A look at East Houston before the arrival of Red Square

The apartment complex at 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B has been in the news this fall. Ahead of the former Red Square's sale, workers removed the statue of Lenin from atop the 13-story building that opened in 1989.

EVG reader James Knapp shared this photo from the late 1980s taken just a little east of where the main building stands now... the site of the one-level row of businesses...


[Click to go big]

In this photo, which Knapp believes is from 1987, there's a view of the gas station that was on the property for 25 years...

Some good Karma for 2nd Street?

[EVG photo photo from March]

Work has been ongoing at 188 E. Second St., a former beverage distributor housed between Avenue A and Avenue B. The single-level, 2,600-square-foot space arrived on the market at the beginning of the year. (Per the listing at Leslie J. Garfield, the monthly asking rent for the raw space was $13,000.)

The plywood came down this week to reveal (via this EVG reader pic) ...



Turns out the space is the new home for Karma, the art bookseller and gallery. Karma opened in 2013 on Great Jones Street, and later moved to a temporary space back in March on Orchard Street.

Here's more on Karma and founder Brendan Dugan via ARTnews when he opened the Orchard Street space:

Karma’s roots are in publishing, but it has become known for hosting shows by contemporary artists including Mark Grotjahn, Brice Marden, Dike Blair, Rudolf Stingel, and Marianne Vitale.

He said he was working on a program schedule to host events once a week on Orchard Street, veering away from the usual schedule for galleries, which organize new exhibitions every six weeks. “It’s a way to keep busy while we finalize our space,” Dugan said. “This is an interesting moment to kind of not rush into anything.” He described the real-estate market as “really overpriced. I don’t know if we’ll find any relief, but it’s helpful to have time to look.”

He wouldn’t say where else he was looking for a permanent spot, but added that it would be somewhere in Manhattan. He did allude to the fact that Karma may stray from the pack, as it were. Dugan mentioned the absence of galleries on Great Jones Street, as well as at Karma’s Amagansett space, which will begin its 2016 exhibition schedule in May. “I like being in places just where we’re on our own,” he said.

The opening reception was last evening for the initial exhibit here.... featuring the works of Lee Lozano. The exhibit is up through Dec. 17. Find more details here.

Chipping away the exterior detail at 112-120 E. 11th St.

As previously noted, demolition crews have been removing asbestos and whatever else from the five buildings at 112-120 E. 11th St. ... as you know, these five former residential buildings between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue are coming down to make way for a 13-story hotel for Marriott’s Moxy brand.

According to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), who helped organize several rallies here, the five buildings were ruled "landmark-eligible" by the city in 2008. However, when the buildings faced the threat of demolition this past summer, the city said that they no longer qualified for landmark status, per GVSHP.

Probably a good thing they are no longer qualified... a closer look at the buildings (thanks to EVG reader Jason Solarek for these photos) shows that the ornate details on the buildings have been chiseled off...

1 day after dedication, Astor Place closed to prep 'Game of Thrones' fan event on Astor Place

Local elected officials and city reps came together yesterday morning for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the return of the cube to Astor Place (as well as mark the end of the ongoing reconstruction).

Today, as several EVG readers noted, the Alamo off limits.

Per EVG reader Sheila: "Yesterday the Alamo was dedicated and today we can't even see it, let alone access it."



Here's what the deal is tomorrow and Saturday:

Game of Thrones® Comes to Life in Epic Fan Event at Astor Place!

The Emmy® Award-winning HBO® series Game of Thrones is known for many things: shocking deaths, breathtaking special effects and, when it comes to DVD releases, extensive and captivating bonus content. To celebrate the November 15 release of Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season on Blu-ray™ and DVD, HBO is bringing the box set’s exclusive bonus features to life in three groundbreaking events with interactive experiences including photo, video and virtual reality that take fans behind the scenes and immerse them into the world of Game of Thrones.

The event is 12:30 to 8 p.m. each day. Find more details here.

Everything will be back to normal on Sunday, William Kelley, executive director of the Village Alliance, told me via email.

Updated 11/18

A view from this morning via Vinny & O...

Annual New York Cares coat drive underway

The #CoatDrive is in full swing at @BoweryMission pic.twitter.com/Y1C8ukeTPJ

— New York Cares (@newyorkcares) November 15, 2016

The 28th annual New York Cares coat drive started up this week with a group distributing 50 winter jackets to residents of the Bowery Mission.

Per ABC 7:

Individuals and organizations can donate gently used, freshly laundered coats at hundreds of locations throughout the five boroughs through Saturday, December 31, including at all New York City police precincts ... major transit hubs, and many other sites.

As a new addition to this year's New York Cares Coat Drive, individuals can text "COAT" to 41444 to donate $20 to cover the cost and delivery of one new coat to New Yorkers in need of warmth this winter.

Since 1989, the New York Cares Coat Drive has collected 1.7 million winter coats for men, women, and children in need throughout the city.

In the East Village, you can drop off coats at the 9th Precinct on Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue and Police Service Area 4 at 130 Avenue C and Eighth Street. There's also a drop-off spot at the Manhattan Mini Storage on Second Avenue between Second Street and First Street. Find a full list of distribution centers here.

An early look at FryGuysNYC coming soon to 2nd Street

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Marco Lanuto and McKenzie Foster, East Village residents partnered in business and in life, plan on opening their 1970s-inspired retro fry shop FryGuysNYC with a touch of grit, glitter, rainbows and an affordable menu at 150 E. Second St. between Avenue A and Avenue B by the end of the year.



FryGuysNYC will sell meals for less than $10, with main courses such as fried chicken and brisket alongside a large variety of french fries and toppings. (The store also plans on offering dessert fries, such as caramel-infused tater tots with chocolate and sea salt, topped with marshmallow drizzle.)

The recently completed mural next to the storefront (formerly a short-lived vape shop, and prior to that, a Vietnamese sandwich shop) is by artist Theresa Kim, who works under the name Resa_Piece. The owners have given Kim a one-year residency at the shop. In addition, Mosaic Man Jim Power is set to decorate the storefront with his work, and plans are in place for a floor made out of old vinyl records and a ceiling hung with lighted disco balls.

The restaurant’s hours are to be determined, but Lanuto and Foster want to be open for breakfast through late-night snacking. They said they will eventually apply for a beer/wine license and offer $3 beers like PBR.

Report: Pretty ugly AMC Village 7 building sells for $32 million

[Photo from last December!]

The rather cinder-blocky building that houses the recently refurbished AMC Village 7 on Third Avenue at 11th Street has been sold for $32.3 million.

The Real Deal had the details: A joint venture between ABS Partners Real Estate and Benenson Funding acquired the 7-story building at 66 Third Ave. that houses the AMC Loews theater.

Should we be worried that this will become a dorm or part of the Moxy hotel?

No! Appears just to be an asset for the ol' portfolio. Late last month, the Post reported that AMC has a ground lease through July 2037, so that's another 21 years — or roughly 12 more X-Men movies.


[If you don't like 4-floor movie posters of En Sabah Nur strangling Mystique, then move to...]

The renovated theater debuted last Dec. 25 with reclining seats ... and reserved seating. (Nice to shave off 25 minutes of commercials for Coca-Cola and the AMC Stubs Premiere Club, where members enjoy a free size upgrade — as if the Imperial Popcorn Tub isn't big enough.)

Anyway!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Renovations at Village 7; reclining seats coming soon

Report: CB3 douses plans for hookah bar Fire and Ice on 3rd Street

[Photo from August]

The revolving doors of bars-restaurants at 189 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B was about to get another go-round.

Since May 2014, the address has been home to Lumiere, Casablanca and Tut, which closed in February after just a few months in business.

Applicant Amar Patel, who managed Lumiere and Casablanca (and his mother managed Tut), appeared before CB3's SLA committee on Monday night to pitch a hookah bar-cafe called Fire and Ice. Patel was proposing daily hours of 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. (See their application here.)

Neighbors and CB3 weren't really into it.

Per DNAinfo:

"When I come home at 2 in the morning, the last thing I want to do is deal with another loud-ass bar that I have to try to sleep above," said building resident Michelle Brilliant, who works late hours at a restaurant.

"We just don't want to have to deal with it again," she continued. "It literally is a nightmare."

And!

District Manger Susan Stetzer said the board had spoken to police about the bar, and that 9th Precinct officers considered the spot a "serious problem."

"The history of this place is among the worst that we've had," Stetzer said.

Patel tried to assure community and board members that his restaurant would in fact be "calming," centered around tea and conversation rather than dancing and liquor.

The committee subsequently issued a denial for Fire and Ice, arguably the least calming name in CB3 applicant history.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Restaurant space that has been a lot of things lately ready to be something else

Ray's Candy Store named best East Village restaurant

Ray was pleased to learn that Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A was named "Best Restaurant" in the East Village by readers of Time Out. (Officially the Time Out Love New York Awards.) Fried Oreos for everyone! For dinner!

The other reader awards in this neighborhood were ... Bar: Alphabet City Beer Co. on Avenue C ... Cafe/Coffee Shop: Coffee Project New York on Fifth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square (they were picked the best in the city) ... Shops: East Village Cheese on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... and Local Culture: UCBEast on Avenue A and Third Street (the runner-ups in this category were City Cinemas Village East and Anthology Film Archives in case you were wondering ... like I was)...



Thanks to EVG regular Peter Brownscombe for the photos...

Noted

An EVG reader shared this... from a Cemusa bus shelter on Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street ... taped (on paper) over a Swarovski ad...

Previously

With ribbon cutting, the cube on Astor Place is free — free!

A group of city officials and local elected leaders took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning for marking the end of the Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction Project and the reinstallation of the Alamo/cube.

Officials then took the cube for a spin, as these photos via EVG correspondent Steven show...



As previously noted, plans for the $21-million, multi-year(s) project included reconfiguring/revamping the Astor Place/Cooper Square streetscape with new permanent plazas, additional seating, trees and a new design for Peter Cooper Park. (According to estimates, the city added 9,900 perennial plants and shrubs, and 60 trees.)



The cube is now free of the barricades that had surrounded it since its return on Nov. 1...


[Photo by Vinny & 0]



Updated 1 p.m.

From DNAinfo's coverage...

"We were able to take this area, reclaim some of it from the automobile, make it safer and more inviting," said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

"This was a big project and I know, looking at some of the elected officials and the community members, I know it took a long time and there was a lot of disruption, and I thank them for their patience. But now we will have beautiful public space, new benches and trees, water mains replaced underneath."

And a few more photos via EVG contributor Peter Brownscombe...

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing 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: Eric Paulin
Occupation: Musician
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Time: Thursday, Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m.

I’ve been coming down here a really long time, almost 50 years. I was born in the West Village. A few months after I was born, my parents moved to the Upper West Side, and we lived there until 1964, but at that time there was a lot of really bad crime coming down from Harlem, mostly related to drugs, so we moved to Forest Hills.

I’m a musician. I’m a drummer. My parents weren’t musicians, but they were very creative people. My mother was an abstract painter in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and my father was a photographer and artist. They were taking me to art galleries, to live concerts, to photographic exhibits, and to museums when I was 3 or 4 years old, in the late 1950s. My mother and father were very big on exposing us to that.

I moved into the East Village, down a block from here, in May 1979. I’m very appreciative of being able to live in a neighborhood like the East Village. I was playing a lot of gigs, rehearsals, and sessions down here, and I was very attracted to the modern jazz movement.

When I was in my late teens, I started to study and hang out with jazz musicians more, and that’s what got me into it. I appreciated all the people here. I had a lot of knowledge and history of this neighborhood, of the great jazz musicians, because I was always reading and asking questions to people who were a lot older than me.

The thing is that even after Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus lived down here in the 1950s because there were so many places to play, you had a lot of great musicians who recorded for Blue Note Records, Riverside Records, Prestige Records, Debut Jazz Records ... They were living down here because of the low rent and the opportunity. Their next-door neighbor was a guy they just did a record with for Blue Note Records in New Jersey a week before; the guy across the street is the new drummer who just came to town; the woman downstairs was a dancer; the guy above you was a poet. You were around all these creative people. This is the embodiment of the East Village for me.

My first experiences in the East Village were in the summer of 1968 at the Fillmore East. I was coming into Manhattan a lot with my older brother or my mother to see shows. People talk about the East Village being rough in the ‘80s and ‘90s. They have no idea how rough it was – it was very dangerous in the ‘60s. If you stood out and you looked like you had money or were an affluent person of any kind, you were targeted.

I have a lot of stories about seeing things in the street, scary stories about friends of mine coming here to buy records or see music or do creative things, who were hassled or physically accosted. Fortunately, none of that ever happened to me, but I saw a lot of music down here from ’68 until the Fillmore East closed in ’71.

I had a couple interesting experiences with the late, great promoter Bill Graham. I would see Bill quite a bit when I was either here to see a show or I would come early in the morning to get a concert ticket before I went to school.

He was a very tough guy, but he did a lot for music all over the world. He exposed a lot of people who went to the Fillmore East to great music... not just the classic rock and blues rock of that time, but he would also have, for instance, the Grateful Dead with Miles Davis opening for them, or some other rock group with the great Rahsaan Roland Kirk Quartet opening for them.

There are a lot of stories about Bill, but I have a lot of respect for what he did. He also did a lot for the neighborhood. He wasn’t just a concert promoter who made money and got in a limousine and went back to his townhouse. He cared about the neighborhood. The Fillmore East did a lot to keep us safe and to keep it clean, and he had a lot of pride in what he did. He was a good human being, but if you crossed him or if he thought you were being disrespectful to him, he could really let you have it.

There was a very organic and open feeling about the neighborhood. You could meet interesting people in a coffee shop or on the street. I would be walking down the street with my cymbal bag and my snare drum on the way to a gig, and a guy would stop me and say, ‘Oh, you’re a drummer, yeah my wife and I knew Charlie Parker in the early 1950s,’ and you end up talking for 10 or 15 minutes.

For me [this neighborhood] was part of the whole picture. It was not only that they were such great musicians, but it was where they were living, and what their life experiences were at that time. I appreciate being able to live in a neighborhood like this.

In part 2 next week, Eric talks about busking in Washington Square Park in the late 1970s, playing in Tompkins Square Park in the 1980s, and loving the neighborhood today.

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

RIP Carmen Pabón

[Photo from Oct. 26]

City Council member Rosie Mendez's office shared the news that longtime LES activist Carmen Pabón has died. She was 94.

Here's more from an announcement via Mendez...

Carmen Pabón, who was born in June 1922 in Ciales, Puerto Rico, died Saturday night surrounded by her family.

Pabón migrated to New York City in 1946. She lived in the Bronx and worked in a factory. A few years later, she relocated to Manhattan and, in 1955, moved into NYCHA’s Lillian Wald Houses where she lived until a few days prior to her death.

Pabón, well-known for her humanitarian acts, was fondly referred to as the “Madrina of Loisaida” (the Lower East Side Godmother). She volunteered in not-for-profit organizations such as Charas/El Bohío and Loisaida, Inc. Among other things, she was active in the Committee to Save Charas and the Coalition to Save St. Brigid’s Church.

In the 1970s, Pabón became active in the community garden movement. With the help of other residents she removed the rubble from several empty lots located on the southwest corner of Avenue C and East 7th Street. The garden, named “El Bello Amanecer” (A Beautiful Dawn), bears the same name as a mural on the side of the building abutting the garden. She tended to the garden for several decades where she was known for feeding the homeless and providing social services referrals.

In the late 1990s, the City of New York under then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani conveyed many community gardens sites to developers for housing construction. The Lower East Side community lost Esperanza Garden located on East 7th Street and two of the three lots that comprised El Bello Amanecer Garden for the construction of the Eastville Gardens building. A year later, Pabón had to leave the garden to make way for construction equipment.

In 1999, a NYC Council land use hearing with then Councilwoman Margarita López determined that the lot known as Carmen Pabón’s Garden would be a permanent community garden with a not-for-profit garden association that would receive a 99-year lease. After many obstacles, the garden finally re-opened on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. Pabón attended the re-opening ceremony of the garden that was renamed in her honor — Carmen Pabón del Amanecer Garden.


[Photo by Dave on 7th]

Councilwoman Rosie Méndez said: “I will miss her dearly. All of Loisaida will. I am grateful that she was here for the re-opening of St. Brigid’s Church and that we were able to clear all the hurdles to re-open her garden. I was so thrilled that she was able to go to the garden and cut that ribbon.”

Funeral and wake arrangements:
• Wednesday, Nov. 16 4-9 pm, Ortiz Funeral Home, 22 First Ave.
• Thursday, Nov. 17, 9:45 am, St Brigid Church, 119 Avenue B at Eighth Street

You can watch a video biography of Pabon here...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Part of a community garden reappears 16 years after it was bulldozed

Switch Playground now open on 12th Street 'for the body and soul'

Switch Playground, a South African-based group fitness concept, has just opened its location on 12th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. (It's in the New York Central Art Supply's former warehouse space at No 130.)

Per its website, "Switch combines carefully selected aspects of cardiovascular training, functional training, boxing, plyometric training, core stability and power-flow yoga to create a perfectly balanced playground for the body and soul."

You can find more details and book classes here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
NYC's 'first playground' coming to 12th Street

Coyote Ugly opens its first location in Kyrgyzstan

Coyote Ugly, which opened on First Avenue between Ninth Street and 10th Street in 1993, currently has 22 locations in five countries.

And now, the bar has its first franchise location in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan.

Here are the details via Franchising.com:

“Locals and every Bishkek fun guide will be quick to point out that Bishkek has one of the most thriving nightlife scenes in Central Asia, filled with young people that hang out in clubs and small cafes,” said franchisee Daniyar Monolbaev, who already owns other bars, restaurants and cafés in Bishkek, and will also be developing several Papa John’s franchises in the area over the next few years. “I honestly couldn’t be more excited about bringing Coyote Ugly’s fun and unexpected antics to Bishkek.”

Widely recognized as the most famous bar on the planet, Coyote Ugly thrives on booze, bar dancing and girl power. Each night sexy, sassy, tough-talking “Coyotes” go well beyond serving drinks; they ascend the bar to entertain the crowd with choreographed dance routines, songs games, body shots and much more that celebrate the wild side of American culture.

And!

“There was no part of me that ever thought my little dive bar in New York’s East Village would have taken off like this. And now it continues to steam roll into a global brand – from the United States to Russia, Japan and the United Kingdom to Kyrgyzstan,” said Coyote Ugly founder Liliana Lovell. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself as I watch Coyote Ugly’s fame continue to grow. I can’t wait to see where else we go.”

Currently

A noon-time look toward downtown via Bobby Williams...

Ribbon cutting for long-delayed Astor Place reconstruction project delayed by rain

Given the rain expected downpour, the official Alamo/Astor Place Ribbon Cutting Ceremony originally scheduled for today at 9:30 a.m. has been rescheduled until tomorrow (Wednesday!) at 8:30 a.m.

Here's the official notice about it (via an EVG reader)...



Per the notice from the Department of Design and Construction:

We would like to extend an open invitation to the community to attend our Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for The Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction Project and The reinstallation of The Alamo Cube.

The refurbished cube returned on Nov. 1 after nearly two years away during the Astor Place-Cooper Square reconstruction. The rain delay seems like a rather fitting end to a project that which was originally expected to be wrapped up in the fall of 2015.

Patisserie Florentine coming soon to 10th Street

Coming soon signage recently arrived at 280 E. 10th St. just west of Avenue A. Back in September, an EVG tipster said that the former Cafe Silan space here would become a French bakery.

That part looks correct. The website listed on the sign goes to Patisserie Florentine, the 3-year-old Englewood, N.J.-based bakery-cafe. We reached out to them to learn more about this venture, though we haven't heard back just yet.

Per the bakery's Facebook page:

Patisserie Florentine brings a little of France, Stateside; the French bistro setting is a charming fusion of rustic & modern offering a convivial friendly atmosphere. Chef Tomer Zilkha introduces approachable European delicacies using produce from The Garden State. The artisan bakery & petit bistro is managed by a passionate family of cooks & bakers & genuine hospitality is provided by our Baristas & Waitstaff.

Cafe Silan, which served a variety of coffee and house-made pastries, closed back in July after nearly 18 months in business.

Dean & Deluca vet bringing Fat Cat Kitchen to 14th Street

[Photo from the spring by KT]

Back in the spring, the Crystal Gallery Psychic Readings at 223 E. 14th St. met its destiny in the form of a city Marshal.

The space between Second Avenue and Third Avenue had been on the rental market.

Now comes word via the Commercial Observer of the new tenant. Björn Holm, a sous chef and the head of catering at Dean & Deluca’s store on Broadway and Prince, is opening a quick-serve restaurant called Fat Cat Kitchen.

Per the CO:

“Fat Cat Kitchen will offer the convenience of selling creative sandwiches, fresh salads, quiche, soups and home-style bakery items, plus a full coffee program in a warm, inviting shop with a knowledgeable, friendly staff and a frequently changing menu, offering consistency and variety that similar shops lack,” Swartz emailed.

Kati Roll Company now open on 2nd Avenue

The Kati Roll Company opened its doors yesterday for business at 128 Second Ave. near St. Mark's Place.



Here's a look at the menu... (thanks to Vinny & O for the photos)...



As Gothamist noted, the Kati crew will be offering free chicken and aloo rolls (while supplies last) tomorrow from noon to 2 p.m.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The late, great Stage slated to become the Kati Roll Company on 2nd Avenue