Missing the Stuyvesant Grocery; plus Permacut relocates

This weekend, the fire-ravaged buildings remained shuttered on 14th Street and Avenue A after the three-alarm fire last week ... I didn't see any activity...



...though a fan of the grocery left a note...



Meanwhile, the folks at Permacut quickly relocated...good news. (Jeremiah had a great post on the Permacut sign last Thursday.)





Also, well, I don't know much about gut renovations... but this looks rather hopeless to me... fueling more speculation that this block will be razed.




Again, this is only speculation made by a few longtime residents... We all hope the business owners are able to rebuild here.

All fire coverage here.

East Village eatery odds-n-ends: French Creperie coming to St. Mark's; Rico getting evicted; people standing in line at Pulino's

Absinthe wine bar closed on First Avenue near Seventh Street back in November... the place became Lautrec Bistro.... now that place has closed... a new cafe is hoping to transfer the license here tonight during the CB3/SLA meeting... the new owners want to operate the garden... which has caused problems in the past...



As BoweryBoogie noted Friday, Pulino's finally outed its sidewalk cafe... and there were lines (and bare feet!)...



Officials served Rico, the hookah joint on Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street, with an eviction notice... (They closed once and reopened about two months later back in 2008.)




Signs for a French Creperie have gone up on St. Mark's Place next to the Hop Devil Grill... replacing the boitique that closed here...




Workers removed the plywood at the Pita Pan Sports Grill on Second Avenue and Sixth Street...



And, I have no idea when this happened, but the McDonald's on 14th Street near First Avenue has a walk-up window now...

More tenant meetings for White House residents; plus the bed bugs will be exterminated

Last week, Curbed noted the ongoing tenant meetings at the doomed White House (or Whitehouse) on the Bowery... The four-story building erected in 1916 now serves as a hostel as well as a permanent home for a handful of low-income residents... it's destined to become a hotel...

More meeting signs are up for the remaining tenants... and if the photos weren't so blurry, you'd be able to read that the meeting includes an update on preservation efforts ...



Plus, the tenants' attorney has gotten the landlord to OK exterminating for bed bugs. How humane of the landlord. They had to get an attorney to lobby for decent living conditions?



Meanwhile, I was thinking, what if this place shutters... and the sidewalk shed eventually is taken down... How will the Subway next door advertise?

Cosmic Cantina is closing

NYU fave Cosmic Cantina on Third Avenue near 13th Street...



is moving on in June, as the sign says...

(Updated) A Penny Farthing for your thoughts

[Apologies for that headline!] Next door to Cosmic Cantina we have Penny Farthing (named for an old-timey bicycle) in the former Cafe DeVille space looking very ready for action...





As Grub Street reported, it will have a "very industrial but comfortable atmosphere" courtesy of the folks behind Phebe's. How many times did someone proofread those signs to make sure that no one wrote Penny Farting?

The signs went up on Friday... and I spotted a bread delivery out front on Sunday morning... perhaps Opening Day is imminent.



Eater reports that Penny Farting opens tonight... and they'll be serving Appletinis and stuff.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's Penny-farthing on Third Avenue, not a sports bar

At the former Cafe DeVille, the black plastic goes up, the dead potted plants go out

Is the Shepard Fairey mural snatching babies now?

A new addition next to the Shepard Fairey mural

Noted

Previously on EV Grieve:
The challenges of making the Sex and the City sequel "recession-friendly"

Street fair!

Third Avenue north of 14th Street...

The Smurfs are coming back to the East Village! The Smurfs are coming back to the East Village! The Smurfs are coming back to the East Village!

On Monday, May 24. Thanks for the heads up so that I have time to make more of these!




We hear that the storylines will include... Gutsy Smurf walking into Nevada Smith's on Day 1 of the World Cup and asking if they'll turn on the replay of the previous evening's Mets game... Smurfette getting drunk and talking louder and faster whenever she steps outside Heathers for a cigarette break ... and Grouchy Smurf starting a blog...


Previously on EV Grieve:
A lot of fuss to watch Neil Patrick Harris exit a cab for 10 seconds

Exclusive: The Smurfs show their immature side while filming in the East Village

Exclusive first look at "The Smurfs Movie" filming today in the East Village

Day 3 of the Ukrainian Festival

Paul Richard puts up a larger sign on Shepard Fairey's mural

On Monday, we posted a video of Paul Richard hanging a sign on Shepard Fairey's Bowery/Houston mural... the sign was quickly removed...

And this past week Paul Richard put up another, larger sign, as you'll see here...



That, too, has been removed...

Historic bombing on the Shepard Fairey mural

Epic.







Jeremiah has the history of the wall here ... he also posted the first reports of the mural being defaced back in April...

Ukrainian Festival is under way

As of yesterday... and today and tomorrow...

Before the Mothership

I took this photo prior to the Ukrainian Festival in 2008...



...before the Mothership was completed.

Hey! Baby

The Gories.

(Updated) Avenue A, 9:13 p.m., May 8

The discussion continues on this post.... Thank you for all the comments... I appreciate the spirited debate.... There are many noteworthy comments... Here's one from Goggla...

I've been thinking about this issue as it's obviously touched a nerve. Aside from the obvious problems cited above, I think this photo is upsetting because it brings to life the selfish attitude that permeates our culture of late. The over-consuming, reckless-spending, live now and screw the consequences behavior that undermined our economy is personified in this picture. This behavior is not just confined to weekend binges in the EV - when you believe it's ok to go into a neighborhood and puke on doorsteps and piss in planters, what prevents you from carrying this general attitude towards the world on a daily basis? It's not my stoop, so I can throw my trash here; it's not my pension fund, so I'll spend the money now and they can worry about it later. I find it hard to believe that a person (or group of people) can behave like animals only two nights a week and be decent, courteous human beings the other five. What we see here on the street corner is a self-gratifying, irresponsible, spoiled and unempathetic picture of a larger social problem.

Busy night outside the Verizon building: The tags are back

About six weeks ago, workers painted over all the tags on 13th Street side of the Verizon building...



However! Thanks to EV Grieve reader evilnyc for these shots of some epic tagging last night...







Previously on EV Grieve:
First tag reappears on the Verizon building

Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

"High-end English food" coming to Avenue A

I'm starting to take a closer look at some of Monday night's CB3/SLA liquor license items... So there's a transfer in the works at the Al Diwan space on 13th Street and Avenue A....



-- Percy's (Steelbar 180 Inc), 210-212 Ave A (trans/op) (Al Diwan)

I'm told that Percy's will serve “high-end English food” (!) ... and, allegedly, operate as a restaurant first and foremost, though they do plan to stay open until 3 or 4 a.m.

Previously on EV Grieve:
"Another noisy bar" slated for Avenue A; actually, make that several noisy bars, perhaps

There has been a lot of discussion on the post... be sure to read Jill's epic comment... that, in part, reads...

The bottom line is that a successful neighborhood, where ADULTS want to live, is about BALANCE. These busybodies would like to see DIVERSE businesses that cater to the community, not only to tourists. Places we would support on a regular basis, like butchers, fishmongers, grocery stores, shoemakers, tailors, laundromats, clothing stores, book shops and all types of small businesses that are disappearing.