Does this mean the East Village is no longer dead?

Just looking at the new mural on the Mars Bar...




Previously!



(The above photo via)

And, well...as I already pointed out...

EV Grieve Etc., Mourning edition

Photo on Sixth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue sent along by EV Grieve reader Lambert Jack.

What we wanted for xmas in 1955 (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

City of Strangers returns to the Mars Bar (City of Strangers)

The Bowery hasn't been the same since 1920 (BoweryBoogie)

Looking at the LES art scene (The New York Times)

Basement fire on East Ninth Street (Neither More Nor Less)

Eliade's "The Sacred and the Profane" and a sense of place in Manhattan (Save the Lower East Side!)

The girl gangs of old Manhattan (Ephemeral New York)

Canadian doughnut chain coming to the old Zen Palate space on Union Square (A Fine Blog)

John Legend's Bowery bargain (Curbed)

An appreciation of indie comics (NYPress)

Looking at EV Grieve favorite "The Seven Ups" (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

And then! A wave of liquid heat crashed through her. She looked up to find his eyes on hers, filled with smouldering amusement

Page Six Magazine is back! And with this cover story that begins....good lord!

Padma Lakshmi sits in a cozy corner of the East Village Italian restaurant Supper, her black hair half pulled back, the rest rippling around her shoulders. As she orders a cup of coffee and an appetizer of burrata mozzarella with tomato, basil and grilled bread, the Italian words come out with a perfect roll of the r's. The waiter, eager to please but flustered, strains to avoid looking in the direction of Padma's spectacular breasts.

[Bad romance novel quote via]

Skid marks at the Coop

By now, it seems pretty commonplace to see someone using the new Cooper Union academic building as a makeshift skateboard park... Was pretty funny the first, oh, 10 times....





So how's the old Coop holding up so far? Sure, there's some wear and tear from the skateboarders, roller-bladers, BMX bikers, ass-sliders, etc., but the old gal should be able to stay afloat another 150 years or so.

Is the Coop settling into the neighborhood?

Well, six months after the new Cooper Union academic building opened, the space continues to be welcomed to the neighborhood... Will we ever be friends?

Anyway, students have used the front window to advertise keggers...



It has been tagged...



...and used as a shelter from the elements...



...a skateboard park...



...a meeting place for teen gamers...



...a place to take photos...

Correction of the week: Trump is NOT opening a tiki bar at Trump SoHo™ Hotel Condominium New York

Ha! We love Scoopy for this one... in this weeks's issue of The Villager...

A Scoopy’s Notebook item last week wrongly reported that a ground-floor space in the new Trump Soho tower at Dominick and Spring Sts. is slated to be a tiki bar. Eve McGrath, a P.R. spokesperson for the project, set us straight. "First, the property is Trump SoHo™ Hotel Condominium New York," she said, regarding the edifice complex's proper name. Second, she said, "There is no tiki bar planned for Trump SoHo." In fact, according to an explanatory press release McGrath sent us, the spot will be home to a lounge named Bazaar, "created by the team behind South Beach's hottest nightspots, Miami-based restaurant and hospitality group, KNR… . Bazaar will be the place to see and be seen while enjoying impeccable cocktails and playlists by renowned DJs. Luxuriously textured wood walls have a split-face finish, with a simple polished dark charcoal concrete floor continuing the raw and rich design elements in this posh lounge designed by Rockwell." Maybe the construction worker who gave us the wrong information was basing his opinion on the "textured wood walls" with their "split-face finish," which probably look — we're just taking a wild guess here — tiki bar-ish. On the other hand, maybe he was just an "apprentice." Ka-ching!

What to do with the Permanent Brunch space if the closure becomes Permanent?

Yesterday we noted that Permanent Brunch on First Avenue was still rather closed. So, speculating for just a moment, what if Permanent Brunch never comes back? What to do with the space? Can it return to the laundromat it once was. Nah, not in this neighborhood these days.

EV Grieve reader Goggla really nailed it yesterday with this suggestion:

How about Permanent Press? They could do laundry, serve paninis and print a neighborhood rag.

Posts that I never got around to posting: The Holiday is now open seven days a week

Oops! Meant to post this about 6-7 weeks ago! In any event, good news. Cheesy promotions aside (and we understand you need to make some money), we're pleased that the Holiday is back on a seven-day-a-week schedule. After Stefan's death earlier this year, there were questions his family would even keep the bar going... Soon enough, the Holiday was open just on the weekends. Then, in April the bar expanded its hours to Wednesdays and Thursdays. So here's to a great place to drink Mondays and Tuesdays now... and any other day, really.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Bars that aren't so tweet

Marshall Stack on Allen and Rivington is apparently a no Twitter zone.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Band looking for non-jerk and merc types

First Avenue near Seventh Street.

Another UFO sighting in downtown Manhattan

So, you remember that fireball over the East Village that several people reported seeing this past July?

Yeah, totes a UFO. Anyway, now a credible source — UFOstalker.com — brings word of another UFO sighting downtown, this one on Tuesday.

According to the witness:

This happened during the evening, I do not remember the time. My windows face lower Manhattan, just to give you a point of reference as to where the object was. I was sitting at my desk and decided to look out the window. The moment I did an unusually bright 'star' caught my eye. It was too low and to big to be a star, as I realized. I grabbed my camera and recorded a video. It was not moving, it stayed in that one spot, glowing very brightly. The moment I strayed from the object and filmed the whole sky, the object disappeared. It was gone by the time I moved back to the spot. In the video, you can actually see it disappearing as I move the frame away from it. The object did not reappear after that, and I searched the sky for its light after the video ended. But there was nothing. Several other people saw and even recorded this same object disappearing.

And there's some grainy footage at the site above...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Fireball in the sky above the East Village

Permanent Brunch still not looking very permanent

EV Grieve reader Creature, proprietor of the State of the Day blog, sent along these photos taken this morning at the brunch hole on First Avenue near Sixth Street...




As Grub Street first reported, the tax man seizethed (sorry) the eatery on Tuesday. In a follow-up, PB reps told Grub Street that the place was supposed to reopen yesterday with a brand-new name — Permanent Brunch & Burger.

At least as of this morning, it didn't appear that any brunch or burgers would be served anytime soon....

Luring potential East Village condo buyers with a DJ and fine art raffle — not to mention an open bar and Katz's

The folks at Prudential Douglas Elliman are throwing a big party (hot!) Tuesday evening to introduce "2 hot new developments" — the Copper Building at 215 Avenue B at 13th Street ... and the no-fancy-name 525 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. As you can see in the disco-ball decorated flier above, potential condo buyers and various crashers will be treated to an open bar and food from Katz's. ("Send a salami to a condo buyer in...")



So, you know about Upper Avenue B's out-of-place Copper... But how about 525, which is real close to "THE ONLY REAL FRAT HOUSE AT NYU!" According to the listings for one of the seven available homes:

525 East 12th Street is one of the latest and finest new boutique condominium developments of the East Village. Superiorly located, this unique floor through lofts project, is facing the serene, beautifully landscaped Sauer Park. The building offers private keyed elevator that opens into each apartments, T.V. intercom system, 10 Years tax abatement, low C.C. and much more. This garden duplex is one of the most unique properties in downtown. Townhouse living: Gracious entry leads into an extraordinary double height living room with walls of windows overlooking your own private landscaped garden. The enormous chic Italian SCIC chef's kitchen is open through a Caesar stone quartz bar and equipped with a Subzero fridge, Wolf Range, A Zepher exterior vent that removes all cooking odors, Miele… D/W and Marvel dual zone wine cellar. The upper floor occupies the south facing bedrooms that give onto Sauer Park, the master bathroom with double sink and Neptune bath and the second bathroom that's furnished with green glass tiles and natural stone. Family room/ mezzanine includes the Washer and Dryer and its own WIC. Each zone has its own self controlled HVAC unit.

Prices at 525 range from $1.2 to $1.8 million.

Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct (in random photos)

Per the Grieve family tradition, we spend Thanksgiving helping those more unfortunate than ourselves...in this case, the New York Racing Association, which inexplicably figures to have a $14 billion dollar deficit... So it was off to the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, this past Thanksgiving.

I never know how much longer this place will be around. Aqueduct officials have unveiled plans to turn the racetrack into a racino. Again. And again.

So, to some random photos from this past Thursday.

A Ferrari in the parking lot. Must belong to a NYRA official!



Inside, the track was already a winter wonderland...with a scary-looking Santa...




...and, as the sign helpfully notes, there are live plants...



...and up we go...




Despite the sign, the barber shop was NOT open on Thanksgiving.



And Thanksgiving hot dogs were here.



...the racetrack bugler came into the Aqueduct's Equestris Restaurant and played some songs for a family celebrating their daughter's engagement.



In the second race, a jittery Saumon Fume dumped jockey Alex Bisono at the gate and raced around the track in last...



In the 96th running of the Fall Highweight, the $2 trifecta paid $3,377. I did not have the winning combo. But the fellow in front of me did. He had to get his photo taken for the IRS.



In any event, there was a decent-size crowd here. Still, Aqueduct can be a lonely place. It's seemingly full of people who have spent their lives being told what to do by parents, teachers, girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses, husbands, wives...and now, alone, they simply do what they want to do...Or maybe they just like putting some money on horses.



As always, I wonder how much longer Aqueduct will remain the same...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Thanksgiving at Aqueduct

Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct, Part 2

Then after the Aqueduct

After the races, you may want to sample the local bar scene across the street in the South Ozone Park neighborhood...

Unfortunately, all of our favorites are gone. Was dismayed to see on Thanksgiving that Guy's of Vinegar Hill (on the left below)...



...is now this charmless-looking spot. And it wasn't open on Thanksgiving afternoon...



The worst, though. Several years ago, the Winners Circle on Rockaway Boulevard and 112th Street...



...became a custom-made kitchen counter shop...



...further along Rockaway Boulevard is the Tropical Nights, where you can watch live cricket matches. The Trop was also closed on Thanksgiving afternoon...

So long, roll-down gates

The Times follows up on its story about the city's newly endangered roll-down gates.

[O]n orders of the City Council, roll-down gates have joined the ranks of fatty foods and cigarette smoke: they have been legislated against, some right into extinction.

And!

The head-scratching dismay expressed by Pyung Lim Lee upon learning that City Hall had taken a regulatory interest in the rickety old solid gate outside C.H. Plaza Dry Cleaners, 400 Court Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11231, was typical.

"If the government pays, then O.K.," said Mr. Lee, the owner of the shop, who was not surprised to learn that the government would not, after all, be covering the cost of a new gate. "They make law, law, law, and people's life is more difficult."

Previously on EV Grieve:
City leaders take another step toward making NYC completely sanitized


[Photo by Richard Perry/The New York Times]