Things to do on Avenue A weekend nights that don't involve bars

Browse through the used book selection at Mast, 66 Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Fourth Street...

Noted

Spotted at Vazac's, Seventh Street and Avenue B.

Later.

Giant grasshopper spotted on East First Street

Not to alarm you ... spotted outside 21 E. First St. today by Bobby Williams...

Likely one of the giant grasshoppers accidentally created at the NYU experimental farm. Or else it's a piece of construction equipment.

Here's Garland Jeffreys and East 14th Street in 'The Contortionist'

Here's the new single/video by EVG favorite Garland Jeffreys — "The Contortionist," which Devereux Milburn shot near Jeffreys' Stuy Town home ... and featuring East 14th Street and Avenue C. Background vocals by Lou Reed and Savannah Jeffreys.

The Collisions tonight at the Stand

Lori Der Hagopian, the proprietor of The Stand, the gallery kiosk on East Seventh Street at Avenue C (a former newsstand), is hosting her first opening here tonight... she is presenting work by Brennan Cavanaugh...

The Collisions are collages made from one edition of The New York Times. Per Lori: "Images from that day's paper are chosen and re-assembled, with x-acto knife and gluestick, to create a personal and surreal revisioning of the day's news."

The opening starts at 7 p.m. The exhibit is up through Sept. 30.

We wrote about The Stand back in May. You can find that post here.

Looking for the elusive Wacky Wok menu dropper

At some point, every single home or business or church or structure of any kind — empty, under-construction or abandoned — in the East Village has had a Wacky Wok menu placed on the front door. Multiple times. Maybe daily. Probably daily. I'd argue that there are more Wacky Wok menus around than any locksmith cards combined.

I've spent too much time thinking about this through the months. (Years?) Do the Wacky Wok menu droppers work on commission? Are they paid by the gross tonnage of menus delivered? Does Wacky Wok have a printing press in their basement on Avenue D at East Ninth Street? Is Wacky Wok a better name than, say, Wok and Roll?

Anyway, I always seem to run across the locksmith people bombing the doorways. But I've never seen anyone from Wacky Wok leaving the menus behind. Once, I walked into my building and, about 45 seconds later, decided to run another errand. In that time, someone put a Wacky Wok menu on the door. I quickly scanned the street with the enthusiasm of a child catching Santa in the living room (preferably late on Dec. 24). There wasn't anyone in either direction.

Anyway, I started taking photos of the WW menus. A sampling.

Well, you get the idea.

Then, the other day, I spotted this fellow pulling the cart thing stick a menu on the front door of 100 Avenue A, the former grocery that has been sitting empty for seven months now...

He turned east on Seventh Street. I followed to watch him work. When I rounded the corner ... he was gone. Into, presumably, the Wacky Wok time continium vortex.

Now this isn't anything against Wacky Wok, a healthyish Pan Asian eatery. For me, it's a curiosity, not an annoyance. And I've ordered food from here, and have mostly found it agreeable. And I have four or five menus to choose from every time that I call.

Webster Hall now home to the exclusive Hanky Panky Club

From the EV Grieve inbox ... a news release slightly edited for length ... the place opens tonight...

The Hanky Panky Club, brought to you by nightlife veterans Lon Ballinger, Gary Spencer and Sameer Qureshi, is accessed through a hidden speak easy type entrance on East 11th Street inside the iconic Webster Hall — the same private entrance used by the likes of Madonna, Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton (just to name a few).

Once inside, guests ascend the marble staircase to a stunning, velvet-walled room. The gorgeously-appointed room is a soundproof, discreet lounge experience, that boasts a full back-line stage always ready for performances. This Thursday, we have music by DJ Thomas D and Friday, a live performance by Eddie and The Gun and Nima Yamini — the man behind Avenue A Soundcheck.

What makes The Hanky Panky Club different than any other New York venue is the access to the Webster Hall balcony. This balcony overlooks the main stage of the legendary music venue ... This balcony gives The Hanky Panky Club goers the option to view the music and crowd below, all from the intimacy of a private party.

The Hanky Panky Club will also be known their commitment to impeccable customer service. Jonas, previously of King and Grove, will be at the warmly exclusive door. If the Hanky Panky Club is at capacity, Jonas will take a phone number and texts guests when the club is ready. The wait staff will be dressed in feminine, sexy tutus inspired by famed London Nightclub Owner Peter Stringfellow, modelesque go-go dancers will fluidly dance about the room and atop the bar. These ladies are trained to not only bring the bottle, but the etiquette of a private lounge from a time when service was the ultimate element.

The Hanky Panky Club, located at 125A East 11th Street, will be open every Thursday - Saturday where each night you will know to expect a well known DJ spinning the vibe of the room to perfection. Thursdays think soul, Fridays think electronic and Saturday night - anything goes... Be prepared for energetic beats and spontaneous live performances.

Are you missing a parrot?

We've seen a lot of missing pets flyers around... but we've never seen one for a parrot matching this description in Tompkins Square Park...

In the past month, Bobby Williams, peter radley and others have heard about this parrot, living in the wilds ... Sort of gaining Urban Legend status. We'd assume that this is an escaped pet.

Bobby finally got the above shot the other day. It was looking for food with some starlings.

Anyway, in case you're missing a parrot, there's still hope.

Lot of dreams

On Monday, we looked at some dead weeds and new medians along East Houston at Avenue D... On the topic of weeds, the lot on the northwest corner of Avenue D and East Houston remains empty... and it looks like this...

There was talk of a huge development here going on three years ago now... like this, as first reported on by the Lo-Down...


The rendering is still live at the website of Curtis + Ginsberg Architects ... under "unbuilt projects."

Have any tips about the situation here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Previously on EV Grieve:
Avenue D's future

Reader report: Car-motorcycle accident on Fourth Avenue at East 13th Street

EVG reader Lauren passes along this photo and information from last night around 11 ... where there was a car-motorcycle accident on Fourth Avenue at East 13th Street. "Not sure how the person on the ground is ... the fireman was just sitting there holding her hand."

We'll see if we can get an update later...

This is what an empty storefront on East Houston looked like on Sept. 2, 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...

Former Fu Sushi space for rent

Fu Sushi closed on Avenue B after Aug. 26. (We heard from a reader who believes they are looking for a larger space somewhere.)

We saw the homemade for rent signs up early last week. And we just spotted a listing for the space at Streeteasy: $4,375 for 700 square feet.

All things considered (crazy rents around here, etc.) this seems ... reasonable?

[Photo via Yelp]

On the fence

Today in Tompkins Square Park. Headline and photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Tompkins Square Park yesterday. Photo by Bobby Williams]

CB3 OKs Nevada Smith's expansion — with some stipulations (Grub Street)

A meal at Sapporo East, the oldest Japanese restaurant in the East Village (Fork in the Road)

An interview with Allen Ginsberg's assistant-turned biographer (The Awl)

A Stop Work Order for weekend construction at 120 E. Fourth St. (Occupy East 4th Street)

The "White Glove Bandit" pleads guilty (DNAinfo)

How the Sweet Banana Candy Store almost became a Blondie song (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Sunday at Mona's (The Gog Log)

What's up with the dangling stuffed bunnies and bears on the LES? (BoweryBoogie)

CB3 votes against proposed bus stop on Essex Street (The Lo-Down)

Cyclist wanted for allegedly inciting Audi trashing on Broadway and Bleecker (Gothamist)

And some lost-and-found pet signs from the last few days...

[Bobby Williams]

...and readers spotted these between 10th and 13th Streets... near Third and Fourth Avenues...

[William Klayer]

So whatever happened to Mondo Kim's extensive video and DVD collection?

After Mondo Kim's closed on St. Mark's Place in December 2008, the massive collection of some 60,000 tapes and DVDs were shipped off to a town in Sicily, as Jeremiah Moss first noted.

The plans called for "a Never-ending Festival — a 24-hour projection of up to 10 films at once for the foreseeable future ... and, eventually, the conversion of all Kim's VHS films to DVDs to ensure their preservation."

And, eventually, the plan was for Kim's members to have access to digitized versions of all these films, an assortment of cult classics and hard-to-find treasures ... anyway, seemed like an interesting idea... especially since no one around here wanted the collection. (Here was Mr. Kim's public offer.)

So. Some four years later, whatever happened to all this? In an extensive piece at the Village Voice this week, Karina Longworth investigated.

"Nothing is going on with those videos. All the videos are rotting in a Salemi room in mice shit," one source there lamented.

Ugh. While the situation turns out not to be quite that dire, the collection's future still seems unresolved.

You can read the whole piece here for all the details.

Watch 21 E. First St. grow before your eyes

The 12-story residential building under construction on Second Avenue at East First Street — officially 21 E. First St. — seems to be quickly progressing...

How it looked in the summer of 2011...

[Google]

And we stopped by every week (or every other week in some cases) to monitor the progress....

June 2

June 9

June 23

June 30

July 14

July 22

Aug. 4

Aug. 11

Aug. 25

Sept. 1

Sept. 8

We're gonna need a bigger camera. Well at least a different vantage point.

Out and about in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Rembrandt Duran (and Lucy)
Occupation: Clothing Designer
Location: 9th Street and Avenue A (Tompkins Square Park)
Time: 3:58 on Monday, September 10

"I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 21 years. I’m a Mexican-Dutch New York City born designer. I own my own brand; it’s called Adeen. I’ve always been into cartoons and I just fell in love with the way the cartoons were dressed, so I kind of now design things that aren’t costumey but are reminiscent of the cartoons. It’s my favorite cartoon characters from back in the day but in a really fashionable way. So I guess that’s how my whole brand came alive. The motto is, “Bringing that Saturday morning cartoon feel.”

Surprisingly, everybody has been really receptive towards it. It’s been 2 years since I started the brand and I have 23 stores worldwide that carry my stuff: Sydney, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, LA, and now New York.

I used to be one of those bad kids in the neighborhood. When I was younger, I had really long curly hair and everybody thought I was a girl so I’d run around the sprinklers naked and people would come up to me and be like ‘you’re not a girl!’

One time I almost got shot. We fucked with the wrong cab driver. It was like, "Up, okay… Gotta go; he has a gun." There were other things we did as well that were funny to us at the time, but wouldn’t have been funny to anyone else.

My whole group of friends are not as bad as they used to be anymore; they all changed their lives around. We’re all doing our own things. Either they’re skating, rollerblading, or they’re all off in college. I guess we all just started hanging out less and started focusing more. Everybody’s prospering and doing really great.

The $2 falafel spot is the best; the one on 2nd Avenue between 7th and 8th. Cheep's. Mamoun's is gross; they don’t even have good hot sauce — it’s too hot! The dollar pizza place is the best. That’s really where I chill around the neighborhood."

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

At Kembra Pfahler's 'Fuck Island'

Artist-musician Kembra Pfahler has a new exhibit at PARTICIPANT Inc. at 253 East Houston ... the opening reception was Sunday. (The exhibit runs through Oct. 14). Photographer Walter Wlodarczyk shared these photos with us from Sunday. (See more of his photos here.)

Per the press materials:

“Fuck Island” is a protest anthem, love song, and manifesto written for her band, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. As Pfahler describes this song-as-exhibtion: “It’s the first annual Karen Black cock festival. But it’s really more like a happy funeral. We are celebrating the death of the patriarch, and you are all party to this secret.”

For out more about the exhibit here.

Bait & Hook opens today on 14th Street and Second Avenue

Signs went up for Bait & Hook here at East 14th Street and Second Avenue back on Aug. 29, as we first noted. ... taking over for the short-lived Meatball Factory ... (which took over from the Pizza Hut-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo).

Anyway, Bait & Hook opens today... and here is the official news release, cut-and-paste for your pleasure and my laziness...

On Wednesday, September 12th, the East Village will welcome its newest eatery in the form of Bait & Hook, located at 231 2nd avenue on the corner of 14th street. Bait & Hook will serve comfort seafood classics including: the signature Lobster Roll, smokey New England Clam Chowder and Lobster Mac & Cheese as well as original dishes like the Crab Chorizo Corn Pizza, Chicken Waffle Sandwich, bacon-topped Scallop Roll, White Clam Pizza and Shrimp Scampi Pizza, along with a fresh Raw Bar selection. Executive Chef Joe Bachman developed the no-nonsense menu for Bait & Hook, incorporating fresh, local ingredients to dish.

Bait & Hook offers a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere where seafood is the star. Diners can enjoy a reasonably priced meal without compromising high-end, quality cuisine and service. Bait & Hook provides the perfect destination for a quick bite, affordable date or a group gathering, with something on the menu to please everyone in your party. Including non-seafood items as well as vegetarian options.

"We wanted to open a place that offered New Yorkers an affordable, casual dining experience, with the feel of a seafood shack but the taste of an ocean-side eatery," said Executive Chef Joe Bachman.

With Labor Day behind us, Bait & Hook gives New Yorkers a chance to experience a summer treat all year long. The nautical-themed restaurant will transform the corner of 14th and 2nd into a New England hang out with a 23-foot bar serving 10-12 local craft beers and wines.

After stints at Park Avenue Café, Fulton and Neuman's Catering, where he created menus for high-profile clients like Angelina Jolie, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bill Clinton and Richard Branson, Executive Chef Joe Bachman was brought on to head the kitchen at Bait & Hook. Bachman brings his knack for creative dishes and high quality cuisine to the restaurant.

Bait & Hook will be both a neighborhood classic as well as popular New York City destination. Open seven days a week, serving lunch from 12PM-4PM and dinner from 5PM until late, Bait & Hook is an ideal spot to grab lunch on the go or a bite to eat after a long day of work with daily lunch and happy hour specials. The East Village location seats over 50 guests, allowing guests to enjoy the luxury of comfort-style seafood.

You can find the menu via the Bait & Hook website here.

Downtown, Sept. 11, 2012, 8:35 p.m.

Photo by jdx.