Monday, January 16, 2012

Does this mean more condos then? Your chance to claim a vault


Bobby Williams spotted this outside the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue near Second Street yesterday...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Dining on Avenue A late this afternoon

Late this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park along Avenue A... a red-tailed hawk sighting... photos by Bobby Williams...


...then a quick late lunch...




Week in Grieview

[14th Street near Second Avenue]

RIP Andrew Kowalczyk: The last East Village landlord of his kind? (Monday)

East Third Street lots hits the market for $6 million (Tuesday)

Duke's closed on Avenue C (Wednesday)

We counted the number of Subway sandwich shops in the neighborhood (Thursday)

CB3/SLA votes down a beer-wine license for BAD Burger (Monday)

A look at the abandoned theater inside the doomed East Village Farms (Friday)

A walk up First Avenue in 1997 (Thursday)

More development for East Houston (Friday)

Three-plus years later, 120 St. Mark's Place still doesn't have a Certificate of Occupancy (Monday)

Your chance to own the King's gyro rotators, gas griddle

King Gyro recently closed on First Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street ... the owners are now going for that Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo.

Anyway, today at noon, they are unloading the stuff that they don't need for the new eatery...

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

East Village residents apparently really like having macaroni and cheese delivered

[EVG file photo]

Delivery.com has named S'MAC, the mac-and-cheese empire on East 12th Street, the city's busiest delivery service in the city. (This only takes in account deliveries made via Delivery.com from 2011; S'MAC took in more orders than any other restaurant that delivers, the Post reported.)

Co-owner Sarita Ekya told the Post that they make upwards of 50 deliveries an hour on Saturdays.

And as the Post points out, S'MAC (short for Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese) "the restaurant's name is a play on words that harks back to the bad old days when junkies lined up on East Village streets looking for a different kind of fix."

"East Villagers get it," said Ekya, a Nova Scotia native. "Other people will think it's just an abbreviated form of the whole name."

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Gold rush on Second Avenue

This afternoon on Second Avenue near 14th Street outside Finnerty's, the home to Bay Area sports... the San Francisco 49ers played the New Orleans Saints today...



Photos by Bobby Williams.

Five Tacos now open on St. Mark's Place


Several readers have told us that Five Tacos is now open at 119 St. Mark's Place just west of Avenue A... One reader said that last night was the grand opening.

Wasn't open when we walked by this morning... So, a rather off-kilter shot then of the menu...


CB3 approved a beer-wine license for them. It's run by the owners of Ten Degrees Bar a few doors down...

Panuozzo sandwiches coming to St. Mark's Place


Speaking of St. Mark's Place... Grub Street had the scoop yesterday about a branch of the Upper East Side-based San Matteo Pizza and Espresso Bar opening on St. Mark's Place ... (we're assuming it will be in the space left vacant by Motek, the crepe place... it's the only vacant storefront along here...)

A panuozzo is apparently some kind of pizza-panino hybrid that looks like this...

[Via Grub Street]

Other details from Grub Street:

• They will stay open till 2 a.m. "for hungry bargoers."
• "We want to introduce the panuozzo to young crowds," the owner said.
• A beer-and-wine license is in the works (of course!)

This is what 1 WTC looked like on Jan. 13, 2012


This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Today's sign of the apocalypse


Spotted on East Houston near Chrystie Street. New reality show called "Jersey Couture." Filmed around here on the weekends?

There's no stopping the Subway invasion

On Thursday, we counted up the number of Subway (sandwich shops) in the East Village ... (find the answer here...)

Last night, EV Grieve reader Chis F. passed along this shot of yet another Subway setting up shop that we hadn't noticed ... A little out of bounds, but close enough at Essex and Stanton...

Friday, January 13, 2012

When suddenly we remembered that it was actually winter


Avenue B near Sixth Street.

Late afternoon on East 10th Street


Looking east. By Bobby Williams.

Strike force


By Bobby Williams.

[Updated] Reports: 12-year-old girl struck and killed walking across Delancey

The tragedy happened this afternoon around 2:30 while the girl, who attended Castle Middle School on Henry Street, crossed Delancey Street from the south side at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge, according to multiple reports.

A friend of the 12-year-old girl told Gothamist: "We were crossing the street and the light changed real quick. She started going, and then she stopped, but she tripped. The van hit her twice. The first time it hit her, then when it stopped and realized that it hit her, it hit her again."

The driver of the van has not been charged. As DNAinfo put it, "no criminality" is suspected.

Updated 6:19 p.m.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer just released a statement:

Tonight, New York City mourns the senseless death of a sixth grade girl who lost her life while crossing Delancey Street today. This devastating loss is only the latest in a string of tragic accidents that have occurred on Delancey - numbering into the hundreds over the past decade. In both May and August of last year, New Yorkers lost their life navigating this intersection. Between 2008 and 2010, 523 motor vehicle accidents occurred at Delancey and Essex.

The City must act now and not wait a second longer. We can no longer go about its daily business with the knowledge that one of our central intersections is irrefutably perilous.

Updated 1/14:


The dailies provide more details on the tragedy. The victim is 12-year-old Dashane Santana who lived in the Jacob Riis Houses. The girl's mother told the Post that her daughter dropped a bookbag while crossing Delancey Street. When she turned to pick it up, the minivan hit her. She was with friends on her way to Dunkin' Donuts.

The Post also reported that Dashane had just applied to Juilliard.

Earlier reports:
Gothamist

DNAinfo

The Lo-Down

BoweryBoogie

[Image: Christopher Robbins/Gothamist]

Yello again



Yello from 1985 with "Vicious Games."

An L-Shaped footprint ready to make its impression on East Houston Street

In late November, the Mystery Lot of East Houston Street (the empty parcel on the south side of the street between Attorney and Ridge) hit the market, per The Lo-Down. The lot is going for $9.5 million.


Now, it appears more development is in the works for this stretch of Houston... The long-empty adjacent space is now for sale — at $4.6 million.


Here's the listing via Massey Knakal:

The subject property consists of 331 E Houston Street and 161 Ridge Street. 331 E Houston Street is a single story commercial building and 161 Ridge Street is a vacant parking lot. Together, the properties create an L-Shaped footprint with 25’ of frontage on E Houston Street and 20’ of frontage on Ridge Street. The lots have a combined footprint of 3,000 square feet and are located in the newly designated East Village/Lower East Side zoning district which is zoned R8A*. This zone provides an FAR of 5.4 for Residential use, 7.2 with inclusionary housing and 6.5 for Community Facility use which translate to a maximum buildable square footage of 16,200 BSF, 21,600 BSF, 19,500 BSF, respectively. Furthermore, the two lots are adjacent to two 25’ vacant lots on E Houston Street.

So. Combine all this and what do you get?

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[A look down Broadway the other day, by Bobby Williams]

About Patti Smith and the "die in" (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Why does it seem as if Patti Smith is in bed with the developers? (Gothamist)

The history of 101 Avenue A (BoweryBoogie)

Drinking at Lucy's (Eater)

Chiyono on East Sixth Street closes (Grub Street)

Darren Aronofsky now owns the entire townhouse on East 11th Street (Curbed)

LES store owner killed in "FDR Drive death run" (The Daily News)

And for your lunchtime entertainment, the recently released new video from African-fusion band Timbila ... and a summer of 2011 East Village time capsule...

Pocket the Cha Cha by Timbila from Karen Kirsch Page on Vimeo.

Fast-food trifecta: Take a look at what's replacing King Gyro on First Avenue

EV Grieve reader Creature brought us the news on Monday about King Gyro closing on First Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street...


...he's back with news of its replacement:


Oh my! A Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's action-packed combo!

And if Pudgie's is so famous, how come we've never heard of it?

Here's what we found. The healthy fried chicken!


So we guess this fills the need after the Pizza Hut-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo made way for the Spaghetti Meatball Factory on 14th Street and Second Avenue...

UPDATED:

An instant request for Spike... from 1980...

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A


As we've been reporting, East Village Farms is closing on Avenue A on Jan. 31. One worker said the building's owner will be demolishing the structure for lord knows what...

Anyway, as you know, the space was originally a theater in operation from 1926-1959.

[Via Cinema Treasures]

We've seen a few tantalizing bits and pieces of the theater's remains... as far as we know, the auditorium is still intact.

EV Grieve reader Lambert Jack was one of the many curious about what's behind and above the grocery... He took a look the other night...



Per Lambert Jack: "We went into the main theater room, and poked around the offices and other abandoned rooms. There were some amazing painted tin roof parts. I hope someone strips the cool stuff ... before the place is razed."





His opinion on the space? "I'm not sure the building is worth saving — the cool parts of it seem really run down and unusable — but the ornate period works need to be preserved as best as they can. I would love to have a theater there, but I suspect it's headed for new housing."

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A