Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Actual work being done at the long-stalled Hotel Ludlow site


Dave on 7th sent along the above photo yesterday... work has resumed at 180 Ludlow, a four-plus-years-in-the-making eyesore.

Back in October, Curbed reported that BD Hotels — the team involved with the Maritime, Chambers, Greenwich, Jane and Bowery hotels — bought the stalled site for $25 million.

The city has issued or reissued several permits in recent weeks for work to restart here...


Of course, nothing has been easy here. There are already two partial stop work orders on file from the last few days, including one for "NO ELECTRICAL PERMIT FOR EXISTING HOIST." Anyway, once the hotel scenesters arrive in a few years, you won't even remember any of this ...

For more on the background here, you can check out BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down.

Life behind IHOP: 'the situation hasn't gotten much better'

Last Thursday, a reader asked if residents who lived behind the IHOP on East 14th Street still had problems with bacon fumes.

We heard from two residents via the comments.

Short answer: yes.

I live in one of the buildings behind the 14th Street IHOP, and no, the situation hasn't gotten much better. Several days will go by without much of a problem, and then the stench will begin again. Sometimes, like this morning, it will just be for an hour or two, but then there will be a couple of days when it is just never-ending. Right now, it's a low-level stale smell. My neighbors and I have repeatedly contacted CB6, the DEP, Rosie Mendez's office, you name it - IHOP is still stinking up the neighborhood. Please, please don't go to IHOP.

And...

I am an owner of one of the apartments that get's the brunt of the smell. I literally had to move out and find someone to rent the apartment too. No one would buy it. Everybody said it smells like bacon. The new tenant says it doesn't bother him so much, but I don't think he is home too much — plus he's been there for winter only, we'll see what happens when he starts opening his windows.

Monday, April 2, 2012

In case you wanted to see Shalom Harlow flash her breasts on the Bowery

And now, turing to other important news stories... a reader sent us a link to Egostatic, which noted that model Shalom Harlow (who used to live on the Bowery) flashed the camera during a photoshoot ... on the corner of the Bowery and East Third Street...

As if the Bowery didn't have enough boobs these days... of course, a few of the shots are NSFW, depending on where you work...

The rooftop addition of 315 E. 10th St.

There's a lot of interest in the circa-1847 building at 315 E. 10th St. that faces Tompkins Square Park. As you'll recall, the city OK'd a one-floor rooftop addition here in January hours before the Landmarks Preservation Committee approved the East 10th Street Historic District.

Some nearby residents are curious how the new addition will fit in with the rest of the block. And we've heard from a few people who want to know just how tall that one-floor addition will be... Here's looking at the building from Tompkins Square Park... a few different angles...





There are two complaints on file with the DOB noting "ADDITIONAL STORY ADDED BEYOND THE SCOPE OF APPROPVED PLANS."


And it wouldn't be the first time that there has been controversy around developer Ben Shaoul, who owns 315 E. 10th St., and roof-top additions.

East 10th Street neighbor Jose Garcia heard the extra-floor rumors too. However, via the site manager: "It certainly looks like another floor, but because there is an elevator going in the bulkhead, the roof has to be tall enough to accommodate the elevator housing."

Diagrams on file with the DOB show that the residential conversion of the building, previously owned by The Educational Alliance, includes an elevator.




Previously on EV Grieve:
A bid to protect the integrity of 315 E. 10th St.

Landmarks Preservation Commission expedites hearing on East 10th Street Historic District

Workers quickly start dismantling roof of historic 315 E. 10th St.

A sidewalk shed arrives outside Vazac's

On Friday evening, workers arrived to start putting up a sidewalk shed around the perimeter of the Horseshoe Bar/Vazac's/7B here on the corner of Seventh Street and Avenue B...


There aren't any permits on file via the DOB website just yet... so we don't know what type of work will be done here...

[Matt LES_Miserable from yesterday]

Dave on 7th, who took the photo below, thought that the Seventh Street side of the shed might be a little crooked...


And the main topic of conversation... Depending on what's happening here ... perhaps this is the end of what's left of the four-story Peter Jarema Funeral Home ad ... ("air conditioned chapels") with its old exchange "OR4-2568."

[EVG]

As Ephemeral New York points out, Peter Jarema opened in 1906, and the copy on the wall says that they've been in business for more than 60 years, which dates the ad to the 1960s... in any event, we always hate to see little pieces of history like this wiped away...

Wall art



Remnants of the circa-1900 building at 76 Third Ave. providing an interesting tapestry. A follow-up from last Monday's post.

Previously.

Piola gives way to Ribalta

A little off the usual course... over on East 12th Street just off Broadway... that pizza place Piola closed back in February...


According to a post dated Feb. 25 on the Piola New York Facebook page:

To our valued customers: the restaurant is undergoing reconstruction. The new restaurant will reopen in mid march in the same place. Thank you very much for your continued support, we are looking forward to seeing you soon!

The new place is now open... something called Ribalta, and its apparently the first U.S. branch of an Italian chain of sorts...


Grub Street had the place by the numbers on Friday: "[T]here are 90 seats, 25 different pizzas, three ovens (for three various styles), two highly decorated master pizzaioli ... and one on-premises pizza school, plus antipasti, pasta, and Stumptown-enhanced tiramisu for dessert."

EV Grieve eatery etc.: Artichoke Pizza sporting neon; Mile End hiring

A few other restuarant-related items that we never got around to posting last week ... Artichoke on East 14th Street now has a new neon sign...



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Apparently popular Boerum Hill-based Mile End Sandwich looks closer to opening on Bond Street...


... and they're hiring...


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Kotobuki is opening soon on Third Avenue near East 10th Street... the Japanese restaurant has a few locations on Long Island... (They are also hiring...)


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Progress at incoming falafel eatery Sahara Citi on East 13th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...

Sunday, April 1, 2012

SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH: The Saloon Stigmata Edition

On Saturday night, The Gorgeous Ladies of Bloodwrestling celebrated (and skewered) Easter and Passover with SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH: The Saloon Stigmata Edition at the Double Down Saloon on Avenue A... Among those present for this sports satire: Our Lady of Perpetual PMS, Referee Mike SOS (SOS, Seizure Crypt), Shesus Christ, Challah Back Girl, The Angel of Death and The Gorgeous LADS of Bloodwrestling ...

Stacie Joy was there to capture the good times ... and fake blood...













CUT!


A film crew in Tompkins Square Park today didn't appreciate photographers standing around this public space...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Earlier today on East Third Street


Perhaps part of the Easter egg hunt/pub crawl?

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Week in Grieview

[10th Street at Fourth Avenue]

New owners for Joe's Bar (Thursday)

316 E. Third St. has been demolished (Wednesday)

The Life Cafe trademark is for sale (Tuesday)

Former East Village resident releases new record (Monday)

Another message for the landlord at 35 Cooper Square (Tuesday)

A spring 2011-2012 now and then (Tuesday)

More about renting the Patricia Field boutique on the Bowery (Monday)

A new phone for the World Famous Pee Phone (Friday)

At the Coney Island USA Spring Gala at Webster Hall (Monday)

A Bleecker Bob's Update (Wednesday)

[Updated] Not an April Fool's gag: 'The Carrie Diaries' filming on the Bowery and Bond today

So... "Sex and the City" prequel "The Carrie Diaries" follows Carrie Bradshaw during her senior year of high school during the early 1980s and subsequent move to New York... And it will be a series on the CW... and today, crews are on the Bowery and Bond Street to film scenes for the show... [Updated: Crews are also on Astor Place and Lafayette]



...and the crew brought in some early 80s classics for the shoot...



And did Ian Schrager OK these clunkers to be parked so close to 40 Bond?


Updated 3:01 p.m.

Cars aren't the only retro parts of the shoot... here are extras on Lafayette that Organizing the Soup spotted...


At least we think they're extras.

Noted


Comedian Jim Gaffigan does the "My New York" feature in today's Post.

And here's his comment on Tompkins Square Park:

“Taking your kid to Tompkins Square Park is hysterical, because you’re trying to explain to your 5-year-old why the heroin addict is sleeping on the bench in such a precise manner. My son will be like, ‘Why is that guy sleeping?’ And I’ll be like, ‘He was tired.’”


Hysterical?