Several readers have told us about an early-morning fire at 100 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. The official FDNY Twitter account announced the fire at 7:17 a.m., and gave the "under control" at 7:30 a.m.
MAN ALL HANDS 100 E 7TH ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 2ND FLR, UNDER CONTROL
Unfortunately, we don't have any further information about the cause of the fire, which started in a second-floor apartment. A reader at the scene said that there didn't appear to be any injuries.
You can see the fire-damaged unit in the photo from later this morning...
Here on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...
There's a sign dated yesterday on the gate about a cat named Lucy living back here somewhere...
The person who wrote the sign would like to rescue Lucy, who, in the aftermath of the last week's blizzard, "was not able to eat for 5 days. She was very weak and meowing a lot..."
The gate is between the newish residential building at No. 532 and No. 536 (where Minca Ramen Factory remains closed for repairs). Anyone know who oversees this space? Is it part of No. 532 or 536?
We have no idea when this storefront closed on East Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... an EVG reader mentioned it to us, noting that it was rare to see a psychic close up shop.
Well, there have been a few to shutter... like here and here ... and here?
Per the retail listing, rent on the 250-square-foot space is available upon request. From that listing: "Bathroom in place and some concession towards work is available. Most uses are considered including non cooking food use."
EVG reader Cheap Trick took this photo outside the John Varvatos storefront at 315 Bowery this morning... per Cheap Trick: "The windows are boarded up. Is it closing?"
There's nothing on JV's social media accounts noting a closure... or any kind of special in-store concert event, as they've had in the past with their Bowery Live series... The Rock is Dead? signage suggests some kind of concert. (Iggy Pop-Josh Homme is the rumor.)
Poppy's Gourmet Corner on Avenue A at East 12th Street will be closing up after the business day tomorrow, EVG reader Shawn Chittle reports...Owner Mike Attal told Shawn that the rent is too high now...
Jared Kushner's Westminster Management is the landlord. This has become an increasingly valuable chunk of retail with Douglas Steiner's mixed-use building with ground-floor retail and 82 market-rate condos going up on the surrounding property.
The empty storefront has looked this way for a little while here on Third Avenue at East 12th Street... however, it looked particularly photogenic in this morning's sunlight...
The colorful FroYo establishment closed in March 2015. Funkiberry opened in June 2014.
The asking rent for the corner space was $21,321.00 per month. However, the property is now off the market. So perhaps a new business is on the way. (Cue Beer Store comment!)
Francis Salud, who is under arrest for the apparent random slashing of a man on East Sixth Street on Jan. 16, spoke to a Post reporter yesterday at the Manhattan Detention Complex.
Per that conversation:
Salud told The Post he was on his way to score some pot when victim Anthony Christopher Smith walked toward him near Third Avenue and East Sixth Street on Jan. 16.
“Yo, Jamaica, you got some of that good bud?” Salud said he asked Smith.
“I don’t even f–k with you gooks,” Smith responded, according to Salud.
Salud added, “The government is profiting from the conflict between Caucasians and African-Americans, and it’s getting worse.”
Smith strongly denied that he spoke with his attacker. "There was no conversation," he told the Post. "I was attacked."
As previously reported, Smith underwent eight hours of surgery, and needed nearly 150 stitches for the wound from his right ear to his lips. He has partial paralysis on the right side of his face because several nerves were severed.
After 14 years in business at 185 Avenue C between East 11th Street and East 12th Street, Cafecito will be closing its doors for good after service on Sunday.
Several regulars shared news of the Cuban restaurant's closure, and a staffer confirmed the news. There will be a closing celebration Sunday night at 9. All Cafecito friends and fans are invited.
As we understand it, business had been tapering off ... and the Cafecito team didn't want to see it go out of business slowly and sadly — "dwindling into another solemn East Village story," as one source put it. In any event, the owners aren't leaving the neighborhood — they also run Royale at 157 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.
Like other businesses in the area, Cafecito was hit hard during Sandy in October 2012. Longtime manager Manny Garcia was featured in an Out and About in the East Village here in March 2013: "There was four feet of water in the building and we were closed almost a month. We’re still trying to recover financially. We had to replace everything. We didn’t have power for 3 weeks and to this day we still don’t have Verizon."
One nearby resident praised Cafecito's management for all their help through the years. "They could not have been any more supportive of local causes."
There is already a suitor lined up for the space. An applicant will appear before CB3's SLA committee next month. At this point, the applicant's identity hasn't been revealed.
From the EVG inbox...concerning East Fourth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C
A terrible smell has been lingering since the blizzard like a dead dog — or, not to be overly dramatic, a dead person.
This morning the area was surrounded by yellow tape. A police cruiser was blocking the street to traffic, and a Con Ed van was parked at the scene.
EVG correspondent Stacie Joy had actually taken some photos of the block, which is now closed off for Con Ed and other assorted emergency vehicles.
A resident says that Con Ed is here responding to a service outage. As for the possible source of the smell, one of the Con Ed workers said that their meter readers didn't pick up any natural gas. Yay!
Meanwhile, farther down the block at Avenue C... the FDNY was on the scene...
The FDNY, witnesses said, was there because of a manhole fire (it is manhole fire season!), which they believe led to the service outage up the block.
A manhole fire could cause a smell ... though residents have noticed the aroma going back to Sunday. No one could place the smell. Some suggested a very large dead rat. Some went with fermenting garbage. Another theory included "maybe someone hit a deer."
Nearly all of the evidence recovered from the deadly ambush of two NYPD officers on Avenue B and East 11th Street on Jan. 27, 1972, has disappeared (Daily News)
Brooklyn-based artist Jessica Olah is currently on a mission to make several thousand peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — for the sake of art, empathy for her mother and a good cause...
Olah estimated that from September 1990 through May 2004, her mother made 2,340 sandwiches for her to take to school.
"I was bringing someone their lunch [one day] and just marveling over the fact that my mom made me school lunches everyday," said Olah, 30. "I stopped and thought, 'Wow, my mom made me lunch every day, not only when I was younger but until high school.' That is a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
Inspired to "exercise empathy" for her mother, Olah began the task of making the same number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in five days...
Through Sunday, Olah, who raised $3,500 in a crowdfunding campaign, is making the sandwiches (roughly 10 a.m. to at least 6 p.m.) at the 12C Outdoor Gallery on Avenue C and East 12th Street. (195 Avenue C.)
People can come on by and watch this performance installation of sorts — titled "2,340 PB&J Sandwiches" — during the posted hours...
Each day, she is donating the sandwiches to The Bowery Mission.
As she told DNAinfo: "I wanted to do this as a meditation on what my mother has done. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a metaphor for a lot of small tasks mothers might do."
Well you know the lot on the northeast corner of Avenue C and Sixth Street has been empty for as long as anyone can remember. (Early 1980s by one estimate. The property apparently once housed a gas station.)
People have been trying to develop the lot, which includes a 10-by-12-foot hole, going back to 2003.
We bring all this up now because, on Tuesday, the city once again disapproved the plans for the building. Just the latest rejection going back to February 2013...
Last July, property owner Israel Rosenbaum told The Villager that — despite appearances and reports of rat sightings through the years — the corner lot doesn't pose any health hazards. "There are no issues at this property other than the long process of getting DOB approval to construct a new building,” he told The Villager.
Jim Hayes (aka Cowboy Jim) passed away on Jan. 2. He had been suffering from emphysema.
Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of biographical information at the moment.
Hayes had been a fixture off and on in the East Village since 1968. He could usually be found drinking coffee outside Porto Rico Importing Co. on St. Mark's Place and on a bench near the Hare Krishna tree in Tompkins Square Park.
There is now a makeshift memorial for him on the side of the shuttered Chase branch on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place ... next to Porto Rico.
Thanks to EVG contributor Steven for the photos and information...
After more than a year, workers removed the plywood surrounding the long-vacant 269 E. Houston St. storefront at Suffolk ... where a new cocktail bar called Suffolk Arms has been in the works.
As The New York Timesfirst reported in September 2014, Giuseppe Gonzalez, whose bartending credits include Golden Cadillac, PKNY and Dutch Kills, is behind the new venture. According to the Times, "Expect an English pub exterior but a New York feel inside."
In an update a few weeks back, BoweryBoogie heard that the opening is expected sometime next month. The bar has a website, though most of it appears to be TK at the moment.
I felt it was worth mentioning that the vacant Chase branch on Avenue A and 2nd Street is now home to a half of a roll, a half of a bagel and a dead pigeon. It's anybody's guess whether the three are related but I suspect fowl play. (It's probably inappropriate to pun in the face of death but that one kind of fell into my lap).
Way back in November 2013 we posted about the one-story structure at 619 E. Sixth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C hitting the market for $5.4 million.
The listing mentioned that air rights for the property were available.
Indeed, the new owner is taking advantage of that wasted air. There are now (as of December) approved permits on file with the city for a 6-story residential building here.
The work order shows a 9,235-square-foot building with five residences, likely condos. Amenities include bike storage and a two-car garage ... and the 2-floor duplex at the top includes a private rooftop terrace.
The LLC listed as the owner shares the address with Mermelstein Development. DXA Studio Architecture is listed as the architect of record.
And here are renderings via the DXA website... with more details on the building...
To the architect-ese:
This ground-up building faces an inner-block garden on 6th Street in the East Village. A desire for full expanses of glass to view the garden and the skyline beyond presented a challenge with the heat gain associated with direct southern exposure. The design includes flexible, folding wood slat screens within steel frames that provide solar shading when needed, but that allow unencumbered views when repositioned to the sides of the facade.
The facade is clad in a Danish handmade brick and includes a full width mural along a sidewall that links the building in character with its East Village neighbors where street art abounds. The five residential units, from a small studio up to a dramatic three bedroom with office and double height duplex on the top floors, incorporate a simple and timeless palette of materials throughout.
The space apparently had been home to a Japanese furniture designer. Public records show that the property went for $135,000 in 1993. The selling price last year was $4.7 million.
