Meanwhile, thoughtless construction equipment ruins a perfectly good pizza on Avenue A

A reader notes the following this morning in front of (a surprisingly clean-looking) 100 Avenue A...



One of the pieces of equipment the workers are using on the (gas?) main repair on Sixth and A made a special delivery...



Not sure which came first — the pizza or the wheel.

Is it time to leave the East Village?

A reader left this comment on the Starbucks post from yesterday... and I've been thinking about it...

It's a whole new demographic around here at this point. I know because I've talked to some of my neighbors who are recent college grads from places like Wake Forest or Villanova or Bucknell, etc. I've heard it from the horse's mouth — there is a whole culture here of these type of transplants. They really do hang out together at places like "13th step" and they really are clueless about this neighborhood and what it once was. It's a tidal wave, it's an epochal shift. The EV as you knew it is officially over. I hate to be a defeatist but IMO it is time to wave the white flag. I myself am planning to move out within a couple of years and it is the thought of that helps get me through my New York days.

I've heard variations of this sentiment many times — more so in the last few months than in any recent years ... I know people who have left — chased by the luxurification — to find lower rents in the upper reaches of Manhattan or the outer sections of Queens or Brooklyn... and I know people who continue to talk about moving, disgusted by the luxurification ... some people I know who discuss leaving cite as a reason the continued influx of more and more bars (and bargoers), one concept seemingly dumber than the previous one. Some people tell me that they don't fit in any more. Too old. Too weird. Too broke. Time to go.

Understandable.

Are you thinking about moving too? Are you ready to raise the white flag?

In closing, here's some perspective from a New York Times article (excerpted via Ephemeral New York here) titled "The affluent set invades the East Village."

The article is from November 1964.

Bowery Electric's new-look entrance; plus a new live room

We've been watching workers put in a new entrance over at The Bowery Electric...

Before...

[Bobby Williams]

We also recently watched a worker clean up the Bowery Electric's neon sign...

Anyway, here's the entrance now (well, as of Sunday anyway) ...



Aside from a new entryway... the Bowery Electric folks said that they are debuting a new live room tonight (it's at the back of the main bar) ... with a spoken word performance by Brother Mike Cohen...

165 Avenue B back on the market

There's a new broker for 165 Avenue B, the building just north of East 10th Street.... (we looked at it here in February 2011 ...)



Here's the Corcoran listing:

Great live/work 'loft' building for sale on a prime block in the East Village; just steps from Tompkins Square Park. Approximately 5,700 square feet, this six unit apartment building has tremendous upside since the spaces can be used for residential, commercial and retail. Four of the units can be delivered vacant and the remaining two within one year. The building has a commercial overlay which allows the ground floor to be used as retail or commercial space. The five story building is 23'8" wide with two and three bedroom floor through apartments on the top four floors and two commercial units on the ground floor, one with a separate entrance. The lot is 93' deep with a large garden, there is a two story extension on the rear ... 1,865 sq ft of air rights remain. Zoned R7-2 with a C1-5 overlay.

Not sure what the future will hold here... but I did like the last retail tenant, as I've written... Waldorf Hysteria ...



[Waldorf image via]

Your 'Saints of the Lower East Side'

Oops... we're really late with this one...



We received the news release last week... and here it is...

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) presents "Saints of the Lower East Side" by artist Tom Sanford, the latest in a series of exhibitions produced through FABnyc's public art program, ArtUp. The outdoor exhibition features seven painted portraits mounted 14 feet above street level on a scaffolding bridge at the 70 East 4th Street Cultural Center. ...

This exhibition is Tom Sanford's first outdoor public art project. The array of large gilded paintings are intended as an homage to cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the artist words, "These seven individuals [Martin Wong, Joey Ramone, Miguel Piñero, Ellen Stewart, Charlie Parker, Arthur Fellig and Allen Ginsberg], along with hundreds more, make the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist."

A reception for the artist will be held on June 26th, 2012 at 6pm at FAB Café. ..

.



The art will be up until Sept. 5 or so... Sanford and Graham Preston installed "The Saints" on June 4... Here's one of the photos via Sanford's website...

Mission in the rain

First Avenue and St. Mark's Place this afternoon.

Photo by Bobby Williams

Someone finally bought this home after four years on the market

That beautiful home (a single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouse!) over at 123 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has been on the market for more than four years...

But!

Crain's reports today that an unnamed buyer finally, um, bought the five-story, 4,200-square-foot home close to its asking price of $6.25 million.

Its neighbor at 125 is also on the market. A buyer could have, er, bought both and combined them for $12.5 million ... or not. Jason Haber, co-founder of Rubicon Property, the broker since February 2011, believes the purchaser will purchase 125 in the end as well.

The two began life on the market at $19.5 million.

And a brief history of the address via Streeteasy...



Previously.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Bobby Williams]

Celebrities, models and celebrity models flock to the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street for some Stella McCartney party (W)

All about The New York Pizza Project (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Paulaner Brewery says hello on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

A crane or maybe a boom on East Fourth Street (Occupy East Fourth Street)

The Beagle changes up the menu on Avenue A (Grub Street)

"The Etiquette of Death" at LaMaMa (The Lo-Down)

Roald Dahl's "House of Curiosities" at the RATS Company (DNAinfo)

Grey Era Vintage proprietor Sierra Fromberg passed along word of The Summer Collective on Thursday evening...



...and a photo of a photo shoot this morning on East 10th Street between Avenue C and D via Matt LES_Miserable...

The Bean's First Avenue location opens Thursday

The Bean's Ike Escava tells us that the location at 147 First Ave. (at East Ninth Street) will open on Thursday ... Meanwhile, EVG regular jdx wandered into the location yesterday for a look...











Previously on EV Grieve:
A bigger Bean coming now to 147 First Ave.

Rumors: Ground floor at 147 First Avenue will include the Bean AND a bar

The Bean is now apparently opening on every corner in the East Village

Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave., former home to Allen Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant

[March 30]

Back on April 26, a worker at the newly unveiled 219 First Ave. told EV Grieve reader Greg Masters that a Starbucks was opening in the retail space here...

Of course! But you never know with such intel from construction workers.

Anyway, in the last few days, paper went up on the windows here at East 13th Street ...



A newly issued work permit points to the incoming tenant...



Well, a Starbuck singular.

And while we let that sink in... might as well bring up again that the ground floor here once housed the Mee Noodle Shop, a favorite spot for Allen Ginsburg.

As the Times noted in its obituary on Ginsberg from April 1997:

Ah Lan Chong, a waitress at Mee's Noodle Shop and Grill on First Avenue, which was Mr. Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant, remembered Mr. Ginsberg in simpler, less heavily freighted terms.

Sure, she knew he was someone important, someone artistic. She could tell that from overheard conversations and from the way other diners would sometimes point at him when he entered. But to Ms. Chong, he was mainly the unfussy man with a dependable hankering for steamed flounder in ginger sauce. "When he came in," she said, "we knew what he wanted."

And so it goes...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Today in rumors of another Starbucks opening in the East Village

219 First Avenue ready for a chain store, probably

All is well in air-conditioning land along East Seventh Street

Here's a slightly belated follow-up post on the situation at 140-150 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... As we reported last May 10 ... to address leaks, the landlords were going to seal up the wall sleeves for air conditioners ... and were asking residents to purchase window units (which the landlord will kick in $200 for...)

Several residents were quite unhappy with this situation. (Read our post here for all the background.)

Meanwhile! A resident provides an update: "All is fine in air conditioning land, but the scaffolding will be up for a while longer while they repoint and replace the AC sleeves."

Here's the latest missive from the landlords...


[Click image to enlarge]

Another six months for the scaffolding? Down in time for the holiday season!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Why there could be a long, hot summer at 140-150 E. Seventh St.

Your chance to make this East 13th Street building a little taller

406 E. 13th St. near First Avenue is back on the market ... the current asking price for the building with two residences and a retail space is $4.3 million.

A few of the highlights via RES Sales and Marketing Corp:

• New roof engineered for future build out
• All walls sound deadened and constructed with heavy gauge steel studs
• Approximately 1,350 sf of air rights (amount is estimated and subject to NYC dept of buildings and city planning approval)

We'll skip over the stuff about Brazilian walnut "jotoba" hardwood floors and show show you some pictures via Streeteasy...







...and the A Building is likely just a little out of reach to have dueling roof parties...

No Nukes tonight in Tompkins Square Park

From the EV Grieve inbox...

30 years ago on June 12th, over a million people gathered in Central Park to protest against nuclear energy and weaponry. To commemorate the beautiful memories and break through the anti-nuclear movement, we're going to walk again! Come march/dance/shout with live n.o.n.u.k.e.s. DJs via WBAI NY, 99.5FM! Bring your own radio or boombox to the march and tune to 99.5FM at 8PM. If you are not in NY, listen live on WBAI.org and join the demo wherever you are. Keep the no-nukes noise alive!

Guest shouters: Alice Slater, Chris Williams, Minori Nakamura and the Raging Grannies!
Host/producer: Ken Gale, Eco-Logic, WBAI 99.5 FM, NYC

Taylor Mead still loves the neighborhood

The Paris Review checks in with a wistful feature on Taylor Mead, the 87-year-old writer-actor-performer-Warhol-star ... who moved to New York in the late 1950s...

A few things from the article ... Lucien on First Avenue is his favorite restaurant — "it’s one of the few places he leaves the apartment for." Also, the landlord is apparently trying to boot Taylor from his rent-stabilized Ludlow Street apartment. The heat was off all winter.

With a nod to its headline, "Taylor Mead's Lost East Village," writer Craig Hubert notes that "People and places are gone for good, and during our conversation the East Village begins to sound more and more like a ghost town. Taylor is the last resident, the final holdout."

Perhaps ... but...

Taylor wanted to make clear that, although the neighborhood has changed drastically, he still enjoys being here. “I love my neighborhood. And I love the new yuppies, they’re very nice. They help me get out of cabs.”

Read the full piece here.

Noted

Never any mattress police around when you need them at Union Square.

Photo by Shawn Chittle.

This afternoon outside 100 Avenue A

Previously.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Running for the bus this morning. #Mondays]

McSorley's for sale? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

The cakes of Amor Bakery on Avenue B (Fork in the Road)

Debbie Harry and Patti Smith on the CBGB biopic (Savannah Now)

New plans for the LES Business Improvement District (The Lo-Down)

A Starbucks opening on Division Street? (BoweryBoogie)

A single-family mansion for Ludlow (Curbed)

Revisiting the Pickle District on the LES (Ephemeral New York)

Inside Nicoletta on Second Avenue (Eater)

... and yesterday afternoon, we were walking on Irving Place and noticed a short line. Turns out it was for a Lana Del Rey show at Irving Plaza.



Scanning the line, we had to ask, "Is that THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.?"

The main event on East Sixth Street at First Avenue

@JacobDAnderson passes along this info:
Replacing a gas main at 6th St. at 1st Ave. Worker said they'll be done in a couple weeks.

Peeling off the Gin Palace plywood on Avenue A and East Sixth Street

Workers this morning are removing the plywood at the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A and East Sixth Street...

January!

[EVG reader Creature]

And now, via Dave on 7th...





The former El Cobre on the ground floor is gone. The owners 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."

Time Out notes that the latest venture from Ravi DeRossi opens on Wednesday. They got the first look inside ... and report:

Although the bar takes its name from the swank gin joints of 1800s London, the decor channels a steampunk aesthetic with a space-age chandelier crafted from green-neon-lit bars, brass bands and light doodads; black-patent-leather walls; and a ceiling painted to resemble watch gears.

So, if we have this Cienfuegos stuff straight (which, we probably don't, as we've never been inside) ... the Cuban-influenced rum bar upstairs remains the same... ditto for the bitters tasting room called Amor y Amargo, which replaced the sandwich shop Carteles. And the main space will now serve fish 'n' chips.

Previously.

Breaking: Huge truck parks outside the David Schwimmer mansion — but why?

A tipster passes along the following photo from outside David Schwimmer's incoming home at 331 E. Sixth St.:

Per the tipster:

Another "what is it?" moment ... as the Schwimmer Shack gets a monster delivery (of delicious shakes and tasty burgers, maybe?). Note that the huge truck is heading in the wrong direction.

Shakes and burgers aside ... what else might be inside...?