Shoolbred's-Ninth Ward owner bringing Caribbean cuisine to former Holy Basil space

An entity titled "Honey Rider LLC" is on Monday night's CB3/SLA docket. Honey Rider (Ursula Andress played Honey Rider in "Dr. No"!) is looking to take over the former home of Holy Basil, the Thai place on Second Avenue that closed in October after "technical difficulties."

According to documents (PDF!) on file at the CB3 website, Robert Morgan, one of the owners of Shoolbred's and the Ninth Ward on Second Avenue, is behind the new venture. He and his partner plan to serve "Caribbean cuisine," with operating hours of 1 p.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Thursday; 1 p.m.-4 a.m. on Friday; Noon-4 a.m. on Saturday; and noon-1 a.m. on Sunday, according to the documents.

No word yet on any Bond theme.

[Image via]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Holy Basil closed, space for rent

Holy Basil remains closed for 'technical difficulties'

Holiday tree lighting in Tompkins Square Park Sunday at 4 (p.m.)

[Photo by Allen Semanco]

The festivities (the 20th anniversary!) start Sunday at 4 at the usual place. We'll have more details later this weekend.

Meanwhile, as The Villager reported this week, the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition will dedicate the event to the memory of Kevin Dowd, a former vice president of the coalition who died March 8 after a battle with lung cancer. He was 57.

Previously on EV Grieve:
On St. Patrick's Day, a Christmas miracle in Tompkins Square Park

DOB puts a full Stop Work Order on 11-17 Second Avenue

As DNAinfo first reported Wednesday afternoon, a worker at the site of the demolition of 9-17 Second Avenue suffered a leg injury after being struck by falling debris. Witnesses had said the injury did not appear to be serious.

City inspectors arrived on the scene Wednesday afternoon...

According to the DOB: "Hazardous conditions observed at site."

As you can see, the DOB says that a 16-by-20-foot piece of debris struck the worker. "STOP ALL WORK."

The buildings — including the Mars Bar space — are being demolished to make way for a 12-story apartment complex.

Previously.

[All photos by Bobby Williams on Wednesday afternoon]

This weekend (and next!): It's the 7th annual d.b.a. holiday fair

Behold the new 7-Eleven on the Bowery at night. (Or not)

On Wednesday afternoon, workers put up the new 7-Eleven sign on the Bowery... And we didn't get to see if for ourselves until last night... A worker told a reader the place would open "some time next week."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] And the Bowery dies a little more: Here comes 7-Eleven

Exclusive first look inside the Bowery 7-Eleven

7-Eleven is now hiring on the Bowery

The Bean opens Monday on Second Avenue; mosaic signs going up now

News from outside the Bean this afternoon on Second Avenue at Third Street... As the sign shows, the new location opens Monday...

Meanwhile, as these photos by EV Grieve reader Marjorie Ingall show, Jim Power is on hand overseeing the installation of his mosaic Bean signs...

And we were first to report that the Bean would be the Crazy Landlord's new tenant. (Aug. 24)

Report: New owner paid $25.5 million for Cabrini Nursing Center

As we reported on Nov. 21, a neighbor with knowledge of the proceedings at the Cabrini Nursing Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B claimed that Ben Shaoul is the new owner of the property.

Today, more details are starting to emerge about the sale. The Lo-Down has the scoop that the building was sold for $25.5 million. Per The Lo-Down:

A private company called “MM 62-74 Avenue B Owner” acquired the building in a transaction recorded in city land records Dec. 2. The firm, which was incorporated in August, lists as its address the law office of Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein near Times Square.

Meanwhile, plans for the new building and the name of the actual owner have not been made public just yet. Cabrini's lease expires in April. Local politicians have urged the new owner to extend the lease to allow Cabrini sufficient time to find a new facility in the area.

Previously.

From the news release files: 'Oddities' returns for another season

We get news releases!...

ODDITIES Returns to SCIENCE Bigger, Better and Weirder Than Ever for Its World Premiere Third Season

SILVER SPRING, Md., Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- For more than a decade, the East Village's iconic Obscura Antiques & Oddities shop has been New York City's foremost destination for one-of-a-kind, bizarre — and often shocking — artifacts. Since becoming the focus of SCIENCE's hit series, ODDITIES, the Big Apple's epicenter of the eccentric has become pop culture's Mecca of the macabre. Entering its third season, the franchise has come to define the oddball subculture on television. Since its premiere, ODDITIES has won over legions of viewers and inspired "colorful" collectors throughout the U.S. and beyond to seek out Obscura's purveyors of peculiarities: Mike, Evan and Ryan. Season three of ODDITIES premieres Saturday, December 17, at 9:00 PM (ET/PT) on SCIENCE.

The store is on East 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

Drilling resumes at the Mystery Lot

Back in August, drillers were drilling away at the Mystery Lot (link here) ...

Today, the drillers are resuming the drilling here off 14th Street and Third Avenue!

[Courtesy of @salim]

What horrible fate awaits this long-empty lot? It very well may be Balazsed. In October, The Real Deal reported that developer Charles Blaichman paid $33.2 million for the site. As Curbed noted at the time, Blaichman was a partner with Jay-Z and Andre Balazs on the hotel that never happened on West 14th Street; and as a partner with Balazs on a doomed project on West 21st Street.

Can we expect the Standard East Union Square one day?

And another hotel? Why, there isn't a new hotel within a block of here!

[The incoming Hyatt Union Square on 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, photographed Sunday]

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot on 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Leo the famous barge cat needs a new home

You may remember this story that we reported on back on July 2... when two East Village residents were walking through East River Park and noticed an abandoned cat on the off-shore industrial area opposite the East River Environmental Learning Center.

It became a big story... after a group of volunteers rescued the cat, now named Leo. Now, one of its owners, Robert, writes in with the news that Leo needs a new home. And here's why:

Leo has been happy for months in our little one bedroom apartment in the east village, and I'm happy to say we've saved his life. ... He's now house trained and healthy with a lovely coat of fur — unlike when we found him when he was malnourished and covered in engine grease from where he'd been hiding.

So why are we looking for a new home for Leo? Well, unfortunately, we recently had our cat from the UK (we're a British couple living here) shipped over to New York to join us. He's a docile and relaxed fluff ball called Willow, and although lovable to everyone that meets him, Leo doesn't like him one bit.

In fact, Leo hates on him. It has now been 3 months and the two of them can't get on. Leo is a wonderful cat but we've come to the realization that Leo is only happy alone. He's very territorial and becomes aggressive around new cats. We are now separating the two and Leo is crying the house down and desperate to be let out of the kitchen (his favorite room with his bed), which we can't do with Willow in the room. They have now had no less than 6 fights, each more severe than the last and it's heartbreaking. I want to keep Leo and I want him and Willow to get on but they won’t.

We have been to every pet store, advice network, and generally good cat person we know and we have tried everything people have recommend. Nothing worked. We’re now completely out of options, other than to find Leo a new loving home.

Some facts about Leo:
• Leo's estimated age is 2 years old, but we suspect he’s only just there because he’s a young boy.
• He may have been mistreated (how else did he end up on a barge) or he may have been feral. I'm not sure it's the latter because he instantly knew how to use the litter, eat from his bowl, and generally make his way around the home.
• He is house trained.
• He can become agitated but generally he’s a lovely cat with a good demeanor.
• He has been trained to only scratch his scratching post

Anyone?

Here is a contact email

Previously on EV Grieve:
This cat is stranded off East River Park

Things that make us worry, but only because we worry about these kinds of things

So yeah, as professional worriers about the fine places in the neighborhood... the following makes us, uh, worry... A reader sent us this Google offer from DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe on First Avenue ...

As the reader noted, "I haven't swung by there in a while, but it never seemed to be struggling. Maybe it's all the pressure from cupcakes, ice cream, sweet buns and puddin' that prompted this 'hey remember us' hand wave."

Perhaps. In any event, it's a good deal...

What Japadog is looking like inside these days

Jordy "the Saint on St. Marks Place" recently walked by the incoming Japadog at No. 30...

...the popular Vancouver-based artisanal hot dog stand is seeking a liquor license on Monday during the CB3/SLA committee meeting...and workers were collecting signatures outside ... and Jordy asked for a look inside... Here ya go... (look for an opening around Dec. 25...)

With Crif Dogs down the way, Jordy asks, "I’m feeling like a real hotdog war is about to begin, don’t you?"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cue the long lines: Japadog opening first New York City location on St. Mark's Place

DOH temporarily kloses Kabin on Second Avenue

Ev Grieve reader John passes along these shots from outside Kabin on Second Avenue near Fifth Street last night ...

According to the DOH website, the bar was hit with 61 violation points during the last inspection on Nov. 21 (a grade was pending). The DOH hasn't posted the most recent inspection ... dated yesterday, per the flyer.

A McSorley's Wonderland

The other night. Photo by Bobby Williams.

The Neighborhood School’s Holiday Fair is back

From the EV Grieve inbox...

[From a Holiday Fair a few years back...]

The Neighborhood School’s beloved Holiday Fair is back! On Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, come on out to support a public school and have a blast. There’ll be carnival games, arts & crafts, face-painting, print-making, henna and temporary tattooing, a huge kid-built maze (made of deconstructed cardboard boxes — the urban equivalent of a corn maze), a raffle, our famous silent auction and great food from your favorite neighborhood vendors.

Auction items up for bids this year include an autographed, limited-edition Handsome Dick Manitoba bobblehead, classes in trapeze, parkour and trampoline at STREB; gift certificates to fabulous East Village and Lower East Side shops like The Bean, Exit 9, Alphabet City Acupuncture, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, East Yoga, Saxelby Cheesemongers, Grace Heaven Organic Salon, il laboratorio del gelato and more; fabulous Trina Turk jewelry; memberships at MOMA and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and many more. Bid online until Friday at 5 pm; live auction at the school on Sunday at 2:30 pm.

Admission to the fair is free and open to the public. Wondering what a progressive public school in the East Village is like? Come check us out! It’s a great (and cheap) way to have fun indoors with your kids on a cold winter’s day; you get to shop and nosh and your kids get to run around with their friends.

Proceeds from the fair support the Neighborhood School PTA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.

Report: Worker injured during demolition of former Mars Bar space

[Yesterday at 9-17 Second Avenue. By Bobby Williams]

A member of the crew demolishing 9-17 Second Ave. was injured this afternoon after debris fell on him, DNAinfo reported. Per their account:

"A worker at the site, located at 11 Second Ave. at the corner of East First Street, suffered a leg injury in the incident about 2 p.m. and was transported to Bellevue Hospital, the FDNY said."

The DOB is apparently on the scene inspecting the rest of the site.

Previously.

Breaking: 7-Eleven sign going up right now on the Bowery

Thanks to EV Grieve reader LULU for the shot here on the Bowery near East Fourth Street. Paging Strutting Leo!

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] And the Bowery dies a little more: Here comes 7-Eleven

Exclusive first look inside the Bowery 7-Eleven

7-Eleven is now hiring on the Bowery

The East Village rolls out welcome wagon for new Starbucks

Spotted on the plywood at the incoming Starbucks on First Avenue and East Third Street... thanks to jdx for the photos...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[14th Street at First Avenue]

Remember the Sahara Hotel on 14th Street and Third Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Big plans for 255 East Houston (BoweryBoogie)

Security cameras coming to Campos Plaza (The Lo-Down)

How about Zachary Taylor then?: P.S. 63 on East Third Street gets OK to dump William McKinley name (DNAinfo)

Video of the Farmers March from the East Village to Liberty Plaza Sunday (GammaBlog)

New Bond Street sandwich shop will pursue liquor license regardless of what neighbors think (Grub Street)

A look at the 23,000-square-foot Apple store in Grand Central (Gothamist)

And this is making the rounds now, so you may have seen it ... kindergarten students in South Korea sing the Ramones...

Reader report: Small fire at King Gyro this morning

EV Grieve reader Lambert Jack sent along this photo just after 7:15 a.m. today... He noted there there were four fire trucks and several police cars on the scene here along First Avenue...

Meanwhile, a reader who lives adjacent to King Gyro on First Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street noted that a small fire broke out in the restaurant. The reader noted that firefighters were on the scene for 30 minutes, and there didn't appear to be any injuries.