Monday, May 9, 2016

Confectionery now open on East 9th Street



Confectionery, a vegan chocolate shop and bakery, is now up and running at 440 E. Ninth St. near Avenue A.

As we noted last month, the retail shop is a collaboration between New Paltz-based vegan chocolate company Lagusta’s Luscious and bakery Sweet Maresa's.

EVG regular Scuba Diva stopped by on Friday and took a few photos of the small space...





Scuba Diva notes that the shop carries one of the signature treats from Lagusta's Luscious: Furious Vulvas.



Confectionery, which opened this past Thursday, also features macarons made by Maresa Volant. "The macarons are vegan, and since they're meringue-based cookies, they're pretty much a rarity, although a few bakers are featuring them now."

In any event, Scuba Diva is pleased to have a high-quality vegan confectioner in the neighborhood. "When you are vegan and everywhere you look the chocolate contains dairy ... you kind of do a little happy dance when you find someone who speaks your language."

The previous tenant in this space, Makki Deli & Grocery, closed in December after nine months in business. The Makki sign remains up for now.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Confectionery, a vegan chocolate shop and bakery, coming soon to 440 E. 9th St.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Where you can watch the transit of Mercury tomorrow



Local astronomy buff Felton Davis passed along the following...

The forecast for tomorrow is partly cloudy, so we will just have to watch the skies for an opportunity to witness the transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. Mercury will begin crossing at 7:13 in the morning, reach the mid-point at 10:57 am, and conclude at 2:42 in the afternoon.

I hope to show it for a couple of hours in the morning, take a lunch break, and then resume showing at 1 pm. My usual location at Second Avenue and East Third Street, or down at First Street by the F Train stop if the buildings are getting in the way of the sun. And yes, a very thick filter will be in place to reduce the bright light of the sun — that is the only safe way to view this unique event.

Here's more via an article in The Miami Herald.

[Updated] Found cat on East 8th Street



An EVG reader found this apparently lost (and hungry) cat in the Firemen's Memorial Garden on Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.

You can contact us via the EV Grieve email if this is your cat...

Updated 4:30 p.m.

And AJ is missing... details on the flyer...



At the 2016 NYC Cannabis Parade



EVG contributor Stacie Joy was in Union Square yesterday for the annual parade.

Here's more from a report today in Crain's:

Known until a few years ago as “Cures Not Wars,” and now as the NYC Cannabis Parade, New York’s annual rally in support of legalization has been held in various forms since the early 1970s. This year, the event culminated in a gathering at Union Square. As blunts and pipes were passed around, speakers attempted to educate the crowd about the Marijuana Taxation and Regulation Act (S. 1747/A. 3089A) that is currently stalled in the state legislature.

“We’ve been doing this for four decades. If we don’t get involved and do the hard work, it’s not going to go anywhere,” said Doug Greene, legislative director of Empire State NORML, the New York chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Just coming here and listening to me speak and getting high is not going to change anything.”

Some would say the fact that the NYPD did not seem interested in arresting anyone who was getting high at the event was a major shift in and of itself. Although the NYPD cut its marijuana arrests in half last year, 16,590 people were still cuffed for low-level marijuana possession, about 88% of whom were black or Latino.





























New York has launched a medical-marijuana program, with one of the dispensaries located nearby on East 14th Street. Dennis Levy, a lifelong marijuana legalization advocate, called the New York program "frustrating and flawed."

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Design apparently awakens the next few days on Astor Place



Yesterday morning workers started erecting that big tent/pavilion-y thing on Astor Place. (Despite a report on social media, this isn't the cube in a new shape.)



And as we will conveniently cut-n-paste from The New York Times:

A group of structures known collectively as Design Pavilion will take over the newly renovated Astor Place Plaza. Highlights include an installation by Snarkitecture for the condominium development 125 Greenwich Street; a structure designed by Harry Allen with the biomaterials company Ecovative; the DuPont Corian Blur Bar by Joe Doucet; and Growth, a show of new objects curated by the American Design Club.

Find the official site for A Design Awakening here. All this is is here through Wednesday.


As for the cube, the return date is late May/early June.

Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos and Marc for the links!

Clip-n-save art arrives on St. Mark's Place



You may have noticed the new murals (via The Bushwick Collective) on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue... the first completed work is by the São Paulo-based artist Sipros ...



Curious about what that "Bishop Iggy" will be next to the clip-and-save Van Gogh...

Previously here

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!



The 2016 Street Fair/Festival season kicks off in high style today with the Second Avenue Festival along Second Avenue between East 14th Street and East Fourth Street...



Security is tight this year...



As always, we were on the scene too early, and there were several awkward moments where we thought the vendors setting up for the day might ask us for help...(Sorry, can't lift anything: tight hip flexors!)



As for the food options, so far we can exclusively reveal empanadas ...



... and Germany well be well-represented...(And Christmas in May! You threw away your trees too early!)



ATTENTION BRATWURST PAVILLION....


[Photo by Steven]

If you can't make it today, then don't despair: The Third Avenue Festival is next Saturday.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

If you don't like movie posters of En Sabah Nur strangling Mystique, then move to...



Kidding!

However, as this photo from EVG reader Michael shows, someone did take exception with the poster for "X-Men: Apocalypse" at First Avenue and 14th Street.

Someone took the time to leave an eight-pieces-of-paper message: "This violence in my kid's face is not OK."



On that topic, what character is most likely to die in the film out on May 27?

Beast? Psylocke? Moira MacTaggert? Magneto?

Friday, May 6, 2016

Flags of our red-tailed hawks



Christo late this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park... photo by Peter Brownscombe

H/T Goggla because I always have to double-check if it's Christo or Dora!

N' Rock N' Roll



The Austin, Texas-based A Giant Dog have a new record out on Merge ... and they'll be at the (recently revamped) Cake Shop on Ludlow Street on May 26.

The video is for their single "Sex & Drugs."

Where to find Art & Science (& glop) tomorrow



At The Children’s Workshop School, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., tomorrow (Saturday), 610 E. 12th St. between Avenue B and Avenue C. The flyer promises glop.

EV Grieve Etc.: CB3 tries again with de Blasio; 'When Jackie Met Ethyl'


[Photo on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]

24-year-old man falls to his death from Campos Plaza roof (Daily News)

Community Board 3 has sent another resolution to Mayor de Blasio regarding Rivington House (The Lo-Down)

Jared Kushner and the Trumps (Bloomberg BusinessWeek ... reaction at Gawker)

PS 122 offering a free self-guided tour of the East Village performance arts history (The New York Times)

East Village represents in this Best Bacon, Egg & Cheese Sandwiches listicle (Gothamist)

Speaking of cheese, this Mother's Day, mothers eat free at S'MAC on East 12th Street (Official website)

Another Prince tribute (BoweryBoogie)

The Metrograph cinema on Ludlow Street unveils its food and drinks (Eater)

Fairway files for bankruptcy (Grub Street)

The Ramones and the Fillmore East on Second Avenue (Flaming Pablum)

Early 20th Century rooftop ragers in NYC (Ephemeral New York)

When Peter Tork of the Monkees played at CBGB in 1977 (Dangerous Minds)

... and last night was the opening of "When Jackie Met Ethyl," a new exhibit at the Howl! Happening space on East First Street near the Bowery. Per Howl!:

This exhibition considers the cultural and historical impact of Jackie Curtis (1947-1985) and Ethyl Eichelberger (1945-1990) two of the most influential figures from the East Village’s heyday as a cauldron of transgressive gender-twisting performance.

Here are a few photos from the opening via EVG contributor Stacie Joy...







Community acupuncture in the East Village



By Carol Porteous

East Village resident Donna Nield is excited to bring something new (and old) to her community. In April, she opened a community acupuncture clinic, City Acupuncture East Village, on the ground floor of an HDFC co-op building at 155 E. Second St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Although community acupuncture is new to the East Village, it is an ancient Chinese practice.

“In China, acupuncture is usually conducted in a big group setting where people all receive acupuncture together,” says Nield, who went to China to observe this firsthand while studying at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), where she earned, with honors, a Master of Science degree in Traditional Oriental Medicine.

Since the acupuncturist circulates among patients and can treat several at once, community acupuncture costs less and so is a feasible route to healing for more folks in the community. But the intention reaches much deeper.

“The sense of community that is created by having acupuncture in a room with other people is beneficial for everybody in many ways,” says Nield. “New Yorkers hold onto a lot of stress from living in the city; we really guard ourselves. When you walk into a community acupuncture clinic, you can hear the relaxed breathing. It’s amazing to me that in New York people can be relaxed enough in a room with other people that they can actually fall asleep.”

The clinic’s large treatment room is not completely open. Screens separate patients, who are treated on massage tables and zero gravity reclining chairs.



“It’s not super new-agey. It’s a medical clinic. We take our patients’ health very seriously.” That message comes through in the clinic’s tagline: “Making Acupuncture a Little Less ‘Alternative.’”

Nield has practiced acupuncture in traditional Western medical clinics at NYU Langone and Beth Israel, and in her own private practice. She says her training at PCOM positioned her to straddle the worlds of Chinese and Western medicine.

“We studied a lot of Western medicine so that we can understand people’s conditions and look for red flags, know when a patient needs to be referred to an MD, and be able to have conversations with doctors if we need to.”

Patients have a choice of three acupuncturists at City Acupuncture East Village: Leo Bierman and Carmichael Monaco, who both have degrees from Tri-State College of Acupuncture, and Nield. All are licensed in New York State and certified in clean needle technique.

Nield is partnering with Robbie Benhuri, the founder of the first City Acupuncture, which opened eight years ago and provides some 1,200 treatments a month downtown on Fulton Street. A third City Acupuncture clinic will open in Bed Stuy later this month. According to Nield, “we see the City Acupuncture affiliation as a community for clinic owners. We are pooling our resources so that we don’t have to figure it all out on our own.”

Feeling a connection

Nield has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and her new office is a few blocks from her family’s apartment.

“I wouldn’t have imagined doing this anywhere else. I feel really connected to this neighborhood. One of the things I like about it is that even though there are so many sad postings about local businesses closing, and we do see the neighborhood changing, we all really care and work hard to maintain a sense of community," she says. "I feel very inspired by this.

“I will consider the clinic a success when it’s serving the neighborhood and improving people’s lives. That’s what it’s all about, really. We want to deliver what the community needs.”

It is fitting that the official opening of Nield’s clinic is on Mother’s Day, as her interest in community acupuncture was sparked by her mother’s experience in Ottawa, Canada, many years ago.

“My mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was referred to an acupuncturist who saw people in a large house. There were beds everywhere," Nield says. "She went to see him every day. It didn’t cure her cancer, but it really helped her handle the pain of the cancer and its treatment. It also gave her a connection to others, kind of a support group in a way; she’d see the same people there every day. So while it was a really sad situation, there was such a positive aspect to it.”

-----

City Acupuncture East Village's opening party is Sunday afternoon from 1-4. Find more details at Facebook.

The office is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Appointments can be booked online here.

-----

About the author, Carol Porteous

I’ve been involved in East Village communities of all kinds for the last few decades (public and private schools, the Boys Club, playgrounds, community gardens, East Yoga Center as karmi and curator of the Facebook page, etc.). I met Donna Nield many years ago at East Yoga, and recently got an acupuncture treatment for the first time.

The mission of community acupuncture is to bring an important healing opportunity to the entire community in an affordable way. This taps into my love for community, so I have jumped onboard for the first few months to help get this clinic started and connected.

Sunday is the last day for Podunk – the American Tearoom on East 5th Street



As we first reported back in February, the 14-year-old Podunk – the American Tearoom, the family-run cafe on East Fifth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square, is closing after service this Sunday.

The owners have said they are relocating, though they haven't divulged the location just yet...



You can keep tabs on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

The building that houses Podunk at 231 E. Fifth St. was part of the portfolio that Raphael Toledano’s Brookhill Properties purchased last fall.

Former Bar 82 space gets the plywood treatment on 2nd Avenue


[Photo via Steven]

Workers yesterday erected the plywood around the vacant storefront at 136 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street... there aren't many details available at the moment. However, the word from here is that the space will be home to a bar-restaurant.

Approved work permits on file offer the following (in the DOB's all-CAP style):

PROPOSED RESTAURANT LOCATED AT 1ST FLOOR, CELLAR & SUB-CELLAR. PROPOSED BANQUET HALL LOCATED AT CELLAR AND 1ST FLOORS; STOREFRONT RECONFIGURATION.

Banquet hall!

Bar 82, which closed at the end of March 2013, was the last tenant here. At the time of the closure, a tipster told us that the landlord did not want another bar or restaurant in the space... and was looking for "dry goods" as the basis for a new tenant.

Apparently the landlord changed his/her mind after nearly three years of sitting on an empty space.

H/T Steven!

Beetle House officially opens tonight


[Photo by Derek Berg]

After a week or so in previews, Beetle House officially opens tonight at 308 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

As we've noted, Beetle House features "an atmosphere and menu inspired by the works of Tim Burton." (You can find the food and drinks menu at their website.)

DNAinfo's Allegra Hobbs had a preview piece on Monday. (Bedford + Bowery posted a preview here.)

Co-owner Zach Neil claims that the Beetlejuice impersonator spotted hanging outside the place wasn't affiliated with Beetle House. "He showed up at the bar one night, and he just kept showing up," Neil said.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tim Burton-themed bar opening in former Confessional space on East 6th Street

Tim Burton-themed bar Beetle House now in sneak previews on East 6th Street (37 comments)

Plants and baked goods for sale this weekend at the 6th & B Community Garden



Via the EVG inbox...

The 6th & B Community Garden Plant & Bake Sale Fundraiser

Sixth Street and Avenue B (entrance on Avenue B between Fifth and Sixth)

Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Plant and Bake Sale supports the Garden's Events Committee's community programs, which include crafts, horticultural/science workshops, culinary events, films, multicultural festivals, and musical and theatrical performances from around the world.

Tiny Empire's short run ends on Lafayette Street



Brooklyn-based juicery Tiny Empire opened a location down on Lafayette Street at Spring last August... by November, the DOH had shut down the location over some zoning issue with the downstairs bathroom, as BoweryBoogie noted.

By the end of January, a "temporarily closed" for "emergency maintenance/construction" signage arrived.

And Tiny Empire never reopened. On Wednesday, the Marshal paid a visit... and the landlord took legal possession of the space...



Previously