EV Grieve

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Via @purelygenius: Sidebar in the East Village is offering $5 LeBomb James shots. That's not a typo.

Via @16Handles: "Have you checked out our newest flavor in East Village? Clockwork Orange Sorbet. Handle It!"

What's Great About America: Ray's

As we mentioned, the Ray's delivery team was featured on the John Stossel-hosted Fox program "What's Great About America" this past weekend...and here is the segment. The Ray's piece starts at the 4:30 point or so...in case you want to skip by the opening stuff with Bono and Angelina....

Thanks to Matt at Neighborhoodr for this link. He has more Ray's-related items here, such as a deal on Save Ray's gear (only through today, though).

By the way, as Scoopy noted, the Ray's delivery team is on hiatus during the summer...

Spending $2 million to combat "unpleasant perceptions of OTB parlors and clientele"

At the Times today, Russ Buettner looks at the latest OTB wretched excess...spending millions on consultants and research ... Why?

Much of the [the consultants'] effort involved wrestling with unpleasant perceptions of OTB parlors and clientele.

As the Times notes, "For now, the consultants’ expensive work product appears to have no more value than a torn race ticket on a dirty linoleum floor." The new OTB boss doesn't care for the work that was done by his predecessor.

Wonder how much longer before the whole OTB system is shuttered... they're what, $200 million in the hole now? Go to one while you can.

This line from the Times a few years back sums it up best about the future of the OTB: It is an ever-narrowing slice of New York that still belongs to the hustler and the old-timer. Soon it may be extinct...

Like everything else that helps give the city some character.

[Photo at the Delancey OTB by EV Grieve]

No more Belgian fries at Ray's (for now)

Scoopy's column in this week's issue of The Villager has several updates on Ray's...Including:

— Ray is receiving his Social Security payments, going back as far as 2.5 years.

— Ray is no longer selling Belgian fries. Reports Scoopy: "In a new twist, his property manager, Barbara Chupa, has proposed a deal: Stop selling fries and get a three-year lease; his current rent, $3,700, would increase $200 each year. So, for the moment, Ray has covered his array of Belgian fries signs with sheets of white paper — and yet Chupa still hasn’t provided a lease."

— "Ray still wants to install an Ansul system hood over his deep fryer, which he hopes would satisfy Chupa, allowing him to fire up his golden fries once more — but he won’t spend the $10,000 to do it until he gets her OK."

— He says the new NYC Icy on the other side of Avenue A "has taken half his business."

— Ray may close up the shop for several weeks during a traditionally slow period to have his hernia operation.

[Image by Andrew King Dong via the Save Ray's Facebook page]

Senator's bill could shutter problem bars — eventually

Also in The Villager this week... reporter Michael Mandelkern looks at a new bill by Sen. Daniel Squadron. Per the article:

The state Senate passed a bill on June 24 that sets guidelines for the State Liquor Authority to revoke the licenses of routinely raucous bars and clubs.

If Governor David Paterson signs the bill — co-sponsored by state Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Robin Schimminger — into law, the S.L.A. could shut down nightspots if police are called at least six times within two months for excessive noise and disorderly conduct.

However! There's a however...

Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3 . . . was doubtful that many places would have enough bad incidents to fall within the new S.L.A. standard.

"There are some bars [in the Lower East Side] that have constant problems, but I think it would be extremely unusual [to have six incidents in 60 days]," she said. “There are very few bars that would reach this level."

Time and time again

You may have seen this nighttime time-lapse video making the rounds of late (you can see it here at East Village Feed).

Which reminded me ... of a video from 1993 that I came across on YouTube a few years back... it's a time-lapse video looking at the southwest corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

Amazing to see so many people out walking... without talking into a cell phone...

[Video from YouTube via TreeTopVideo]

Marketing an East Village scavenger hunt

For some reason this popped up in my inbox the other day... see if you can find the two words in the description that, that... shouldn't have anything to do with the others...

Watson Adventures' Secrets of the East Village Scavenger Hunt
This East Village scavenger hunt takes participants to the haunts of diverse personalities ranging from Washington Irving to Andy Warhol to Carrie Bradshaw to Leon Trotsky, learning amazing facts about the sights seen along the way. Highlights include TV and movie locations, hurly-burly St. Mark's Place, the last remnant of the Fillmore East, the remains of the city's most aristocratic neighborhoods, the scene of a notorious riot over Macbeth, and a mini-Ukraine.

Yes, the answer is Leon Trotsky.

Ugh. Anyway, the tour is this Saturday at 5 p.m., and costs $9.75.

Why yes, there has been a lot of consuming on this stretch of Avenue A

Spotted at 12th Street and Avenue A.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Spain 1, Germany 0

Is Avenue C OK? Are the German fans being good sports?

EV Grieve Cooling Center Opens for second day

[Update] Hey, wait a minute... I didn't post those last two photos!

So, what will happen on Avenue C this afternoon if Germany beats Spain?

So, it's Germany vs. Spain today in the World Cup semifinals. And, after recent Germany victories, Avenue C and Seventh Street has turned into a Celebration Zone. (Why Seventh and C? People have been watching the matches nearby at Zum Schnieder, Alphabet City Lounge, Kafana, Arcane and the Porch... and German fans have all kind of converged here afterwards...)

So! What happens today? Jumping on fire trucks was just for the Germany-Argentina quarterfinal. What if Germany wins to advance to Sunday's final vs. The Netherlands?

I was originally going to suggest some humorous things that may happen... but I don't want to give anyone any ideas.

I'll leave you with this...inside a German celebration in the middle of Avenue C last Saturday...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Avenue C is for...crazy German fans

More photos from yesterday's German-themed Avenue C street fair

That really big Chipotle ad on First Avenue is illegal, probably

Back in April, I made note of the ginormous Chipotle banner hanging from the building on the northeast corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

The Chipotle banner is one of several different ads in the East Village and West Village that the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) say is illegal. In a recent letter to Robert LiMandri, commissioner, New York City Department of Buildings, GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman noted that the Chipotle sign is illegal because "the property has no signage permits in-process or issued in the last year." The area was inspected and violations issued, but no hearing has been set.

The GVSHP was instrumental in getting that awful Kobe Bryant video game ad removed on Avenue A and 12th Street this spring... I hope the Chipotle ad makes a quick exit too... I hate having such a large fast-food banner on a main thoroughfare of the neighborhood...

Time for the Shepard Fairey mural to go

I'm not sure what else to say about the Shepard Fairey mural on Houston and the Bowery... every day, a little bit more of it disappears... it's like a beached whale being slowly pecked clean by every passing seagull, crab, uh, you get the idea. I took these photos last evening. I'm sure it looks worse this morning.

Or maybe the mural is more interesting this way, as one East Village resident suggested to DNAinfo.

BoweryBoogie has an update on the mural today too.

Activity at Pete's-A-Place, but what does it mean?

A reader noted some activity yesterday at Pete's-A-Place, one of the storefronts destroyed by fire back on May 12... The gates were up at the neighborhood pizza joint, and it looked as if workers were packing/inspecting some damaged kitchen equipment...

And yo9u can see from the photos the current state of Pete's interior...

Newsflash! Not a lot of people were dining outside last evening

OK, no shit given that it was like 400 degrees at this hour, maybe 6:30ish...(a little early for dinner, yes, but still...a lot of these places have happy hour specials). Anyway, while wandering aimlessly, I realized... no one was eating outside. There are always a few brave souls who insist on eating outside no matter how extreme... so, in a really unscientific manner, I walked by some places with outdoor seating to find them...

I finally spotted two diners outside Dallas BBQ on St. Mark's. I would have taken their photo, but, I thought, they deserved to eat in peace for being this brave...

The 13th Step is now open

Second Avenue near Ninth Street. Previously.

Just south of Avenue A, Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side counts 19 bars/restaurants on the three-block stretch between Houston and Delancey streets.

While many of these places have arrived without incident, a decidedly déclassé bar featuring drinking games doesn’t necessarily fit with everyone’s idea of a neighborhood pub.

“A frat bar is not representative of this once-bohemian neighborhood,” said Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer, a longtime East Villager who counts the proliferation of bars as one of the board’s most pressing issues.

“Beer pong is not the Lower East Side.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Of the 147 storefronts on Avenue A, 70 of them are bars, restaurants or vacant

Photo by EV Grieve