An opportunity to offer Aces & Eights constructive ideas to improve your quality of life in the neighborhood

Tom Michaelsen, the general manager of Aces & Eights on Avenue A, checks in with another comment. Anyone have any constructive comments?

Aces & Eights LES (the LES differentiates us from our other location, FYI) has helped raise enough money to build two wells in the town of Devki, India through an organization called 1Well.

Aces & Eights LES helped raise over $1200 for UNH (United Neighborhood Houses), which is an umbrella organization that presides over the Settlement Houses of New York, a number of which are in the Lower East Side.

Yes, beer pong, that much maligned representation of jockdom and fratholiness you all despise (possibly because you didn’t make the Varsity team in high school? Don't worry, neither did I.) helped make that happen.

Now I know it isn't much. I know we could do more, but I ask, where were you? What were you doing for your community while this "frathole" was giving back?

It is fairly easy to insult me and this establishment. However, I'd prefer to have a conversation. That is why I wrote what I wrote and why I am writing this. I'd love to get ideas from the community as to how we could improve your quality of life. If anybody has anything constructive to say, I would love to hear it. If you just want to insult me and the business keep it to yourself.

I will be at Aces & Eights tonight. It's trivia night. The beer pong tables are converted and people sit and answer questions for prizes. It starts at 9pm. It's good fun. You are all welcome to join. I'll even buy you your first drink if you mention EV Grieve. My name is Tom. I am the one wearing the green t-shirt that says "Douchebag" on it. Seriously.

Noted

"RadioShack is changing its name to 'The Shack,' hoping to present a fresh face to consumers as the electronics retailer directs more of its resources to selling wireless products." (InformationWeek)

Happy New Yorkiversary

"Who cares who you were or what you were doing before you moved here? Your New Yorkiversary is the day you really arrived — figuratively as well as literally." (New York Post)

And in a separate piece, Danica Lo explores the topic some more...:

In this great city we call home, there are two kinds of residents: New Yorkers and people who've just lived here a while.

Sorry, kids.

It doesn't matter how much you feel like a New Yorker, how fast you walk, how many slices of pizza you've gobbled or how much vitriol you seethe at tourists. Forking over income tax to the city doesn't get you a NY-er badge.

Students, your tuition and living costs at NYU and Columbia may be steep, but they don't buy you native status. And if you grew up out of state, moved to the city after college and have worked here for 10 years? Sorry, you're still a transplant.

As a native — I grew up in Queens, went to preschool in Bayside, PS 31, MS 158 and Stuyvesant High School (with all the other Asians) and have worked here all my professional life — my tenuous and negotiable definition is that you're a New Yorker if you completed the majority of your formative years' pre-college education — elementary, middle, junior and high school — somewhere in the five boroughs.

Aces & Eight GM offers some clarification on previous posts, comments

Tom Michaelsen, the general manager of Aces & Eights on Avenue A, responded to our post from yesterday:

I find the entries and comments on this site to be one-sided and offensive. As an Aces & Eights employee I have a few things to clarify:

-Serving food has ALWAYS been a part of our business plan. Due to certain delays we were unable to for quite some time. As the entry above discloses, we are now. The issue should be moot.

-The average age of our clientele is between 25-30 – older than the "frathole" demographic. Also older than the NYU crowd your commentator blames. Frankly, it makes you look prejudiced, judgmental and rude to speak that way about our establishment and our clientele.

- The stipulation in our license regards having no more than two TVs over the bar. The 12 TVs you're referring to are NOT over the bar. There is actually only one TV over the bar. I am not quite sure why televisions offend CB3 so much. According to Nielsen the average American watches 151 hours of television a month. It’s a preposterous figure but I really don’t think watching a baseball game in a bar is that big of a deal.

-Regarding beer pong, it is actually one pitcher (60ounces, three pints) divided into 20 cups played by two teams of two. The average game takes approximately 20 minutes. That means four people split three pints over 20 minutes. In my experience in this industry people drink more, faster when they’re not playing.

-As far as noise is concerned, there is not one subwoofer on the premises and there has never been one. We currently function at a fairly low decibel output. In the East Village street traffic is the nature of the beast. The other evening a man in a spray-painted jalopy drove up and down Avenue A blasting CSNY's "Teach Your Children Well" on a PA system mounted on the roof of his car. I've seen gangs of motorcycles roaring up 1st Avenue. Troops of partygoers and bar patrons have been streaming up and down the streets for years. Our bar is not the predominant noise polluter in the neighborhood nor is it even a significant factor.

I know blogs don't have the same journalistic requirements that standard news media insist upon, but no one has ever come to us to talk or ask questions. No one wants our side of the story. If you'd like to do so now, perhaps to clarify some things, perhaps to see that we run a clean, friendly and accommodating operation. I would be happy to oblige.

Yours Truly,

Tom Michaelsen
General Manager
Aces & Eights LES

Former Citi-Spaces office becoming a restaurant (Update: Plump Dumpling expanding into this space)

The former Citi-Spaces offices on Second Avenue at 11th Street is being converted into a restaurant, per the newly issued work permits.



Update:
Via Eater, we learned that Plump Dumpling next door on 11th Street will expand into this space. (A Passion for Food)

Remember when I suggested that Bounce Deuce wasn't really closed for good, that it would reopen in the fall?

I could be wrong. I caught a glimpse inside. It's a mess. Though the TVs are still in place.




Previously on EV Grieve:
Bounce Deuce to return?

"Duane Reade has been a sin"

Outside Duane Reade on Second Street and Avenue B.

Stepping Up at the Umbrella House

The local barber shop leasing space from the Umbrella House on Avenue C looks nearly ready to open.



In April:



Previously on EV Grieve:
What's happening at the Umbrella House?

Noted

Sixth Street and First Avenue.

RIP Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor who created the Astor Place cube

Charlie Finch has the feature at Artnet:

Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor of the revolving black cube on Astor Place, died over the weekend at age 94. For myself and thousands of other East Villagers, this was the work of art that touched (and was touched by) us most. The memories of Village life revolve with it.

I first felt Alamo (the name of the cube) soon after it was installed in 1967. Coming home from concerts at the Fillmore East, guys would spin it to impress their girls then hop the subway for points north and south.

Here's the cube circa 1970 (Via)



After it was tagged in April 2006 (Via)

Prepping for Julia

Crews are out preparing for the massive "Eat, Pray, Love" shoot tomorrow -- most notably on Fifth Street near Second Avenue. (A few signs said that filming would also occur today...I didn't see any filming.) The ensemble cast features Julia Roberts.





Well, let's hope this film is good for the sake of Miss Roberts. To be honest, her career has been in a tailspin since 1988's "Satisfaction."



(You'll notice the movie also features Britta Phillips and Deborah Harry.)

Meeting set to discuss bars and noise on Avenue A

Specifically on Avenue A between 12th Street and 14th Street, where two new bars have opened this summer to enthusiastic crowds.

According to the information that I received:

The meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

It will be at the Dias Y Flores Garden at 520-522 E. 13th St. (between A and B).

District 2 City Council member Rosie Mendez will run the meeting along with Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3. They will address the overabundance of bars and the noise they cause, what can be done by residents and what is being done and will be done by Mendez's office and CB3.

The Dias Y Flores Garden.



Related:
Noise complaints? What you can do about via CB3 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Aces & Eights now serving food

During the May 11 CB3 SLA Licensing Committee meeting, Aces & Eights, the frathole on Avenue A in the former Mo Pitkin's space, heard it from residents and CB3 members. As Eater reported:

A number of EVill oldtimers stood up to complain about noise, while the CB members questioned the lack of food in the restaurant, the 13 TVs (they were allowed to have only two), and the advertisements for drinking games. In his defense the owner said food was on the way — though we think it's safe to assume he means wings, nachos, and bar snacks — and that beer pong should not be equated with binge drinking, "It's one pitcher divided into 16 cups!" The peanut gallery had a good laugh, and the committee decided to write a letter to the SLA.

Anyway, that food has arrived. Per the menu now on the front window:

Don't be alarmed

When you walk by First Avenue Pierogi & Deli near St. Mark's today, the gate will be down. And there won't be a note outside offering any explanation.



However, it's OK. The shop will be closed for a holiday and will reopen after Labor Day...They had a sign up inside the store for the past few weeks.

Weekend recap: Chain stores, Superdives, drunken hooligans and Julia Roberts

Seventh Street to get a chain-store smoothie shop.

Julia Roberts and "Eat, Pray, Love" filming all over the EV today and tomorrow.

The Post writes about Superdive, which was closed for private parties again.

"Drunken hooligans" the norm now in the EV.

I can't believe someone would sell this!

And, at the time I walked by this sidewalk sale on Eighth Street near Avenue C, no one had bought it yet... Where's your taste, people?

Yes

Arizona-based smoothie outlet coming to Seventh Street

Xoom Juice. At the site of the former Tiny Living shop, which closed in April, on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Xoom has three locations in Tuscon, Ariz. So what are we in for? According to their Web site:

what's the xoom difference? good question
well, for starters, it's what we leave out of our drinks: no sherbet, no sorbet, no ice cream, no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, or anything to artificially flavor our smoothies.

so what's left? how about just pure fruit, 100% fruit juice, organic soymilk or milk, and a bit of yogurt (frozen or fresh or non-dairy), and a *xoomer* nutrient boost. that's it. end of story.

we do this for two reasons:
1) it is really healthy
2) it tastes fabulous

we figure why mess with mother nature?
we just blend it together

The Tuscon Weekly has named Xoom the "best smoothie" the last four years... though, having never been to Tuscon, we're not sure what their competition is like...

"Eat, Pray, Love" -- starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem -- will pretty much be filming everywhere in the East Village on Monday and Tuesday

The adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-seller "Eat, Pray, Love" commences filming this week...kicking off a globe-spanning story in the East Village. And, based on the cast, and the number of filming fliers that I spotted, this promises to be an enormous production. I saw EPL signs on Second Avenue, First Avenue, Avenue A, Third Street to Ninth Street. And Brad Pitt is co-producing the film.

P.S.
In case you didn't want to remember....Gilbert's 1997 GQ article, "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon," a memoir of hercareer as a bartender at you-know-where, was the basis for the "Coyote Ugly" cinema klassik

At Superdive: "You hear the concept and it sounds like it could be too much of a frat party or too whatever, but it hasn't been"

The Post explores the world of Superdive and dive bars today. Fasten your seat belts! We're going in!

With its clean taps, friendly service and young, attractive patrons, Superdive is in many ways the anti-dive. Where's the bearded tranny? The surly, toothless barmaid? The non-functioning alcoholic cashing his SSI check for another round? Sure, it's teeming with college students looking to get wasted, but where's the dank?

Unlike New York's classic old-man bars, Superdive is neither moody in decor (it has large front windows and light pinewood accents) nor spirit (its patrons are prone to high-fives and huzzahs). "People are coming to celebrate," says manager Keith Okada. "Not to get dark and down in a hole."

And!

[M]aybe Superdive's no-frills, keg-centric vibe is just what the Type A alcoholics of tomorrow are looking for. "In a world where everything is so designed and chichi, we just wanted a nice place where people can sit, relax and not feel pressured to spend mega amounts of money," says Okada.

And you have to agree, it sure beats $20 mixed drinks.

And!

And if the list of more than 700 beers -- from a $180 sixtel (one-sixth of a keg) of UFO Hefeweizen to a $360 half-keg of Coors Light -- proves too overwhelming, "keg master" Matt Breinich will help you navigate the list.

Breinich's duties don't end there: "I haven't seen any beer pong disputes, but if there was one I would certainly be there to help resolve it."

In addition to Ping-Pong balls, the bar also keeps cards, dice and poker chips on hand for impromptu drinking games. (Keg stands, however, are officially frowned upon.) Meanwhile, the piano underneath the perpetually lit "Applause" sign in back of the bar may be the site of future "Hair Metal Karaoke" nights. And instigating the party some weekends is mini-metal head Nick Reddy, who's been known to jump on the bar and dole out Jager shots to ecstatic college kids.

With its emphasis on drunken comradery, the frat bar has a direct lineage to the dive bar -- even if it does stem from a love for competitive drinking and Dave Matthews. If dive-bar habitues are self-loathing outsiders, then their frat-bar brethren are the cool kids at the party, explaining why Superdive initially comes off as exuding typical jock one-upmanship.

"You hear the concept and it sounds like it could be too much of a frat party or too whatever, but it hasn't been. The people who come in are excited about the concept, they want to come back," says Breinich.

And!

It may not smell like stale beer -- yet -- but Superdive does smell like a winner: It's currently booked almost a month out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights -- so if your name isn't on the guest list, good luck getting past the front door. "We're working on those hiccups," says Okada. But try telling that to the dejected- looking guys outside.

Hiccups?