What's doing at 229 E. 13th St.?

We're a little baffled by that new unit on 13th Street near Third Avenue... it has been sitting empty for months. An EV Grieve commenter said that these apartments were being shown last spring for a June 1 occupancy..... As far as we can tell, the entire building remains free of residents.

Meanwhile, nearly three weeks went by recently before anyone decided to fix the "for rent" sign out front....



If you're peddling $3,000 apartments, do you want your sign to look like that?

Still, there seems to be some movement now. According to StreetEasy, there are four rentals available: two bedrooms for $3,300; one bedrooms for $2,595. Last summer, the two-bedroom apartments were ambitiously listed at $4,200. The price was decreased 20 percent on Dec. 23, according to StreetEasy. (The listings are at Weichert Realtors.)

The units look nice enough with quality amenities like "European style Washer/Dryer combo." A little on the dorm-roomy side, though, perhaps?






Also, the paper on the front door has been removed....



...looks more inviting now....




Then there's the mystery lot and its frozen-in-EV-time landscape that's directly next door to this space. We're curious what potential residents — particularly those from elsewhere — might think walking up for an open house....





Though it can be a winter wonderland ....



Previously on EV Grieve:

Meanwhile, darkness falls on 13th Street

Dog gone (groan)

The dog days of summer

Noise, then darkness

On the CB3/SLA docket for 13th Street: Hung Ry America

Speaking of 13th Street, there's a new restaurant in the works here just east of First Avenue...at the site of this former boutique...



Hung Ry America will be going before the CB3/SLA on Monday evening...they're aiming for a beer/wine license and sidewalk seating...



Looking forward to hearing more about what's in store here...

Canadian wrestling magazine raves about Avenue A's La Lucha

I haven't been to La Lucha, the new taco eatery/wrestling boutique on Avenue A bewtween Ninth Street and 10th Street. Perhaps I will go, though, after reading this review from a source that wasn't on my food reviewing radar.... Here's an excerpt from the The SLAM! Wrestling food reviewer:

For fans of Lucha Libre wrestling and authentic Mexican food, La Lucha is a must-go destination. Happily far away from the tourist trap of Times Square, the journey to La Lucha takes you through the hip East Village, and a suggested street to take you there would be St. Mark's Place, where punk and goth fashions will prep anyone for the even more extravagant costumes of Luchadors. The restaurant itself is located at the border of the East Village and Alphabet City, which adds to its alternative mystique.

The food is some of the best Mexican food one will ever taste outside of Mexico. Please note that this isn't horrible Tex-Mex food, but real Mexican food. La Lucha's menu states in bold faced letters for all to read: "We proudly do not serve Burritos!" This was a fact that actually surprised some obese patrons seated near this writer, in WWE T-shirts, who were then perplexed as to what to order, and then complained "Who are these wrestlers? Where is Rey Mysterio Jr.'s poster?"

By the way, the SLAM! Wrestling food reviewer is Ranjan Chhibber, a former WWE TV writer with a Ph.D. in Film History...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Coming soon to Avenue A: "Best taco shop and boutique in NY!"

Trump SoHo now accepting reservations, probably

We were reading the following at BizBash: 2010 Preview: 10 of New York's Most Anticipated New Venues

And on that list:

8. Trump SoHo New York
The multimillion-dollar hotel project from the Trump Organization has been slowly rising in SoHo and, according to the most recent announcement, will open its doors on February 1. Beyond 391 rooms, the Trump SoHo will house the 190-seat Quattro Gastronomia Italiana, an 11,000-square-foot spa, and three bar and lounge areas. To top it off, SoHi penthouse is available for events of as many as 150, and the third-floor function spaces total more than 10,000 square feet.

So I went to the Trump site to see what was what. (Had already been primed via Curbed's, uh, primer). And, per the Web site, I saw that the hotel is now accepting reservations... And I went ahead and tried to make a reservation for some time next month to see what rooms would cost....and saw that NO ROOMS were available in February. (Those red x's...)



Sold out? Or just not going to be ready? (And I never could make any reservation for any time...And I tried on two different browsers...could have just been me...maybe just a temporary glitch.)

Anyway, here's a look at some screenshots from the site...







And is this Ivanka walking out of the spa?

And so we don't forget:
High school is rocked by Trump’s pile driving (The Villager)

Village Activists Decry Plans for Taller Trump SoHo (The Observer)

Deadly construction collapse at Trump building (ABC-7)

Trump Soho Is Not an Oxymoron (New York)

Trump and His Critics Square Off in SoHo (City Room)

Trump SoHo Project Is on Hold After Discovery of Human Remains (The NY Sun)

The Trump SoHo feature: All is well here! (EV Grieve)

Or you can let the Trump Tribeca Lighting Collection get you in the mood

Sorry about all the Trump stuff. But I was unaware that there was a Trump light collection...




It was explained this week in a blog post over at the Nova Lighting Store...

ELK's Trump Tribeca Lighting Collection takes its names from a billionaire business mogul and a chic downtown Manhattan community most commonly known for its celebrity denizens. It's no wonder then that these lights possess both elegant appeal and fashionable sensibility.

The fixture in the bottom photo runs $520.20.

In case you forgot what the northwest corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue looks like...

Wow. The sidewalk shed is finally coming down after how many years...

Someone already REALLY misses the Second Avenue Dunkin' Donuts

Our friend Melanie, who always finds great shots in the neighborhood, took this photo in front of the now-shuttered Dunkin' Donuts on Second Avenue....

For more:
East Village Corner: Musings by Melanie

Previously.

Dunkin' Donuts is really dead on Second Avenue

After inexplicably speculating this morning about the future of the Dunkin' Donuts on Second Avenue (as in, is it really closed?), a well-informed reader reports the following:

This location is closed due to extremely high rent and tax. In the future, landlord is planning to split this store, to make more money….

As Esquared said below in the comments:

...even a chain store can't afford the rent in the ev anymore...

Things we do when we're bored at lunch

Post photos like this...



Per the caption that accompanied this shot:

There's nothing like a herd of sheep-like paparazzi to destroy the otherwise blissful anonymity of the Big Apple. Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and hubby Pete Wentz get creative in dodging the shutterbugs on a stroll through the East Village.

Boca Chica's motor failure nearly gives reader heart failure

In a rather frantic e-mail, a reader said that she passed Boca Chica on First Avenue and First Street last evening during dinner hour on the M15 and noticed that the gates were down and yellow signs were out front....she feared the worst...



However, upon closer inspection, it appears the closure on this EV mainstay the last 15 years or so was for one night only....



P.S.
Meanwhile, Permanent Brunch & Burgers, Bath and Beyond will reopen tomorrow...

Live on St. Mark's Place for only $17,000 per month!

Hey, don't guffaw — you're getting a bargain. This unit was once $25,000!

Anyway, we're at 19 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. The luxury rentals above the mall that includes Red Mango and Chipotle. Yeah, this one.



Have you ever noticed how nice the joint is up high?



That's where this apartment awaits your rent check. And, according to StreetEasy, this apartment first went on the market in October 2008 for $25,000.



Here's the listing:

This unique luxurious 2 br with office or 3 br penthouse is on a private floor (key lock elevator) in a prime East Village location. Spectacular city views grace every room from oversized windows. The living room with a WBFPL and the dining room have glass doors onto their respective large terraces. The windowed kitchen has a breakfast bar and top of the line appliances. The master bedroom has a large spa bath ensuite with a soaking tub and a separate shower and there are two additional bathrooms. This loft like home is brand new with highend finishes and a rare feeling of space, light and privacy. A gourmet market, major transportation and convenient shopping are steps away. Furnished only, flex lease term, pets on a case by case basis.

Of course, this is how it looked a few years back, before it was suburbanized in 2003....(Via Flaming Pablum)



You probably already know the history of this address...well, quickly via New York Songlines:

These buildings built in 1833 became a German musical club, later known as Arlington Hall. The hall was famous for a shootout in 1914 between Dopey Benny Fein's gang and Jack Sirocco's mob; Fein's managing to kill only one elderly bystander spelled the end of the Jewish mob's reign in the neighborhood.

The site became the Polish National Home, known as The Dom, which turned into a popular bar. Later the psychedelic Electric Circus, featuring Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable with the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Blue Oyster Cult etc.

Here's a shot of Edie Sedgwick and Ray Wisniewski at the Dom from 1966 (Photo by Fred W. McDarrah/Getty Images).



And the exterior from 1966...

Eco-indulgent gym not quite ready for action on 11th Street

Oh! The big Village Green ad came off the front windows at, uh, Village Green, 11th Street's very first eco-indulgent, harmony of mind and body, of time and place, of luxury and lifestyle condo.



Can we see that street-level gym Wellness Center yet?!



Well. Sort of.



Dude, where's the ab lounge?



Then! The paper went back up on the windows...




Until the Wellness Center is open, you Spandex-craving peepsters will have to keep trudging over to Dolphin on Fourth Street near Second Avenue....



Previously!

Three storefronts, two new businesses (so far) for East 11th Street

Speaking of 11th Street...So the three new storefronts just to the west of Veniero's...So we know about the Village Veterinarian...



... and Tully's Gluten-Free Bakery...



...and next to Tully's...we're told it will be a clothing boutique...don't know much else about the store just yet...

The campaign to ruin Derek Jeter's good name in East Village dive bar bathrooms

Last week, I posted this charming little bit of graffiti that was quickly removed from the men's room wall at Sophie's...



In looking at the comments from that post, I see where readers spotted this same message on the walls at Blue & Gold and 7B. Oh, an insidious plot, Red Sox fans. We'll be watching for your handiwork at Lucy's, the Blarney Cove, Joe's...

The Dunkin' Donuts watch has begun....Day 4 (or 5, or maybe 3); and welcome Tim Hortons to the neighborhood?

Swung by last night for any signs of life...



Meanwhile, while flipping through back copies of Nation's Restaurant News, I found this article from July...

The Riese Organization, a longtime multi-concept franchisee in New York City, is converting all 13 of its Dunkin’ Donuts stores to the Tim Hortons brand, president and chief executive Dennis Riese said Wednesday.

Riese said he plans to close the Dunkin’ locations on Friday and reopen the stores July 13 under the Tim Hortons banner. Riese and Dunkin’ had come to an agreement about five years ago that required the termination of a franchise partnership by July 31.

Riese operates about 80 restaurants in New York City under the T.G.I. Friday’s, Houlihan’s, Pizza Hut and KFC brands. Its proprietary concepts include Charley O’s, Tads Steaks, Nedicks and Lindy’s.

Tim Hortons, based in Canada, has been making a push to open more stores in the New York metro area. Most recently, the chain opened three co-branded restaurants in midtown Manhattan in partnership with premium ice-cream chain Coldstone Creamery.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Dunkin’ Donuts, a chain of about 8,800 locations worldwide, has 454 units located in the New York City area. It is owned by franchisor Dunkin’ Brands Inc., which is based in Canton, Mass.

“Notwithstanding the disenfranchisement of the Riese organization, Dunkin Donuts presence in Manhattan and throughout New York City continues to expand,” franchisor Dunkin’ said in its statement. “In the past five years, 244 new Dunkin’ Donuts shops have opened in New York City, and we intend to continue this pattern of growth as opportunities arise.”

Expand? How many more do we need?

Anyway, so I guess the Second Avenue DD will become a Tim Hortons soon...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dunkin' Donuts closes on Second Avenue; only 428 left in NYC

Memories of Veselka: Recalling the beatniks, artists and punks; and squirting the owner with breast milk

The Times today takes a look at the history of Veselka, which has been serving up Ukrainian specialties on Second Avenue and Ninth Street since 1954. Here's an excerpt for the piece, titled "A Ukrainian Beacon in the East Village" ...

"We were in and out of Veselka all day, every day," said Penny Arcade, the writer and performance artist who arrived in the neighborhood as a teenage runaway in 1967 and is still a Veselka regular. "It had the Village Voice before anywhere else, a row of phone booths, smokes for a dime and cheap good food that never changed." Mr. Darmochwal [the original owner], she said, never hid his disapproval of the hippies and beatniks, artists and punks who lingered there over coffee and cigarettes and free challah. "But he never threw us out, either," she said — even in 1969, when an anarchist squirted him with breast milk after he objected to her breast-feeding at the table.

And, say, whatever happened to Veselka on the Bowery...?

[Photo by Youngna Park via Grub Street]

(Updated) Female cyclist dies after getting struck by bus on Delancey and Ludlow

Here's what ABC-7 is reporting now:

A woman riding a bicycle was struck by a school bus and died from her injuries on the Lower East Side Tuesday.

Authorities say the woman was hit by the bus, operated by Atlantic Express, just after 4 p.m. at the intersection of Delancey and Ludlow streets.

There were reportedly two children on board the bus at the time. Officials say neither was injured.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

BoweryBoogie has more.

UPDATED:
NY1 has more horrific details.

A witness says the woman was riding her bicycle on Delancey when she hit a pothole and fell behind the bus, which then backed over her.

"She was just trying to get away from the school bus and the school bus just kept driving, and it was getting closer and closer to her. And everybody's screaming at him, 'There's somebody behind you!' And she was trying to avoid the pothole, but once she hit the pothole, that's when she fell over," said one witness.

Police say there is no criminality at this time.

According to StreetsBlog:

The intersection is just a few blocks away from the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge. Since 2008, volunteer group Adopt-a-Bike Lane has been advocating for a protected bike path on this stretch of Delancey. "This is tragic news -- no one should risk his or her life to get to and from the most popular bridge for biking in the country," said Adopt-a-Bike Lane coordinator Marin Tockman. "We can only hope that in the wake of such sad news that our city officials do something to improve this essential corridor."

BikeBlogNYC notes that this tragey occurred just two days after the fifth annual Memorial Ride throughout the city to remember those cuclists who were killed on the streets in 2009.

I'm not a cyclist...it seems like Delancey leading up to the Williamsburg Bridge is treacherous at best. Per Boomshanka at StreetsBlog:

delancey is a mess, and always extremely dangerous for bikers and pedestrians. i don't ever cross against the light, and sometimes don't even when i have a walk signal.

theres definitely been a policy decision made that moving traffic on and off the bridge gets priority over safety. even tonight traffic police were waving cars through reds in front of me as i was crossing the street with a walk signal.

the only traffic enforcement i routinely see is a block-the-box ticket trap on orchard and delancey, taking advantage of the poorly timed traffic lights at allen. not only is this unfair to drivers (i can see that and i don't drive) but it makes the orchard/delancey intersection extremely dangerous for pedestrians.

Is Le Souk still doing business on Avenue B?

Last fall, troubled hookah hotspot Le Souk closed after losing its liquor license in a long, contentious battle.

And this rather final sign greeted potential Le Soukers....



But, in recent weeks, that sign has disappeared. Meanwhile, all the usual Zagat/Time Out/accolades stuff remains in the front windows...along with a menu. (The photo below was taken on Sunday.) If you didn't know any better walking by, then you'd think the place might still be open. And maybe it is.



A trusted EV Grieve reader reported that Le Souk was open for business this past New Year's Eve. Said the reader:

"[I]t must have been hired out for a private party, because I understand they can't sell alcohol, but perhaps they can give it away? There were black-tie Secret-Service-looking bouncers out front too. It was just as loud as usual at 2 am ... but with fewer people, and all in much fancier dress. Not too surprising seeing as how it was NYE."

So far, we've been unsuccessful in tracking down anyone who may have been at this alleged soiree... Is this the first in a line of other private parties to use the Le Souk space?

Field & Stream FINALLY checks in on the falling moose head/caribou story; tsk-tsks entire New York media

And they're not all that amused by our moose/news-gathering prowess! In his Field Notes blog for the magazine, Chad Love wonders ....

The bars most of us frequent don't have a theme aside from "cold beer here" and don't attempt fashion statement other than perhaps a "wipe boots before entering" sign. They're just bars. Places to hang out, grab a beer and shoot the bull. And if they've got dead animals hanging on the wall you can be sure we can appreciate or — at the very least — correctly identify what they are.

Not so in New York. For the hipsters who inhabit our cultural capital, dead animals on the bar wall are merely ironic statements of urban cool, and if no one actually knows what those animals are, just call it a moose. Everyone else does.

Later, he notes:

How an animal so obviously not a moose can be misidentified by pretty much the entire world is a good example of how quickly stupidity can go viral.

First it's misidentified by the bar owner who put it up, then by the patron upon whose head it landed, then by said patron's lawyer, then by the (not one but two!) NY Post reporters who wrote the story, then by the wire services and blogs who picked up the story. So now, a few days after the story was first published, Google "stuffed moose attack" and you will discover tha New York City's killer moose has gone worldwide....

First, noted, Mr. Rugged, Shoot-the-Bull Outdoorsman! Second, how soon before some enterprising fancy cocktailer or restaurateur names a dish or drink the Stuffed Moose Attack?

Previously on EV Grieve:
When moose attack at hipster LES hotspots

PETA gets involved in falling moose/caribou head circus

Photo of dead East Village artist used for new trends piece on smoking in bars

You probably know about that epic "Hey-people-are-illegally-smoking-in-some-bars" trends piece the Times ran on Sunday...(I didn't read it either.)

As Gawker's Foster Kamer wrote on the "problem with 'smoking in New York' trend pieces," NYTPicker noted that, in an "eerie and unfortunate mistake," the Times' article was accompanied by a photo of Jeremy Blake, the East Village artist who committed suicide in the summer of 2007.

Here's part of the NYTPicker post:

NYT contributor Douglas Quenqua reports on a supposed trend of nightclub patrons flouting the law and lighting up in local trendy nightclubs -- a "new brazenness," Quenqua calls it.

New? Maybe, but the NYT's use of a nearly three-year-old image of famous painter Jeremy Blake smoking a cigarette at the Beatrice Inn doesn't illustrate the point. As many NYT readers know -- and the paper itself reported in a 647-word obituary -- Blake committed suicide in the summer of 2007, at the age of 35.

Blake, whose paintings appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson film "Punch Drunk Love," is believed to have killed himself by walking into the Atlantic Ocean on July 17, 2007, despondent over the suicide death one week earlier of his girlfriend, the video game creator Theresa Duncan.

The use of the Blake photo raises a couple of interesting questions. Why would the NYT run a photo of a well-known artist -- knowing that many readers would recognize him -- without identifying him in the caption? And why would the NYT run a nearly three-year-old photograph to illustrate a story that purports to document a recent phenomenon?

At the time of their deaths, Duncan and Blake lived in an apartment on East 11th Street adjacent to St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.

For further reading on Duncan and Blake:
The Golden Suicides (Vanity Fair)

Conspiracy of Two (New York)