Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter officially opens today

Bobwhite Lunch & Supper Counter is officially opening today on Avenue C near East Sixth Street... (they had a soft opening of sorts on New Year's Day.)

Last Thursday, owner and founder Keedick Coulter distributed 250 samples of the restaurant's fried black eyed peas (which included a card good for one free dessert with the purchase of a lunch or supper) to passersby on Avenue C and in Tompkins Square Park.

Per Fork in the Road:

"Although the final menu is still being tweaked, it will include fried and grilled organic chicken suppers; hot sandwiches with fried chicken, grilled chicken, or pork chops, featuring homemade condiments and relishes; simple Southern sandwiches like pimento cheese, egg salad, and chicken salad; seasonal Southern vegetables like collard greens; and traditional Southern desserts such as banana cream pie parfaits and red velvet cake."

And here's a photo of their southern-style fare via the Bobwhite Facebook page...

Previously.

There is now a website dedicated to the work of Jim Joe

From the EV Grieve inbox... a news release...

For immediate release…

The Cult Of Joe (cultofjoe.com) is a collective of art fans who appreciate the work of NYC’s mysterious “street artist” Jim Joe. Jim Joe is an artist whose simplistic style stands out quite a bit from the ocean of graffiti scribbles that plaster NYC’s East Village and surrounding areas. From his cursive “tags” to his often nonsensical Samo-esque quotes, to his drawings on stickers to his writings on trash, his distinct style makes him easy to spot. This website is merely an attempt to document his work.

Launched on January 1st 2012, The Cult of Joe website is by far the largest collection of Jim Joe photos on the web with over 500 photos shot over the last 2 years mainly by three super fans known as xxxJORDYxxx, Bomarr and Setlasmon. We’re also encouraging all New Yorkers and visitors to NYC to join The Cult Of Joe by snapping a Jim Joe photo, submitting it to the Cult of Joe website and then posting it on Facebook or Tweeting it. Submit Jim Joe photos to : cultofjoe@gmail.com with the subject line “Submission,” or via Twitter, by adding the hashtag #cultofjoe or #jimjoe

Transformers: Dark of the Avenue A

ConEd is futzing around with their substation on Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street...And we can never resist a photo of a ConEd flatbed with two large transformers... which Bobby Williams is well aware!

What's left outside Billy's Antiques...

Oh, a little bit ago we walked by Billy's Antiques on Houston at the Bowery... just to take a look. Billy's is now closed for the next year or so while a new, two-story structure goes up here, replacing the tent... (Billy's will return to this space.)

The tent is still up... and we spotted this a few feet to the east of the property...

Read more about Billy's here.

The Mystery Lot discards its holiday tree

And how it looked just a few weeks ago during the annual Mystery Lot Christmas Spectacular at Mystery Lot Center (14 Rock to locals) ...

And now, your new East Village Starbucks

First Avenue and East Third Street... dunno when the plywood came down exactly... (this morning, apparently)

...and people, drag those trees to Tompkins Square Park for the MulchFest!

Without the plywood, where will people hang flyers like this?

Ah, our friend jdx just sent us this shot...

As he notes: "behold the starbucks edifice: gray bricks. like tombstones."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Today's sign of the apocalypse: Starbucks taking over The Bean's space on First Avenue and Third Street

Report: Man arrested for attempted rape in Seventh Street building

The Post reports today that a "drunken pervert" pushed a woman into her apartment building on East Seventh Street early Sunday morning and tried to rape her.

"Anthony Griggs, 42, allegedly grabbed her around her neck, forced her upstairs and pounced on her in a hallway, biting her during the vicious attack.

Passers-by heard her screaming, 'Please don't rape me!'"

According to the Post, Griggs was charged with attempted rape, burglary, strangulation, robbery and sexual abuse and held without bail at his arraignment last night.

12 things to watch for in the East Village during 2012

• 35 Cooper Square
We're still waiting for the Arun Bhatia Development Corporation, who specialize in dorms and luxury condos, to make public their plans for the parcel of land on Cooper Square at Sixth Street. But they were seemingly in a hurry to demolish the historic 35 Cooper Square last year.

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

• Will East 10th Street be spared from future development?
As we first reported, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has expedited a hearing on the East 10th Street Historic District... thanks to Ben Shaoul looking to add another floor during the conversion of 315 E. 10th St. from nonprofit to residential use. The hearing is set for Jan. 17.

• A lot of posts about Karl Fischer.
Dubbed "NY's most loathed architect" by the Post, Fischer currently has three projects working in the East Village ... 427 E. 12th Street ... 316-318 E. Third St. ... and 532 E. Fifth St. ...

[532 E. Fifth St.]

• A new look for the corner of Third Avenue and 12th Street.

• The rise of 11-17 Second Avenue.
The current address is a beam and brick away from existence. In 2012, we'll see the rise, then, of the 12-story apartment building that's taking over this space...

[Saturday at 11-17 Second Ave. by Bobby Williams]

November...

• The demolition continues at 51 Astor Place, where the Fumihiko Maki-designed 430,000-square-foot Death Star office building will live ...

[Bobby Williams]

• More fast food and chain stores?
Last year, we saw the arrival of a Subway on Avenue B, an IHOP on East 14th Street, a 7-Eleven on the Bowery and the start of a Starbucks on First Avenue at Third Street. Given what rents are these days, it only seems natural that more chains will invade. Which will lead to...

• The continued death of the mom-and-pop shop.
In the last week, we've seen two small restaurants close up — Itzocan Café and Polonia. Just not foody enough for the the foodies? But there will be plenty of that...

• More fodder for foodies.
Expect to see even more name restaurateur types pan for the East Village Gold Rush. Coming soon! Michael White opening a pizza place on Second Avenue at 10th Street ... the people behind the Breslin, John Dory and Spotted Pig taking over at Olivia on Houston and Allen ... wd~50 pastry chef Alex Stupak opening Empellon, "a fine-dining Mexican restaurant," at the former Counter on First Avenue ...

• More pedestrian usage of "Occupy" even after it went from clever to cliche about, oh, four months ago...

...and on the more positive side...

• Construction continues at the new home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club on Avenue D ...

[Bobby Williams]

• Renovations continue at St. Brigid's on Avenue B at Eighth Street...

[@dens]

There are more than 12, actually, but this is a good start...

How you can own the East Village IHOP

Just buy the whole building! That's right: Massey Knakal has the listing for 235-237 E. 14th St.

Here it is:

The property, situated on the north side of East 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues, contains 17 lower income housing units and 1 store. The building, erected in 1988 as part of NYC's Inclusionary Lower Income Housing Plan created 3,915 SF of retail space on the ground floor and 18,019 SF of residential floor area on floors 2 through 7. The retail store was recently leased for 10 years with one 5-year option to IHOP Restaurant for $45,833 per month or about $140/SF. IHOP is an excellent credit tenant with a corporate guarantee by Dine Equity Inc. (NYSE: DIN). IHOP’s rent increases 10% every 5 years. As a result of the Inclusionary Housing Plan in place, an investor can only benefit from the rent increases by the retail tenant and the revenue from the cell antenna. Ownership must break-even from the residential portion where rents are regulated by HPD and all units must remain affordable for the life of the building. Any profit derived above the cost to operate the building’s residential portion must be preserved in a capital reserve account that can only be used for capital improvements. The building can not be taken out of the Inclusionary Housing Program making this asset ideal for a conservative long-term investor, a retail investor, or an institution looking to place capital in a solid, low-risk investment.

So. IHOP's rent is $45,833? Yow. I would have guessed $30,000-$35,000.

Anyway, at least the building is safe from any high-end condo conversion. Wonder how the current residents handle any IHOP smells?

Prune people taking over Belcourt space

[Photo via Guest of a Guest]

On Friday, BoweryBoogie pointed out via CB3 documents that the people behind fancy-pants places like behind the Breslin, John Dory and Spotted Pig are aiming to open something at Olivia, the tapas place on Houston and Allen... (We pointed out in early December that the Olivia space was on the market.)

Upon further review of the documents ahead of the CB3/SLA meeting on Jan. 9, we noticed that folks affiliated with Prune on East First Street look to take over the Belcourt space on Second Avenue at East Fourth Street... (As Diner's Journal reported, Belcourt Chef Matthew Hamilton recently left the self-described Parisian-style brasserie.)

Anyway, to screengrabs of the documents...

Prune chef Gabrielle Hamilton's name isn't mentioned (though we're curious about the name scratched out up there) ... Ginevra Iverson worked as her sous chef in Prune's early days before moving on... According to the documents (PDF), the place will be called Calliope, serving "new American" cuisine.

Here comes winter...

A little earlier today...

Avenue B at Sixth Street looking north...

...and looking south on First Avenue...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Breaking: That 99-cent pizza place now open on Avenue C

And doing brisk business, Dave on 7th notes... We wrote about the place between Ninth Street and 10th Street back here.

Renovations under way for a Gin Palace on Avenue A

Changes are taking place on Avenue A and East Sixth Street...

EV Grieve reader Creature sends along these photos of the Cuban-flavored Cienfuegos space... The big transformation comes with the main space — El Cobre — on the ground floor. The owners have decided to change concepts. As Eater pointed out in November, the new space will house an English fish and chips restaurant called Gin Palace, "focusing on gin cocktails and old style English pub fare."

No word on an opening date. There's no mention of this development on the Cienfuegos website.

The trees go mulching home this weekend

Starting today, you can officially drag your Christmas holiday tree over to Tompkins Square Park... On Saturday and Sunday, the city is holding its annual MulchFest (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Find the official NYC Parks notice here.

Flashback to last year's MulchFest here.

Checking in on ABC No Rio's new home; old home still standing

It has been some time since we saw any updates about ABC Rio's new $3.4 million home on Rivington Street...

In his column this week at The Villager, Scoopy hears from ABC No Rio director Steve Englander, who says that he's still booking events through March ... "so the building will be up at least till then." (He says there is a lot of misinformation about the new building — with some people thinking that the current structure has already been demolished...)

Englander told Scoopy that ABC No Rio recently received $275,000 from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for the project ... because of this, a federal environmental review is required, which is delaying the start of the new building.

Anyway, as you may know, architect Paul Castrucci designed the new building... he lives down the street and has shown his own work in the space... (He is also a co-founder of the Bullet Space gallery and squat and is the architect for several of the formerly squatted buildings on the Lower East Side...)

You can read more about the plans at ArchPaper.

ABC No Rio first unveiled the plans for the new building back in March 2008.

For further reading:
Looking at "ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery"

[Images Castrucci Architect via ArchPaper]

All that's left of 11-17 Second Ave.

Saturday outside 11-17 Second Ave. Bobby Williams notes that only part of the western wall of the building is left standing...

After the party

Sixth Street at Avenue A. By Bobby Williams.

[Updated] Reader reports: Pedestrian in 'extremely critical condition' after being struck by motorcycle on East 12th Street early this morning

[@robbyohara]

We're putting together various reader reports of a fatality early this morning on East 12th Street just east of Avenue A. According to readers, a motorcycle struck and killed a man sometime around 4:30 a.m.

An account from a reader who lives near the scene of the accident:

I heard a sickening crash. I thought two cars had hit each other. I jumped up and looked out the window and saw a silver BMW motorcycle in the street in front of 503 East 12th Street facing the wrong way. Then I saw a man laying in the middle of the road. People were attending to him and yelling call 911, so I called 911. The cops, firemen and ambulance came quickly. It looked like he was bleeding from the head. There is still blood on the street.

Anyway, I thought he was the motorcyclist and maybe a car had hit him and took off. I went out this morning, though, and asked the cops if the motorcyclist was okay, and the cop said he's fine, but the person he hit is dead.

No charges have been filed, we hear. We'll have more on this soon... WABC and NY1 are at the scene...

UPDATE:
Based on comments and emails with witnesses...

The victim is at Beth Israel in critical condition. The victim, who is 33, was apparently walking with two friends at the time of the accident. Police sources say it is the victim's birthday today. No charges have been filed against the motorcyclist.

DNAinfo reports that the victim is in "extremely critical condition."

UPDATE Jan. 2:

The Post has this today in the NYPD Daily Blotter:

An intoxicated man walking home with friends early yesterday morning was hit by a motorcyclist on an East Village street.

Daniel Hiwale, 33, was crossing East 12th Street, near Avenue A, against the light at 4:18 a.m. when he fell and was struck by the 38-year-old biker, who was traveling eastbound on East 12th Street, cops said.

Hiwale was in extremely critical condition at Beth Israel Hospital, cops added. The biker, who tried to avoid the crash, remained at the scene, and there was no criminality, police said.

A 'traditional good luck supper' tonight at Bobwhite

Over on Avenue C at Sixth Street, it looks as if the incoming Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter is having a sneak preview of sorts tonight with "a traditional good luck supper" ... thanks to Matt LES_Miserable for the photo... (and let us know if you happen to go — we're curious about this new restaurant...)

Previously.

Jan 1, 1895 outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

Per the caption:

St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue, East Village, New York City, circa Jan. 1, 1895. (Photo by P. L. Sperr/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Where are the empty fro-yo cups?