EV Grieve

Monday, November 2, 2015

Noted

EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted this new living room ensemble at Whole Foods Market® Bowery ...

The sign asks for people to "treat this furniture as you would your own" this holiday season. How will this turn out???

Christo in front of the Christodora

Photo in Tompkins Square Park yesterday by Grant Shaffer.

PO demo porn, and other East 13th Street razing action

[This post sponsored by Little Bites]

Workers have finally started demolishing the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office … you can't really tell, though, from the front entrance on East 14th Street just west of Avenue A…

However, once you come around to the loading dock on East 13th Street … you can see the demo in progress…

An 8-story retail-residential building — featuring 114 units — is in the works for the PO space. Still no sign of a rendering yet from SLCE Architects.

Now some bonus demo action across East 13th Street… where the single-level garages at 436 and 442 E. 13th St. are coming down to make way for the Thirteen East + West condos…

An EVG reader shared a view from above the former garage at No. 436 …

At East Village Meat Market's Pierogi Tasting Day

Photos and text by EVG contributor Stacie Joy

I stopped by Pierogi Tasting Day on Saturday at East Village Meat Market, 139 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street.

I sampled the wares from Veselka’s, Rosa-Ly Pierogi, Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen, among others, and met the folks behind the event, Roman Ilnicki and his father, store manager Andrew Ilnicki.

[Roman, left, and Andrew Ilnicki]

Roman took a few minutes out of his busy day to chat with me about the shop, his family, and the traditions behind the store and its place in the neighborhood. Roman’s family used to live above the shop until a few years ago when they moved a couple blocks south. The store is still owned by Julian Baczynsky, who is in his 90s now. Andrew Ilnicki, who worked his way up from bagboy to store manager, is now running the market.

Roman was enthusiastic about the store’s responsibility to the community, where it has been serving the Ukrainian, Polish, and Eastern European customers as well as the rest of the East Village since 1970. With Pierogi Tasting Day, which offered plentiful samples, Roman wanted to do something nice for the neighborhood.

He believes that good food brings people together. He thought that celebrating the foods of the Ukrainian community — the meats, cheeses, blintzes and pierogis as well as the store’s best-sellers, its bone-in ham (a Christmas staple) and house-smoked kielbasa (they smoke the kielbasa on site every morning) — would be a great way to showcase the traditional values of the store: customer service, and old-school fine Eastern European tastes, products and experiences.

When I asked him what has changed since the store first opened, he said not much, with the exception of refrigeration, and some newer safety regulations, but that the foods and their prep are still the same today as they were 45 years ago.

While there were lines, I did manage to nab a delicious pumpkin and farmer’s cheese pierogi from Veselka, and Rosa-Ly’s delicious traditional potato pierogi with sautéed onions.

Tumor time for the Provident Loan Society Building on East Houston?

On Nov. 17, CB3's monthly Landmark's Committee meeting will include a hearing on the proposal to landmark the circa-1912 Provident Loan Society Building, 223-225 E. Houston St., at Essex.

BoweryBoogie has had the scoop on the situation here. Back in January, BB heard about plans to demolish the building for a new residential complex.

Well, rest assured, it no longer appears that the owners plan to take down the building.

No, as BoweryBoogie uncovered back on Friday, they want to simply drop a 12-story extension on top of the existing building… which would look like…

[Image from Bluarch Architecture via BB]

Head over to BoweryBoogie for more details.

The Landmarks Committee meets on Nov. 17 at 6:30, JASA/Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at Cooper Square.

After a string of random clubs and concepts through the past 20 years, the Provident Loan Society Building is currently unoccupied. (The space served as a studio for Jasper Johns in the 1970s.)

And now, a flashback to an EVG post from November 2010…

---

The classic revival brick building has retained its look through the years... Here are some photos from the NYPL Digital Gallery..... the first photo isn't dated...

from 1936…

from 1935...

and today [November 2010] ...

Fish Bar signage arrives on East 6th Street

Over at 345 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, the transformation of the former Gandhi space continues. As previously reported, Shane Covey, co-owner of Upstate around the corner, and Adam Elzer, operating partner at Sauce Restaurant, are opening Edwin and Neal's Fish Bar (named after their fathers).

Anyway, the new sign has arrived…

[Photo by Vinny & O]

Hopefully no one will confuse the restaurant with Fish Bar on East Fifth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More about Edwin and Neal's Fish Bar, coming soon to East 6th Street

Nearly taco time on East 4th Street

Signage went up Friday evening for Tac N Roll, a quick-serve Mexican restaurant at 124 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue…

We don't have any other info on the place at the moment... Social Tees had this space until they moved in December 2011… (Social Tees is now on East Fifth Street.)

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Week in Grieview

[EVG photo of the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A]

Check out the new 10-story building for the former Second Avenue BP station, (Wednesday) which has been demolished (Thursday)

Saint's Alp Teahouse closes for good (Tuesday)

There are now two ping-pong tables in Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday)

Local politicos seek answers from the Blackstone Group on the Stuy Town air rights deal (Tuesday)

NatureEs, the Mars Bar replacement, seeking to become a Spanish bistro (Thursday)

The Post discovers Alphabet City again (Thursday, 47 comments)

A new rendering for 100 Avenue A (Tuesday)

Out and About with Robert (Wednesday)

The "stunning boutique collection" of new residences on East First Street (Monday)

About "a coordinated visit" to buildings owned by Brookhill Properties on East Fifth Street (Thursday)

City closes Brooklyn Dark Hemp Bar on St. Mark's Place until they add two additional sinks (Monday)

543 1/2 E. Sixth St., home of Sunny & Annie's, is for sale (Thursday)

A "St. Marks Is Dead" book release party (Friday)

On Second Avenue, Moonstruck Diner is now The Kitchen Sink (Wednesday)

A small victory for the Stage vs. Icon Realty (Monday)

American Apparel closes on East Houston (Tuesday)

Incoming sign of Virgola on East Seventh Street (Monday)

Former Sustainable NYC space for lease on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Le Petit Parisien opening soon on East Seventh Street (Friday)

Some rat proofing for Tompkins Square Park (Monday)

One East Village bar is ready for SantaCon (Thursday)

Decaf anyone? The Swiss Water® Coffee Studio open on Lafayette and East Houston (Tuesday)

Continuing to jazz up the Charlie Parker Residence on Avenue B (Thursday)

DOH temporarily closes Sushi Dojo on First Avenue (Monday)

… and a reader noted that residents at Icon's 205 Avenue A were kind enough to advertise their party on the front door…