Karl Fischer-designed condos seem to be a big draw on East 12th Street

[Yesterday]

The listings went live in late June for 427 E. 12th St., home of the Karl Fischer-architected condos between Avenue A and First Avenue... There's still work left to do here, as you can see.

In any event, there are 10 units that range in price from $850,000 for a one-bedroom home to $2.395 for the penthouse. And for some reason we looked at Streeteasy and saw that of the eight units on the market, five were already in contract.



Not sure what the big draw is here (epoxy finishes?) ... Nice amenities, sure.


[Some day at 427]

To the listing:

Residences feature sleek concrete floors with epoxy finishes and floor to ceiling double pane windows. Several residences are complimented with a private outdoor space that range in size. The custom designed chefs kitchen is finished with walnut veneer and satin lacquer cabinetry, Caesar stone countertops, back painted glass, and is fully equipped with stainless steel appliances by Fischer & Paykel. Bathrooms are appointed with oversized bathtubs, custom built vanities, glass enclosed frameless showers, and Duravit & Kohler fixtures throughout.

At any rate, residences will need those double pane windows during the impending construction at Douglas Steiner's massive new development down the block.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Karl Fischer designing new East 12th Street residence

427 E. 12th St. back from the dead?

Workers making a pit stop at incoming Karl Fischer-designed building on East 12th Street

Listings arrive for Karl Fischer-designed luxury homes at 427 E. 12th St.

What it costs to get away to the country on East 9th Street

If you have a lot of money and yearn to escape to the country without leaving East Ninth Street, then — well!

This house between Avenue A and First Avenue might be for you!

To the Town listing:

Country-House-in-the-City + location, location, location! Prime East Village Entire 4 story historic Manhattan Townhouse + Enormous densely green garden on one of the best East Village blocks. Walking distance to Astor Place, Union Square and major subway lines. This 6 bedrooms & 4 bathrooms house can be a 1 family or 2 family. Features include gorgeous floor to ceiling French windows, Classic parlor floor dining/living room with high ceilings, diagonally laid Victorian wood floors & the French windows... large, sunny extra atelier or work room. Available furnished or partially furnished. Country House in City is perfect description.

This unique house has been featured in Law & Order and movies.

And the asking price? $14,000. [Added: A month to rent.]



Or you could just take Metro North to, say, Sloatsburg for the weekend.

Here comes Jillery

As we noted back on June 21, Jillery, the jewelry and home accessories shop, is moving from its current home on East 10th Street to the corner of East Seventh Street and Avenue B.

The 10th Street location closed yesterday... and the folks from Jillery have been filling up the new shop... and, as this photo by Dave on 7th shows, they're working on the exterior as well.

No opening date for the new location just yet. (Per the Jillery Facebook page: " Hopefully we will be open soon. We are working on it!")

The corner spot was last home to most recently home to Amaran.

Report: 90-year-old Blatt Billiards leaving Broadway

Blatt Billiards, a pool table manufacturer, is leaving its longtime home at 809 Broadway near East 12th Street. As The Real Deal first reported yesterday, the building is changing hands for $24 million. The deal includes an additional 7,045 square feet of air rights.

Blatt was a longtime tenant here before buying the building in 1972. The manufacturing portion of the building will move to New Jersey while Blatt looks for a showroom in Hell's Kitchen, per The Real Deal.

The closing is expecting to happen early next year. The new owner is only ID'd as 809 Broadway Associates.

As The Real Deal noted, the building is "one of the last relics of the area’s manufacturing past."

There's now a 7-Eleven conveniently located next door.

Remembering the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge

On Monday, Gothamist had a post on the new Brooklyn Roasting Company that opened at the former home of the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge ... at Flushing and Washington Avenues opposite an entrance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

We had been to the place, which was built in 1907, a few times... and, despite being way out of bounds in terms of typical EVG coverage, we decided to write about it in November 2010 upon hearing that the bar closed.

An excerpt.

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[A]t first glance inside the Navy Yard, the place seems like your average rundown neighborhood bar. A few regulars are milling about, playing pool. The bartender is cordial. (I'm sort of blending the different trips into one post here....it was always the same.) WBLS is on a little too loudly on the radio. The TV is also on seemingly just as loud — one of those CBS shows that I've never watched on Thursday nights. (CSINCS?)

Eventually around 10 p.m., a lot more women are suddenly in the bar... they walk in, talk with the bartender, spend a lot of time in the women's room. Soon, there are anywhere from five to 10 women va-va-va-vooming around in lingerie, bikinis, etc. Oh! They're all very outgoing, especially when there are just two of you in the bar.

Every few minutes Delicious or Cinnamon or Diamond walks up and asks again if you'd like a dance. No thanks! Two minutes later... There's not much of a chance of sitting here for, say, a few hours drinking without purchasing a $10 dance. (And they don't have change for a $20, oddly enough.) So just sit there in your stool at the bar for the lapdance and wonder why Laurence Fishburne decided to do CSINCS.

------

Oh, and here how the place is looking today...


[Photo via Gothamist]

Previously on EV Grieve:
At the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge (aka, RIP)

No pool, no ping pong

Oh, and no movie.

Tompkins Square Park this afternoon via Bobby Williams.

'Rocky Horror Picture Show' cancelled tonight, and Brad is still an asshole

From the Films in Tompkins Facebook page:

UPDATE: Unfortunately, tonight's screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW has been canceled due to bad weather.

Back next Thursday for another rainout!

This marks the fifth film this summer to be KO'd by the rain or threat of rain.

A new front gate for Tompkins Square Park

Back in the early-morning hours of June 27, a man driving a station wagon crashed through the front gate of Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place. (We never did hear more about this incident.)

Anyway, say goodbye to the various strips of tape and barriers that have been here in recent weeks ... EVG contributor Derek Berg notes that more permanent gate work is in progress this morning...

The incredible plan to build 'Space Invader-esque residential towers' by the Williamsburg Bridge

A reader shares a link to a Wired article titled "Maps of Unrealized City Plans Reveal What Might Have Been."

The piece looks at city plans that (thankfully, in some cases) never came to be... all via Andrew Lynch's Tumblr called Hyperreal Cartography & The Unrealized City ... it's loaded with city maps "collected from libraries, municipal archives, and dark corners of the Internet."

Of some local interest... the above plans from the 1950s-1960s ... it was an idea hatched after Robert Moses didn't get his Lower Manhattan Expressway off the ground...

"[T]he Ford Foundation asked architect Paul Rudolph to envision an urban expressway that was better integrated into the city. Rudolph drew a futuristic city with soaring, Space Invader-esque residential towers around the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. The highway would wind beneath a linear city, and modular housing units would be connected by a pod-like monorail system."

Apparently these plans weren't entirely serious, but entertaining nonetheless.

Sort of like the renderings for the Domino Sugar Factory.


[Via Curbed]

Renovations start at future home of Mee Noodle Shop on First Avenue

As you may know, Mee Noodle Shop is returning to the East Village after a seven-year absence ... just a few storefronts away from its former home on First Avenue at East 13th Street.

Anyway, EVG regular dwg notes that renovations have finally started on the space, previously occupied until March by Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery.

In June, Mee's Joyce Chi told The Villager that the restaurant will be reopening in about five months. So if you want to do the math...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave., former home to Allen Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant

Mee Noodle Shop returning to First Avenue (28 comments)

The Art and Music of Peter Missing on Avenue A

An exhibit featuring Peter Missing's work starts tonight at the Art on A Gallery at 24 Avenue A near East Second Street... up through Sept. 26.

There's a post opening-reception event at 2A at 9, with projections of The Missing Foundation on the wall across the street... The Facebook Event page is here.

Lantern Thai Kitchen closes on Avenue A; Bangkok-based Somtum Der coming soon

Lantern Thai Kitchen has closed at 85 Avenue A... and a sign for its replacement is up (you could actually read it if this photo wasn't blurry). The Bangkok-based Somtum Der will be opening here soon...



The eatery is the first in the United States for Thanaruek Laoraowirodge, who is growing a mini-empire of restaurants in Bangkok.

Here's a quote from him in BK (Bangkok) magazine:

"People in New York already have a good perception of Thai food. They are not just familiar with tom yam, but regional dishes too."

Here's a 3-star (out of 5) review of Somtum Der via BK:

Together with Chef Kornthanut Thongnum, Khon Kaen-native Thanaruek Laoraowirodge has brought his Isaan roots to the capital in the shape of this somtam-focused restaurant whose objective is to steer our taste buds back towards Northern Isaan, and away from the sweeter flavors that Bangkokians so cherish.

And!

Of the score of somtam varieties available, standouts include the tam sua Sakon Nakhon (B65), which comes with freshwater crab and kratin beans, and the tam pla tu khao man (B85), which comes with mackerel and is served with a comforting side of rice cooked in coconut milk. In very different ways, they’re both exemplary of what Thai food does best: balancing a range of flavors and textures. Of course, there’s also a long list of usual suspects, from laabs to tom saep, all equally well executed. We’re less impressed with the deep-fried or grilled meats.

Lantern Thai Kitchen opened in January 2012, replacing Cafetasia, which sported the 100-ounce beer tube.

The Lantern remains open on Second Avenue at 18th Street.

Avenue A 7-Eleven expected to be completed by yesterday

The gut renovation of the space that previously housed Bar on A and Angels & Kings has entered the 11th month... workers are fitting the address here on Avenue A and East 11th Street for a 7-Eleven, of course...

A quick check yesterday shows that the work is expected to be completed by July 31, 2013, aka yesterday.



At this rate, the crew will have the place ready by July 31, 2014.

However, this photo that Bobby Williams took on Tuesday shows some slight progress...



The 7-Eleven franchise website still shows that the store will be ready for Go-Go Taquitos® action in October. This location is still without an owner.

Previously.

Of rats and parties

You may have seen Gawker's "Vermin-Party Index" from yesterday afternoon... in which they examined more than 260,000 311 complaints classified as "vermin" or "loud party/music" from January 2010 to July 2013.

How did this area fare? Pretty good! (Well, good as in bad.)

No surprises here...

Top Party Complaint Neighborhoods:
Interior Williamsburg (11211): 3,544 complaints
East Village (10009): 3,106
Lower East Side (10002): 2,985

Overall though, when you combine the number of vermin and party complaints, we just cracked the top 20 in the five boroughs. The 10009 zip was 20th with 3,761 total complaints about rats and parties... and 10003 was 29th with 3,120 complaints.

Tops? The 11226 zip (Flatbush) with 7,574 complaints, of which 5,847 were rat related.

Head over to Gawker for all the charts and what not.

H/T RyanAvenueA

EV Grieve Eatery Etc.: A theater sign for Archie & Sons; Everyman Espresso returns

And here's the sign for Archie & Sons... a 1950s-style luncheonette opening very soon at 23 Third Ave. The original Archie's operated on Long Island for nearly two decades...

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And a new sign for the incoming Han Dynasty on Third Avenue near East 12th Street...

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[Photo via Facebook by John C. Hume]

Everyman Espresson on East 13th Street closed for a "face lift" back in late June... it reopened yesterday ... in the lobby of the Classic Stage Company.

The sun also rises at 3 a.m.

Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C points us to tonight's forecast at The Weather Channel... where something extraordinary will happen ... as he noted on Facebook, "If you're still up at 3 a.m. ... be sure to look up at the sun poking through the clouds."

Noted

East Houston and Elizabeth.

What the hell was that?

We waited to post these photos until we spoke with NASA, NORAD, the U.S. Military and the World Weekly News.

Bobby Williams took these photos from his East Village apartment last night. Here is his description via email: "This flew by about 9:38 pm. Heading north then turning east."

Aside from anything related to the Hoboken Hoof or Amanda Bynes (just getting those guesses out of the way!), any ideas what this is/was?

AAA Amici Pizza has closed

AAA Amici Pizza on Third Avenue at East 12th Street has closed... there was apparently an auction on site yesterday. EVG regular Muzz talked to the owner, who said that the pizzeria was rent-hiked out of there. And they will not be looking to open anywhere else.

A rent hike isn't much of a shocker given the towering new retail-residential building going up at 84 Third Ave. across the street... and the incoming high-end Han Dynasty opening right next door...

"It's too bad, because it was another place where you could get a good meal — especially for takeout — for under $10," said Muzz. "The old way of doing business in the EV is just being hammered out, block by block."

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: Elissa Jiji
Occupation: Writing Tutor, Member of 4th Street Food Co-op
Location: 4th Street between 2nd and Bowery
Time: Noon on Saturday, July 27

I’ve lived in the neighborhood for around 20 years. I grew up on the Upper East Side. I work at John Jay College as a writing tutor; I’ve always been a fan of words.

I’ve been coming downtown since I was a teenager — we’d go out dancing here all the time. I remember the elevator at Danceteria — that teeny, tiny elevator. I remember when Keith Haring was drawing his drawings in the subway. I miss those places. A couple weeks ago, I was out for a bike ride by the river. We were pulling this sound bike behind us, and stumbled on somebody’s nighttime birthday picnic on the pier. We had a spontaneous dance party with a bunch of people we'd never met — including a three-generation family, all dancing together with their abuela and all of us. This community can surprise you in that way.

I only learned how to ride a bike 10 years ago, in Tompkins Square Park, on the basketball courts. Eventually I branched out from going around in a circle in the basketball court to going around in the Park, and all the older Chinese ladies were going past me and people on the benches were giving me the thumbs up. It was one of the best things I ever did, and now I ride my bike everywhere. I commute to work at Columbus Circle.

This neighborhood feels very much like a neighborhood, and even still, with all the chains and banks and with things disappearing, it still retains its neighborhood aura. This block has a lot of small businesses on it, and a lot of that is the tenant-owned Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association, which is our landlord. Several buildings on the block are part of the Cooper Square MHA. They support small, independent businesses. They're very supportive of us, and they like having us on the block.

I’ve been working at the co-op for maybe 15 years. My sister, who lives next door, said, “You should join that food co-op on 4th Street.” It took me awhile to listen to her, but she was right. Once I did, I really liked it. I like being part of something where we make decisions together.

I’ve done a bunch of different jobs at the co-op, from reconciling the till, to training new members to running the meetings. It’s nice not to be bound by having to make a profit; we really try to make stuff affordable. We’ve had a couple of major renovations and projects where we’ve questioned, are we actually going to be able to pull this off, or are we gonna kill each other in the process? It will be two years this fall since we completely ripped out the floor to put in a concrete one, and put in the motors for the refrigeration down in the basement. It was a huge project. Did the stuff fit through the door during that renovation? Apparently not — we had to cut away the lintel and replace it.

The co-op is open to the public and entirely member run, which is not the case with every or even most co-ops. We don’t have a paid staff, and it’s important to us that everybody from the neighborhood can shop. We also give discounts to a bunch of different categories of people — seniors and students, people shopping with EBT cards, and then our members. I think we have between 75 and 90 working members at any given time. There are a fair amount of students and people who were recently students. There are teachers, artists, musicians, at least one nurse, web developers and a cabinet maker. We probably have the highest workload of any co-ops with working members: we’re there two hours a week.

It's also is the kind of place where you see your neighbors all the time, and their kids, and their dogs. Our neighbors, some of them are so sweet. This one lady comes in every time there is a Yankees game — she’s got her lucky chocolate bar that she has to get. You know when there’s a game on because she comes in for it.

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