Nearly 1 year later, Peter Cooper starting to emerge from his box

[File photo via NYC Parks]

Workers boxed up Augustus Saint-Gaudens' sculpture of Cooper Union founder Peter Cooper last April ... for safekeeping during the ongoing Astor Place-Cooper Square reconstruction project.

EVG reader Katie B. has been keeping tabs on the boxed Cooper, which overlooks the Cooper Triangle Park ... and notes that he is slowly starting to emerge from underneath the plywood...


[Click on image for more detail]





Eventually the Park, which closed in November 2013, will look like this...with new seating and plantings as well as upgraded lighting (minus the ghosts probably)...



As for the statue, the official dedication took place on May 29, 1897. Check out the NYC Parks website here for more background.

Kabin has closed on 2nd Avenue

Last Friday we noted that the 10-year-old Kabin Bar & Lounge at 92 Second Ave. was on the market… we heard that the bar between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street would remain open through March.

However, that wasn't the case. According to BoweryBoogie, the bar closed after service on Tuesday.

The listing at the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank site points out that the rent is negotiable for the 2,100-square-foot space.

Hookah Bar becomes a Brow Bar on East 3rd Street

The long-empty space at 61 E. Third St. has a new tenant here between First Avenue and Second Avenue — Pinky's Brow Bar … the kind of bar that won't likely be making any waves seeking a liquor license for the address.

The previous tenant here, Cafe Khufu, a hookah lounge, caused some debate when seeking a beer-wine license in 2012.

Thanks to EVG reader Marjorie for the photo!

Noted

EVG reader Michael spotted this earlier today on Second Avenue and East 10th Street… your basic end table holding a ice block with some kind of facial or pubic hair in/on it…





We are currently entertaining theories...

A big show at Peter Brant's new East Village exhibition space?

Something big seems to be happening over at 421 E. Sixth St., the under-renovation exhibition space that art collector Peter Brant bought last year.

There has been a lot of activity on the building's Seventh Street side between Avenue A and First Avenue ... where there is a rear driveway and side alley.

Per Dave on 7th: "Peter Brant must be putting on a big show. Saw staging being loaded in yesterday and today they are running in a TON of power from these CAT generators. That's rock concert size shit going on here. Maybe a fashion show. Not a film."

Maybe we will all be invited?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East 6th Street

NYU has a new president

[Image via NYU]

The Board of Trustees of New York University today announced the appointment of Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton — the University of Oxford’s senior officer, a noted chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the former Provost of Yale — as the 16th president of New York University. He will officially take up his duties in January 2016.

Professor Hamilton’s selection follows an eight-month, international search process conducted by a Search Committee of trustees, faculty, students, and administrators. The Committee — which began the search with over 200 nominees — unanimously recommended Professor Hamilton to the Board of Trustees. (NYU official new release)

--

CAS senior and student member of the Presidential Search Committee Jules O’Connor said she was confident the committee had made the right choice.

“I think that he will do great things at the university and the whole committee really felt that throughout the entire process he was really the one who encompassed a lot of the qualities, if not every quality, that we were looking for: a strong leader, a great visionary, someone who is really willing and able to keep moving the university forward,” O’Connor said. (Washington Square News)

--

When the new president, Andrew Hamilton, leaves his post at Oxford University to join N.Y.U. in January, he will be walking into a set of complex challenges. He will be leading a university with aggressive expansion plans, both internationally and in New York, where those plans are tied up in a court battle. (The New York Times)

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Andrew Berman, the director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and a critic of Mr. Sexton’s expansion plans, expressed cautious optimism.

“Relations between NYU and its neighbors are at an all-time low, largely over issues related to the university’s drive to expand,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine there’s any place to go but up.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Conversion of former dorm to rentals with 2 new floors underway on 3rd Avenue

Workers arrived yesterday to begin erecting the scaffolding and sidewalk bridge around the former SVA dorm on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 10th Street.

There are now partially approved plans on file with city to convert the building to rentals (luxury) and add two floors.

As The Real Deal reported last November, Slate – a Midtown-based development firm – and RWN Real Estate Partners want to reposition the building as a high-end rental property. The group was apparently able to obtain the 8,000 square feet in unused air rights to add the new floors above the existing structure.

From the looks of the various permits on file, the building will house 41 units with an "outdoor tenant recreation area" on the second floor.

SVA students moved out after the spring 2014 term .. with the students now using a newish residence on East 24th Street at First Avenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village now down a dorm

High-end rentals and additional floors coming to the former SVA dorm on 3rd Avenue

Former Bourgeois Pig space for rent on East 7th Street

[EVG photo from late January]

The Bourgeois Pig closed for good in late January at 111 E. Seventh St. As Eater reported back in November, a rent hike was behind the 10-year-old bar's East Village closure.

There's now a listing via Sinvin (the PDF is here) for the storefront between Avenue A and First Avenue ... "perfect for any use, food or retail"...



The asking rent is $10,500.

As for The Bourgeois Pig, the wine-cheese bar opened a new location at 127 MacDougal St.

Previously.

Fresh & Co. now open on 4th Avenue

The kale-and-quinoa chainlet's 12th location in the city opened yesterday on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 13th Street … taking over the space previously held by (sad face) Pie Face.

You can check out the Fresh & Co. menu offerings here.

B.A.D. Burger says goodbye on Avenue A

The State of New York auctioned off the remains of B.A.D. Burger at 171 Avenue A near East 11th Street last Thursday… as previously noted, the State seized the restaurant for nonpayment of taxes back in early February…

Now there's a sign up on the front saying goodbye … and pointing diners to their Williamsburg location...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

B.A.D. Burger opened here in late 2011.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] State seizes B.A.D. Burger on Avenue A for nonpayment of taxes

State of New York auctioning off the remains of B.A.D. Burger on Avenue A

An anniversary for Webster Hall

Today marks Webster Hall’s seventh anniversary as a New York City landmark. And on this occasion, Off the Grid takes a look at the history of the building, erected in 1886 on East 11th Street and Fourth Avenue … for an outrageous sum of $75,000.

An excerpt of the history via Off the Grid:

By the 1910s and 1920s, Webster Hall became famous for its masquerade balls, following the success of a 1913 fundraiser for the socialist magazine The Masses. The parties, which attracted the bohemians of the Village and beyond, grew more and more outlandish–and the costumes, skimpier and skimpier.

However comprehensive, Off the Grid leaves one glaring omission in its recap: K-Fed rocking the house in 2006.


[Image via Stereogum]

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: Regina Bartkoff and Charles Schick
Occupation: Artists, Performers
Location: 292 E. 3rd St. between Avenue C and D
Time: 7 pm on Thursday, March 12

Regina: I’m from Howard Beach, Queens. I was an outsider there — no friends, just weird, not knowing why. There were no artists there. My mother was from Naples, Italy. My dad was Hungarian, Finnish, and from the Bronx and Harlem. They were just working-class people. I would say to my mother, ‘Where is everybody? Why is everybody inside? Even though I was a shy kid, I just felt like I didn’t belong there.

In high school I remember saying one thing and then kids going, ‘oh she’s weird.’ So I just got quiet, shy. I cut myself off. Back then there was obviously no Internet, so you were by yourself all of the time. Somehow I just got through school. I didn’t do well in school at all. I wasn’t a troublemaker, but I was just lost.

Charlie: I was born in Chicago in 1955. My dad was a civil service worker so it was almost like being an Army brat. He was working for the Army. For his first job we went over to Germany and I really kind of moved around a lot to different American communities. It was a pretty good time. It was middle class but the refrigerator was always full — prosperous. You didn’t really have to worry about anything. I was having a jolly old time with my friends.

We went back to Chicago and my dad lost his job after several years there. It was the same thing Regina was going through. I felt isolated. It was almost like the Howard Beach of Chicago — an Italian, Polish community. We kept moving and eventually my dad got another government job. We went over to some islands in the Pacific and I went to boarding school in Japan for awhile but I got kicked out. I was kind of a reckless kid. You were sort of free but you didn’t really think about it. Not really thinking about a career. The influence of the people of that time, the hippies, later the punks. Just living, seeing where it goes. I remember trying to go to college for a couple of months but I couldn’t sit still.

Regina: Right after high school, I was sitting on my front stoop and these two guys were walking through the neighborhood and covered with dirt. I grew up right next door to Aqueduct Racetrack, and they said, ‘We work with horses.’ ‘Horses? I love horses,’ never being around them, ‘They got girls down there?’ ‘Yeah, go to this barn and you can get a job as a hot walker. The barn was owned by Buddy Jacobson and his son and all the people working there were about my age. They taught me how to walk and feed the horses. I loved being around the horses. They felt like me, really nervous, high strung. I literally felt the ice cracking around my heart. I could be responsible for these young colts.

But the other thing was that I realized that people liked me for the first time. They were kind of outsiders too in a certain way. My first boyfriend was there, a little Puerto Rican kid, and my mom flipped out.

I would get up in the morning, spend all my time there, then come back. My mom called them bad people. She was very tough and very scary. At that time, when you were raised, we were beat a lot. I didn’t think that was so bad or unusual because everybody got that. But unlike the other Italian mothers in the neighborhood she didn’t know how to show her love for me. But she gave me a lot of her great strength as did my father and they both taught me to just get on with it and not to have self-pity.

At the track I also discovered books. One of the kids had "The Catcher in the Rye." I went home and read it, I just said, ‘Oh my god, this was written for me.’ That opened up the world for writers. If you don’t want to be alone, start reading. I started discovering Kerouac, Salinger, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams. That made life so much better, but I still didn’t think about being an artist or a writer.

Charlie: All kinds of crazy things happened, but I ended up in Los Angeles for a while with stronger and stronger feelings of wanting to find a life’s work. Really the only thing that made sense to me were the arts. I didn’t even know which one, but somehow I just drifted into acting and I got deeper into that. I always wanted to go to New York. It seemed like the most exciting place in the world to me. The films that were coming out of there in the 1970s — “Taxi Driver,” “Dog Day Afternoon” — I thought I belonged there. They had this service if you could deliver somebody’s car to New York, it’s a free ride. So I drove cross-country with a friend of mine to New York in this Cadillac.

I had gotten into painting in California — totally undisciplined, but not in the sense that you don’t work hard. You sort of dive in. As much as I liked acting, you’d get into some play and you didn’t even like it or the part and I just had no discipline or tolerance to wait that out. Our whole lives have been sort of the do-it-yourself. Even now. I just sort of dove in, not really trained to draw, but the image would come out of the paint. You’d keep doing it and doing it and doing it and exploring that.

Regina: I didn’t want to be at the track forever and I didn’t know what I was doing, so I left and took the A train to Manhattan and got a job at WABC Radio. I don’t know why I did that. The whole thing started again. I had no friends and they thought I was weird and I was so depressed. I missed being outside. I felt my soul shrinking.

Next week: "I had a job at Phebe’s and then at an all-night restaurant, where I met Charlie. I didn’t like him at first."

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

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The exhibit Inner Cities continues through March 28 at 292 Gallery ... the exhibit features photos by Romy Ashby, drawings by Regina Bartkoff and paintings by Charles Schick. The gallery is at 292 E. Third St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. Gallery hours are 2-5 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment.

About the memorial for Donna Harris Saturday at Maryhouse

[Makeshift memorial for Donna Harris on Avenue A]

Donna Harris, a homeless resident of Avenue A/Tompkins Square Park these past five years, died on March 2. She was 52.

There's a memorial gathering for her at 7 p.m. this coming Saturday (March 21) at Maryhouse, 55 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Per Felton Davis of Maryhouse:

This will not be a formal ceremony, but an informal sharing of stories about a woman who lived through many difficulties and made a unique impression on many in the neighborhood, maintaining cheerfulness in all kinds of weather, always ready to give as well as receive, and in no hurry to leave the Park for life in a boring institution. Please come and meet Donna's family, so we can all pay our respects and take note of her untimely passing.

[Flyer photo on Avenue A via Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Donna Harris

[Updated] Mitali East has closed for good on 6th Street

That's it for the always-reliable Indian restaurant at 334 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue that opened in 1973.

The sign posted to the front door sends would-be patrons to Haveli, their sister restaurant around the corner on Second Avenue...



And this makes three Indian restaurants now in one at Haveli. Banjara moved here in late 2013.

You can read more about Mitali East closing in our previous posts here and here.

Updated 1:24 p.m.

Workers are now dismantling the space...


[Photo by Michael Hirsch]

What you can rent the former Benny's Burritos location for on Avenue A

Benny's closed for good here at East Sixth Street back in November. The Benny's to-go space next door closed then on Feb. 28.

At the time there were some rather generic-looking for rent signs hanging above the storefront… and we never did spot a listing online for the space.

Anyway, there's now a new listing at Bond New York.

A few details:

Fully Operational Corner Location Restaurant. Super Desirable East Village Avenue A at 6th Street...
No Key Money!!!

1,300 sq ft main dining space & Kitchen. Plus a 1600sqf Basement set up as a full prep kitchen with 2 walk-in boxes

Also seating for 9 tables/18 chairs outside the cafe.

Asking rent: $22,000.



We asked about the to-go space next door. Here's what a Bond rep told us: "The to-go space can be combined or rented separately ... together with the main space it would be an additional $5,500 and stand alone it would be $6,500."

The to-go space is 450 square feet upstairs and 600 square feet downstairs. It has also its own kitchen and walk-in fridge downstairs.

So.. doing some math… both spaces together: $27,500.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Benny's Burritos is closing; will offer take-out only service (50 comments)

Images via the Bond New York website

More about Taberna, the Portuguese restaurant opening in the former Yaffa Cafe space

[Photo by Allen Semanco]

We've been keeping an eye on the former Yaffa Cafe space at 97 St. Mark's Place, where the owners of St. Dymphna's down the block are opening a restaurant called Taberna here between Avenue A and First Avenue. (In January, CB3 OK'd the beer-wine license for the new venture.)

DNAinfo's Lisha Arino talked with co-owner Eric Baker, whose business partners — wife Patricia Martins and sister-in-law Raquel Martins — are both Portuguese, about what you can expect.

The restaurant will serve small and shareable Portuguese dishes like caldo verde — a traditional potato-based soup with shredded kale and optional chorizo slices — and bacalhau — dried and salted cod.

Yaffa's illegal back patio, which was partially responsible for its closing, will be turned into a garden, Baker said, and windows will be built into the back of the restaurant so customers can look at the landscaped area.

Gothamist wasn't too keen about this small-plates news yesterday:

Because the world East Village needs more sockless men gesticulating over a gram of food at 4 in the afternoon.

After a major overhaul, Baker hopes to have the space open this July.

Yaffa Cafe closed after 32 years last fall, as we first reported.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Yaffa Cafe is officially gone; back garden dismantled

More about Yaffa Cafe closing

St. Dymphna's owners look to take over the former Yaffa Cafe space on St. Mark's Place

Villacemita opens Saturday at 50 Avenue A

The new Mexican cafe opens Saturday at Avenue A between East Third Street and East Fourth Street. Workers removed the paper from the windows yesterday... a few readers told us that the space looks quite nice inside ...

The photos a reader tried to take for us are admittedly a little dark and blurry...





The cafe's website doesn't have the menus posted yet. You can find the website here.

The previous tenant here, Native Bean, moved to 36 Avenue A at the beginning of the year.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Villacemita, serving authentic Puebla Mexican cuisine, announces itself on Avenue A

An ADA workshop tomorrow for East Village businesses and residents

Via the EVG inbox today…

The East Village Community Coalition with the East Village Independent Merchants Association are hosting a workshop tomorrow targeted to local business owners regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and practical solutions to increase accessibility to East Village businesses. Residents are also encouraged to attend.

We invite you to join in a conversation about access and your business. This event will be facilitated by East Village resident and wheelchair-user, Alexandra McArthur. Our discussion will explain the benefits of making simple, inexpensive changes to storefront entryways to improve access. Kleo King from the Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities and Ted Finkelstein from the Commission on Human Rights will join the discussion.

Wednesday, March 18, 10 am-11am
Cafe Mocha, 116 Second Ave. at East Seventh Street

Questions or to rsvp: email

Adventures in trespassing at 190 Bowery

[Via Wikipedia Commons]

In case that you haven't seen this video making the rounds today ... Bucky Turco, editor-in-chief of ANIMAL New York, made his way inside 190 Bowery, the historic Germania Bank Building on the corner of Spring Street.

He was able to breach security several different times to document the mysterious (and now mostly empty) six-story, 72-room, 37,000-square-foot building as it awaits its likely condo fate. Aby Rosen of RFR Realty purchased the place from photographer Jay Maisel for a reported $55 million. (RFR is currently marketing the building's first and second floors for retail use.)

Check out the result of Turco's expedition inside in this video...



... and over at the ANIMAL website here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Take a last look inside the mysterious 190 Bowery

A sign of spring, sort of

EVG reader Pinch spotted the second-story facade that flips open like a garage door, uh, open today at 224 E. 14th St. near Third Avenue. We've actually never seen the retractable wall open before (ditto for Pinch).