EV Grieve

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

That stinking feeling

At about the 60-minute mark of today's World Cup match at the Brazil-friendly Miss Lily's 7A Cafe.

Final: Germany 7, Brazil 1.

Photo by Derek Berg

As we first reported yesterday morning, Bowlmor Lanes was closing for good last night.

The 76-year-old bowling alley at 110 University Place between East 12th Street and East 13th Street is leaving along with other businesses in the building to make way for a new, unspecified development from landlord Billy Macklowe.

"All we know is [Macklowe] did not want to extend our lease no matter what we did," Colie Edison, Bowlmor's vice president of marketing, told Danielle Tcholakian at DNAinfo.

The Times stopped by yesterday to find workers already ripping up some of the lanes.

And the Daily News recalls some of Bowlmor's less-glamorous times.

"I love this place," said Andres Restrepo, the Bowlmor district manager. "We've had families with four generations of bowlers coming here to hang out on a Sunday. Grandpa tells about times when Union Square wasn't the safest time, then his son talks about the 1980s.”

Indeed, in the bad old days, a manager was once murdered in the alley. But more recently, the lanes have been a glamorous haunt for A-listers such as the Strokes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jimmy Fallon and Al Pacino.

And here is the official goodbye from Bowlmor via Twitter:

[Click image to enlarge]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Bowlmor Lanes will convert to condos, like everywhere else around here

76-year-old Bowlmor Lanes closes for good today

The unique façade of 324 E. 4th St. is gone

[EVG photo from February]

Gut renovations continue at 324 E. Fourth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D … what was one of the last unique-looking buildings left in the neighborhood.

No more, though, as workers have gutted the space to add three new floors to the existing building.

Actually, only a shell remains… you can look right through and see the trees behind what's left of the address…

DOB plans documents show that No. 324 will eventually be home to 11 apartments.

In December and January, the empty tenement served as a makeshift gallery for Hanksy and a group of 40-plus artists.

Previously on EV Grieve:
2 new floors, gut renovation in store for empty tenement that last housed a Hanksy art show

At Hanksy's 'Surplus Candy' art show in an abandoned East Village tenement

Gut renovations underway at 324 E. 4th St., most recently the makeshift gallery for Hanksy and Co.

H/T to Goggla

Starbucks-owned Teavana coming to the former Silver Spurs space on Broadway

Last December, Silver Spurs got rent-hiked out of its 34-year-old home on Broadway and East Ninth Street (prompting some teary letters from children in the process).

Now comes word of a new tenant in the diner's former space — another NYC branch of Teavana, a specialty tea and tea accessory retailer.

There isn't any signage up yet to indication the shop's arrival.

In December 2012, Starbucks bought the Atlanta-based Teavana for $620 million.

The other Silver Spurs location remains open on LaGuardia Place.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 34 years, Silver Spurs is closing on Broadway

Thanks to EVG reader Eric Bieber for the tip

Chef David Bouhadana looking to open Dojo Izakaya in former Cafe Rakka space on Avenue B

[EVG file photo from November]

The inexpensive long-timer Cafe Rakka got Cromanated last November at 38 Avenue B near East Third Street.

And someone called Harvey. Paperwork filed ahead of Tuesday's CB3/SLA committee meeting show that applicants Boris Lidukhover, owner of Sushi Dojo at 110 First Ave., and his chef David Bouhadana (the "twentysomething sushi wunderkind" per Grub Street), want to open Dojo Izakaya in the small space on Avenue B.

The application (PDF!) for a beer-wine license shows a 10-table (19 total seats) configuration ... and a small chef's eating counter. The proposed hours are 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Monday through Sunday.

The materials also include a handwritten sample menu, showing several variations of yakitori as well as grilled pike eel, among other things.

Sushi Dojo opened in June 2013 in the space that previously housed Polonia.

The 2nd Avenue BP station has closed

The station here at East First Street closed after business on Sunday. (They managed to stay open a few more days longer than originally announced.)

We went by hoping to snag the ~~iconic~~ bagels sign ... left from the days when Gulf ran things here...

...or at least the ice machine. But alas. All gone. Along with the pumps.

As for what's next on this prime piece of EV real estate, the rumor is a boutique hotel.

And the Mobil station on Avenue C and Houston is the lone gas station now in the East Village — until it closes to make way for a new development next year.

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

RUMOR: Gas station going, boutique hotel coming on Second Avenue? (31 comments)

BP station on 2nd Avenue closes this month

The sketchy pink boxes are going away

[East 10th Street between Avenue B and C]

City workers have been hauling away those recycling boxes that were unceremoniously dumped around the neighbor the last week of June.

Among others, we've noticed that the boxes on East 14th Street and Avenue C, East Second Street and Avenue C and East 13th Street near Second Avenue are now gone.

The Sanitation Department has marked other illegal boxes for removal.

[Photo via Dave on 7th]

The Times had an article on this recycling trend yesterday.

A growing number of companies — many of them based in New Jersey — are illegally placing used-clothing bins throughout New York City, blocking sidewalks and serving as magnets for litter and graffiti. The receptacles typically have signs that indicate donated goods will go to the poor or, in some cases, to legitimate charities. But, city officials said, the needy do not benefit from much of what is collected. Instead, the clothing is often sold in thrift stores or in bulk oveseas, with the proceeds going to for-profit entities that can be impossible to trace, or even to contact.

“They have become the bane of our existence,” Kathryn Garcia, the city’s sanitation commissioner, said. “We have seen a significant uptick in the number of clothing bins placed illegally on public sidewalks. A dramatic increase.”

You can report the boxes to the city here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About those new sketchy pink boxes around the East Village

The Adele's mini lawn not looking so good

Just the other day we noted the arrival of mini plots of grass outside the Adele, the new 12-story, mixed-used apartment building at East Houston and Avenue D.

And after just a week, the ~~wee pads~~ grass is pretty much dead.

[Photo by Goggla]

Anyway, welcome to your new home!

Monday, July 7, 2014

Melting 'Flesh and Bone'

Crews were apparently filming a wintertime scene of the upcoming Starz TV series "Flesh and Bone" on East Ninth Street on this chilly 90-degree day ... which is why the actors were in coats and stuff.

And about the show!

Claire, a talented but emotionally troubled dancer, joins a company in New York City, and soon finds herself immersed in the tough and often cutthroat world of professional ballet.

Sounds hot.

Photo by Derek Berg

76-year-old Bowlmor Lanes closes for good today

[EVG file photo from February]

Today is the last day for the major tenant of 110 University Place.

Bowlmor Lanes, here since 1938, closes for good. It had been the longest continuously operating bowling alley on the East Coast, per the Bowlmor website.

Staff confirmed the closure to us (as did our blogging friend Alex at Flaming Pablum, who took the family in one last time yesterday).

The businesses here on the west side of University between East 12th Street and East 13th Street have been clearing out in recent months to make way for some unspecified luxury development via landlord Billy Macklowe, who bought a long-term controlling position in the building back in 2012.

Vive La Crêpe, Stromboli Pizza and Bamboo Tori have closed. The newsstand moved across the street. Meanwhile, Japonica is relocating to where it started in 1978 at 90 University Place, as Eater reported.

As for Bowlmor, the locations remain in Times Square and Chelsea Piers.

Meanwhile, there aren't any permits on file yet with the DOB for either a demolition or new building at 110 University Place.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Bowlmor Lanes will convert to condos, like everywhere else around here

Goat Town has closed

As we first reported on June 23, Goat Town, the 4-year-old bistro at 511 E. Fifth St., was closing by July 4 to make way for a new concept.

The restaurant between Avenue A and Avenue B is now mostly empty …

There isn't any mention of the closure on Goat Town's website or Twitter and Facebook accounts, which haven't been updated since February. (There isn't any outgoing phone message either.)

A Goat Town rep told Eater that the new restaurant, called GG's, "will serve a very different menu than the current New American menu, but will still include ingredients sourced from the restaurant's back garden."

Owner Nick Morgenstern's rep said that he hopes the new place will "serve the East Village community in a broader way."

A GNC branch for an NYU dorm storefront

After sitting vacant for nearly four years, 79 Third Ave. has a new tenant … as you can see, a GNC is moving into one of the storefronts in the Third North NYU dorm here at East 11th Street.

There are currently GNC branches on First Avenue at East 13th Street, East 15th Street and Union Square East, and Broadway at East Third Street.

The space was previously home to East Hardware. A Yogurt Crazy was slated to open here, but that didn't go so well.

Meanwhile, we're awaiting word on what is taking the adjacent space, where the deli used to be…

Halfway home for incoming Cooper Square dorm

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Here's a photo from Saturday showing the incoming dorm on Cooper Square and East Sixth Street … worth noting because it looks about at the halfway point, on the way to 13 floors for Marymount Manhattan College.

And as a reminder ... what the dorm will eventually look like...

Previously on EV Grieve:
City OKs 13-floor dorm for Cooper Square

Updated: Here's what the newest East Village dorm will look like

Dig bottoms out on Cooper Square; here comes the dorm, here comes the dorm!

Apartment 13 is temporarily closed

Several EVG readers noted that Apartment 13 at 115 Avenue C was closed during the holiday weekend… and a sign out front points would-be diners and reservation holders to Dinner on Ludlow … inside the much-maligned DL …

Apartment 13's Facebook page notes that they are temporarily closed. The restaurant, the first for chef John Keller (the executive chef at Dinner on Ludlow), opened last July 25 here between East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street.

Workers quickly gutted the former St. Mark's Bookshop space

Workers spent the weekend (Sunday too!) gutting the shop's home of 22 years at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street ...

St. Mark's Bookshop closed on June 29 ahead of a move to a new, smaller storefront at 136 E. Third St. just west of Avenue A. No official word just yet when the shop can open here. Some time this week, most likely.

St. Mark's Bookstore first opened on St. Mark's Place in 1977 ... they had locations at No. 12 and across the street at No. 13.

As for the future of 31 Third Ave., Jeremiah Moss writes: "What will greet me next in this space? A brainless bank, a soulless Starbucks, a fucking frozen yogurt emporium?"

UFC signage arrives

Just noting the arrival of the Unidentified Flying Chickens signage at 60 Third Avenue near East 11th Street.

The Jackson Heights-based Korean fried chicken restaurant is taking over for the failed 3-week-old Apiary revamp.

No official word on an opening date just yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Après closes 3 weeks after debut; Unidentified Flying Chickens on the way in

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Summer liking

Photo from Tompkins Square Park on Friday by Edward Arrocha.

A July 4 holiday weekend

[A July 4-related photo shoot for Dragon Fly Productions at Professor Thom's via Gregory Patrick]

It was a mostly fine weekend hereabouts, patriotic or otherwise.

[On the Bowery]

It was quiet.

[First Avenue]

Except for the fireworks, the official ones … and the illegal ones.

One of the hawks joined a rooftop fireworks viewing party on East Eighth Street.

[Photo by EVG reader Mike]

We don't really have much to show for the weekend.

We took a photo of a mannequin in the trash. We saw the Moon. And Mars, just barely.

We read the Fourth Amendment that someone took the time to write on the plywood on the East 11th Street side where Mary Help of Christians used to be. (Someone also wrote the First Amendment out too.)

We did not sit here, however tempting, on East 13th Street.

We unnecessary used the "noir" setting to take photos of the sky from Avenue C way back on Thursday

We wondered if the quinoa made the move safely to Avenue B.

We set a spring trap for our neighbors.

We wondered about this photo of a Citi Bike in the trash on East Houston at Norfolk that a reader emailed us.

There was probably more. But we'll leave you with the Chillmaster taking you into the night …

Week in Grieview

[2nd Avenue bus on fire lane photo from July 4 via Derek Berg]

LIGHTNING STRIKES (Wednesday)

Painting the Dodge heading West (Tuesday)

We will miss First Avenue Pierogi and Deli (Wednesday)

Pricing for new condos at 227 E. Seventh St. (Tuesday)

99-Cent Discount Center latest lost-lease casualty on East 14th Street (Monday)

Your new Dunkin' Donuts has arrived on Cooper Square (Monday)

Golden Cadillac closes (Wednesday, 29 comments)

Sketchy pink boxes alert (Tuesday… Thursday)

Closing date for BP station on Second Avenue (Monday)

Exclusive: It was the the Fourth of July (Friday)

Bass thief (Thursday)

Rendering reveal for 76 E. Houston St. (Thursday)

Financial help for Citi Bike (Wednesday) … not to mention a valet service (Thursday)

Opening for new St. Mark's Bookshop pushed back (Tuesday)

Retro crotch grab at Mousey's (Thursday)

The Mobil station reopens (Monday)

The townhouse at 356 E. Eighth St. is back on the market (Thursday)

Check out this "charming studio" (Wednesday)

Transforming Eleventh and Third (Tuesday)

… and you always post photos of macaws on East Ninth Street …

[Photo yesterday by Derek Berg]

And check out the placement of the Times with the photo of Brazil star Neymar … Was the macaw's owner rooting for Colombia?