants have included the previous home of School for the Dogs, was the lone storefront that Studnick saw on her EV retail tour.
"In the end, the gallery found me. It was the only space I looked at," she said. "I knew from the moment I walked in this was Ruby/Dakota, a name that manifested from a distant memory — the names my mother would have given us if she had chosen more wisely."
Featured works include "East Village Date Night" by Lee Smith...
Other artists in the show include Kate Awalt-Conley ...
... Sacha Alexandra ...
... and Julia Justo ...
Ruby/Dakota is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays and Mondays are by appointment. The gallery's website has contact information and details on other events in the space. (If you're on Instagram, you can find updates here.)
"I do this for my twin sister Emma, my family, myself, and most importantly, the living artists of New York City, who do deserve our support, who make this place alive, and the greatest city on earth, naturally," Studnick said. "Through this room of my own, I am able to tell the truth as I see it and allow so many wonderful artists to share theirs, too. It is an honor and a privilege. I am so grateful to be here. "
We've always appreciated the no-frills, old-school dining experience at Little Poland, located at 200 Second Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street.
Little Poland, around since 1985, is the last of its kind in this neighborhood. Its longevity is a testament to its quality and reliability. (Remedy Diner is fine, but it's no Little Poland.)
We stopped by between the lunch and dinner shifts on a recent summer day. There were a few people at tables by the front windows (and eventually, two brave souls sat outside in the heat).
There's quick and efficient table service, decent prices and breakfast specials until noon (well, 11:59 a.m.) And, per the menu: "The food we serve is as good, as music of Chopin." (We know that extra comma.)
Next year marks the diner's 40th anniversary. We need more places like Little Poland, and we hope that it can celebrate many more anniversaries here.
Little Poland is open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Get them a call: (212) 777-9728.
However, since opening at its new home, 112 Stanton St., between Essex and Ludlow, we haven't heard too much (where are the reader reports?) about the NYC institution that spent 47 years through the start of the pandemic serving up ice-encased vodka, smeared pitchers of schmaltz and enormous platters of meat from the lower level at 151 Chrystie St.
Sammy's announced its closure in January 2021, vowing to return to the neighborhood.
In June, Matthew Schneier, chief restaurant critic at New York Magazine,wrote that "things are as they ever were."
These photos are from before Sammy's opened for service for the evening—even before the bottles of schmaltz were placed on all the tables and Dani Luv fired up the keyboards.
It's hard to replicate a classic, as Schneier noted.
All is not identical. Sammy's now finds itself at street level, though it approximates the cave quality of the original by covering its front windows. The room is long, narrow, and black, like a high-school black-box theater, albeit with some of the worst acoustics I have ever experienced in a restaurant. It was so hard to hear that everyone at my table spent the entire meal screaming in vain at one another, in the great Jewish tradition.
Still: "Forty-nine years after its founding, Sammy's is a tradition unto itself."
Sammy's expanded the hours of service earlier in the summer.
The listed hours are Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday: 4-11 p.m., with an 11:30 p.m. close on Fridays and Saturdays.
Sammy's does reservations (recommended) the old-fashioned way: 1-646-410-2427 or sammys157@yahoo.com
The New York Timeshad more details on the noon-time theft of the marker outside the historic New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue.
"The heist took 13 minutes 58 seconds, from the moment the man in the gray T-shirt appeared to the moment when he walked away, having slipped the loot into a backpack he slung over his shoulder."
We posted a photo of the alleged suspect captured on surveillance video here.
(Thanks to the Times for linking to our coverage of previous plaque thefts. It's nice to see, as too many local news sites pretend they were the first to report on a story. Also, H/T Bayou.)
The Associated Press also has a piece specifically on Village Preservation-placed markers, the one outside the one-time home of the Fillmore East that we first reported on ... and one on 13th Street for Anaïs Nin.
Another honoring Elizabeth Blackwell at the former home of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children at 58 Bleecker St. was removed but left on the sidewalk for whatever reason.
As you likely guessed, there is a market for scrap metal, "part of a disturbing trend that includes the theft of a statue of Jackie Robinson from a park in Kansas," according to the AP.
Meanwhile, in the comments on Tuesday, an EVG reader noted the double plaque theft from outside the accounting-legal office at 55 Avenue A (see photo above).
As the prospering pothole enters another month (flashback) on Second Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street, attempts to warn incoming traffic continue in earnest.
First, there was a trash receptacle, then an orange reflective traffic cone, and then someone added some wood pallets. After a vehicle crushed part of a pallet, there's now an orange barrier.
Back at it tomorrow afternoon with five more bands, including Pinc Louds and Skorts.
