Brooklyn will now host the Mr. Lower East Side Pageant

[Photo last year by Walter Wlodarczyk]

Funny thing happened on the way to the 16th annual Mr. Lower East Side Pageant — it's moving to the Lucky 13 Saloon in Gowanus.

Here's more from the Pageant's creator, Rev. Jen, on Facebook:

Sadly, the infamous Mr. Lower East Side Pageant, which was originally scheduled for January 31st at Cake Shop was cancelled at the last minute due to the "fun police" and fear of penile exposure. So in a bizarre turn of events it's moving to Brooklyn! This is OK, given the Lower East Side is a state of mind and frankly, the Lower East Side can suck it, as all creative activity has been exiled from the neighborhood due to greedy landlords. (Landlords recently almost exiled me from the LES in housing court!) I'm pretty sure that someday, the Mr. Lower East Side Pageant will be held in New Jersey.

You can find more details and the rest of Rev. Jen's announcement on the Facebook event page.

H/T The Lo-Down!

37 St. Mark's Place finally lands another tenant

[Yes, it's an older photo]

DF Mavens has a new upstairs neighbor on the northwest corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue...

Please say hello to Taiji's Body Work... the fifth Taiji location in the city...


[Yes, there's a typo]

Per the pamphlets (which also are marked Peng's Body Work), they offer Tui-na, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Reflexology and Hot Stone... among other specialties... (60 minutes = $45.)



The most recent upstairs tenant, 8-Bit and Up, the retro video shop, moved to East Third Street in the fall of 2013.

Hey, the Funkiberry space is for lease on 3rd Avenue

[From June 2014]

The colorful FroYo joint opened for business last June.

And while Funkiberry continues to dispense the FroYo and breakfast items like waffles, the corner space here at 88 Third Ave. and East 12th Street is for lease.

Per a listing at Loop Net:

Corner space with brand new build out. Previously was vented for cooking
Approximately 800 RSF with an approximately 800 SF basement
Lease until November 2023
Rent: $21,321.00 per month

We rarely see anyone inside Funkiberry, who close each day at 1 p.m.

In any event, the FroYo Death march continues.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Stuff that you can't make up: More FroYo for the East Village

Ghost signage uncovered on Third Avenue and East 12th Street

DOUBLE ghost signage discovered at 88 3rd Ave.

Hey, the Funkiberry sign is up on 3rd Avenue

Hey, Funkiberry is now open on 3rd Avenue

Morning rush: Stand Coffee now serving in the back of Baohaus on East 14th Street

[Image via]

This past Saturday, Stand Coffee made its debut in the back of Baohaus, Eddie Huang's quick-serve Taiwanese restaurant at 238 E. 14th St. just west of Second Avenue.

"We were thinking there was some value in the times before restaurants and bars open in neighborhoods where the rent is too high or the demand too low for modest specialty coffee," Stand proprietor Bryan Hasho explained in an email.

So every day from 7-11:30 a.m., before Baohaus opens for the day, the Stand serves coffee from Greenpoint's Cafe Grumpy.

"We just carry our whole rig out the front door into our van when the Baohaus folks are ready to serve," said Hasho, who previously worked for Blue Bottle Coffee.

So far, he said that the reaction to the coffee has been excellent, albeit sparse. If the idea works here, then Stand Coffee will look to explore other spaces to serve from in the morning hours.

"[Baohaus] is our first so we're committing all our resources to making this one perfect," Hasho said, "but one of the really great things about the model is we can experiment with different shops and spaces and see what works."

Retail condo space that houses the New York City Pharmacy on 1st Avenue is for sale

There's a new listng for 206 First Ave. between East 12th Street and East 13th Street ... currently home to the the New York City Pharmacy.

Here are the details via Warburg Realty:

This property is a fully occupied retail space encompassing the ground and cellar floors totaling approx. 2,365 square foot. The asset offers over 15' of frontage on First Avenue providing significant visibility along one of the busiest streets in New York City. The space measures approximately 1315 sq. ft. on the ground floor with another 1,050 sq. ft. of basement storage and features 10' ceilings.

And!

This retail condominium represents an excellent opportunity for end-users and purchasers seeking a retail investment opportunity. Will be delivered vacant.

So say goodbye to the New York City Pharmacy.

And what are retail condominium spaces going for around here these days? Both the Warburg site and Streeteasy list the same price...



$8.5 million???? That's good for $3,594 a square foot.

Updated: See the comments. The pharmacy owner says that they have a lease and are safe for now…

S & P Liquor & Wine now open on 2nd Avenue

S & P Liquor & Wine, which had to close for parts of last year during renovations to its building at 300 E. Fifth St., is now open in its new home at 89 Second Ave. ... near East Fifth Street ... inside the former home of the 2nd Ave. Smoke Shop & News, which moved down Second Avenue ...



Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos!

Body of missing Stuy Town resident found in the East River

Andreas Robbins, a 25-year-old resident of Stuyvesant Town, was last seen on Dec. 1 leaving his apartment at 521 E. 14th St.

According to published reports, police found his body in the East River near South Street between FDR and Broad Street earlier today.

His father, Columbia University Professor Bruce Robbins, said in December that his son was suicidal. Andreas had reportedly left a suicide note behind in his apartment on Dec. 1.

It's rabbit cleaning season at the Death Star

The 14-foot-tall, 6,600-pound red rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons is getting some TLC tonight at 51 Astor Place... photo via EVG reader 8E.

Discarded carpet of the day, probably

If that is actually carpet ditched here on East Fourth Street at the Bowery...



Photo via Derek Berg

Free Rat Academy tomorrow

535 E. Fifth St. is between Avenue A and Avenue B...

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: Eileen Johnson
Occupation: Director, Little Missionary’s Day Nursery
Location: 93 St. Marks Place
Time: 1:45 pm on Feb. 4

I’m from Dublin. I came in 1980. Part of it was to get away. I was teaching over there but I was frustrated with living at home with my parents. I had also been here in 1970 as a student. I never forgot it. I really was in love with New York and I always felt like I would come back.

When I moved here I lived in a women's hotel on Lexington and 57th Street in the beginning. Oh my goodness. It was one tiny little room and the bathroom was in the hallway. It was kind of sad. Some of these ladies were kind of old and had nowhere else to go.

Then I started subletting around the city. I ended up subletting in the East Village and I loved it. I remember back in 1980, people used to be out in the street with the big barrel on fire, singing and playing guitars and everything. I don’t know what it was but there was something. Maybe it was because it was like Dublin, because the buildings were old and because of this type of building. I liked the feeling — I can’t even explain it.

I moved here for good in 1982. My husband was living in an apartment on Avenue C. We had people pulling swords and everything on the street. Swords. So then he moved in with me and then when we had kids we moved to Stuyvesant Town.

I’ve always been a teacher. In Ireland, I taught in high school and then 6th grade, but when I came here I was illegal [at first] so I did coat checking. It was easy to be illegal then ... I then got into teaching this age group and it’s very creative. [Getting a job for Little Missionary] was just luck. I stayed home with my kids when they were little and then I started looking around for work. I got another job and somebody said, ‘Oh you should go look at that Little Missionary, but it’s probably falling apart. They probably won’t survive. Things are bad over there.’ So I opened the door and I walked in ... I could see that it was a treasure. I just wanted to be part of it. When I started here as a teacher in 2001 we only used one floor. There were only eight kids left when I started. Now we have 80.

The building itself has been here since the mid 1800s, I think. It was somebody’s home and then it was a boarding house and then it went into foreclosure. Then they donated the building to Sara Curry, who was an incredible person. I was so impressed with her and her kindness and her goodness. She was born in Long Island to a big family. They were orphaned when the parents died. She and her brother went to Utica and she became an activist at the factories there. She started organizing women and taking care of the women’s children. Then she came to the city. She started out on Avenue C in a little apartment and she saw the way that kids were left on their own on the street.

She used to feed the neighborhood. She would have huge Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and it was said that she would give her own shoes away. I don’t know how she hooked up with these wealthy people but she got this house in 1901. There were 200 kids a day here.

We actually expanded this year. Tenants had to leave, so we renovated the upper floors. [The school's] board is amazing. The board is made up of local people and parents, which we could use more of. They let me bring my own philosophy in here, and that is about listening to children and letting them have their feelings. I didn’t grow up that way so I really feel that’s important for kids. You can stop everything that you’re doing and listen to what they’re saying and what they’re feeling. It’s very fulfilling. You go home at the end of the day feeling that you did something good.

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

[Updated] 1 reason why someone may not want the red-tailed hawks to nest on the Christodora House

[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

As we wrote about yesterday, someone in the Christodora House on Avenue B and East Ninth Street has twice removed the in-progress nest that red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora were building on a 7th floor AC unit. (Someone also installed bird spikes and tried to construct some kind of slanted cover for the top of the Act to prevent the hawks from landing.)

The hawks nested in the same place last year ... which netted three offspring.

Legalities aside, here's one solid explanation behind someone's actions. A tipster tells us that the Christodora is about to undergo a two-year renovation project that will cover the entire building in scaffolding and construction netting.

According to the DOB, the city OK'd a permit for exterior repairs last Wednesday. The estimated total cost of the project is nearly $2.5 million, per DOB records. Douglas J. Lister, Architect, is listed as the architect of record. (The firm's specialties include exterior renovations and window replacements.)

As the tipster said, by preventing them from nesting now, they are actually being more humane than letting them build a nest and then destroying it with scaffolding. The hawks will need to find a new nest location.

Updated 3:33 p.m.

DNAinfo filed a story this afternoon with more details.

Property manager Debora Angelico said the nests were removed so that the air conditioning unit could be repaired. The owner of the seventh-floor condo ordered the repair, she said, but only after months of research, which included outreach to the Audubon Society, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the condominium board, she said.

Although some the birders expressed concern that nest removal was illegal under federal laws protecting birds, Angelico said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the owner he was allowed to remove the nest from September through April because the raptors do not mate at that time.

Angelico said that the two-year renovation will commence in April.

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!)

VIDEO: Watch the baby hawks of Tompkins Square Park dine on some rat

Red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora are building another nest on the Christodora House

Someone keeps destroying the nest that the red-tailed hawks are building on the Christodora House

Nike's Zoom City SNKRS Station ready to sell sneakers on the Bowery

[Last Wednesday via an EVG reader]

Workers arrived last Wednesday to erect a pop-up shop/stage on the Bowery at Great Jones… we took a few more photos in subsequent days…






[Photo by Derek Berg]

It's all for Nike … a Zoom City SNKRS Station — one of eight Nike shops erected around the city as part of the NBA All-Star game weekend in NYC.

Here's a description of the Station via the Zoom City website:

The ultimate destination to pick up the latest in Nike sneakers. Performance and style take over at the Zoom City SNKRS Station.

Located at 348 Bowery (at Great Jones Street), the Zoom City SNKRS Station will feature exclusive Nike footwear, apparel and accessories.

The Zoom City SNKRS Station will be open tomorrow through Sunday.

Oh, and you just can't walk up here and shop — you need to make a reservation via the Zoom City website.

And maybe this is what the box will ultimately look like? (One of the 50 workers standing around said that it will be a Nike shoebox shape…)

High heat. One spot. RSVP now for your spot at #zoomcity SNKRS Station 2.12 and 2.13. http://t.co/rBO6XEJBvz pic.twitter.com/NIhBpVOzJ4
— Nike NYC (@NikeNYC) February 10, 2015

Regardless, it's quite a production…





This corner space previously housed the Deth Killers of Bushwick pop-up shop. Before its life as a pop-up space, the corner was home of the Downtown Auto & Tire until April 2012.

If you're in the anti-Valentine's Day mood

Ciao For Now, 523 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, is hosting its second-annual Anti-Valentine's celebration. This Saturday's dinner celebrates "a masquerade of heartbroken lovers from throughout history," per a Ciao For Now rep.

There are details on the flyer above... and on the Ciao For Now Facebook page...

Here's the Feb. 14 menu...

Where's the ball?

At the Tompkins Square Park dog run this afternoon... photo by Bobby Williams

Someone keeps destroying the nest that the red-tailed hawks are building on the Christodora House

[Photo from Jan. 22 via Bobby Williams]

As we pointed out last month, Christo and Dora, the red-tailed hawk parents of Tompkins Square Park, were rebuilding their nest that netted three offspring last year on the Christodora House on Avenue B and East Ninth Street.

We heard troubling news about this yesterday via Goggla, who monitors the hawks year-round in the Park via Gog In NYC.

Twice since Friday someone has removed the hawk nest and installed bird spikes, Goggla told us. The nest was empty on Friday and people watched the birds rebuild the whole thing on Saturday and Sunday. By yesterday afternoon, the nest was gone again.

Bruce at the Urban Hawks site is documenting the situation.

If the co-op owner, management company or a construction crew had a legitimate reason to remove the nest, their recent actions haven't dissuaded the hawks from moving. So, will the building just torture the hawks by removing the nesting materials each week until spring? That certainly would be cruel.

We're not sure about the legalities of any of this. As far as we understand it, (ethics aside) a nest can be removed if there aren't any eggs present.

Back to Bruce at Urban Hawks, who figures the situation will prompt the attention of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation:

Let's hope that either the building is forced to let the hawks continue nesting on the Christodora House or if the hawks are to be evicted, that old nest site is properly prepared so the hawks begin to find an alternate nesting location as soon as possible.

And a bonus photo of Christo on Avenue A the other day...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

UPDATED 2/11 — here's one reason why someone may want to prevent the hawks from nesting 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!)

VIDEO: Watch the baby hawks of Tompkins Square Park dine on some rat

Red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora are building another nest on the Christodora House

The Pyramid Club is closed for vacation (or renovations) until next month

The Pyramid Club is now temporarily closed … there are "closed for vacation" signs up … pointing to a March 3 return…



However, the Pyramid's website points to a closure for a renovation…



A reader told us that the Pyramid didn't close until after this last Saturday; that the renovations would be contained to the downstairs.

Meanwhile, events such as the End of the Weak party Sunday nights will be at Lit Lounge for the rest of the month…



The club at 101 Avenue A between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street held its 35th anniversary last fall.

And we've heard the Pyramid-is-closing rumors for as long as we've done this site (start of the eighth year).

This is what the new condo building at 64 E. 1st St. will really look like

Last week we noted the rendering on the plywood outside 64 E. First St., where new condos are on the way for the block between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Yesterday, the developer's rep sent us an updated and colorized rendering…



And via the EVG inbox...

A 6-story boutique condominium will rise on 64 E 1st St between 1st Ave and 2nd Ave designed by GF55 Partners Architects and developed by MGM Property Group. The new building will be situated in a tree lined mostly residential block near the F train with street level shops and a playground.

The design envisions a façade with a contemporary industrial feel with large casement windows and metal details. The plan for the development is 6 light-filled residences each averaging 1,900 sq ft. The lower duplex will occupy the cellar and 1st floor with a private rear yard. Floors 2-5 are floor-through units with rear balconies. The upper duplex on the 6th and penthouse levels offer a rooftop terrace. Each unit will have two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms. Both baths and powder room will be outfitted with waterworks fittings and accessories. The floor plan will have a high end kitchen open to the living and dining areas.

Amenities include a workout room on the first floor and a shared rooftop with a barbeque. The site sits between a 10 unit condo building built in 2007 and a boiler and welding shop that has been there for over 50 years.

The space was once home to the club La Vie, which all the neighbors hated.

Previously on EV Grieve:
La Vie has closed; neighbors rejoice

Former La Vie space on East First Street will be demolished

Getting rid of the rats at the former LaVie ahead of a new 6-floor residential building

Here lies the remains of La Vie

Here's a look at the new condos coming to East 1st Street

Galleria J. Antonio is closing on Avenue A

We were sorry to see the store closing sign up here the other day at 47 Avenue A between East Third Street and East Fourth Street… Galleria J. Antonio sells arts and crafts and custom jewelry and watches…

Here's some history of the store via The Villager (back in 2005 when some locals were ticked about the painting in the front window showing a woman's bare breast):

The galleria is a colorful crafts store with jewelry, pottery, handbags and even doggy costumes peppering the walls and display cases. An artists cooperative, the galleria was located on Christopher St. from 1979 to 1989. After a 15-year hiatus when the store’s founding artist and namesake, Jose Antonio, died of AIDS in 1989, the shop reopened in 2000 at its present location on Avenue A and E. Fourth St.

The for lease sign mentions no food… the Ave A Optical space a storefront away at No. 43 remains on the market as well…

Take a last look inside the mysterious 190 Bowery

[Via Wikipedia Commons]

Photographer Jay Maisel bought 190 Bowery in 1966 for $102,000. He recently sold it for a reported $55 million.

Developer Aby Rosen, the current owner, is apparently marketing the building for a retail-condo combo.

Meanwhile, for a glimpse of what the building is like now inside (and on the roof), we spotted this video yesterday at the Popular Photography website.

You don't see everything in the six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot building… but you get the idea…

190 Bowery from Digital Destinations on Vimeo.

A Curbed tipster spotted movers carting out furniture and what not from the building at Spring Street last week.

In 2008, New York had what was believed to be the media's one and only inside look at the place.

Maisel lived in part of the the 1898 Germania Bank building with his wife and daughter.