André Balazs is turning the Cooper Square Hotel into The Standard East Village. Sources say the high-flying hotelier’s deal to buy the beleaguered East Fifth Street Cooper Square gem will close today. Sources added that, under Balazs and his partners, the 105-room hotel's public spaces will be reconfigured, its rooms refurbished and its restaurants overhauled over the course of the next year. The property will be The Standard's more "intimate and residential" location than its boisterous site straddling the High Line...
There are rumors that the church and school property are being sold by the Spring ... I'm afraid that NYU is buying it and going to build dorms.
While this East Village church will continue to have two Sunday Masses for the immediate future, they will be overseen by a different church, Immaculate Conception on 14th Street and First Avenue.
Both the west and north facades (what everyone from the street sees) of the building are going to be sheathed in cast brownstone slabs, more or less restoring the look of what was there when the church was first built in 1848. They are working on this now, and roughly a quarter of the north wall has already been installed. The original north wall had to be completely demolished and rebuilt as part of the process of restoring structural stability to the church. This necessitated filling the entire church interior with scaffolding in order to support the roof during this reconstruction. But it was a big improvement over the original repair plan to simply re-stucco the existing facade.
A photo from around the early 1870s showing St. Brigid’s Church with its spires on Avenue B and, in foreground, a gazebo in Tompkins Square Park. Around this time, the park was stripped and leveled to turn it into a parade ground for the 7th Regiment. The gazebo had been likely the reviewing stand for the military brass. After much public outcry, in 1878, Tompkins Square was redesigned and rebuilt as a public park.
On Saturday, November 19, Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) will present Groundbreak, the inaugural exhibit in a rotating public art program for Artist Alley @ Extra Place. This exhibit is the latest in a series of temporary art installations in atypical locations in the East Village/Lower East Side through FABnyc's ArtUp program.
FABnyc recognizes Extra Place as a cultural marker in New York City's Punk and No Wave scene and its potential as fertile ground for a new generation of creative exchange. Abe Lincoln Jr., Jon Burgerman, and Ellis Gallagher are New York based artists who will reclaim the concrete sidewalk as their blank canvas.
Bobwhite Counter is a small restaurant with big aspirations. We want to make seasonal, responsible food something you can afford to enjoy on a regular basis. Maybe we’re biased, but we think that the spirit and soul of Southern cooking is a perfect way to do just that. Whether you want to sit down for a friendly meal or take something home, we hope you’ll enjoy our Southern-style chicken suppers, sandwiches, and seasonal vegetables all made from responsible, high-quality ingredients.
I am writing to inform you that as of Wednesday, November 23 Xoom will be closing its doors at Pure Fitness. Unfortunately, the gym ownership has not been able to hold up their side of our contract making it impossible for me to run my business there. I am quite disappointed as I was optimistic that this new location would be a great home for Xoom. I want to be clear that this decision does not reflect any negative feelings toward the staff and members of Pure Fitness. They have all been incredibly welcoming and supportive and the Xoom staff and I will miss working with and serving them.
I know this all seems very abrupt and I apologize for such short notice on our closing. This only became official this week and the timing made it such that closing next week was the best decision for everyone.
Because this all happened so quickly, I do not have any plans in place to re-open a store front any time soon. I would really like to keep Xoom alive in some shape or form and will absolutely keep you posted as plans develop. In the meantime, I am working on ways to bring Xoom to you by being available to "cater" a gathering, office breakfast or other such events. If you are interested in that let me know and I would be happy to work something out with you. When I have a concrete plan I will be sure to email you all again to let you know where I (and Xoom) land.
I encourage you to follow us on Twitter (@xoomnyc) and Facebook (Xoom NYC) this week as we will be having crazy blow out specials in order to move as much product as possible. Whatever is left over will be donated to City Harvest.
It has been a pleasure and I hope that I will be seeing you all again soon in whatever form Xoom takes in the future.
We decided to withdraw our application to serve wine & beer at 147 1st Ave after seeing that there were people in opposition to it. If we have community support at a later time we may try again but if it is unwanted in the community we will not. We will not even address this matter again internally until we are open and operating at that location. It is our intention to maintain the feeling and vibe of the shop at 54 2nd Ave that we built at 49 1/2 1st Ave. We applied for the wine & beer as a way to add something but we will be very careful not to let that change what we really are about.
They want to keep the upstairs restaurant the same but downstairs they want to run an English fish and chips restaurant. They were approved and are keeping within the same method of operation and hours of use. It will now be called Gin Palace, focusing on gin cocktails and old style English pub fare featuring a selective fish 'n' chips menu.
