EV Grieve

Monday, June 13, 2011

NYPD checkpoint on First Avenue

samo sends us word (and these photos) that the NYPD has a checkpoint this morning on First Avenue near First Street...

Seems as if they're focusing more on car and trucks than bikes. But you never know. Put on your bike bells.

Joe's Locksmith is closing June 30, fueling more speculation about the last day for the Mars Bar

Yesterday, via Crain's New York, we learned that workers will demolish the buildings at 9 and 11 Second Avenue in August to make way for a 12-story luxury high rise... The remaining residents of the building will move out on June 30, according to Crain's...

During the weekend, we spotted some items for sale outside Joe's Locksmith, one of the businesses in the way of the new building.

Joe's will be closing on June 30. They're not moving or coming back to this space when the new building is completed in a few years. That's it.

Be sure to visit Jeremiah's Vanishing New York today. Jeremiah has a thoughtful post on the film "The Tao of 9 Second Avenue" by Michael I. Schiller. As he notes, the film is about the eviction and demolition of the buildings all around 9 Second Avenue — "the rubble that Mars Bar will join later this summer."

"In the coming demolition, 9 Second Avenue will also fall — it is the last piece of what was, for over a century, a thriving cultural center of the Lower East Side."

Read his post here.

More on the NYC Icy's arrival on Avenue A

On Saturday, we pointed out that NYC Icy was now operating out of the front of Keith Masco's incoming Badburger at 171 Avenue A near 11th Street.

We asked Masco for some details. Via email, he told us that this will by NYC Icy's "semi-permanent home." He said they'd be selling NYC Icy there until at least October, then it will be available as a dessert menu item.

Meanwhile, last summer, when the NYC Icy was operating on Avenue A near Seventh Street, an icy-icee war of sorts started at Rays's. Scoopy at The Villager noted that the NYC Icy had taken "half" of Rays's business. (This according to Ray.) So Ray launched his own version of icees.

[Photo by Slum Goddess]

Anyway, somewhere along the line, that sign morphed into...

This hasn't gone unnoticed by Masco and the NYC Icy folks. "I am surprised that someone with as much goodwill in the community would turn around and flat out lie to his customers like that," said Masco.

Meanwhile, Masco, whose original plans for a fishmonger and seafood restaurant at 171 Avenue were rejected by CB3, said he expects the 24/7 Badburger to be open here in two weeks.

NYPD arrests woman for sitting at Tompkins Square Park chess tables — and not playing chess

See that sign near the Tompkins Square Park chess tables? Probably not, given that it's about 15 feet in the air. (And it's one of two signs around the tables.)

Anyway, better pay attention to it. Bob Arihood has the story of Lisa, who spent about 32 hours in the system after sitting at a chess table for 10 minutes the other morning.

Read his post at Neither More Nor Less here.

What's next for 34 Avenue A?

34 Avenue is on the June CB3/SLA docket, though not much is known about who's behind taking over the former Mo Pitkin's/Aces & Eight space. The calendar simply lists "To Be Determined" under 34 Avenue A.

However, a flyer is now on the front window at 34 Avenue A, showing that the same folks are behind the new venture — Phil Hartman and Justin Todd Patrick (aka Todd P.).

In March, the CB3/SLA committee rejected their application for a music venue-bar-eatery at 34 Avenue A.

Meanwhile, the new flyer (above) simply lists "restaurant and bar" for the space, different from the last notice we spotted in March, which included "performance venue" in the description."

We reached out the Hartman for comment over the weekend, though haven't heard back just yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Phil Hartman bringing a 'performance venue' back to former Mo Pitkin's space

[Updated] Bringing 'the tradition of the old Knitting Factory and Tonic' to 34 Avenue A

Because you want to know more about the plans for 34 Avenue A

There are now two carts for Taco Morelos on Avenue A

To be honest, I meant to note this much sooner... several readers have mentioned this in the last week... Anyway! Aside from Second Street at Avenue A...

...there's another Tacos Morelos cart on Avenue A at Sixth Street...

Here's a recentish review of the Second Street cart at Serious Eats.

DOH shutters Cafe Amore's Pizza on Union Square

On 14th Street near Fourth Avenue. During their last inspection on Wednesday, they scored 46 violation points, with the most serious being — "Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas."

The mystery of the giant rubbers on East Third Street

Our friend Goggla sent us this shot the other day... from Third Street at the Bowery... Some sort of giant condom display? An Anthony Weiner political statement?

And by Sunday, just one rubber remained...

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Today in Tompkins Square Park

Perhaps it's better if we don't know what's happening... all photos by Bobby Williams.

And now, Joshua Jackson (probably!) on a payphone on Avenue A

As the flyer shows, crews for a film called "Lay the Favorite" are currently shooting some scenes on Avenue A and East Fifth and East Sixth Streets...

The movie features Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Joshua Jackson.

EV Grieve reader Faces caught a scene earlier on Avenue A... possibly Joshua Jackson on the payphone...

We walked by this morning and snapped a quick, random photo at Fifth Street of the trucks. And we didn't notice that someone was, uh, asleep on the sidewalk ... An extra? Vince Vaughn?

And no reported sightings of Bruce Willis... who would be making his triumphant return to the East Village after filming "Die Hard III: Dying Harder than the Last Time We Died Hard" in 1994 (for its 1995 release) ...

And the hits keep on coming! IHOP opening on East 14th Street

Between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...

And now, let's play It Could Be Worse.

Two years ago, we pointed out the "for lease" signs here at 235 E. 14th St. Renowned nightlife broker "Mr. Nightclub" had the listings, spurring fears of a gargantuan nightclub here.

Thanks to @THIEVERYCORP72 for the tip.

The way we live now: Starbucks, Chase or Duane Reade?

Dave on 7th spotted this on Second Avenue at 10th Street... at the former Cafe Centosette.

The Mars Bar will be torn down in August

That's the word in an article posted today at Crain's New York, which provides all sorts of details on what will be happening to the two buildings at 9 and 11 Second Avenue.

Here are some excerpts from the article by Jeremy Smerd:

Ten dollars buys two cold Budweisers at the Mars Bar. For those who live above the graffiti-scarred East Village dive, it's the price of a new, luxury apartment.

An octogenarian playwright, a drag queen and a kvetcher provoked nightly by the bar's cacophony are among the nine tenants in two adjoining buildings at the corner of Second Avenue and East First Street who will receive this sweet deal.

At the end of the month, they will vacate their 1920s building, which will be demolished in August. When they return in about two years, each will pay $10 (tax free) to buy an apartment in a 12-story luxury high-rise.

John Vaccaro, 81, is the only resident here who was willing to be interviewed. He has lived in the East Village since the late 1950s; in the space above the Mars Bar since 1977.

"Look at this stuff all around us, all these high-rises. Everywhere you look. Behind us. West of us, It bothers me that New York has changed so much. It's not the New York I came to."

And one more passage:

Neighborhood blogs have covered the story with the requisite antipathy for yuppie scum. Locals have mostly lamented that the Mars Bar will come down with the building, but the protests of earlier years have given way to resignation. At a February City Planning Commission hearing, no one spoke in opposition.

"The bar's closing. Oh, well," said a Mars Bar bartender named Amy. "You move on. I dislike this neighborhood now."

Mr. Vaccaro, like his building, is old and frail. "I'd rather be young and directing shows," he said while sifting through memorabilia he is giving away. He pays $294 a month but has spent thousands renovating his space.

His kitchen, though, sits on a platform because the floor is unstable. Illuminated by track lighting, it could be the set of one of his plays, with Mr. Vaccaro playing the character who doesn't recognize the neighborhood he calls home.

And when will the Mars Bar close? The article doesn't say, but one date has been repeated in the gossip: June 30.

Read the whole article here.

June 11

Jeremiah Moss spotted this one yesterday on Sixth Street near Second Avenue. Per Jeremiah: "I thought the string of lights and the broken ornaments gave it an extra poignancy. Not to mention the teen tweeter."

Indeed!

There was no immediate comment from Gruber MacDougal, spokesperson for the International Coalition of Tree Tossing in the Spring (ICTTS). Horse racing fans spotted him yesterday tearing up tickets for triple boxes of Master of Hounds, Prime Cut and Isn't He Perfect at the Belmont Stakes.

Noted

From the Post today:

Forget flowers, chocolate or Twitter: Mike Tyson's facial tattoo is a hot new way to woo someone.

Swinging singles are going out and having their faces painted with a temporary, Tyson-inspired "Hangover" movie tattoo -- in a gaudy effort to look like knockouts to the opposite sex.

The booze-fueled microtrend was on full display Friday night at Coyote Ugly in the East Village, where Putman Davis, 23, was having his face "champ"-stamped.

"It definitely gives you attention," he said. "Definitely a way to get people's eyes."