City issues new work permit for Life Cafe

Not much has been happening here on East 10th Street and Avenue B since Life Cafe abruptly closed "until further notice" this past Sept. 11, as we first reported...

As The Villager pointed out in September, the sidewalk shed and scaffolding have been covering Life's sidewalk cafe for more than a year. Meanwhile, exterior renovations have yet to start.

Making this more challenging — Life "spans a space belonging to two different buildings with two different landlords whose dispute over the price of the work contract has prevented construction from starting," according to The Villager. At the time, owner Kathy Kirkpatrick said that she'd stay closed until the landlords complete the repairs.

[Last week outside 343 E. 10th St. By Bobby Williams]

On Tuesday, the city issued a new work permit for 343 E. 10th St. ... the first sign of any substantial exterior work here...

Anyway, none of this means that Life will actually reopen here once the repairs are made. Kirkpatrick was spotted removing kitchen equipment back in the fall... Regardless, it would be nice to see some kind of life here again... (ad: something useful and not horrible!)

A look inside Life on Dec. 22...

Luke's Lobster now a selling point for East Village apartments

Here's a listing for a bedroom apartment on East Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B ... the usual blather... but one selling point jumped out at us...

Steps from Lukes [sic] Lobster

Wonder if the real-estate types know that Luke's delivers?

This is what the southwest corner of 14th Street and Avenue C looked like on Feb. 6, 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...

Prom night at Doc Holliday's

Doc Holliday's is holding a Prom Night tonight at Ninth Street and Avenue A. Gentleman, don't forget your corsages. Ladies, please be careful putting on the boutineer!

Though Doc's is calling for "redneck formal attire," we understand that "retro" is back in for the Big Night... as seen in these obvious pop-cultural references...

For Spike...

Landmarks Preservation Commission sets June date for East Village landmarking

From the EV Grieve inbox ... via the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation ...

A date has (finally!) been set for a hearing on the proposed East Village/Lower East Side Historic District and a vote on the proposed landmark designation of 128 East 13th Street, the former stable/horse auction mart that also served for years as a the studio of artist Frank Stella. Both will take place on June 26.

WABC files report on East Village Farms, mentions local blogger

WABC Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Colagrossi has a report this morning on the probably doomed East Village Farms on Avenue A ... as well as a wider look at the ongoing demolition of so many buildings around here... we exchanged emails with her leading up to the report, and we thank her for including EV Grieve in the broadcast.

The piece is online ... and will be rebroadcast during the 4 p.m. newscast...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

Did David Schwimmer do anything illegal by tearing down 331 E. Sixth St.?

That's the question BrickUnderground asked an expert, real-estate attorney Steven Wagner of Wagner Davis, about the destruction of the circa 1852 home on East Sixth Street. Here's the rather longish short answer:

“Personally I think what he did was wrong if the building was distinctive and worthy of preservation, but that is not a legal issue,” Wagner says.

“When a building is not landmarked, but Landmarks has issued a letter that [it] is being considered for landmarking, the DOB will hold the any plans (including demolition) for 40 days, which is the maximum time the DOB has to review plans and issue a decision," says Wagner.

The DOB can usually find issues, says Wagner.

But, he adds, if the owner of the property files an application for demolition prior to the landmarking and gets a permit before the property is landmarked, the right to demolish survives the landmarking.

So you see, he did nothing illegal. I wish that you people would just leave him alone then!

Oh, and that photo illustration is via BrickUnderground.

Hat tip to Curbed.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse

Noted

A reader pointed out this new listing for an apartment on East Sixth Street... looks like a nice place ... near restaurants and coffee shops and...

Not exactly sure where they were going with this description. We'll just go ahead and put it down for tranny bars.

So Max probably won't be opening that outpost on Second Avenue then, huh?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Max will close its Avenue B location after the Italian eatery opens a branch in Williamsburg this spring...

Which reminds us... back in January 2010, as Eater first noted, Max was on the CB3/SLA docket to open a location at the rather mysterious northwest corner of Second Avenue and Second Street ...

Those plans never materialized, for whatever reasons... the CB3/SLA sign is even still on the front window...

We dug through the CB3 archives... Max appeared before the CB3/SLA committee in February 2010, and it looks as if they were approved for a license here...

Anyway, anyone know what's going on with this space here at 39 Second Ave. (aka 36 E. Second St.)? The building was owned by Wilbert Tatum, the publisher and editor of The New York Amsterdam News who died at age 76 in February 2009. Tatum's wife, Susan Kohn Tatum, transferred ownership of the building to Zubrinski & Co. LLC last April, according to city records.

Brown out at Boukies

There's noticeable work taking place at the former Heartbreak Cafe on the southwest corner of Second Street and Second Avenue... Workers recently painted the exterior from that red ...

to this...

[Bobby Williams]

Owner Christos (Pylos) Valtzoglou is planning on opening a place called Boukies that will specialize in small plates of Greek food

Many years back, the address here was home to The Second Avenue Theatre, later the Molly Picon, a Yiddish-language playhouse built in 1911. This info is via the invaluable New York Songlines. As the site notes, Walter Matthau got his start playing bit parts here.

For more information, we turn to Cinema Treasures. "David Kessler’s 2nd Avenue Theatre opened on September 14, 1911 and was the first of the Yiddish theatres to open along the 'Rialto.'" In 1958, the theatre went dark and was demolished for a parking lot.

Here's a photo of the theatre in its heyday via a Cinema Treasures reader.

For more on Yiddish theatre along lower Second Avenue ... visit The Villager here ... and here.

The East Houston Hotel is for sale; how about a new rooftop bar?

The Hotel East Houston over at Eldridge Street is for sale, according to an item in citybiz Real Estate. Price tag: $21 million.

Per one of the real-estate types marketing the place:

"The building's rooftop area and basement level could easily accommodate a restaurant, bar, lounge or a combination of all three, and preliminary architectural designs for such space have been completed."

As BoweryBoogie notes, "Despite the umpteen hotels currently in the development pipeline for the Lower East Side (Orchard Street in particular), it’s still not completely the greatest economic climate for pricey inns."

But we'll keep building — and selling — them anyway...

Eighth Subway sandwich shop opens in the East Village

In case that you couldn't smell tell ... the Subway opened here at 108 First Ave. today ...

This makes No. 8 here.

$500,000 cars aren't immune from parking tickets on Avenue A

And we're back with our Maybach 62S here on Avenue A ... now with a ticket.

Matt LES_Miserable, who took this photo, also spoke with the owner... and said that he was actually a very nice guy.

Headline of the day (so far)

Via DNAinfo:

Two People Overcome by Mysterious Smell in East Village Staples

No explanations just yet about what happened here on Broadway and East Ninth Street this morning. Do you have any theories?

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Flowers for Peter Cooper, photo by Dave on 7th]

City to unveil Delancey Street safety plan tonight (DNAinfo)

Best player on the Knicks sleeps in his brother's LES living room (The New York Times)

New York becoming less affordable, duh (Runnin' Scared)

Sale of Bialystoker Nursing Home coming soon? (The Lo-Down)

A look inside the new Empellon Cocina on First Avenue (Eater)

Remembering WQEW (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Olek returning to the Lower East Side (BoweryBoogie)

Inside the Amtrak Tunnels on the West Side (Gothamist)

Red Lobster opening up next to the Apollo in Harlem (New York Post)

And Matt LES_Miserable notes the asbestos rat outside the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary on 14th Street and Second Avenue this morning...

When Rocky's phone service went out

Here's a newish neighborhood blog to tell you about — Occupy East Fourth Street. Here's their tagline: "We are 2 Tenant Associations, joined together to defend ourselves against a Corporate Real Estate Investment Hydra, that seeks to expell us from our homes in order to maximize their profits."

So it's very specific to a certain corridor of the neighborhood... but it provides a snapshot of what's going on in the East Village at large.

Here's a post from Monday ... the kind of story that needs to be told...

The Death Letter
Rocky is a retired senior citizen who lives in 120 East 4th Street. He is a very pleasant, kind, salt-of-the-earth type of a man, and a wonderful neighbor. On December 9, 2011, an apartment on the ground floor of 120 East 4th Street was being gutted. Rocky, who has a land-line phone and no cell phone or computer, lost his phone service, along with a few other tenants in the building ...

The risers to his part of the building were cut and removed without explanation. The risers are the metal protective cases that house and protect the phone lines throughout the building. There was a question as to whether it was a Federal offense of just a stupid mistake. Verizon, when contacted, said it was the responsibility of the owner to maintain the risers. It's unclear whether Verizon, or Magnum Real Estate Group took responsibility. It was not until January 5, 2012, that Verizon installed a wire from the roof to the basement to restore service. ...

Five days after it was installed, Rocky received a letter in the mail from a nursing [home] in one of the outer boroughs where his beloved sister Esme resided. Rocky called Esme frequently and visited often. The letter stated that Esme suddenly became very ill and passed away on January 1st. The nursing home had tried repeatedly to call Rocky without success. They resorted to sending him a letter.

In addition to not receiving the news of his sister's illness and death when he should have, Rocky had to make all the wake and funeral arrangements from a pay phone on the corner. The phone service to his apartment was not restored until January 25, 2012.

Find, and bookmark, the site here.

That's it for East Village Farms

The folks at East Village Farms on Avenue A stayed open two days past their original Feb. 5 closing date... and by last night, the store was fairly miserable... workers had pulled most everything off the shelves...

They were just selling off the rest of the beer and soda, really... and anything else that you might want to buy — those lousy deli umbrellas, some dinted cans of Libby's products... the fellow working said they were closing after last night... (though I wouldn't be surprised to find them open today...)

Meanwhile, evilsugar25 passed along this photo of Jimmy from behind the deli counter on his last day on Sunday...

He wasn't sure what he was going to do for work. Take a few days off then start looking for another job...

Finally, the flowers will be on sale outside through Feb. 14...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

How long before this pigeon decomposes?

And here we have a dead pigeon lying on an air conditioner behind a building somewhere on East Sixth Street.

Suz on Sixth, who took the photo, notes the pigeon has been there for months. There have been those across-the-air-shaft conversations with the tenant about disposing the bird. But, it remains.

"On our end, we're just curious how long it'll take to fully decompose; an urban memento mori, if you will," Suz on Sixth said. "It's only yet down to about a third of its original size."

Not just the Holiday: Pirate Brands founder bought all of 75 St. Mark's Place

Last Wednesday, we first reported that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. (We're still waiting to hear back from him.) He will go before the CB3/SLA committee on Monday.

Yesterday, the Observer noted that Ehrlich bought the whole building at 75 St. Mark's Place where the Holiday lived.

Per the Observer:

According to Corcoran broker Dan Brady, who held the listing with his colleague Nick Arnold, Mr. Ehrlich will not be moving in. Instead, he plans to keep the space as is: four floor-through apartments with a commercial unit on the ground floor. Will there be a Pirate Shop occupying the hallowed, beer-baptized grounds of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge? A Pirate Bar? A bar with pirate booty snacks? Whatever it is, it probably won’t hold a candle to the timeless bacchanal that was the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

CB3 aims to make daytime drinking more sociable, sort of

On Monday night, CB3's SLA Policy Taskforce met... and they came out of the meeting with a plan to consider easing up on restricting new liquor licenses ...

But with a catch. Bars-cafes-restaurants that only served beer-wine and closed by midnight would have a better chance of gaining approval under the proposed plan.

The new policy would be more welcoming of daytime establishments — those closing by about midnight and serving only beer and wine — in keeping with CB3's efforts to increase foot traffic during the day and avoid new late-night establishments.

This report comes via Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo.

Nothing's definite, of course. Next steps. A meeting! March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at a to-be-determined location. CB3 members are encouraging public participation. CB3 won't vote on the proposed policy change until after the public hearing in March, Shapiro reported. (Read the whole article here.)

Any early thoughts on the potential policy?