EV Grieve

Monday, May 7, 2012

Zi' Pep has closed at seemingly jinxed East Ninth Street location

Zi' Pep opened in November on East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... The owner based the Southern Italian eatery on the East New York restaurant, Pep's, that his grandparents ran from 1935 to 1972, as Grub Street reported.

Anyway, Zi' Pep is now closed... and the owner and chef are now focusing on their Italian sandwich shop in Tribeca. Here's the official message about Zi' Pep:

It is not without regret that we are closing Zi' Pep, but as they say, we were made an offer we couldn't refuse. This is for the best, as now we'll have the opportunity to focus on our friends & family over Pane Panelle. We thank you for your patronage, and look forward to seeing you in Tribeca.

The Zi' Pep space had been on the market for several months... per the listing, the rent is $9,000 plus $175,000 for key money.

This looks like a tough sell for a restaurant. Zi' Pep is the third eatery to close here in quick succession, following Olivia and Sintir.

We'll see what gives this space a go next...

Angels & Kings closed; did anyone notice?

The Pete Wentz-backed bar on 11th Street just east of Avenue A closed several weeks ago ... we didn't actually notice or hear about it until this past Friday...

Via their Facebook page:

Unfortunately, its with great sadness that we announce that Angels & Kings NYC has officially closed for good. We’ve had an amazing run and met so many amazing people on the ride but it was time for a change. If you are in Chicago, LA or Barcelona, check out our other sexy locations and you never know, we could be back in NYC in the near future ;-)

Here's how UrbanDaddy announced the bar's arrival back in April 2007:

Launched in part as a hangout for the members of Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is... and Gym Class Heroes, Angels and Kings — or AK-47, as the kids are calling it — is your chance to sip a cheap bottle of beer and chat up attractive TRL aficionadas.

And here's how Joshua Stein announced the arrival on Gawker.

When emo-troubadour Pete Wentz opened Angels and Kings, a bar in the East Village, our douche canary in our douche mineshaft keeled over and died. First of all, Pete Wentz is going to be there. As he tells Page Six: "Yeah, I'm just gonna be local and drink umbrella drinks." So this isn't your normal dive. According to one of his business partners, this is a dive where "anyone can go and have sex in the bathroom and not get in trouble." So it's located in international waters?

Cops shut the place down briefly in May 2009 for underage drinking... sparking headlines worldwide (seriously).

Eventually the emoness wore off... The bar became the home to Penn State football games last fall...

As for what's next... I recall that, in January, the CB3/SLA OK'd the people behind Keybar on East 13th Street taking over the space and opening a bar-restaurant serving Hungarian food. With DJs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. (You can read the official CB3ese here.)

Fine Fare moves recycling to Avenue C

Back in October, DNAinfo reported that some neighbors were angry about Fine Fare's recycling center on the East Fourth Street side of the grocery store at Avenue C. The residents noted constant problems such as fighting, drinking, urinating in public...

One commenter on our post said, "Noise in NYC makes sense... but the degree of noise on that corner is just absurd."

Among other things, Fine Fare put up some signs and painted a no-hanging-out zone along East Fourth Street.

In a follow-up story in March, DNAinfo reported that the store would move the recycling operation to the front of the store on Avenue C... and, late last week, the move became official...

[EVG reader Steven]

... and a look at the East Fourth Street side now...

Have any nearby residents noticed a difference already with the move?

Sunday's sorta supermoon

On Saturday, the moon came as close to Earth as it will all year. Allegedly. I cut-n-paste this from somewhere: the supermoon was 14 percent closer to Earth and 30 percent brighter than when at its farthest point.

But Saturday evening's overcast skies didn't make for very good viewing.

Still, last night's moon wasn't any slouch.

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

On this date in 1984: Spinal Tap turns it to 11 at CBGB

[Breaking it like the wind at CBGB. Photograph: Ebet Roberts/Redferns]

A little trivia via the History Channel:

Only two years removed from a disastrous 1982 world tour that not only failed to turn the album Smell The Glove into a comeback hit, but also led to the group's breakup, Spinal Tap now had to suffer the indignity of seeing the Marty DiBergi-helmed behind-the-scenes film of that tour gain widespread theatrical release. Would the numerous embarrassments catalogued in the hard-hitting rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap provoke public sympathy for and renewed interest in the band that Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls began back in 1964 as The Originals? Or would the group behind such familiar classic-rock hits as "Give Me Some Money" and "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" be consigned once and for all to obscurity? In this atmosphere of uncertainty, Spinal Tap elected to go back to their roots, kicking off a tour of small American rock clubs with an appearance at New York City's legendary CBGB's on May 6, 1984.

h/t @cbgbandomfug

People's Pops now open; something else to stand in line for on Seventh Street

People are apparently popping by the People's Pops pop-up Popsicle stand (sorry!) ... which opened this past week on Seventh Street near First Avenue.

Apparently summer is here. But we still think it will snow one more time before June.

Previously.

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Pop-up party is over at Riff on the Bowery

Just catching up on a few items that I didn't get to this past week.

Such as!

Riff, the pop-up store at 313 Bowery, closed last Sunday.

The place opened last October and featured the rock-inspired clothing line called Andrew Charles created by Andy Hilfiger and Steven Tyler... (Tyler performed there during a grand opening last fall.)

In fact, the only thing left in the space is this cutout of Tyler with his daughter Chelsea...

Not sure what's coming here next... the Morrison Hotel Gallery was here for several years..

And, once upon a time ...

[Corbis]

There was the CBGB Record Canteen and, later, the 313 Gallery.

313 had been on the market for months...

However, RKF has removed the listing...

Week in Grieview

[East Fourth Street at the Bowery]

Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare, soon to be home to condos (Tuesday)

Remembering MCA on Avenue A (Friday)

Big changes coming to 243 E. Second St. (Monday)

18 photos of the LES/East Village that you may not have seen before (Wednesday)

The Neighborhood School library spared for now (Wednesday)

Why Zaragoza should be able to sell beer (Friday)

New gallery space at Dixon Place (Wednesday)

A New York Met in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Meatball Factory closes, now a pop-up restaurant called Hole Foods (Friday)

Jane's Sweet Buns now has a bar (Thursday)

Proto's Pizza opens, and people seem to like it (Thursday)

Bishops & Barons now open on IHOP Way (Monday)

About this weekend's Kinofest NYC (Wednesday)

May Day at Union Square (Tuesday)

Hey, look at Chloe Sevigny's bathroom (Monday)

Tough times for Avenue B (Tuesday)

8:47 a.m., Avenue A, May 6

Open call for Art Around the Park

As we noted yesterday, the Howl! Festival is June 1-3 in Tompkins Square Park. ~ Joan sent along the photo of the poster for Art Around the Park on June 2-3. Check the Howl! website here for more details.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Fallout from last night's Bear Crawl continues

Wow. The carnage continues.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Bear crawl ends predictably enough on Avenue A

Today on Union Square

Photo by Bobby Williams

Was that a UFO over the East Village yesterday?

From reader Brian B. ... this incident occurred yesterday.

I was walking west on 10th Street between Ave A & B at 5pm today, I looked up and spotted a small red dot floating stationary way up in the clouds.

At first I assumed the red dot was a a child's "toy" balloon that had floated up out Tompkins Square Park. For most of the sixty seconds it took me to travel the block, I watched the red "ballon" remain in a stationary position (against the edge of the buildings in the distance).

When I got to the corner of 10th & A, I watched the "balloon" for a few more seconds, then turned my attention to the pedestrian traffic in front of me as turned right and began walking north on Avenue A.

While I was waiting for light at 12 Street, I looked up and noticed that the "red ballon" that had been floating stationary back over 10th Street was now traveling in a straight line across the horizon acting very much UNLIKE a balloon.

I took out my camera and shot this video. (Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS 13X optical zoom)

The sun was still pretty bright at 5pm and I my camera's display was too dim for me to see if I was capturing the tiny dot that was hardly visible to my eye. I figured that with the camera zoomed in all the way, the footage would be too shaky to show much.

For most of the footage, the object looks dark, but during the last few seconds of the footage, you'll notice the red coloring I saw when I first mistook it for a balloon.

I don't think it's an alien space craft or anything, but it was definitely a UFO in the sense that it was flying and I couldn't identify it. I'm postive it wasn't a plane or a helicopter. Some kind of surveillance drone? Anyone have any idea what this could be?

I'm totally going with alien spacecraft. But I'm a realist.

You? Your thoughts on what this was. (Aside from Lady Gaga or Lana Del Rey, of course.)

And keep in mind: This isn't the first time for something like this happened around here. Remember this. Or this.

Breaking: World's largest pink stretch Hummer spotted on Avenue B

At East Ninth Street. Woo! x 2.

Howl! Festival set for June 1-3

Several readers pointed us to the Howl! Festival's Facebook page... where we found the following announcement posted this morning:

HOWL! Festival 2012 arrives June 1, 2, and 3 in Tompkins Square Park. Non-stop fun and nonsense for kids of all ages~

Check the Howl! website here for more details.

Our previous coverage is here.

Bear crawl ends predictably enough on Avenue A

Avenue A at Second Street.

Same shit every weekend. The SB&T (stuffed bear and taxidermy) crowd invades the neighborhood... and we have to see this kind of thing the next morning. Spent an hour cleaning the stuffed white cotton off my front stoop.

Snakes on an Avenue

[Photo by Marjorie Ingall]

You may have seen this last evening... above, on Seventh Street... and, later, a show on St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue... via EV Grieve reader Rob

Times like these we turn to the Hollywood classics, such as Ice Cube in "Anaconda" — "They got snakes this big?"