Your coming soon smoke shop signage

Yep, signage is up at the former Subway on First Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street for the smoke shop that we mentioned was on its way… bringing a little class to the joint…

Mamani Pizza is closed for renovations

As far as 99-cent pizza goes, the stuff at Mamani at 151 Avenue A between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street is pretty decent.

Anyway, you may have to wait for another slice… the space is currently closed...



No word if this is a temporary or permanent closure for Mamani. The space had been on the market in recent years.

Snack Dragon has officially closed

Last July, the East Village Snack Dragon Taco Shack announced that it would be closing after a huge rent hike courtesy of landlord Steve Croman.

The sliver of a taco stand and hangout at 199 E. Third St. just west of Avenue B managed to stay open through Halloween night. Snack Dragon is now officially closed.

This past weekend, the contents of the shop were brought outside for sale … and giveaway.

The space remains on the market. The asking rent is $4,495, which is particularly insane given its size.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cromanated: The East Village Snack Dragon Taco Shack is closing

Daily Juice moves across East 14th Street to become Vegtown

Daily Juice has left its storefront and moved across East 14th Street. The sign on the gate explains...



Their new home is at the former Chubby Mary's space here between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...





Chubby Mary's, the hero shop run by the Artichoke guys next door, closed back in the spring.

Thanks to EVG reader Pinch for the tip!

Day of the Dead at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

Photos and text by EVG contributor Stacie Joy

Today is Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration.



I visited St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery for its Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture without Borders tribute to Mexican actress María Félix and Nobel-prize winning poet Octavio Paz.

There were workshops, songs, and plenty of excellent Mexican food and crafts, as well as an altar for community prayer, where people brought marigolds (traditional flowers or flores para los muerten), photos, candles (belas especial) and notes for those that departed.



The cold and blustery winds carried the scents of the candles, incense, and tacos, and the sounds of the musicians playing Mexican standards welcomed all to this free event.

Week in Grieview

Talking with Lady Bunny at the Pyramid Club (Friday)

NYC's 1st bar for pregnant women goes belly up on Avenue A (Monday)

"Cocaine was fantastic in the 1980s." (Wednesday)

Clayton Patterson responds to Taylor Swift's "Welcome to New York" (Thursday)

TakeMeHome Rotisserie Chicken coming to Avenue A (Monday)

Two years after Sandy (Wednesday)

The return of Lucky Cheng's (Thursday)

Attorney General takes down notorious "tenant relocator" (Monday)

Reactions to the landmarking of Town & Village Synagogue on East 14th Street (Wednesday)

Signs of life at East Village Radio, but what does it mean? (Monday)

The John's of 12th Street documentary premieres soon (Friday)

Caratoes creates a mural on East 12th Street and Avenue C (Tuesday)

A look at 331 E. Houston St., with a rooftop deck for outdoor showers and "Live Free or Die Hard" (Tuesday)

The East Fifth Street jet ski (Thursday)

383 Lafayette wrapped ahead of NYU expansion (Thursday)

First sign of Rosie's Mexican, coming soon to Second Avenue (Monday)

Empire Biscuit turns 1 (Friday)

...and one last look at Halloween weekend... with photos from Union Square by James and Karla Murray...

Dining at Beronberon on 1st Avenue

Beronberon opened on Sept. 11 on the northeast corner of First Avenue and 10th Street.

The Japanese restaurant, whose management team includes Yuji Umeki, a manager at nearby Kenka, features a menu (7 pages!) similar to the former tenant — Sapporo East.

To date we haven't heard much about Beronberon's food … until Robert Sietsema filed a generally positive report for Eater on Friday.

A few excerpts:

Center of the restaurant's culinary program are the cut-rate bento boxes. In its final days, these cost around $16 at Sapporo East; now the price at Beronberon is approximately $18 ... Quite a deal, and delicious!

And!

Reflecting its status as a sort of Japanese diner, the over-rice donburi selections — served with soup or salad — constitute meals that might fall in the "blue plate specials" category. The pork cutlets are profuse and of high quality, with just enough edge-fat hidden by just enough breading. The soy poured over the rice is slightly sweet, which guarantees that you'll actually finish the rice underneath. The "Mononoke special ramen" ($12), one of eight choices, was not quite as good, beginning with the noodles themselves and extending to the miso broth. You can find much better ramen at the dozen or so other places that serve it in the East Village.

You can read the whole review here.

After 30 years in business, Sapporo East closed at the end of December along with its sister establishment Shima on Second Avenue and East 12th Street, as we first reported.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Sapporo East has closed for good

A new beginning for Sapporo East?

A sad day for Mother Earth at the former Sapporo East

Blown cover on 2nd Avenue

This dumpster load is no longer secure outside 128 Second Ave., where the building is undergoing a gut renovation just south of St. Mark's Place…

Argumentative man in King Tut T-shirt stabs onlooker for recording fight: cops

Here's part of the report via the Daily News about the stabbing that took place Friday evening:

The wild-eyed man in a King Tut shirt was behind an E. 13th St. building near Third Ave. when he started yelling at his first victim. But his attention was diverted when a 41-year-old man began recording the argument on his phone. Cops said the suspect pulled a knife and stabbed the witness in the midsection before running off.

The victim was treated and released at Bellevue.

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online.

Graffiti on, graffiti off

Oh just watching a worker clean graffiti off the Cooper Union Academic Building…

Report: The 2 Boots on Bleecker Street has closed

The 2 Boots location on Bleecker between Crosby and Broadway has closed, Eater reported yesterday.

Apparently "a landlord dispute" is to blame.

As you can see, the for rent signs are up in the pizzeria's windows…



According to the Acadia listing:

The recently renovated 640 Broadway stretches a full city block on Bleecker Street between Broadway and Crosby Street and is located in Manhattan’s densely populated NoHo neighborhood. Organic Avenue and Swatch occupy the corner retail spaces. The building is located within three blocks of seven subway lines and benefits from strong demographics, heavy tourism and significant foot traffic from shoppers on Broadway. The main campus of New York University is located one block from 640 Broadway and provides a large base of millennial shoppers and diners.

There isn't any mention of rent.

Meanwhile, Eater notes that the Avenue A Two Boots is making deliveries to this area to make up for the closure.

That Halloween spirit at Exit9

As noted, the gift shop at 51 Avenue A between East Third Street and East Fourth Street transformed its front windows into a "grisly operating theater" where "a demented doctor loses his patience as he loses his patients."

Well, we're sorry that we missed it because we heard from several people who really liked it… EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the theatre of blood the shop…









Per Stacie: "People seemed to love it and be grossed out."

East Village Halloween 2014

EVG contributor Stacie Joy was out early on Avenue A and Avenue B last evening … and captured a little of the color and pageantry of Halloween (in most cases!)…

Meanwhile, in the West Village...

And EVG contributor Derek Berg apparently got lost and ended up in a different neighborhood… and went to the 41st Village Halloween Parade… here are just a few photos…