Cafe 81 will be back from vacation on Oct. 1

Over on Seventh Street near First Avenue, Cafe 81 has seemingly kept unpredictable hours of late...



...and recently, they took off for vacation. And as of last night, Oct. 6, they still hadn't returned.



In if you're new to all this, Cafe 81 used to be the lovely and amazing Verchovyna Tavern aka George's Bar aka Bar 81. They closed Jan. 1, 2005. Jeremiah paid tribute to it several years ago...

Meanwhile, if you feel like being really annoyed, read Shecky's description of Cafe 81:

Café 81: Can we survive with one less Ukranian watering hole? (OK, perhaps this question answered itself.) Much to the chagrin of aging ex-pats, newbie Café 81 has filled the void of East Village institution Verchovyna Tavern, demolished to make way for this spanking new boozerie. While some would like to give decrepit bars status as endangered species, this replacement has a lot to offer. The bartenders are friendly and outgoing, the kitchen puts out real food instead of stale pretzels and beer nuts, and the crowd is young locals instead of aging winos. If that's not enough to win you over, they also pour shots of snazzy cocktails like Sex on the Beach.

Noted

"Even our fantasies are being downsized. Neiman Marcus Group Inc. mailed out its annual Christmas Book catalog, which each year features over-the-top 'fantasy' gifts, to one million customers on Tuesday. But for the first time in a decade, there isn't a seven- or eight-figure price tag on the list. The most expensive fantasy item for 2009 is a $250,000 'his and hers' two-seater Icon aircraft, which comes with pilot training for two. That's a far cry from the $20 million submarine offered in 2000, the $10 million Zeppelin of 2004 or the $10 million stable of racehorses of 2008." (The Wall Street Journal)

Still, there's a cupcake car.



It gets up to 7 mph and runs on a battery. And it's yours for $25,000. (And I know who would LOVE this ride...)

State of Emergency: A community meeting on Thursday evening to "Stop the Violence"

At the East Side Tabernacle Church on Second Street near Avenue C.

And in case you missed the most recent incident to make headlines, Bob Arihood had the story first about a series of BB gun attacks on Avenue D near Third Street. Three days later, the Times did a piece...who credited the Daily News for breaking the story... Police have reportedly made several arrests in the case.

Mikey's lives (for just a little while longer)

So, three weeks ago, we said goodbye to Mikey's Pet Shop on Seventh Street near Avenue A. Landlord jacking up the rent to $20,000, etc. We heard it ourselves from Mikey. And when we went by later, the canopy was ripped down, etc.

Well! Maybe that $20,000-per-month nail salon deal fell through... As a Mikey's customer/EV Grieve reader reports, the store is back open...While basically stripped inside, several items remain for sale... According to the reader, the landlord gave Mikey one more month...

Which may explain the eviction notices dated for Oct. 31...




Previously.

I will NOT be commenting on Yahoo!'s new ad campaign

Like the ad here above the Bowery Bar.

FiDi gets in on fried chicken craze: Bon Chon coming soon

Bon Chon Chicken — "the most beloved fried chicken in NYC" — is opening an outpost on John Street in the Financial District ... at the home of the former Zen Palate.

Dickchicken expands

Off First Avenue and 10th Street...

Question of the day: "Where is the two ounce 'anti-energy' relaxation shot that the world so desperately requires?"

We get story ideas in the inbox!

Hello!

Great job with E.V. Grieve; I just spent some time thumbing through old posts, and I'm a fan of the site!

I'm contacting you because I have a suggestion for a piece. Do you remember Drank, the purple beverage that is the yang to Red Bull's yin? Drank came out last summer, marketing itself as the 'anti-energy' drink slash legal substitute to the illegal yet hip-hop-popular Sprite plus cough syrup concoction. Hilarious.

And, somewhat related, I'm sure you've noticed with Red Bull, people got tired of all the extra ounces of consumption required, thus the 5 Hour Energy Shot was born.

Which brings one to a very logical question: where is the two ounce 'anti-energy' relaxation shot that the world so desperately requires?

Enter our client, Mini Chill, the answer to not only our question, but our fast-paced modern lifestyles. Mini Chill is a delightful two ounce elixir that promises to not only reduce stress, but also enhance concentration without a drowsy side effect or loss of energy. Basically, chill.

Mini Chill is already in stores in the Village area and more sporadically about Manhattan. Additionally, there will be free giveaways during the next two weeks:

Tuesday, Oct. 6 -- Thursday, Oct. 8
Washington Square 2 pm – 2:45 pm
Outside NYU Campus – 3 pm - 4 pm
Subway-W 4th St/Wash Sq-V – 4:15 pm – 5 pm
Subway-8th St/New York Univ-N,R,W – 5:15 - 6
Subway-Christopher St/Sheridan Sq-1 –TBD

Tuesday, Oct. 13 -- Thursday, Oct. 15
Union Square - 50 E 17th St - 2 pm – 2:45 pm
Subway-14/Union Sq-L,N,Q,R,W,4,5,6- E 14th St –3pm – 4 pm
Subway-23rd St-N,R,W- 2 W 23rd St - 4:15 pm – 5 pm
Subway-23rd St-4,6- 98 E 23rd St – 5:15 pm – 6 pm
Subway-6th Ave-L-531 6th Ave - TBD

We would love to offer you a free sample in exchange for a review of the -- let's face it -- intriguing new beverage.

True, Mini Chill lacks the allure of illegally sippin' on sizzurp, but with claims so bold as to improve focus while simultaneously relieving stress, don't you want (and i apologize in advance for this pun) to give it a shot?

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please get back to us. You can view some basic product info at http://minichill.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

The new venture of old Christine's

As Jeremiah noted last fall, Christine's Polish American Restaurant at 208 First Avenue near 12th Street had closed... (subject of Allen Ginsberg's "The Charnel Ground," as he pointed out...)

Nearly one year later, a new tenant has emerged...



...a Lebanese pizza and grill...

Futurizing: Copping a look at the Copper Building residents

Well, now that those sheets have been removed from the corner floor-to-ceiling windows at the Copper Building on Avenue B and 13th Street, an EV Grieve reader comments (with disturbing enthusiasm), "I hope that they never get blinds. This could be our Standard Hotel!!"

Hmm, may give a whole new meaning to "granite countertops and high-end appliance packages."





Previously.

Something about shopping at Sunny and Annie's makes me feel so .... faint

So many sandwich choices! On Avenue B and Sixth Street yesterday afternoon...in front of Sunny and Annie's...




I walked up to her and said, "Are you a parking ticket? Because you have fine written all over you." And then, "Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only 10 who I see!"

Then the photographer yelled at me... but seriously, the always-reliable complete stranger standing there said that he thought it was a shoot for a purse -- that thing in her hand. I think it was more about the dress.



Bob Arihood came across another photo shoot yesterday — this one in Tompkins Square Park. (Oops! Same model... just a change in outfits and location...)

NBA ad takes over

Work on Chico's former "spay/neuter" mural on Avenue A near 12th Street is nearly complete. Here's how it looked last Sunday...



..and now...the NBA video game has come to life.





Previously.

A vote against Mr. $115 ticket

Just a little anti-Bloomy (Mr. $115 Ticket!) graffitti on Cooper Square near Fourth Street.

Have a trust fund?

Film shoots are so commonplace, they're hardly worth noting. Still. "How to Make it in America" is filming today around Tompkins Square Park... and the premise of this series?




It's an HBO comedy from Mark Wahlberg's "Entourage" production team ... The plot "focuses on the attempts of twentysomethings Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rasuk) to hustle their way through New York in pursuit of the American dream."

Hmmm.

BoweryBoogie notes the crew has been camping out on the LES as well.


P.S.S.

Hustle their way through New York...

(Gestating) Trend alert

From the Post:

Of all the dubious fashion trends in recent memory — rompers for grown-ups, homeless chic, the cowboy boot in summer — none is more dubious and perplexing than this latest one: Looking like you forgot your pants.

It is, at the moment and among a certain subset of fashion girls, the most avant-garde mode of dress: Pairing a tailored Oxford shirt with a boyfriend blazer and $500 shoes, topped with some artfully tousled bed-head and smudged eyeliner. And off to work!

As with most ridiculous trends, it gestated on the streets of Williamsburg and the Lower East Side for a year before its embrace by the mainstream.

In any event, I'm still introducing my new top for men -- The Jennings.



Photo via.

The Polish Victory at Monte Cassino float

Saw this scene earlier today in front of the Saint Stanislaus Church at 101 Seventh St. A float for the 72nd Annual Pulaski Day Parade. (Curtis Sliwa was the grand marshal.) The Church's float was commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Polish Victory at Monte Cassino.

Report: NYU enrollment up 33 percent since 1990

From the Post today:

Cachet trumps cash.

Despite the downturn in the economy, New York University -- one of the priciest colleges in the county -- enrolled its largest student body in decades this year, school officials told The Post.

Just as the recession sent record numbers of students to New York's more affordable public colleges, the vaunted Greenwich Village school saw its highest enrollment since at least 1990 -- the most recent year for which data was readily available, according to school officials.

The upswing comes at a time when annual tuition, room and board at NYU hit nearly $52,000.

More than 21,600 undergraduates enrolled at NYU this school year -- up nearly 400 from last year -- while more than 18,200 graduate students enrolled -- a one-year spike of nearly 800 enrollees.

Overall since 1990, the school's enrollment has surged by an impressive 33 percent -- or roughly 10,000 students.

Jeez, we're going to need more dorms! And bars! (For those of-age students who choose to go out, of course...)

Reminders: Blessing your animals

And if your animals aren't Catholic...it's OK.

The New York Nobody Sings

For whatever reason I always play an NYC-related music video Friday afternoons...today, may I invite you to The New York Nobody Sings site instead...?

Inside the Economakis dream mansion on East Third Street

In this week's issue of The Villager, Scoopy gets a tour of the renovations at 47 E. Third St., where the Economakis family is making their 11,600-square-foot dream home from the former 15-unit tenement.

To some excerpts!

Except for the areas that the family is still using, the place has been completely gutted in the past month — with just the floors, the stairs and the building’s brick shell remaining. The old roof is still on, but will be replaced soon. With peppy enthusiasm, Catherine Economakis led the tour, first showing us her “dream kitchen” she had installed on the second floor, complete with a fully stocked stainless steel refrigerator, adjacent to their combination living room/dining room. Moving into the freshly gutted areas — where nothing at all is left of the former apartments — Catherine showed where they will blast through a wall to create a new doorway so that she won’t have to make the “50-yard dash,” as she put it, between the kitchen and the new dining room proper — that is, once they build the dining room in the rear of the building where one of the tenant’s apartments used to be.

And!

The Economakises also proudly note they have even restored the building’s cornice, which had been removed, and have cleaned and pointed the old tenement’s front brickwork. Catherine stated they intend to live there their whole lives. Alistair, saying one can never know what the future holds, assured they’ll stay there at least 10 years — if not 20 years, and yes, maybe even forever.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Alistair Economakis is suing his cousin Evel for libel

And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

At the 47 E. 3rd St. protest

Conspiracies: Where are all the fliers?