Avenue B and East 8th Street … 10 am to 2 pm …
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Have a Beachy holiday weekend
Here we have Veronica Falls from 2010 with "Beachy Head."
Anyway, go, have fun! We'll be fine here alone. No, really!
EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition
[2nd Ave. & E. 4th St. via Derek Berg]
Search on for skateboarder who robbed this East Village apartment (CBS 2)
Details on the LES Film Festival 2014 (The Lo-Down)
About that black rock in First Park (BoweryBoogie)
Checking out the food at Box Kite on St. Mark's Place (The New York Times)
A Jerry Lewis retrospective at the Anthology Film Archives this weekend (Anthology Film Archives)
A look at the new Dairy Queen on East 14th Street (Eater)
Bar-restaurant Suspenders, an "emotional haven" in the days that followed 9/11, getting pushed out by landlord (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
Recalling a hotel collapse on Broadway (Off the Grid)
White Castle coming to Coney Island's Luna Park (Amusing the Zillion)
7-Eleven just killed whatever remained of hipsterism (The Wire)
... and EVG contributor James Maher ran into Out and About in the East Village alum Angel Eyedealism the other day...
... and finally, an instant request...
@evgrieve A suggestion for today's video band, perhaps? (@ 9th and 3rd) pic.twitter.com/MV8ThHO6Xq
— Pinhead (@evpinhead) May 23, 2014Oops. He meant the White Stripes! Next time!
East Village Radio signs off for good at midnight
[Delphine Blue during her last show Wednesday. Photo by Damian Genuardi]
As we first reported on May 14, East Village Radio is signing off after today's programming.
CEO Frank Prisinzano could no longer afford the increasing licensing costs for the 11-year-old Internet radio station with the tiny storefront studio on First Avenue.
Prisinzano and Peter Ferraro, the general manager/head of programming, addressed the issue in a guest column at Billboard.com on Tuesday.
We had opportunities for investors, but we didn't think we'd be given the autonomy to continue on the path we were on. There was never any discussion of selling out. It was always: "Run it properly or shut it down."
We were giving the world access to one of the most important musical neighborhoods on the planet via our live DJs. When you know that, you don't sell it out. You nurture it.
Now the two are deciding what should be the final song as the clock strikes midnight tonight. The pair took to the station's Facebook and Twitter accounts for suggestions.
Here's The Wall Street Journal with a story about the last song ... and the station's end days:
The suggestions were as eclectic as the Internet radio station’s programming — ranging from "My Way," as performed by Sid Vicious, to LCD Soundsystem's "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down."
"It could be anything from the Ramones to the Dolls to the Clash. I have been thinking about all the usual suspects," Mr. Ferraro said while bouncing around First Avenue in a tight East Village Radio T-shirt with the energy of a Labrador puppy.
Mr. Prisinzano, calmly sipping on a mug of beer, added his two cents: "It could be a one-hour John Bonham drum solo," referring to the Led Zeppelin drummer.
"Hopefully, someone nails it," Mr. Ferraro said. "The fans really get us. They will tell us what we should play."
Tough call on a last song.
I'll put in for Richard Hell and the Voidoids with "Time" …
In any event, the East Village Radio sign-off party streams live tonight starting at 8.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: East Village Radio is signing off after 11 years; final day of broadcasting is May 23
A Google Glass Feast
Here's a story coming from Feast, the one-plus-year-old restaurant on Third Avenue near East 13th Street.
Feast has enjoyed positive reviews, notching a solid 4 our of 5 stars in the Yelp and Open Table worlds. But last week management noticed 13 recent one-star reviews on Google, which comes up first when you search for Feast.
What happened for this many negative reviews to arrive at once?
Toward the end of last month, Feast said that they had a customer arrive as a walk-in for brunch. She was wearing Google Glass. A few months previously, they had another diner wearing a pair and the restaurant received several comments about privacy from other guests. Restaurant staff asked the person to remove them, and he quickly consented.
So when the other diner came in wearing Google Glass, management asked her to take them off before dining. She refused, and left the restaurant.
"We try to give everyone the best experience possible and she didn't get that," Feast management admitted to us.
On April 20, the diner wrote a post about what happened, which apparently angered some of her 3,000-plus Google+ followers.
Around this time the spate of reviews arrived on Google. Feast looked into this, and discovered that all of the one stars are from people who commented on the diner's original Google+ post. The negative reviews include lines such as: "Ignorant bigots and hateful. Perhaps being illegally discriminate too. The food is irrelevant as the service is less than poor." The reviewer lives in Phoenix.
The Google review of Feast is currently 3.1 out of 5 stars, up from 2.4 the previous week.
"When the first thing that comes up when you search Feast in Google is a 3.1, it can really hurt a restaurant like us. Then you have 13 people, which is about half the total reviews, who have never been to our restaurant let alone live in NYC, leave you one-star reviews … it's malicious and technically a violation of Google's own terms for leaving reviews," the Feast manager said. "Again I can understand her leaving the one-star based on her experience, but 12 others with no experience on who we are or what we do is unfair."
The Feast manager figures this will become an even bigger issue for the food-service industry as Google Glass hits the mainstream.
And for Feast, the restaurant doesn't have a final policy on the matter yet. "The fact is that the policy of asking Google Glass wearers to remove them is based off experience. It's not a policy set in stone so it could very well change."
The overnight work on the East Houston Street sinkhole
Crews worked around the clock to repair the sinkhole that formed after a ruptured pipe flooded East Houston Street with mucky water yesterday morning.
EVG reader Connor Sheets took these photos between 1:30-2 a.m. …
East Houston Street was closed between Allen and Essex after the 20-inch water main dating to 1959 broke.
"When that type of water starts rushing out of a pipe, it's gonna take everything with it," Jim Roberts, the city Department of Environmental Protection's deputy commissioner of water and sewer operations, told the Daily News.
This stretch of East Houston has seemingly been under construction since 1959 … however the DEP claims that the break is an anomaly, according to NBC News.
The DEP said they shut off the water to five adjacent businesses and eight residential buildings. Katz's, who sustained heavy losses after its basement flooded, was able to remain open for business during all this — the deli is connected to an adjacent main. Unfortunately, its neighbor, the Lobster Joint, didn't fare so well.
"We're out of business," general manager Alex Linomontes told The Wall Street Journal. "We still have bills to pay, and there are hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage."
In the basement, workers in industrial rubber boots waded through stagnant brown water, salvaging what they could. Mr. Linomontes said he lost refrigerators, boilers, and other equipment to flooding — along with tens of thousands of dollars worth of seafood.
East Houston was expected to be open to motorists later this morning.
This photo (via BoweryBoogie) by @ja0095 is the best shot that we've seen of the damage…
Upscale rentals and a rooftop reflection pool at The Nathaniel on 3rd Avenue
[Photo from May 10]
As far as we knew, the Karl Fischer-designed 9-story retail-residential complex on Third Avenue and East 12th Street … was going as 74-84 Third Ave. …
Anyway! That was only temporary! Say hello to The Nathaniel at 138 E. 12th St. …
We learned about The Nathaniel (who or what is this named for anyway?) via an article in the Post yesterday about new luxury rentals.
Luxury indeed!
According to the Post (we didn't spot this part online), studios start at $3,470; one-bedrooms start at $4,600; two-bedrooms start at $6,650; and three bedrooms at — !!!! — $11,500.
Here's a description of the place via Luxury Rentals Manhattan:
[T]he apartments for rent at the Nathaniel boast generous layouts, custom high-gloss cabinetry, white oak flooring, and oversized closet space. The kitchens feature caesar stone white countertops and each residence is fitted with a washer and dryer for your convenience. Select residences at 138 East 12th Street also offer private terraces. Luxury amenities at the Nathaniel include a 24-hour attended lobby, private gym, bicycle storage, club room, and rooftop sun lounge with reflection pool.
As pricy as this seems (IS), The Nathaniel is still more affordable than the incoming Eleventh and Third across the Avenue.
The corner parcel on Third Avenue and East 12th Street where The Nathaniel sits was previously home to Nevada Smiths, Yummy House and a parking lot.
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
Westside Market coming to the East Village
Let there be LED light in the Northwest East Village!
[Photo via EVG reader Katja]
Several readers have pointed out the lights adorning the Jefferson, the incoming condos at 211 E. 13th St. near Third Avenue … aka, the Northwest East Village …
[Photo via EVG reader Uncle Pete]
Maybe it's some sort of lighting to bring this back home to the former Mystery Lot, where the Jefferson stands now?
Previously on EV Grieve:
About the 'Northwest East Village'
Here is your new East 9th Street bike lane!
Well last week a reader pointed out that the bike lanes hadn't returned yet on East 10th Street and East 9th Street after the recent pave job… well, the bike lane is back on East Ninth Street as of Wednesday. Kind of!
Not sure what is going on here between First Avenue and Second Avenue … maybe this is just for unicycles? OK, probably not done. Or did the city make some kind of mistake?
Thanks to EVG reader dbs for all the photos.
By the way, the bike lane on East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue appears to be the right size...
This weekend in Lower East Side History Month
There are too many events to mention here.
So!
Head on over to the History Month event calendar for all the listings.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
[Yesterday morning from 1st Avenue]
East Village resident dies in motorcycle crash on the Williamsburg Bridge (DNAinfo)
A look at the site "Now It's a Fucking FroYo Place" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
Demolishing the LES Pathmark (The Lo-Down)
Surveying the messy Astor Place redesign (BoweryBoogie)
A "secret fitness spot" on the Bowery (New York Post)
A new chef at Northern Spy on East 12th Street (Grub Street)
... and tonight at Ella Lounge at 9 Avenue A... keeping some punk spirit alive with the East Village-based Jiggers Is King...
Updated: Part of East Houston is currently flooded, along with Katz's basement
Yikes! Part of East Houston near Ludlow is currently flooding (flooded?). Save the pastrami!
Not sure what is going on at the moment here ... crews have been working on the water mains as part of the never-ending East Houston reconstruction project now in its 457th year...
Updated 11:21: yep. Water main break per a reader at the scene.
Thanks to @maraaltman for the photo!
Houston floods. Luckily, looks like the water is going around the brisket. pic.twitter.com/N49wUlKvHQ
— Mara Altman (@maraaltman) May 22, 2014Updated 12:02 p.m.
The basement at Katz's has reportedly flooded.
Updated 1:01 p.m.
Here's a shot of the damage on East Houston... a sinkhole has formed on the the eastbound lanes between Orchard and Ludlow...
[Photo via @luxtravelstyle]
Updated 1:27 p.m.
Katz's remains open!
Katz's is still open, despite the water main break. Just don't try to drive on Houston for a while... pic.twitter.com/BNc6c8TtfZ
— Katz's Delicatessen (@KatzsDeli) May 22, 2014Updated 3:58 p.m.
According to published reports, 13 nearby buildings are now without water after the circa-1959 pipe broke under East Houston. In addition, Brooklyn Vegan notes that tonight's Stone Jack Jones and Ex-Cult shows at the Mercury Lounge have been cancelled tonight.
And there you have it...
[Photo via @hanakanna]
RUMOR: Gas station going, boutique hotel coming on Second Avenue?
IF the rumors are accurate, then the BP station and MRM Auto Repair at 24 Second Ave. at East First Street will close this summer to eventually make way for something the area doesn't seem to need — a boutique hotel.
Again, this is only a rumor… traced to workers at the station. There's nothing on file yet with the DOB for this address.
Of course, news of BP's closing wouldn't be so shocking, after all.
On Tuesday, WYNC featured a story titled "Say Goodbye to Manhattan's Gas Stations."
Per the article:
In 2004, the borough had more than 60 places to fill up, but now there are just 39. Fuel prices and consolidation are driving the nationwide trend, but in Manhattan, it's all about real estate.
"It's kind of like the gas station has a red flag on it that says: 'Call me. I'm the next site,'" said Adelaide Polsinelli, a broker with the real estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated.
Thanks to skyrocketing real estate prices, Manhattan gas stations are worth much more than the money the owner can make selling gas. Last year, a Getty near the High Line sold for $23.5 million. A few months later, another station in the borough went for $25 million.
And IF this is true, this means the East Village will no longer have any gas stations in another year or so. In March, Hakimian Property filed plans to erect a 9-story mixed-use building on the site of the Mobil station on East Houston and Avenue C. (The station was expected to be open until next year.) Meanwhile, the BP station on East Houston and Lafayette will be home to this one day.
Said Eastern Consolidated's Polsinelli to WNYC: "You see everything that was once industrial — auto body shops, garages, gas stations — and now they're all holes in the ground with cranes in them."
Previously on EV Grieve:
How much longer will the East Village have gas stations?
The East Village will soon be down to 1 gas station
The Mobil on Avenue C is still going strong — for now
You have a little longer to get gas on Avenue C
Plans filed for new 9-story building at site of Mobil station on East Houston and Avenue C
VIDEO: Watch the baby hawks of Tompkins Square Park dine on some rat
Here is the latest nest video from Francois Portmann on the Christodora House … showing Christo and Dora's three offspring dining on some delicious rat meat … while the parents take turns discarding the unwanted parts somewhere in Tompkins Square Park. (A quick note: Francois does not live in the Christodora. The owners of the apartment with the nest on the AC OK'd setting up the nestcam.)
Afterwards, you can check out Gog in NYC, where Goggla has many spectacular photos of the hawks at work and play. (But mostly work, to be honest.)
Find more hawk photos at Francois's photography site here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Red-tailed hawks nest on the Christodora House
The hawks of Tompkins Square Park have laid an egg at the Christodora House
More eggsciting hawk news from the Christodora House
Breaking (heh) news: The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are officially parents
OMG baby hawks! (UPDATED WITH VIDEO!)
Reader mailbag: What is going on with this construction in my building?
An EVG reader woke up the other morning to the sound of construction coming from inside this building on East 10th Street. There aren't any posted work permits ... and when asked, the workers shrugged and said that they didn't speak English.
So...
"I have emailed my apartment's management company asking what's going on with the building, and when we can expect it to be completed, but received no response ... based on experience, I will probably never receive a reply no matter how many times I follow up or call. Our super does not live in the building and I have never had any contact with him.
As of the end of the day, there are holes in the walls on every single floor in the building, as seen in the above picture. How do I find out if I am going to be woken up every morning by construction until the lease ends or not? Does anyone recognize, based on the picture, what this construction process could possibly be the start of? To my knowledge, the building doesn't have any structural or plumbing issues that need to be fixed."
Anyone have any ideas what these repairs might be related to?
-------------
We often get reader queries ... asking for help with, say, donating clothes or books ... or finding an East Village-based caterer... If you have a question for the masses, then try the EV Grieve email...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader mailbag: Places to eat that have that old East Village vibe (45 comments)
Reader mailbag: What do I do about my new neighbors who smoke pot all the time? (52 comments)
Reader mailbag: Where is a good place to get a cup of coffee in the East Village before 6 a.m.? (25 comments)
Reader mailbag: What has happened to the Cooper Station Post Office? (41 comments)
Reader mailbag: Can the landlord 'drill' the lock to gain access to my apartment for simple repairs? (15 comments)
Reader mailbag: Should we receive a rent abatement for having sporadic heat and hot water?
Mimi Cheng's Dumplings coming soon to the former Viva Herbal Pizzeria on 2nd Avenue
Viva Herbal Pizzeria, the gluten-free, vegan pizza joint at 179 Second Ave. near East 12th Street, closed at the beginning at the year.
These photos via Blue Glass show what's coming next: Mimi Cheng's dumplings …
Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Viva Herbal Pizzeria has closed on Second Avenue (22 comments)
Please mind the new tree on St. Mark's Place
[Photo from May 2013 by EVG reader Ann]
Just about one year ago, plenty of people were pissed after the city chopped down a seemingly healthy ornamental Callery pear tree on St Mark's Place … on the south side of the street near No. 12.
A resident let his/her feelings known — arborcide!
[Photo by Chloe Sweeney McGlade via Facebook]
In November, someone used discarded cooktops, and many other items, to decorate the tree well…
[EVG photo from November 2013]
On Monday, the city planted a new tree in the spot, as part of the MillionTreesNYC program…
And by yesterday, there was a friendly reminder on the tree…
Previously on EV Grieve:
'Arborcide' — People are pissed that this tree was chopped down on St. Mark's Place
[Updated] Behold the cooktop sidewalk garden on St. Mark's Place
Hang out this summer in a St. Mark's Place penthouse — hammocks included
In case that you are in the market for a "furnished summer penthouse rental" on St. Mark's Place. Then you're in luck! Here's a new listing via Streeteasy:
gorgeous loft in the heart of the east village ...massive open loft with windows on 4 sides, a gigantic fire place, hardwood floors and 14' ceilings. windowed kitchen and windowed bath, top floor of elevator building.
Hmm, no mention of those hammocks seen hanging in the pic above. Also, that fireplace might not be too useful if we are in for the oppressively hot summer that summer weather predictors are, um, predicting...
Anyway! The rent: $5,900. The penthouse is at 12 St. Mark's Place — in the former German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse. Back in the late 1880s, the building housed a saloon, bowling alley as well as a small shooting range in the basement.
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