Act like you've smoked pot before; act like you will smoke pot again some day

Catching up with New York magazine this week… from the Neighborhood News section.

Dining with today's hawk in Tompkins Square Park

Taffy, bubble gum or pigeon entrails… hard to say!



Photos by Bobby Williams

The New Yorker's seasonal love for McSorley's

Finally had a chance to see this week's issue of The New Yorker… which features a familiar sight on the cover: McSorely's. The illustration, titled ''Tis the Season," is by Istvan Banyai.

Here's more about it:

“I am almost as old as McSorley’s,” says Istvan Banyai, the artist behind this week’s cover. “It’s a quintessential New York landmark that still has a character,” he continues. … "I loved to go to McSorley’s when I lived in New York, before I moved to the woods in Connecticut. It has a lovely atmosphere, and it’s a good place to talk to strangers … and forget the Internet.

[H/t Spike and Anton]

A good sign?

Maybe some Santas have decided to retire in the face of all that political pressure about SantaCon… EVG regular William Klayer spotted this in the trash along East Ninth Street today… (And are Santa outfits recyclable?)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Local politicians call on SantaCon 'to adopt good-neighbor principles'

Red Hook Lobster Pound in the works for Extra Place

The highly regarded Red Hook Lobster Pound has plans to take over the recently vacated Oaxaca Taqueria space at 16 Extra Place. (Oaxaca Taqueria moved to East Seventh Street.)

According to documents on file ahead of next Monday's CB3/SLA committee meeting, Red Hook Lobster Pound, who is seeking a beer-wine license, will operate a quick-service restaurant here in the former alley behind CBGB ... with proposed hours of 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday-Thursday; until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

You can currently find the traditional Maine lobster rolls and chowders from the husband-and-wife team of Ralph Gorham and Susan Povich out on Van Brunt in Red Hook ... or in their food truck, Big Red, among other various Brooklyn flea markets.

With this and whatever Momofuku is opening down the alley/Place, Extra Place may finally become the dining destination its developers touted some six years ago.

[Image via Facebook]

Special feature: The East Village in 1967, 'walk into a sex, marijuana and LSD orgy'

Longtime East Village resident Anton van Dalen shared this clipping with us from the Daily News dated Feb. 8, 1967.

Titled "East Village Theme Is Now Love and Let Love," the piece begins with a bang, so to speak:

There was a time when you could knock on any of a dozen doors in the East Village and walk into a sex, marijuana and LSD orgy.

This "Special Feature" provides a snapshot of the area... from drug use to dating. You can click on the images for a better read of the article. It is well worth your time to do so.

A few excerpts by subject.

Dating:

Many of the relationships are interracial, with the usual coupling being a white girl and Negro man. At places such as The Dom, the Annex, the Old Reliable and PeeWee's Other Side interracial pickups and dating don't even raise an eyebrow.

A Negro writer who lives in the area described one East Village saloon as the "meat market" because because so many chicks from outside the area flock to it, as he said, "to prove how unprejudiced they are."

Drugs:

The artists, writers and hangers-on who take drugs lean toward marijuana and LSD. The slum-dwellers — those who live in the East Village because they have no choice — take heroin or cocaine if they take anything at all.

The "heavy" drugs bring the usual problems of muggings and burglaries, committed by addicts with expensive habits to feed.

Residents:

Strangely, the great majority of East Villagers are not from the underprivileged classes, trying to fight their ways to the top. Most of them come from middle class families or higher.

A local bank manager told Father Allen [of St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery] that many of the beatnik types are supported by their parents, drawing weekly allowances of up to $100.

Weekend tourists:

Most of these are not artists or writers. Ishmael Reed, whose novel 'The Freelance Pallbearers' is scheduled to be published by Doubleday in the fall, calls them 'A-trainers,' those who ride the subway downtown "to take their lessons in hip," then go back to where they came from.

Not everyone is scornful of the newcomers. Father Allen feels that "terrible tensions are being built up in the community."

He sees a "tendency to develop a 'we-they' attitude — 'we' when we think of ourselves, 'they' when we think of others."

We asked Anton, who moved to the East Village in 1967, for his thoughts on the article.

It's a fascinating read, this 1967 Daily News "special feature" story about our neighborhood. Beyond the shrill headline "Love and Let Love" is a good snapshot of the social revolution that took place here.

The last paragraph with naming this new culture "a kind of accidental laboratory" does call it right.

The East Village/Lower East Side by the early 60s was a largely poor and forgotten Eastern European neighborhood. But then because of its cheap rents and old-world immigrant charm came to be an attraction for counter-culture young. Mostly for young white people that sought to counter mainstream America which they felt disenfranchised by.

Out of that intermingling of old and new world cultures an unifying vision sprung of transcending cultural differences. Many, like me, came here because of wanting to be in the front row and watch up close this love revolution unfold a new way of life.

But then soon this spectacle of life drew many of us in to participate in this "accidental laboratory." In time I learned that our neighborhood had already for two centuries been a spawning ground for human social and political progress.

Last line says it well and still good today: "If we can work out our differences here, maybe there's a chance someplace else."

'Saved by the Book!' starts today to benefit St. Mark's Bookshop

St. Mark's Bookshop is holding a fundraiser to help them prepare for a move to a new location in the East Village, as Publishers Weekly first reported.

And here's information on the event via the St. Mark's Bookshop Facebook event page that we found:

We invite you to an Auction of Signed and Annotated First Editions to Benefit St. Mark's Bookshop

ONLINE AUCTION
Tuesday December 3 - Sunday December 15
LIVE EVENT
Thursday December 5 6-8 PM
$5 at the door

We are conducting an auction of over 50 rare signed and annotated first editions and ephemera from some of NYC’s best known writers. The auction will benefit St. Mark’s Bookshop, and help fund its upcoming move. Included are works from Yoko Ono, Anne Carson, Junot Diaz, John Ashbery, Patti Smith, Art Spiegelman, Walter Abish, Paul Auster, Bill Berkson, Charles Bernstein, Lydia Davis, Kenneth Goldsmith/Joan La Barbara, Richard Hell, Major Jackson, Wayne Koestenbaum, Phillip Lopate, Eileen Myles, Arthur Nersesian, E. Annie Proulx, Sam Shepard, Peter Straub, Lynne Tillman, Anne Waldman and Tsipi Keller.

Bidding begins December 3 online here

On Thursday Dec. 5, you are invited to come to the bookstore, where all the works will be on display for bidding and there will be a Live auction of selected works. If you can’t be present for the live event, you can leave an absentee bid online.

Join us and share wine and light refreshments.

The Bookshop is apparently moving to a new location near East Third Street and Avenue A (maybe here), though there hasn't been any information disclosed about this just yet...

Taking in Alphabet Plaza on East Houston

Crews showed up shortly after Hurricane Sandy last fall to start work on Alphabet Plaza, a 12-story mixed-used apartment building for East Houston and Avenue D. According to the DOB, the building will be 108,953 total square feet, with 9,640 set aside for retail.

We've watched it grow these past 13 months... Here are some photos 13 months later... looks like the crews have made it to the top...


[Bonus shot to the left of the new Karl Fischer-designed rental on 3rd St.]





Per The Real Deal back in January 2012: "The building, which will include some affordable units as part of the 80/20 program, will have a doorman, rooftop terrace, gym and outdoor space."

Apartments were reported to be in the $2,500 to $3,600 range.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 12th-story 'Alphabet Plaza' in the works for Second Street and Avenue D

7-Eleven, expanding and contracting in the East Village

[Photo yesterday by Bobby Williams]

As we first noted on Sunday, the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place closed this past weekend. The Post has a piece on it today:

“I would rather go to St. Mark’s Market,” said Mike Romano, 26, a retail purchaser who lives in the East Village. “It’s always the tourists who go to the 7-Eleven. They don’t know you can go to the corner deli Gem Spa and buy everything.”

-----

Meanwhile! At the 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street... workers expanded the sign on the East 11th Street side of the store yesterday... perhaps clearing up the rumors that the remaining space (the former Angels & Kings!) would turn into a Subway or Starbucks...


[Photo by Anton van Dalen]

Looking at the 51 Astor Place lobby

Now with a security guard and Menorah, per this photo by an EVG reader … all ahead of any tenants, though some are on the way...

Searching for Comet ISON with East Village resident Felton Davis

East Village resident Felton Davis is well-known for his stargazing around the neighborhood, particularly on Second Avenue and East Third Street.

He shared some photos and a recap about his vigil for Comet ISON — once touted as the "comet of the century." (He did not get any takers to join him, seeing as he would need to search the skies starting around 4:30 a.m. in some freezing weather this past week.)

[Click to enlarge]

In the first photo (above) — from 1st Avenue and East 4th Street — Arcturus and Spica are hanging high, and in the second — outside the playground — there is a big swath of empty sky between Spica and the planet Mercury, just where Comet ISON was plunging toward its rendezvous with the Sun.



How something only a mile or so in diameter was supposed to be visible, and also supposed to survive a close brush with our star, I could never explain. And ISON has confounded the scientific world with its complex and unpredictable demise.

It disappeared on Thanksgiving Day, and then reappeared that evening, and now is said to be fading out. It did not "go gentle into that good night," but kept flaring up, its fatal burns a surprising display, just not one that we could get into position to share in the neighborhood.

Updated: Here's a feature on Davis The Wall Street Journal.

Claim: The Odessa Cafe and Bar reopens later this week

That's the word from multiple tipsters anyway. The Odessa Cafe and Bar at 117 Avenue A closed back on Aug. 31.

In late October, the Cafe and Bar was resurrected in the back of the Odessa next door at 119 Avenue A.

Now comes word that the whole thing will reopen, for at least the next year, in its former location as early as Thursday evening.

Paperwork filed ahead of the July CB3/SLA meeting showed that six people were part of a team who was leasing the space and buying the assets ... at least one of which was a "former owner and general manager" of Tribeca's Tiny's & the Bar Upstairs, according to public documents posted on the CB3 website.

There's no word on whatever happened to that project, though. Meanwhile, the Cafe and Bar space has sat untouched since the Aug. 31 closing. And the "thanks for your patronage" sign on the front window was recently removed.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Odessa Cafe and Bar for sale on Avenue A

Is the end nearing for Odessa Cafe and Bar on Avenue A?

Former GM from Tribeca's Tiny's & the Bar Upstairs part of team to buy the Odessa Cafe

Reader report: Odessa Cafe closes for good after Aug. 15

Reader report: Odessa Cafe and Bar will remain open through Sept. 6

Cafe Rakka closes on B; Rakka Cafe reopens on St. Mark's Place

[Photo via @zmack]

As we previously mentioned, a "store for rent" sign arrived at Cafe Rakka on Avenue B near East Third Street. Turns out a rent hike to $6,000 is to blame for the closure.

Meanwhile, while the Avenue B location has now closed, the outpost on St. Mark's Place, now going by Rakka Cafe, has reopened after a renovation.

10-story building in the works for Suffolk and East Houston

We were walking by the long-vacant lot at the corner of East Houston Street and Suffolk Street… and saw the rendering on the plywood for what's coming next...



Turns out that the city approved plans for a 10-story building here back in July. According to the DOB, there will be 14 residential units here… Plans show 11,522 square feet for residential use … and 2,527 square feet for community facility space.

Not sure what the fate is of 255 E. Houston St., which previously housed the day-care center Action For Progress. They were displaced in the spring of 2010 when construction next door destabilized the building.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Next for 255 E. Houston St.: Community facility/school/medical building?

84 Third Ave. continues to tease

Over at East 12th Street, the construction netting continues to inch down off the Karl Fischer-designed 9-story retail-residential complex... making for a agonizingly slow full reveal…




As previously reported, the former site of a parking lot and Nevada Smiths will also house a high-tech Westside Market, which is expected to open next summer.

And, as Off the Grid recently noted, 20 percent of the rental units will be reserved for low-income tenants.



[Top 2 photos by EVG contributor peter radley]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smiths

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Former Nevada Smiths down to its last floor; city OKs work for new building

Bendy thing sighting as 84 Third Ave. eclipses the AMC Loews Village 7

Today in news about East Village laundromats and dry cleaners

As EV Grieve reader Brian Katz told us Saturday, Lucky's Dry Cleaner and Laundry on East 11th Street is closing today. (Read the post here.)

As for other laundromat/dry cleaner news... the laundromat that Mimi ran at 204 E. 10th Street closed earlier this year due to a rent hike... and, at the time, we made the obligatory comment that we really need more dessert places around here, which we figured would come next to the space. Ha. Well! Check out the new dry cleaner/laundromat in the space — Le Pressing! (Thanks to Blue Glass for the tip.)



And over on East Third Street near Avenue A... several readers recently pointed out that the East Village Launderette has closed... we don't know too much else about what happened... or what might be next. (Likely not a bookstore.)

Adam Sandler's 'The Cobbler' comes to the East Village this week

"The Cobbler" has been filming on the Lower East Side in recent weeks (see The Lo-Down, BoweryBoogie and DNAinfo for photos).

And now signs for the production are up on Avenue B between East Third Street and East Fourth Street (and elsewhere) for today ...

And there are more signs on Avenue B, East Seventh Street along the Park and East Eighth Street, Avenue C (and probably elsewhere!) for a Wednesday shoot...



The film, described as a "dramatic comedy," finds Adam Sandler "as a shoe repairman who integrates himself into the lives of the people whose footwear he fixes."

The cast includes Dustin Hoffman and Steve Buscemi; Tom McCarthy directs.

Week in Grieview

[East 3rd Street]

Local politicians ask Santaconners to "adopt good neighbor principles" (Tuesday)

Is this the new home for St. Mark's Bookshop? (Monday)

Building plans filed for part of the former Children's Magical Garden (Monday)

There goes 100 Avenue A (Monday)

Former Bleecker Bob's space back on the market (Wednesday)

RIP Saul Leiter (Friday)

Renovations ahead of New York Sports Club's arrival on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Out and About with Jenny Adams (Wednesday)

Richard Hell narrates this new video on the NYC music scene (Tuesday)

RIP East Village Shoe Repair (Tuesday)

Casa Gusto space for rent on Avenue A (Monday)

The former Max space is for rent on Avenue B (Monday)

Shop local (Tuesday)

Holiday trees! (Thursday)

[Updated] Reader report: The 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place has closed

A St. Mark's Place resident passes along word that the 7-Eleven here near Second Avenue has closed. Workers are currently removing various machines from inside the store this morning.


[Via EVG reader Robert]

There are three trucks lined up along St. Mark's Place. The reader says there isn't much, if any, merchandise left on the shelves.

No official confirmation from any 7-Eleven reps. (Updated: Workers on the scene confirmed this afternoon that the store has closed.) Perhaps that closed sign yesterday was more permanent that originally expected. Or maybe they are just renovating the place. Or there are some other issues that would cause workers to temporarily empty the store of every machine and food product.

This location opened in April 2012.

Looking at Centre-fuge Cycle 11

Just taking a look at the recently completed Centre-fuge Cycle 11 ... the rotating outdoor gallery on the construction trailer here along East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...











Writer-blogger Jenny Adams (featured in this week's Out and About in the East Village) has more on one of this cycle's artists, Nicole Salgar, right here.

And as BoweryBoogie first reported, the Centre-fuge initiative has been renewed through 2014.

Find more info on the Centre-fuge Tumblr here.