RIP Amnon Kehati

Amnon Kehati, a longtime partner in Sidewalk Cafe on Avenue A and more recently Mark burger on St. Mark's Place, died Feb. 19 after going into cardiac arrest. He was 64.

The Villager has a feature obituary on Kehati in this week's edition.

“Restaurants are a way of life rather than a business,” his daughter said. “People would say that he shouldn’t be working so hard, but it wasn’t work to him.”

An East Village Sugar sighting

There have been several reports of a Sugar sighting on East 12th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C today…

SOS. #FINDSUGARNYC seen running on East on 12th st towards the River DO NOT CHASE

— FindSugarNYC (@FindSugarNYC) March 6, 2015

ALPHABET CITY VOLUNTEERS: Spread out. Walk slowly. Stay calm. Sugar is a rescue. If she's there we need to coax her out. #FindSugarNYC

— FindSugarNYC (@FindSugarNYC) March 6, 2015

SOLO PAW PRINTS SPOTTED (sent by M's friend) - entrance to gated alley south side 12th btwn B&C #FindSugarNYC pic.twitter.com/1NxHKkwJ1P

— FindSugarNYC (@FindSugarNYC) March 6, 2015

ALPHABET CITY VOLUNTEERS: Pls check alleyways/behind trash bins. Sugar is a rescue. Please stay calm. Responds best to SHUGY #findsugarNYC

— FindSugarNYC (@FindSugarNYC) March 6, 2015

Sugar, whose owner is an East Village resident, is the Amstaff/pit bull mix that went missing on Feb. 23 under mysterious circumstances. Read more background here and here.

For the latest, head to Twitter and Facebook.

The reward is now $10,000. Find more details here.

Along comes Mary

Oh, because we're reading the Kim Gordon memoir at the moment. Sonic Youth and "Mary-Christ" from 1990's "Goo."

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[East 11th Street the other night by Peter Brownscombe]

RIP Gray Wolf, a longtime member of the 6th and B Garden (The Villager)

Get involved in #SaveNYC (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Photos from Ash Thayer's new book on East Village squats (The New Yorker)

Spending the night at Katz's (Grub Street)

The history of Puerto Rican migration to the Lower East Side (Off the Grid)

Many great films in the Screenwriters and the Blacklist series at Anthology Film Archives, including Sidney Lumet's "Fail-Safe" from 1964 with Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau...



Another look at the 1980s East Village photography of Ken Schles (Dangerous Minds)

More about Elvis Guesthouse opening soon at 85 Avenue A (Bedford + Bowery)

12 great lost NYC music venues (Flaming Pablum)

Drone footage of the demolished Roseland Ballroom (Animal NY)

What Christo and Dora did during yesterday's snowstorm (Gog in NYC)

More delays for Hotel Indigo on Orchard Street (BoweryBoogie)

More about the new Richard Taittinger Gallery on Ludlow Street (Bloomberg Business)

At The Ramones Museum in Berlin (NPR Berlin)

... and tomorrow at The Neighborhood School on East Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

A Village moon view

The moon seemingly setting just beyond Village View this morning around 6:20 ... photo by Bobby Williams

The Cardinal has apparently closed on East 4th Street

Not too many signs of life over at The Cardinal, the Southern-style restaurant from chef-owner Curtis Brown at 234 E. Fourth St. just west of Avenue B.

The restaurant hasn't been open of late. The phone is not in service. The website domain is available for sale.

Plus, last month, in a sale of assets, CB3 gave the OK to a "a full-service Spanish-influenced international restaurant" in the space. (You can read a PDF of the applicant's paperwork here.)

The restaurant, which opened in August 2011, received positive notices. (Robert Sietsema liked it when he was over at Fork in the Road.)

But it wasn't easy here. Brown, who previously worked at Bubby's in Tribeca, told The Local in September 2012 that he spent an estimated $35,000 to upgrade to a full liquor license via CB3 for the space. (Brown said that it was a handicap to not have a full-liquor license, particularly at brunch.) Then there was the increased competition, with Root & Bone, also serving Southern fare such as fried chicken, opening last June a block away on East Third Street.

All of which didn't go unnoticed at The Cardinal.

Here's their last Facebook post, a doozy from Jan. 8:

Best fried chicken in nyc? while walking around the east village yesterday i noticed three separate restaurants with the claim "the best fried chicken in nyc" displayed on sandwich boards in front of their respective establishments.

How can this be?? How can there be three restaurants with in three blocks of one another all claiming to have "the BEST fried chicken in nyc"? Now I understand there is no accounting for taste and that people's idea of the best fried chicken in new york city may vary, that being said our fried chicken IS the best in new york city.

While our service may be touch and go and maybe you can say our music is a bit too funky from time to time and we could be accused of not necessarily being "kid friendly", there may times when your waiting on a drink and our waiters are outside smoking a joint, but in a straight up chicken battle we SLAY all competitors.

Report: East Village Radio aims for a spring return

Back in November, Brooklyn Vegan had the scoop on East Village Radio returning to the Internets. The station is part of the all-new Dash Radio network, which includes the new Brooklyn Radio.

So what's been happening?

General Manager Peter Ferraro told DNAinfo yesterday that EVR will return this spring. Ferraro has been busy, he said: "finalizing the lineup, which will retain its 'eclectic' mix of music and talk programming" with new and old programming.

East Village Radio signed off after 11 years last May 23, as we first reported.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: East Village Radio is signing off after 11 years; final day of broadcasting is May 23 (53 comments)

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

Matty's now serving eviction papers on Avenue B

That is apparently officially it for Matty's at 25 Avenue B.

Last week, we noticed a rent-due notice on the gate for the sum of $38,326.77 (just for January) here between East Second Street and East Third Street.

And now, there is a mass of eviction papers... noting that the landlord is in possession of the space, etc.



Matty's, run by some folks who had a bar called Matty's on the Drive in Wilton Manors, Fla., took over the Idle Hands space... opening on Dec. 12. They didn't get around to painting the new sign until Jan. 17. And by Feb. 17, the landlord served them rent-due notices. We haven't seen them open since the end of January.

We're trying to remember a bar that came and went so quickly in the neighborhood... opening and closing in under two months. Can you think of a place that closed in less time than this?

Previously on EV Grieve:
A bar called Matty's in the works for Idle Hands on Avenue B

Matty's makes it official on Avenue B

That time there was a winter storm warning on March 5

[Tompkins Square Park photo by Grant Shaffer]

Just a few photos from this fine March day... thanks to everyone who shared the misery photos... we actually have more, but you get the idea...


[2nd Avenue photo via Derek Berg]

[St. Mark's Place photo by Katie B.]


[East 1st Street photo via EVG reader John]

[2nd Avenue photo via Vinny and O]

[First Street Green photo by Sean Carlson]

[Tompkins Square Park photo by Alta Tseng]

... and via Twitter...

View from 12th St, another snowy day in NYC - this never gets old! #YesItDoes @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/WvvXQX1oCQ

— Academy Records NYC (@AcademyRecords) March 5, 2015

A magical fundraiser for The Earth School

The Earth School's annual fundraiser is tomorrow evening features the magical stylings of the Amazing Cardone ... all the details are on the flyer. The show is at 6 in the school's auditorium, 600 E. Sixth St. at Avenue B.

Now to look under 12 to get in for just $5...

Keep smiling

It's almost March April... photo on East 10th Street via Michael Sean Edwards

Hey, the Funkiberry closed on 3rd Avenue

That's it all she swirled for Funkiberry, the colorful FroYo establishment at 88 Third Ave. and East 12th Street.

Not sure exactly when they closed … there is a few day's worth of mail now waiting…



Anyway, likely not a surprise. Aside from the fact that we rarely, if ever, saw anyone inside… we spotted a listing for the space last month. Asking rent on this corner: $21,321.

Red Mango, Pinkberry and Funkiberry have all closed in recent months. It's all on 16 Handles now.

Funkiberry opened here last June.

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

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

205 Avenue A's 6-bedroom unit with rooftop deck is back on the market to annoy everyone

[EVG file photo]

In its short time as a renovated residence at 205 Avenue A, the 6-bedroom unit with a private roof deck has attracted the attention of the neighbors, the police and the media.

And now this special home — once dubbed an "East Village frat house" in a listing — is back on the market, a slightly alarmed neighbor tells us.

First, we'll head to the listing of this home courtesy of Icon Realty between East 12th Street and East 13th Street:

This is a gut renovated apartment with condo finishes featuring:

Bleached-plank hardwood floors
Recessed lighting
Carrara Marble countertops
Stainless steel appliances
Crown and baseboard moldings
3 Full Luxury bathrooms.

This apartment has a washer/dryer in unit!

This apartment features a Huge Private Roof Deck!

Asking rent: $10,800.

The listing includes photos of the unit… we'll just post one — the pièce de résistance...



After a particularly raging rooftop rager last August, Mitch Kossoff, a lawyer for Icon Realty, told the Post:

[T]here are guidelines in place for rooftop access, which only the top-floor tenants have access to. Parties past 10 p.m., loud music, consumption of alcohol, barbecuing and smoking are prohibited. Kossoff said he wasn’t aware of any complaints from last weekend’s bash but he’s ready to take necessary action, including eviction proceedings.

Not even a double-secret probation.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Friday night's rooftop party at Icon Realty's 205 Avenue A (49 comments)

Your 6-bedroom dream 'frat house' awaits you in the East Village

Icon Realty's new Avenue A 'frat house' is attracting attention

At 205 Avenue A, where the NYPD stops by 'almost every weekend'

The Pyramid Club reopens tonight

The club at 101 Avenue A between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street closed early last month... a sign on the door pointed to a vacation, the Pyramid website said there were renovating.

Either way, Pyramid's Facebook announced that the bar-club will reopen tonight. ... with a Back to the '80s (19) dance party tomorrow night.

The Pyramid held its 35th anniversary last fall.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Pyramid Club is closed for vacation (or renovations) until next month

You may now watch the documentary about former East Village boutique Mod World for free

[Photo from 1997 by EVG reader Dave Buchwald]

Last year around this time we told you about "Mod World," the documentary on the offbeat boutique that had a 12-year-run (1994-2006) at 85 First Ave. near East Fifth St.

Now, filmmaker-editor Jeff Turboff, a former East Village resident, tells us that the movie is available for free viewing at Vimeo. (Watch it here.)

You can read our Q-and-A with Turboff here.

Celebrating $pread magazine at Dixon Place

Text and photos by EVG contributor Stacie Joy

Along with a standing room-only crowd, I attended $pread magazine’s book-launch party last night ("$pread: The Best of the Magazine that Illuminated the Sex Industry and Started a Media Revolution," edited by Rachel Aimee Eliyanna Kaiser, and Audacia Ray; Feminist Press) at Dixon Place.



The book is an anthology covering 10 years of the defunct magazine (the first U.S. magazine by and for sex workers and allies), which was birthed in the East Village in 2005.

The magazine was crafted in the early years at the tables of Avenue A’s Café Pick Me Up and edited at Ludlow’s Earth Matters (RIP), and financed by repeated fundraising events at the Slipper Room. It was first for sale at Bluestockings. (I recall seeing brightly colored neon posters and fliers for the magazine all over the neighborhood back in the day.)

The former editors, writers, artists and staffers shared funny, touching and emotional stories about how sex work affected them and their friends, families and coworkers, and read some of the early responses to their work – such as a bowl of torn-up copies of their first issue, snail-mailed back to them with some seriously nasty notes.

It was also opening night of the art show “Spark to a Flame,” featuring art from the magazine.







The art show, curated by Damien Luxe, features artwork by artists Fly Orr, Molly Crabapple, Hawk Kinkaid, Xandra Ibarra/La Chica Boom and Cristy Road, and is still on view at Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie between Rivington and Delancey, until March 20.



“Spark to a Flame” is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Maybe this is the oldest footage of New York City that you've ever seen

Thanks to an EVG reader for sending along the link to this video making the rounds... Here's the description via YouTube:

Oldest and most incredible footage of New York City ever, including where the WTC would be built. With added maps carefully researched to show where the camera was. 28 shots of classic footage with a new twist and a new soundtrack.

Report: Family of man killed by tire swing in Tompkins Square Park suing city

[Photo of memorial for Aleim Perkins by Bobby Williams]

Last Dec. 15, Harlem resident Aleim Perkins was playing with his 6-year-old niece in the Tompkins Square Park playground off East Ninth Street and Avenue A. He pushing an empty tire swing when it struck him in the face. He was rushed to Beth Israel, where hospital officials said the 39-year-old Perkins had died.

Now Perkins' mother and sister are suing the city for $10 million, the Post reports.

The family wants the Parks Department to remove all 53 of the hard-plastic swings in playgrounds citywide, according to the notice of claim filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

To the Post:

“You have to be horrified and make sure this never happens again,” said his mom, Rosemary Perkins, 60, who is suing along with sister Vernesha Perkins, 36.

If the city removes the swings, replaces them with safer ones or posts warning signs, the family will no longer seek monetary damages, they said.

A Parks official previously said that the city didn't have plans to remove any of the swings.

In published reports from December, witnesses said that Perkins had been aggressively pushing the empty swing when it struck him.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Witness to a tragedy in Tompkins Square Park

Report: City not removing tire swings from Tompkins Square Park

Report: Tire swing kills man in Tompkins Square Park

Out and About in the East Village, part 1

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: Stephen Shanaghan (pictured right), Arnoldo Caballero
Occupation: Owners, Pangea Restaurant
Location: Pangea, 2nd Avenue between 11th and 12th Street
Time: Wednesday, Feb. 18th at 5:30 pm

Stephen: I’m from Rhode Island. I moved here to go to NYU, where I studied psychology. People always asked me how I got into the restaurant business. I worked in them and Arnoldo worked in restaurants too. We were both going to NYU.

I had to work my way through school and I ended up getting my first restaurant job at Windows on the World. I had to make a fake résumé because I didn’t have any experience. They weren’t very strict about that at the time. I was a waiter. The only other restaurant that I worked in before I opened my own was Central Falls restaurant on West Broadway. The owner catered to the "Saturday Night Live" crew and staff. That’s probably where I got the bug.

Arnoldo: We took a year off and we traveled in Italy. We lived in Rome and Florence and spent loads of time in Sicily and Venice and we came back to America and started looking for jobs. I had majored in art history and I started to look for work and there was nothing available. We had saved just a little bit of money and one day we had this crazy idea.

We had compared Italian food in New York to what we had in Italy and we noticed that it needed an improvement. So we said, ‘Why don’t we do an Italian restaurant?’ We had gone to this restaurant in Sicily called La Spaghetteria, a basic, only pasta restaurant and the food was so amazing. Stephen said, ‘What if we just open a little pasta joint and we’ll call it La Spaghetteria in New York.’

S: We opened in a small storefront on 7th Street, right off of Avenue A, in 1984. We had a little bit of money and we called our friend and said that we wanted to open up a place, and he said, ‘Well what do you know about opening a restaurant?’ So we said, ‘We put ourselves through college working in restaurants, how difficult could it be?’

It was difficult. We were 26. It was spit and glue. We built most of the furniture. It had like 26 seats and a kitchen that only fit one cook and a person who would do dishes and help out. The food was very simple but real and good quality. Everything was cheap because Michael, our chef at the time who lived on Avenue A or B said, 'You’ve got to keep it inexpensive.’ That I think contributed to use becoming successful.

A: We were robbed 3 times. I remember the first time, when Stephen called me up and said, ‘This guy just came in and removed the front doors.’ That was our introduction to the East Village.

S: There were a lot of junkies around. We had one of these hokey alarm systems that would call us at home and say ‘a burglary in progress.’ It was supposed to go to the police station at the same time. It was Thanksgiving and the alarm went off at four in the morning and we both hopped in taxis coming from different directions. We actually cornered him in the middle and he had our big garbage can with the cash register and the mixer.

Arnoldo was trying to see what was taken and I go after the guy and chase him into Tompkins Square Park with some drunk, stoned people walking around. He pulled out an ice pick. No one was helping me. I was yelling out, ‘Help! Help!’ I pulled the [emergency response] box thing and it didn’t work. New York was in the broken state at that time. This junkie’s waving an ice pick at me. ‘Okay, I’m done.’

A: So we decided to get a gate and we called the gate company. This was the third time we had been robbed. And they said, ‘We’re really busy, it’s going to take a week.’ So we had to sleep in the restaurant in the backroom for a week. We called our friends and said, ‘Who wants to sleep with us?’ The landlord would turn off the heat at 1 in the morning and not turn it back on at 6. It was freezing in there. We used to bring our pajamas and keep the lights on and have a party with bottles of wine, just so the robbers wouldn’t come back. Then we would go to the Pyramid and get drunk at happy hour. It was so much fun.

S: [The clientele] was a total mix. Always has been. I always remember one of the first write ups that we had gotten, the writer said, ‘the Wall Streeters sitting next to the librarian, sitting next to the punk rocker.’ There was an article that came out about us in The New York Times and that’s what put us on the map. We opened in May and by the third week the phone just started ringing off the hook and my chef called me up and said, ‘We’re in the Wednesday section of the Times!’

It was this little paragraph that said, ‘La Spaghetteria is the hottest new restaurant downtown.’ It was two sentences. People were afraid to go over there. People were like, ‘Avenue A? Really?’ But they did end up coming over.

Next week: Opening Pangea and having prostitutes as upstairs neighbors

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

Hop Devil Grill/The Belgian Room closed now on Mondays; lack of football blamed

[Photo by Derek Berg]

The sister bars here on St Mark's Place just west of Avenue A have cut back on their days open.

As the sign on the door notes, the bars will be closed on Mondays for the foreseeable future.

"Like many restaurants in our neighborhood, it sometimes gets a little quiet on Mondays after the football season ends."

The note goes on to say something about staying in and ordering mediocre Chinese food. (Maybe try Hot Kitchen?)