Mayor de Blasio calls for unity during anti-hate rally at Cooper Union this morning

"We have a special obligation in NYC to be an example ... we're the greatest city in the world & to lead by example" #AlwaysNewYork pic.twitter.com/PxEOOBBuC8

— NYC ImmigrantAffairs (@NYCImmigrants) November 21, 2016

Mayor de Blasio spoke at Cooper Union's Great Hall this morning to continue spreading a message of unity in NYC.

Per the Daily News:

De Blasio ... said it's important for New York to be at the forefront of a burgeoning anti-Trump movement because this city has always been a beacon of opportunity all over the world.

He urged the crowd — which twice gave him a standing ovation — to "always be proud of our values."

"The president-elect talked during the campaign about the movement that he had built. Now its our turn to build a movement, a movement of the majority," he said.

You can read a full transcript of his speech here ... including remarks by First Lady Chirlane McCray. Other speakers were FDNY chaplain Rev. Ann Kansfield, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and NYPD chaplain Imam Khalid Latif.

To all of you – we will protect you. This is your home. We are #AlwaysNewYork.

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 21, 2016

A single election does not change who we are - we are 8.5 million strong. We are #AlwaysNewYork.

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 21, 2016

Oh Christmas trees on St. Mark's Place

Workers at St. Mark's Market were putting out the Christmas/holiday trees this evening here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...and these mark the first [full-size] trees that we've seen this season.

Also on this block, the three decorative holiday lights went up this past weekend...

Barnyard Cheese and Brix Wine Shop moving from Avenue C to Avenue B

[Reader-submitted photo on Avenue B]

Avenue B will soon be home to two familiar East Village businesses: Barnyard Cheese and Brix Wine. The two sister shops will be side by side at 168 and 170 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street. (The Avenue B spaces were previously home to the bistro 26 Seats and the motorcycle apparel shop Klutch.)

Moving signs are up at the now-closed location of Barnyard Cheese Shop at 149 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street...





Brix Wine was just around the corner at 649 E. Ninth St. ...



"We are excited about the moves and the opportunity to have both stores side by side, which was always the dream but never quite attained on Avenue C, although we came close," Barnyard/Brix owner Beatriz Arremony told us via email.

Arremony said that the move will allow them to expand their offerings. Barnyard will now finally have a full kitchen and unveil a number of new items beyond their meats, cheeses and sandwiches. In addition, she said that Brix will offer small-group educational courses, including menu planning, as well as in-store tastings. (No word on an official opening date just yet — but soon.)

"We will miss our corner of 9th and C and the great community that we've been part of for the last nine years but hope to continue to do the same on the B side," she said.

Healthfully has closed on 4th Street

Last Monday, we posted how several EVG readers were worried about the longterm health of Healthfully Organic Market, 98 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. The shop had been keeping irregular hours and unveiled a 40-percent-off inventory sale.

Unfortunately, in this case, there was reason for concern: Workers cleared out the store on Friday...





We heard a variety of [unofficial] reasons for the closure, from the expiration of the lease to a decline in business due to the Dolphin Gym closing next door.

Hot Pot Central sets up shop on 2nd Avenue and 12th Street

New Hot Pot Central signage went up on Saturday evening, as this photo via EVG reader Harry Weiner shows...

The restaurant on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 12th Street emerged as DumplingGuo back in August ... after a revamp of the Dumpling Go space.

Not sure if the Hot Pot Central/DumplingGuo ownership is the same ... In any event, HPC, which is open for business, is currently hiring...



... and filming a documentary...

Former Grand Sichuan space for rent on St. Mark's Place

As we noted at the beginning of the month, Grand Sichuan closed in the upper level at 19-23 St. Mark's Place ... there was a 30-day notice of termination taped to the front door here between Third Avenue and Second Avenue.

The for rent sign arrived on Friday. The listing hasn't been posted yet online. So no word on the rent.

Shu Han Ju II takes over for Mulan East on 3rd Avenue

The nearly 11-month reign of Mulan East is over at 98 Third Ave. ... the restaurant between 10th Street and 11th Street is now Shu Han Ju II, which offers a variety of familiar Chinese specialities on the menu...



The owners were on the CB3 docket this month for a beer-wine license for the space. (This did not need board approval.)

There is also a Shu Han Ju, which opened in 2014 on Sixth Avenue at 11th Street.

Until July 2015, No. 98 housed the Thai restaurant Bodhi Tree.

Week in Grieview

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

RIP Carmen Pabón (Wednesday)

Annual New York Cares coat drive underway (Thursday)

A new art gallery on Second Street (Friday)

Village View ends talk of privatization (Monday)

Out and About with Eric Paulin (Wednesday)

A look at East Houston before the arrival of Red Square (Friday)

McSorley's reopens after bout with DOH (Monday)

Patisserie Florentine coming soon to 10th Street (Tuesday)

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

East Village is closing after tonight (Saturday)

FryGuysNYC coming soon to Second Street (Thursday)

Vivi Bubble Tea coming to former Organic Avenue space on Third Avenue (Monday)

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

CB3 douses plans for hookah bar Fire and Ice on Third Street (Thursday)

Ray's Candy Store named best East Village restaurant (Thursday)

Kati Roll Company is now open on Second Avenue (Tuesday)

The cube and Astor Place officially welcomed with ribbon cutting (Wednesday) Then Astor Place closes for "Game of Thrones" fan event (Thursday)

East Village Burritos & Bar is now Spicewala Bar Indian Cuisine (Monday)

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

Switch Playground now open on 12th Street "for the body and soul" (Wednesday)

Future Swiss Institute gets the plywood treatment on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Coyote Ugly opens its first location in Kyrgyzstan (Wednesday)

The pilot program to house NYU students with local seniors

The Post brings news of a pilot program that NYU will debut next fall in partnership with University Settlement, a Lower East Side nonprofit that provides social services to low-income seniors.

Per the Post:

Students who opt in to the “home stay” program would slice their $14,000-per-year housing bill in half.

Under the plan, cash-strapped students will get a break on rent, and seniors will get extra cash.

While the the initial program "will consist of 10 mature juniors, seniors or grad students," the Post dropped in this lead: "Beer pong at Grandma’s?"

There is a similar housing program for college students in Chicago.

East Village Tavern closes for good after tomorrow

[Image via Google Street View]

Management of the corner bar on 10th Street and Avenue C posted the following on the East Village Tavern Facebook page:



The bar opened in May 2008.

Updated 7:45 p.m.

Public records show that Steve Croman's 9300 Realty is the landlord of the building at 158 Avenue C. (H/t to the commenter who mentioned this.)

H/T Shawn Chittle

Another day, another equine sighting on 2nd Avenue

@evgrieve yep! #yep pic.twitter.com/csnP1DP9FY

— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) November 19, 2016

Outside the Village East Cinema on Second Avenue and 12th Street ... a little promo for the film "Unbridled."

And flashback to yesterday here. (OK, so it was a pony.)

Noted

Several readers have noted this new coming soon signage for #notourpresident on an empty storefront (No. 64) on Second Avenue between Fourth Street and Third Street.

The space previously housed NYC Velo, who moved next door in March.

East Village soup kitchen administrator wins competition on the Food Network's 'Chopped'

Here's some news about Trinity's Services And Food for the Homeless (SAFH) on Ninth Street and Avenue B. Via the EVG inbox...

This past week, our administrative director, Alex Lawrence, was selected as one of the competitors on Food Network's Chopped.

The episode had a Thanksgiving theme — titled Turkey Day Heroes — featuring employees and volunteers who work with various soup kitchens or feeding programs.

Contestants are asked to make dishes with "mystery ingredients" that are only revealed to them minutes before they begin cooking. Alex was able to make it all the way through to the end, and ended up winning the competition! If you haven't had a chance to watch the episode, upcoming showings can be found here, in addition to wherever you stream television.

By working alongside other contestants who have committed themselves to feeding the hungry, Chopped was able to bring to a wide audience the very real challenges and needs that organizations like ours face.

The episode airs again tonight at 11 on the Food Network. Details here.

And if you are interested in making a donation to SAFH, which was officially founded 30 years ago, you may go here.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Whole Foods Market® Bowery is selling the 'table top' trees

The small Christmas and/or holiday trees are here on East Houston at the Bowery. And I didn't think about stopping for a price check. Sorry!

Forever and a Day

This is "The Dog-End of a Day Gone By" from the debut record by Love and Rockets ... the song/album was released in the fall of 1985... and has always reminded me of the fall (the season, not the band).

[Updated] This afternoon in tweets about a pony sighting on 9th Street and 2nd Avenue

@evgrieve Two women walking a pony on east 9th st. Yep. #yep pic.twitter.com/MInPZ4qk8j

— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) November 18, 2016

Updated 11/19
Thanks to a commenter for this link... Hello Apple!

Memorial Sunday for longtime East Village resident Richard Kopperdahl

Longtime East Village resident Richard Kopperdahl died in August. Kopperdahl, a writer for The Village Voice who previously spent time down and out on the Bowery and in Bellevue’s psychiatric ward, was 83.

On Sunday, friends are coming together for a memorial at Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish, 602 E. Ninth St. at Avenue B from 3-5 p.m. Here are the details via the Facebook invite:

Come gather with friends and neighbors for a potluck and performances remembering the life of Richard Kopperdahl, a writer who worked at the Village Voice and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Richard lived for forty years in a 6th-floor walkup apartment just around the corner from Trinity Church, which looks out on Tompkins Park where Richard walked and sat nearly every day. Bring food, drink, words, or music to share, or just bring yourselves.

Contributions to help cover the memorial expenses will be gladly accepted. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Richard can be made to the Bowery Mission.

Read some of his work from the Voice here.

EV Grieve Etc.: Slow Zone update; L train shutdown plans

[Photo outside 51 Astor Place via Derek Berg]

Jared Kushner, whose company Westminster City Living is the second-largest East Village landlord (following Steve Croman), eyes a White House job with father-in-law Donald Trump (The Wall Street Journal)

The new plan to beef up bus and train service for L train riders when the shutdown happens (Streetsblog)

Benefits seen from the East Village slow zones (The Villager)


[Window work on Avenue B by Shawn Chittle]

Seth Rogen and his wife Lauren Anne Miller Rogen checked out new First Street condos (New York Post ... previously)

Quality time with Dora (Laura Goggin Photography)

Thanksgiving at Katz's (The Lo-Down)

Video: The huge dumpling at Drunken Dumpling (Eater)

Isabelle Huppert retrospective (Metrograph)

David Lynch's "Lost Highway" at midnight this weekend (Sunshine Cinema)

Pearl River Mart reopens in Tribeca (NY1)

'Blue Bloods' turns the Whitehouse into a hotel again for a day on the Bowery

The CBS drama "Blue Bloods" is filming on the Bowery... and some faux signage arrived outside 340 Bowery for the Wyckoff Hotel (and drink Abewell soda!).

The address is the former Whitehouse Hotel, the hostel/flophouse combo that stopped accepting reservations for back-packing thrill seekers in September 2014.

Plans were filed via Sam Chang in April 2014 to "convert 4-story lodging house into a 9-story hotel," according to DOB records. The city disapproved the plans again in September 2014, records show.

Meanwhile, the four-story building erected in 1916 between Great Jones and Bond still serves as a permanent home to a handful of low-income residents.

And, according to a report in the Post, current resident Roland Davis is no longer allowed to file suit against current or former owners without proper legal representation or approval from a chief judge. Davis has sued the past or current owners of the Whitehouse Hotel 23 times in seven years, losing every time, the Post notes.

Davis, an $8.32-a-night resident, would file claims in Housing Court demanding that management make repairs to his tiny windowless room, and would then refuse to let the workers in, according to court papers.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More tenant meetings for White House residents; plus the bed bugs will be exterminated

Another round of plans to convert the Whitehouse Hostel on the Bowery into a 9-floor hotel

The Whitehouse Hostel on the Bowery is 'temporarily closing down'

The Whitehouse Hostel has closed for good on the Bowery

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...