Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Looking at the Michelle Obama Halloween mask at Duane Reade
Only $9.99, though it's on sale now for $7.99 with your Duane Reade Dollar Reward Card. From the "Fright Factory" collection. Doesn't this just seem -- wrong?
And Duane Reade really needs fitting rooms to try on masks and stuff ... instead, shoppers are forced to quickly put things on in the middle of the store.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Decision 2008
The milled glass and "shocking Ferrari red" walls coming to the Bowery; "like a beacon"
There's plenty of activity at 257 Bowery, just a wee south of Houston, these days. The Times checks in today on this future home of the Sperone Westwater gallery. The world-renowned Norman Foster is designing the eight-story "sliver of a building," as the Times notes.
Sliver, eh? So "Foster’s solution was a giant elevator, measuring 12 by 20 feet, that would not only transport art and visitors from floor to floor but serve as an exhibition space as well." And they talk to the man himself.
While the elevator could fit up to 240 people, only a few are expected to occupy it at a time. It will move more at a rate of 50 feet per minute, rather than the more typical speed of 150, to allow time for people to admire the art inside.
[Th]e elevator will have the same polished concrete floors and white walls as the stationary galleries, and it will be possible to park it on one or another of the floors to extend its space.
Because the building will be sheathed in milled glass and the elevator exterior walls colored a shocking Ferrari red, the moving gallery will be visible from outside, a "dynamic element of the facade inside this translucent tube," Mr. Foster said.
[Gallery co-founder] Angela Westwater sees this feature as "like a beacon, like a lighthouse," she said.
And the Times had the following photos:
For further reading on 257 Bowery:
Jeremiah's Vanishing NY (A look back at what used to be here...)
Curbed
BoweryBoogie
The Observer
Superdive is adding another all-you-can-drink night
As you may have heard... per UrbanDaddy:
Fresh off the beautiful disgrace of Champagne Tuesdays, the Alphabet City bandits are debuting a Wednesday night bash called Kegmaster's Select. A $20 cover gives you VIP access to every drop of booze and beer in the place, including hoppier samples from the favored brewery of the week. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, you might even venture down the stairs in back to explore the sketchy new basement space below, newly dubbed Maddog. It should be as far under the radar as you ever want to go.
And a belated thanks to the perhaps anonymous reader who submitted the photo...
Other CB3/SLA highlights:
Thanks to an EV Grieve reader, we got a nice rundown on what happened at the CB3/SLA meeting Monday night. Given that the reader had plans for Thanksgiving, he or she couldn't stay for the entire meeting. (OK -- terrible joke.)
Eater's Gabe Ulla was able to stay for the five-hour mini-series. Here are a few more highlights from the night:
-- Billa NYC (82 2nd Ave., in the former Mission space), Uncle Charlie’s (87 Ludlow), Spina (175 Ave B), Tenzin and Tenzin (306 E. 6th), Wo Hop (17 Mott), Agnes and Eva’s Tasty Goods (243 E. 13th) and St. Dymphna’s (118 St. Mark’s) were all approved in their respective categories. In almost all cases, the board stipulated that restaurants cut down their hours of operation.
-- Thailand Café and St. Mark’s Burger were denied sidewalk café licenses.
The Lo-Down was also at the meeting and captured the spirited debate over Le Souk.
The future of 95 Avenue A
Just confirming one thing from Monday night's CB3/SLA meeting. Our reader in attendance thought that the people behind Cien Fueguos -- coming to 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street -- also had something to do with Death & Co. and Bourgeois Pig.
Indeed, that's the case, as Eater's Gabe Ulla reported:
Cienfuegos restaurant (95 Ave. A) was the rare case of a new app within a resolution area receiving unanimous approval from the board. The restaurant’s team, which consists of Luis Gonzalez (ex-Mercer Kitchen) and Death & Co. and Bourgeois Pig operatives, knew exactly what they had to do to sway the board: they presented petitions with over 1,000 signatures, demonstrated the public benefit from having a straight-up Cuban restaurant in a city that doesn't have many of them, and stressed their nearly immaculate records.
I'm all for "a straight-up Cuban restaurant," but, given the pedigree of the owners here, is the neighborhood in for, say, $26 mojitos?
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sightings...Eden and John's East River String Band in Page Six!
From Page Six today:
Go Slum Goddess!
P.S. to the Post headline writers...
In the paper, the headline was Devil's Blues
UNDERGROUND comics legend R. Crumb is playing some of the devil's music in the Hamptons before hitting the road to promote his latest work about God's own creationary chops, "The Book of Genesis Illustrated." Crumb, a longtime blues lover who plays the mandolin, will be sitting in Saturday night with the East River String Band at Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett. The artist is tight with East Village band members John Heneghan and Eden Brower, and even drew the cover of their upcoming CD, "Drunken Barrel House Blues," which rolls out on Halloween.
Go Slum Goddess!
P.S. to the Post headline writers...
In the paper, the headline was Devil's Blues
At CB3/SLA meeting: Le Souk denied; residents speak of "mayhem" and "crazy fistfights"; proponent suggests people would prefer living in Staten Island
As you read this, the CB3/SLA licensing meeting is just wrapping up (that joke never gets old!). An EV Grieve reader was there for part of the meeting and kindly filed this report. For that, we offer many thanks to this dedicated soul.
Things got off to a good start at 6:45 with the announcement that eight agenda items would not be covered, leaving only 27 matters to discuss.
After a brief discussion of budget priorities (largely a formality) the action got underway with Renewals with Complaint History.
First up was St. Dymphna's of 118 St. Marks, looking to renew its full liquor license. The board raised the issue of whether the establishment is allowed to utilize its back yard space, citing a 2007 DOB decision which indicated the back yard could not be used, and the fact that its SLA renewal application did not indicate a back yard space was in use, though it is. The establishment is under new ownership, and the current proprietor indicated he was not familiar with that DOB decision or the previous complaint history. The Board voted to approve the renewal with the stipulation that the back yard space not be used.
Next up was Spur Tree Restaurant of 76 Orchard Street, looking to renew its restaurant wine license. No one was present to represent the applicant, and the board voted to deny the renewal for non appearance.
Le Souk
That took us right to the main event -- Le Souk -- which was called in not to discuss a renewal but to address the complaints that have been lodged against it since reopening. The discussion started with a recap of the December 2008 board decision to not vote on the club's renewal, the club's license being suspended at that time. Six residents were then given an opportunity to speak. Le Souk's opponents described the improvements in quality of life during the time the club was closed.
One resident was quoted via letter as saying "life was so peaceful on Avenue B" during that time. Opponents reported that since the club has reopened, "all sorts of mayhem" has occurred, including "crazy fistfights" and "animal behavior." One resident opined about the nature of Le Souk patrons, stating that they "drive the taxi drivers to the point of insanity," a reference to the honking problem on the corner. It was also noted that the police do not ticket for honking on the corner of 4th and B despite posted warnings, purportedly because they are not able to determine which cars are doing the honking.
Seriously. One resident indicated that "life has been intolerable since Le Souk has reopened" and the letter writer was again quoted, saying "a superclub like Le Souk has no business in the neighborhood." Residents also cited loud music emanating from the club and Web site reviews which tout dancing going on in the club in violation of cabaret laws.
Two Le Souk proponents spoke in favor of the club, one saying that "the community was in shambles while Le Souk was closed," the argument focused on economics and the idea that this is not the time to shutter a club that brings much business to the neighborhood. He also suggested Le Souk is doing a better job now relative to the abysmal job it had done in the past (not the most ringing endorsement) and made a reference to some people maybe preferring to live in Staten Island.
Le Souk's proprietor indicated that traffic is a problem throughout the East Village and not a function of his club, saying in fact that he does not have a traffic or congestion problem in front of his establishment. He was then scolded by the board for failing to organize a meeting with residents to work through issues outside of the CB meeting process, as he had promised to do sometime in March. A member of the Le Souk management team indicated they would make the meeting happen this time. It was noted that Le Souk has 7,000 square feet of space.
By this point the room had become quite hot and a Le Souk proponent had to be directed by the board to stop speaking out of turn, one board member wondering aloud if security needed to be summoned. After much discussion of the language of the motion, the board voted to deny the renewal, when it comes up. In response to a direct question from a resident, asking if Le Souk would begin turning down the volume of its music starting this weekend, Le Souk indicated that it would.
Thailand Cafe
It was now 8:02. Still so early and only 23 agenda items to go. Next up was Thailand Cafe on 2nd Avenue, looking to add some manner of outdoor seating. The board expressed concerns with the already numerous outdoor seating arrangements on that stretch of 2nd Avenue, and whether the clearance depicted in the plans between the outdoor seating and bus shelter in front of the establishment would actually be as large as the plans suggest (15 feet). Residents were organized against the plan, 10 or so standing together to indicate their opposition. One suggested the idea of dining outdoors several feet from a stream of city buses would perhaps not be the best dining experience ever. There were also 23 letters submitted in opposition. The board voted to deny this plan due to bus shelter proximity and existing levels of sidewalk congestion in that area.
At this point one of the board members learned that an attendee was waiting to speak on the matter of Chickpea, agenda item 28, and let him know that the item had been announced among those canceled at the outset. Mercifully this happened two hours into meeting and not 10.
Cien Fueguos
Next up was Cien Fueguos LLC, looking to open a Cuban fine dining establishment at 95 Ave A. The owner and team made a fantastic presentation, top to bottom. They produced 1,000 signatures from East Village residents in support of their plan, 200 of them living in the immediate vicinity. Numerous residents spoke on their behalf including the owner of the building. The presentation included statistics on the prevalence of Cuban restaurants in Manhattan (there are just 43, and only five of those are considered fine dining establishments) which were compared to comparable statistics for Italian restaurants. The owner operates four other establishments in the East Village without incident and the management team's experience running orderly restaurants was touted, as was the fact that the venture will bring 40-50 new jobs to the neighborhood and include a sandwich shop. The board issued a favorable opinion on the application with basic stipulations, some of which the operating plan for the establishment already included.
(Someone said this owner is the guy behind Bourgeois Pig and Death & Co.. I thought Death and Company had some issues in the past, but am not sure. They were pretty clear about the owner running four places and not having problems.)
Caffe Bon Gusto
Next up was Caffe Bon Gusto, for which the sailing was not smooth. The applicant himself did not show up, instead sending two representatives, one of which seemed to be his attorney. The board noted that the application (for a wine license) was more or less identical to the application it rejected in September 2007. And that with only 10 signatures in support of the restaurant -- four of those from residents not in the immediate vicinity -- the applicant has not demonstrated that his establishment will provide a substantial benefit to the community, a requirement to secure a favorable opinion from the board in a resolution area. No residents signed up to speak for the club, but the applicant's attorney noted that no residents turned out to speak against it either.
Postscript
At this point our reader left. It was after 9 p.m.
How do they manage to get through 27 agenda items? I can't fathom it.
Get well soon
At the Mars Bar early yesterday evening.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Mars Bar regulars get in the way of a Drew Barrymore photo shoot
The Times goes to the Mars Bar with one of those guys who's in "Gossip Girl"
Previously on EV Grieve:
Mars Bar regulars get in the way of a Drew Barrymore photo shoot
The Times goes to the Mars Bar with one of those guys who's in "Gossip Girl"
Greed is good?
New signs up at the Bowery Bazaar in the E2E4 building on Bowery between Third Street and Fourth Street. "Brought to you by Greed"? Still not sure what this place is trying to be.
Previously.
Noted
Over at the Examiner, Sabrina Brody, the LA Celebrity Headlines Examiner, writes about Madonna's sue-happy neighbors upset about the noise coming from the star's NYC apartment. And then! the story goes here:
[I]t could be the general irritating whiny new fad that's started since New York City's gentrification rate skyrocketed. All these people moving to Alphabet City and the Lower East Side who proceed to complain that the notoriously grungy, loud neighborhood is grungy and loud. Hey, it's a city! A pretty tight city. The noise is part of the rush. YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY.
Monday, October 19, 2009
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition
"Mike Bloomberg owns this town" (New York)
Whole Earth Bakery to reopen in a week (Melanie, previously)
What's coming to the former Old Devil Moon space (Alphabet City Soup)
SATC fans pay for their crimes (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Ray's now offering Belgian waffles (Neither More Nor Less)
A visit to La Parisienne, a classic old school NYC diner (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)
Death & Co. now serving until 2 a.m. (Grub Street)
Catching up with Etherea Records (Stupefaction)
The scoop on Alchemist's Corner (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)
Apples on Orchard (BoweryBoogie)
Art cars on Second Street (Slum Goddess) And on Delancey.
And Elvie's turo-turo on First Avenue appears to be closed as of last week...
Mars Bar regulars get in the way of a Drew Barrymore photo shoot
Over the weekend, we had a very important post about some guy from "Gossip Girl" going to the Mars Bar for one of those "A Night Out With" features in the Times.
And the conversation turned to Drew Barrymore's recent photo shoot at Mars Bar for the new issue of Nylon. So here are the shots from that Mars Bar photo shoot in the magazine. (Dunno why the guy in the newsstand got so annoyed when I did this!)
Um, you can't even tell it's the Mars Bar. As EV Grieve reader ak commented, "still trying to decide if i believe that the background was photoshopped out of the others." And Goggla said: "I was there for the Barrymore shoot and the weird thing is they used white backdrops for the photos. If they wanted to block out all the graffiti, why go in there in the first place? (they also made sure to block out all the regulars)" And Jeremiah found some outtakes from the shoot here:
Since Goggla was there, I asked her more about the shoot...:
And the conversation turned to Drew Barrymore's recent photo shoot at Mars Bar for the new issue of Nylon. So here are the shots from that Mars Bar photo shoot in the magazine. (Dunno why the guy in the newsstand got so annoyed when I did this!)
Um, you can't even tell it's the Mars Bar. As EV Grieve reader ak commented, "still trying to decide if i believe that the background was photoshopped out of the others." And Goggla said: "I was there for the Barrymore shoot and the weird thing is they used white backdrops for the photos. If they wanted to block out all the graffiti, why go in there in the first place? (they also made sure to block out all the regulars)" And Jeremiah found some outtakes from the shoot here:
Since Goggla was there, I asked her more about the shoot...:
There were about 14 regulars in there and they just had the ones sitting at the end of the bar move out of the way. They shot back by the bathrooms and up front by the windows, but put backdrops up in both places. They didn't even hang around to drink, so I really don't know why they bothered.
"Joe's is only closed temporarily"
As we posted yesterday, the great Joe's Bar on Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B has been closed the last few days...
However! Jeremiah received the following response about Joe's on his Facebook fan page:
However! Jeremiah received the following response about Joe's on his Facebook fan page:
i can deliver GOOD news to you from a very reliable inside source -- Joe's is only closed temporarily -- some little insurance snafu but they will return in full force - don't know when -- stayed tuned. (we can't lose more places, i'm starting not to recognize my own hometown anymore). ugh.
Chico back to create an anti-violence mural
Lyn Pentecost, executive director of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, passed along this message on Friday evening:
The Lower Eastside Girls Club has brought Chico back from Florida to paint a few murals before the snowflakes fall:
He’ll start next week on an Anti-Violence message mural to be designed and painted by Chico and the POP (Power of Peace) Youth Anti-Violence Coalition founded a year and a half ago when Tina Negron -- the older sister of a Girls Club member -- was murdered at Key Food on Avenue A.
Since then POP has held a youth conference with Rosario Dawson, Ben Valentin (Tina’s brother) Angel Seda (GOLES) and Councilwoman Rosie Mendez at City Hall, a community march last Spring, three widely attended handbill clinics and competitions, and now -- in response to the recent tensions -- we’ve brought back Chico...the master messenger.
I'm told that he'll be starting at Avenue B and Houston.
Previously on EV Grieve.
Superdive is helping fight hunger
Tonight, Superdive is hosting a Drag Bingo Night....
Proceeds benefit the S.A.F.H. soup kitchen on Ninth Street.
Proceeds benefit the S.A.F.H. soup kitchen on Ninth Street.
Seizures: Layaly shuttered on Avenue B
B&T hookah hotspot Layaly at 98 Avenue B near Sixth Street was shut down last week.
Even the vanity ATM is gone.
Before:
Now:
Labels:
ATMs,
Avenue B,
East Village streetscenes,
hookah bars
Something finally coming to 95 Avenue A
The corner northwest corner of Avenue A and Sixth Street has been empty forever, it seems, since that place called Le Zoccole shuttered... As EV Grieve reader Creature points out, something called Cien Fueguos LLC will go before the CB3/SLA tonight for a liquor license...they're aiming for a sidewalk cafe too...
Labels:
Avenue A,
CB3,
East Village,
new restaurants,
Sixth Street
Smooth sailing tonight...???
Also tonight on the CB3/SLA docket: the long-awaited Caffe Buon Gusto at Fifth Street and Avenue B goes for a liquor license. Meanwhile, the space continues to attract a variety of street art... such as this sailboat made from red tape...should be plenty of red tape tonight too...
Read my previous 5,987 posts on Caffe Buon Gusto here.
Read my previous 5,987 posts on Caffe Buon Gusto here.
Labels:
Avenue B,
Caffe Buon Gusto,
Fifth Street,
new restaurants
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Outtakes from a walk in the rain, part 1 of 1
On First Street, lining up for brunch at Prune before their 10 a.m. opening...
In Tompkins Square Park...
Houston and Avenue B...
On First Avenue and First Street... an MTA driver patches up her bus with tape...
In Tompkins Square Park...
Houston and Avenue B...
On First Avenue and First Street... an MTA driver patches up her bus with tape...
Very bad things: Joe's Bar is closed, at least temporarily
Swung by Joe's last night on Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... seemed like a good bet to escape people watching sporting events on TV...and it was closed...no note to patrons or anything either.
Apparently the bar has been closed for several days now. We don't know why for sure. However, a neighbor vaguely said something about a paperwork glitch with the state. Hmm.
And this is what the bar should have looked like last night...
Let's hope this isn't the beginning of a Joe's curse.
Image via.
Apparently the bar has been closed for several days now. We don't know why for sure. However, a neighbor vaguely said something about a paperwork glitch with the state. Hmm.
And this is what the bar should have looked like last night...
Let's hope this isn't the beginning of a Joe's curse.
Image via.
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