East 7th Street maintaining rep for stunt parking

Previously! Between the dumpsters on East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...



EVG Tight Parking Spot correspondent Derek Berg also shared this photo on East Seventh Street ... this time between Avenue A and First Avenue...

Noted at the former Stage Restaurant

Someone has quickly expressed his or her displeasure to the news today that the Stage Restaurant at 128 Second Ave. will not be reopening... the fake NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene sign takes aim at landlord Icon Realty...



H/T Steven

The Stage Restaurant will not be reopening

[Photo Monday by Steven]

On Monday, the gates at the Stage Restaurant at 128 Second Ave. between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place were up... offering a glimmer of hope that the 35-year-old diner might be reopening.

That's not the case. The Stage said goodbye today on Facebook...

Today we officially close our doors....As overwhelmingly unfortunate as it is, it's always important to look on the...

Posted by Stage Restaurant on Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The 35-year-old diner has been closed since last March 30. Stage owner Roman Diakun was involved in an ongoing legal/eviction battle here with landlord Icon Realty.

Icon, who bought the building in the fall of 2013, had accused the Stage of gas-tampering charges, which Diakun strongly denied.

Here's a second Facebook message from Diakun:

Dear wonderful and loyal customers, fans, friends, and neighbors,
It is with bittersweet emotions that we at Stage Restaurant are announcing that we are closing our doors permanently after 35 amazing years. The events of the year have been overwhelmingly devastating on us and we have decided to close the Stage’s door. Over the past year, we have resolved our dispute with the landlord and Icon Realty Management. Stage Restaurant never engaged in any wrongdoing; however, after our prolonged closure and because of the cost to make the repairs and expenses of reopening, we are sad to say that the Stage cannot reopen.

It has been our great honor and pleasure to serve and truly be a part of the community over the past 35 years. We are so grateful to all who have made the experience of running this restaurant in such a vibrant, and supportive area of this great city a remarkable and unforgettable journey for us. We will greatly miss our staff, many of which have put as much care and effort into the business as our family has. We would like to thank all of the customers we have had the pleasure of meeting for your business and friendships. Thank you all for your support, your signatures, your donations, and especially your kind words. We could not have realized our passion and love for nourishing and providing a place of comfort and gathering to the community without you all. Your loyalty, support, kindness and love have been a true blessing, and something we will never forget. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
Roman Diakun

So good night...


[Photo by Michael Seto]

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Report: Icon Realty serves the Stage an eviction notice

Stage owner Roman Diakun responds to allegations of illegally siphoning gas

Petition to help reopen the Stage

[Updated] The Stage is giving away its bulk food and supplies to charity

Report: The Stage is suing landlord Icon Realty to halt eviction process

The Stage is now crowdfunding to help in its legal fight with Icon Realty

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: Annie Ju (left) and Melissa Scott
Occupation: Owners, an.mé /ahn-may/, Boutique for Kids and Families.
Location: 9th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave
Time: 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 26

Melissa: I was born in Flushing, Queens. I’ve been down here in the East Village since 2004, with my husband. I now live two blocks over. When we first moved into Manhattan, we moved to the Upper East Side because of my job, but both my husband and I hung out down here prior to that, and so we said, ‘Hey, let’s try it,’ and now we’re raising our child here.

Annie: I’m from Taiwan and I live in Queens. I came here in August 1995, right to high school. I came here for English and for design school. I have always been in retail. I have always been working in boutiques. That’s what I’m most comfortable in — nothing corporate, always small business. I did this, but I did it for other people. This is our first venture together.

M: We worked together prior to this, over 10 years ago. We worked together for six years.

A: We wanted to have the shop here. Melissa lives here and we always loved this area. We were looking and then this space became available, because the previous owner had to cut his lease short, and we jumped on it over a year ago. We were like, now or never.

We both like the physical store, because we had a vision for how we wanted it to look. A lot of people said, ‘You should do it online. That’s what it’s all about right now,’ But we like the interaction with people. We like to create a place where people can come in comfortably with their kids and pets and they can touch things and feel things before they make a purchase. That was the whole idea behind it. We want the toys to bring people in and to come to the neighborhood. Then chances are they’re going to shop with us and then go next door. We feel like it’s a group effort.

M: This block is great, and we hope there will be more stores opening up that will be mom and pop. We’re for the young and for the young at heart. Most of the clothing is all new and we source globally. Then the toys, some are vintage throwback toys, and some are new.

A: People can come in at all ages and relate to a certain part of the store. We have a lot of big people coming to buy our toys.

M: You mean adults.

A: Big people!

M: We have a whole bucket of 1980s GI Joes. It’s always funny, the mom will drag the family in, the dad will sigh, ‘another shop,’ and then he’ll see it and be like, ‘Yo, I had those!’

A: I’m a collector, so I collect a lot of stuff along the way. I have a little bit of a problem. It’s a good problem to have… I’ve been told.

Aside from going to trade shows and finding new brands, we also support a lot of local artists, and mostly East Village-based artists. They’ll come, ‘I design cards, would you be interested,’ or bibs, dolls. We are always open to look to purchase from local designers. We work with quite a few.

M: It has been a lot of work, but it’s been a slow and steady progression, and we’ve had a lot of return customers, which is great. I think that’s what sets us maybe apart from others, is that we’re both shoppers. We like to go out and see what’s happening. We like to visit other stores. We see other kids.

We try to find what people want, and be unique in a sense, because we don’t need to compete with Amazon. We also pride ourselves on if you come in with your child, the next time we’ll remember you, and we’ll remember their size. Even from when we started, people who came in with their newborns who are now walking, it’s a progression and we hope to stay with them.

A: That’s also the biggest reason why we wanted a physical store. That relationship with people. [Compared to] big box stores, that’s why I feel like it’s so much harder to have a brick-and-mortar shop, because you need to work so much harder just to find a special something, because that’s what people want.

We also create events for parents. Halloween is going to become a tradition because that was around the time that we opened the store. Last Halloween was awesome. We had gift bags for the kids and wine for the adults, so everyone was happy. And once in awhile we hold events in the store to promote local artists and designers.

M: We just had a book signing with a local mom, a friend of mine who just illustrated her first children’s book. We had the signing here and all the kids came and were running around. We also try and we reach out to all the local schools, or as many as we can. They come in and they ask for donations for their school auctions. We try to donate and give back as much as we can. We also work with NYC Mama’s Give Back.

A: They usually have events at the Henry Street Settlement, where they distribute goods to the moms in need.

M: In this neighborhood, it’s phenomenal raising a kid, because there’s such a sense of community here. My son went to EV Tots and we met a great group of people. Now he goes to Children’s Workshop School, and we’ve continued on with that great group of people. We rely on each other almost like a family. ‘Can you pick up this person,’ you know. It’s nice to be able to. Sometimes we have other parents who come like, ‘I just need to rush to the butcher can you just watch my kid for two minutes?’ We always joke that we’re a boutique slash daycare. We like having the kids in here.

We also always joke that my son is a good salesman, because he’ll come in and start showing people products. I actually had a woman leave after having a 10-minute conversation with my son, and I was like ‘oh man,’ and she came back and was like, ‘He sold me. I’m going to get this.’

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

After 54 years, Barbara Shaum Leather has closed

[Image via GVSHP]

Barbara Shaum, the legendary local shop owner who also happened to be the first woman officially admitted into McSorley's in 1970, died last Sept. 17. She was 86.

In 1962, she opened her first handmade sandal and leather goods shop on East Seventh Street two doors down from McSorley's. She lived in an apartment behind the shop. In 1985, the landlord sold her building, and she eventually found a new workshop-storefront at 60 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery, where she worked until shortly before her death.

The shop had remained open off and on until Monday, when it was cleaned out...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

We're told that while she had various apprentices through the years, she didn't leave any instructions about a business-continuity plan upon her death.

As for her well-documented entry into McSorley's, here's a feature on Shaum from The New York Times in January 2015:

At the time, Daniel O’Connell-Kirwan, the manager of McSorley’s, invited Ms. Shaum to be the first woman through its doors.

“Danny called me and said, ‘Barbara, would you come over and be the first one in?’ ” she recalled. “I said, ‘Well you got Sara on the other side,’ ” referring to another local shopkeeper, Sara Penn.

And so it was that she, and then Ms. Penn, became the first women let into McSorley’s. “I put on a big straw hat, and I walked in on Danny’s arm,” she said. “It was a big milestone.”

According to her obituary, the press attention about McSorley's troubled her. (Never mind that she said she’d been going there after hours for years.)

She wanted to be known for her own principles, for her impassioned stands on equal pay for women, on affordable rents for small businesses. She was an activist. Encouraged by Councilwoman Miriam Friedlander, she and other Lower East Side small business people of that era struggled hard against rising rents, nevertheless losing ground year by year.

Upon naming her a Village Award recipient last year, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation wrote:

Barbara Shaum has contributed to the quality of life in the East Village through her creativity and her determination to keep her small business alive and thriving for more than half a century...

Here is a short film from 2005 about Shaum and her shop...

East Village now minus 2 beverage distributors

The beverage distributor housed inside 188 E. Second St. between Avenue A and Avenue B is gone... and now the single-level, 2,600-square-foot space is available to a retail-commercial tenant...


[Image via Leslie J. Garfield]

Per the listing at Leslie J. Garfield, the monthly asking rent for the raw space is $13,000. For now, the property isn't being offered as any kind of development site.

Back in 2013, the address was home to an Urban Etiquette Signage Campaign between neighbors and the beverage company. Residents said that the building housed rats. Not so, said the beverage people, who noted they frequently had the property exterminated. Per the sign left for neighbors: "If you see rats going in or out it means they're just passing to or from other places."

Meanwhile, further east on Second Street... the Houston Street Beer Distributors between Avenue C and Avenue D has left the building, as BoweryBoogie noted yesterday.



We first reported back in September 2014 that the one-story warehouse was for sale. Per the listing:

It is located in an R8A zoning district with an FAR of 6.02 (approx. 15,941 SF) or up to 7.2 FAR with Inclusionary Housing designated area bonus (approx. 19,066 sq. ft.) This prime development site is across the street from Hamilton Fish Park and a branch of the New York City public library, offering unobstructed southern exposures.

A new development would enjoy sweeping views of downtown and midtown Manhattan, Williamsburg, LIC and more.

The asking price was $8.9 million. According to public records, it sold for a little more than $7 million last fall to 298 East Village Owner LLC with an East Ninth Street address.

To date, there haven't been any any work permits filed for this property, which sits adjacent to two other new developments — The Adele on East Houston and Avenue D and The Robyn on East Third Street near Avenue D.

Previously on EV Grieve:
298 E. 2nd St. latest development site up for grabs

Banana Leaf slips away on East 6th Street

[EVG photo from Jan. 29]

The Sri Lankan restaurant Banana Leaf moved from its Chelsea location to 328 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... opening in the former Spice Cove space (same owners) in December.

We noticed that they were closed on a recent weekend night.

And now after just a few months on the block, they are apparently closed for good.

Vinny & O sent along these photos from last night... showing that the place is now called Tonkatsuya...



... and they are hiring waitstaff and delivery people, per the sign on the door...



We called Banana Leaf's number... only to hear an outgoing message for Spice Cove.

Tonight in fairly incredible parking jobs

Between the dumpsters on East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... photo via Derek Berg

Evening shade

Earlier this evening via Bobby Williams....

Take a chance on living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Stuy Town

The Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village affordable housing lottery is underway.

DNAinfo has the details:

The lottery will give as many as 15,000 applicants a spot on a waiting list for affordable apartments in the complex, according to a spokeswoman for Blackstone, the firm that purchased the twin housing complexes last year.

Prices for the affordable apartments vary widely based on unit size and household size. The cheapest option is a studio apartment for $1,210 per month for people making between $36,300 and $48,400, while the priciest is a five-bedroom apartment for $4,560 for families of five to 10 members making a total of between $136,800 and $210,870 per year.

You can head over to DNAinfo for more details. The lottery submission process ends on March 31.

Putting an end to the sinking at the 1st Avenue sinkhole

The sinkhole that made its debut on First Avenue at East Seventh Street last week at this time is receiving some TLC from workers in a fairly large operation...



No word just yet when the sinkhole will return.

Photos today by Derek Berg

P.S.
And yes — there is a nice sinkhole in the works on Avenue A and East Third Street too.

The Calyx has been branded on Avenue C

As we first reported back in June, the 10-story rental building at 189 Avenue C at East 12th Street that debuted in early 2011 would be converting to condos.

The building has been rebranded, and The Calyx — with the slogan "Choose what you C" — made its debut several weeks ago... with sales and marketing courtesy of Ryan Serhant and Nest Seekers International. (This is the sixth development in the East Village that Serhant's team is representing. His other projects include 100 Avenue A and Thirteen East + West.)

Here's the building description via The Calyx website:

Introducing The Calyx, one of the finest full service condominiums to ever emerge within the colorful maze of streets known the East Village. Built in 2010 and recently converted to luxury living, The Calyx captures the best of old vintage vibes and blends them with modern and stylish living. The building rises 10 stories and sits on Avenue C, an East Village strip lined with tasteful restaurants and cafes and located only a few blocks away from Tompkins Square Park and popular nightlife scenes.

Designed by OTL Enterprises—the same firm whose passion and vision were behind The Blue Building of the Lower East Side—The Calyx offers 35 residences dressed with groomed interiors, a fitness facility, and a rooftop lounge boasting panoramic views of Manhattan. Pairing sophistication with the vibrancy of the East Village, The Calyx is a captivating proposition for first time buyers and veteran real estate investors alike.

The Calyx is for those seeking to capture the energy of an evolving neighborhood, to experience the edge of the city’s past and the shimmering promise of its future.

According to Streeteasy, the prices range from $675,000 for a studio to 1.45 million for a two-bedroom home. Of the nine listed at Streeteasy, seven of the homes are in contract.

There's also retail space available... per the listing, the asking rent is $15,000, with retail, restaurant or gym usage being offered up to potential tenants...



Previously on EV Grieve:
189 Avenue C is converting to condos

Final visits to 5 downtown businesses

[Patricia Field, center with red hair, with her friends and fans in front of her namesake store on its closing day Sunday at 5 p.m.]

Text and photos by Nick McManus

This past Sunday, a team of close friends and I took group portraits at five downtown businesses that are either moving from their longtime homes or closing forever as February came to a close.

We started at Patricia Field at 306 Bowery with Patricia herself. She's giving up the boutique business after 50 years to focus on her film and TV work.

We continued on to Trash and Vaudeville on St. Mark's Place where we were joined by longtime manager Jimmy Webb. (The store is moving to 96 E. Seventh St. this month.)




[Jimmy Webb in the front row with co-workers at Trash and Vaudeville]

We then walked to Soho to Pearl River Mart, where the staff was camera shy but let us take photos in the store on Broadway. The 45-year-old Pearl River Mart closes this week after its monthly rent multiplied 12x to upwards of $500,000.


[Last purchases at Pearl River Mart]

Afterward we visited the Soho location of Eastern Mountain Sports on Broadway to offer them warm wishes before heading back to the East Village to say goodbye to one of the best bookstores NYC will ever know, St. Mark's Bookshop.


[The staff and patrons of Eastern Mountain Sports' Soho location on its closing day Sunday]


[St. Mark's Bookshop staff member and artist Janet Bruesselbach, top right, sharing wine with her customers on the shop's final day at 7 p.m.]

Our team consisted of nightlife scion Pebbles Russell, who herself said goodbye to her home at Sway Lounge last December, artists Gabriel Specter and Jackson Lin, stylist Goldie Rush, costume tailor Amy McClure and Cara Brininstool. All were fans of these businesses and everyone did a great deal of shopping as we thanked those behind the counter for so many years of good times.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Closing time: Portraits of 3 newly shuttered storefronts

Closing portraits at The Sock Man

A final group photo at Vic's Pizza on Essex Street

So much for that Fairway coming to East 14th Street and Avenue A then

[EVG photo of Avenue A and East 14th Street from the other day]

In a July 2014 post about the incoming retail-residential complex along East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, an EVG commenter left the following:

I live directly behind demolition on 13th street. The other day I was approached by a pollster for fairway market asking me a bevy of questions about my thoughts on a new fairway on the corner of 14th and Ave A.

And we heard this rumor from another source as well: That Fairway was looking into opening a market in the East Village. (And didn't someone float the idea of a Fairway for the Stuy Town Associated space?)

In any event, it appears Fairway won't be expanding anywhere anytime soon (like they did in Kips Bay a few years back). Grub Street published an article yesterday titled "Inside the Collapse of Fairway, New York’s Favorite, Failing Grocery Store."

To some key excerpts:

The company is saddled with $267 million in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy, and its stock price, which once peaked at $28 per share, is selling for roughly 30 cents. The collapse has been swift and brutal. "Lives have been totally changed and ruined," says one former buyer for the chain. "What happened was an injustice."

And!

[A]lmost everyone agrees that a confluence of issues — including an overly aggressive and poorly executed expansion plan and rising competition in the quality-produce business — are the reasons Fairway is now in crisis. "It was a perfect storm," says a former executive for the company.

Reader Report: Issues in Tompkins Square Park

Several readers have now noted that the light in this lamp post in the southwest corner of the Park ... near the Avenue A and East Seventh Street entrance ... has been out for months... One reader said that she finds this particular troublesome given the groups that often congregate in the evenings at the nearby chess tables.

Meanwhile, over in the playground along Avenue A at St. Mark's Place, there are reports of a man who lets his dog use the children's sandbox as a toilet on a regular basis early in the morning.

The 100-foot journey

East Village resident Helen Mirren had a short commute to work today... traveling to Second Avenue to film a scene (no fake snow today!) for "Collateral Beauty" (here with Michael Peña) ...



The dramatic comedy via Warner Bros., due in theaters on Dec. 16, also stars Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Naomie Harris and Edward Norton.

Photos today by EVG Helen Mirren correspondent Derek Berg.

BluDog10003 leaving his mark on 2nd Avenue and East Houston

NYC-based artist BluDog10003 has been creating a new work on the mural wall outside the Second Avenue F stop at East Houston... EVG regular Lola Sáenz shared the above photo showing the progress.

You can keep tabs via @bludog10003

Report: Developers buy former LES nursing facility for luxury housing

Developers have purchased 45 Rivington St., the former Rivington Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, for $116 million. Their plan? Luxury housing, as The Wall Street Journal first reported.

Here's more from The Lo-Down, who has been following the saga:

[T]he sale was anticipated after the Allure Group, a private nursing home operator, closed the building in December. The company, which purchased the property last year for $28 million, has stated that the failure to obtain state Medicaid reimbursements forced the closure. The Allure Group also paid the city $16 million for the deed, which had previously restricted the building’s use to a “Not-for-Profit Residential Health Care Facility.”

Community Board 3 and City Council member Margaret Chin supported efforts to lift the deed restriction because they thought it meant the 200-plus-bed nursing facility could continue to operate as a for-profit entity. They were furious with the de Blasio Administration for allowing the building to slip into the hands of luxury housing developers.

A rep for the developers told the Journal that they plan to house upwards of 100 luxury units in the building, which overlooks Sara D. Roosevelt Park. (You can read more about the deal at BoweryBoogie.)

Late last year, an EVG reader, who had been a patient at the facility, heard the news from staffers about the impending closure of the building between Eldridge and Forsyth ...

Said the reader:

"The building is incredible with 12-foot ceilings and a penthouse floor that has a view from the UN to all of Midtown and Downtown. I knew it was doomed to have developers all over it from the first day I got there."

See you on East 7th Street

[Photo from September by Fenton Lawless]

As you probably know, Trash and Vaudeville closed yesterday after 41 years at 4 St. Mark's Place ... to start packing up to move to a new space at 96 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.


[EVG photo of 96 E. 7th St. from yesterday]

And this photo on East Seventh Street from last July by @chardog1 provided a sneak preview of what's to come...



An article published Friday on the Vogue website had a few details on the new store:

As on St. Marks, both Trash and Vaudeville will continue to exist on two levels. At the Seventh Street digs, they’ll be connected via an internal staircase, and those in the market for towering T.U.K. platform creepers can take comfort in the fact that the storied shoe department will still be housed on the lower level.

And here's an excerpt from our conversation with store owner Ray Goodman from July:

"I love St. Mark's Place. There's no doubt it. There's something magical about it. This just isn't any block," Goodman told us on the phone. "The decision wasn't something that I took lightly. From a business perspective, we saw a shift in the clientele. The block is not as conducive for fashion shopping as it once was. Now it seems as if it's all food — fast food — and bongs. Even stores that aren't bong stores sell bongs."

He said that the changing business environment on the block between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was just one of many factors that played into the decision to relocate.

"The retail world is so different today," he said. "So much of it is done online."

And increasing rents are always a culprit.

"The rent is creeping up," said Goodman, who is a minority partner in the ownership of the historic Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Mark's Place. "Rent was a factor, but it wasn't the sole reason."

In a piece on the closing today, The New York Times noted that the rent had risen to $45,000. (That will require a lot of sales of water pipes, ramen or bubble tea...items that a likely new tenant might sell.)

Last November, 4 St. Mark's Place, the landmarked building whose first owner in 1833 was Alexander Hamilton’s son, arrived on the market. Asking price: $11.9 million.

In the past few days, several people on social media said that they'd miss the site of longtime store manager Jimmy Webb on a smoking break outside the shop...


[Photo by James Maher from 2013]


[Photo by James Maher from 2014]

In closing, a passage from that Vogue piece by Kristin Anderson:

While passersby may not ever again know the pleasure of seeing the store’s most famous employee, Jimmy Webb, lounging on those steps ... he’ll continue his reign when Goodman and co. open their doors in the new space ...

The new location is expected to be open some time in March.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place

The former Russian Souvenirs will become a coffee shop on East 14th Store

The plywood arrived last week outside the former Russian Souvenirs shop on East 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

The work permits say that a coffee shop is in the works...



Unfortunately, there isn't any other information at the moment about who the tenant will be.

Curious what will become of the former signage. I always liked this one. (Maybe it will become the Russian Souvenirs Coffee Shop? Ha.)



The shop specializing in (Russian, duh) tchotchkes closed last July. The proprietor said that his rent had increased.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Russian Souvenirs is no more on East 14th Street