Bareburger making its Orchard Street debut

Bareburger will be in soft-open mode today ahead of its grand opening tomorrow at its new LES home — 173 Orchard St. just north of Stanton Street.

Matt Kouskalis, who owns and operates a handful of the city's Bareburger outposts, said that they'd be starting delivery service tomorrow as well.

The regional all–organic burger chain left its six-year-old home at 85 Second Ave. at the end of April.

Kouskalis told me back in February that escalating rents at the East Village location prompted the move to the Lower East Side.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Bareburger is leaving 2nd Avenue; new outpost slated for Orchard Street

Moving day for Bareburger

CB2 denies zoning amendment for proposed hotel next to the Merchant's House

News via Instagram tonight from the Community Board 2 meeting ... where the Board denied the necessary zoning text amendments that the developers of a proposed 8-story hotel needed to build next door to the landmarked Merchant's House Museum on Fourth Street. (Find more background here.) Next stop on the review tour: The Manhattan Borough President's office ... and eventually before City Council, who has the final say.

CB2 voted:developer’s application DENIED!! Now on to the Manhattan Borough President! Thanks to the droves of #merchantshouse supporters who showed up tonight and to those who send support from afar - and thanks to our good friends at CB2! #onaroll #dontmesswithgertrude

A post shared by Merchant's House Museum (@merchantshouse) on May 9, 2018 at 4:59pm PDT

EVG Etc.: Praise for Soogil on 4th Street; tattoos on B for the OG Avengers

[Outside Village Farm on 2nd Avenue and 9th Street via Steven]

Judge dismisses defamation lawsuit by Ludlow Street bar No Fun against LES Dwellers (The Lo-Down)

Tonight: CB2 hearing proposal for zoning changes for new hotel adjacent to the Merchant’s House (BB ... previously)

A Lower East Side History Month look at Fourth Street and Fifth Street (Off the Grid)

Pete Wells impressed by the cooking at Soogil on Fourth Street (The New York Times ... previously)

"Boom for Real" series continue tonight with "Permanent Vacation" and "She's Gotta Have It" (Film Anthology Archives)

Joshua Lord of East Side Ink Tattoo on Avenue B created matching tattoos for the cast of "Avengers: Infinity War" (EW)

Prune's Gabrielle Hamilton named outstanding chef in the 2018 James Beard Award (Eater)

... and EVG reader Shiv shares this photo... signage for Galaxy Beauty arrived over the weekend at 244 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... the beauty business is taking part of the Synergy space (and will you have to enter through the gym?)

2 years later, 136 2nd Ave. ready for its restaurant

On May 6, 2016, we noted that workers had erected the plywood around the vacant storefront at 136 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street.

Two years of gut renovating later, and the owners here are ready to appear before the CB3-SLA committee for a new liquor license for the address.

According to the questionnaire posted to the CB3 website (PDF here), the unnamed full-service restaurant will serve American and French food nearly all day — the kitchen hours are listed as 8 a.m. to 4 a.m.

The sample menu shows a variety of pretty standard options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here's part of the dinner menu...



The applicants, listed as Greg Lebedowicz and Jerry Lebedowicz, are also seeking outdoor dining via a sidewalk cafe and rear garden. In total, the questionnaire lists an occupancy of 74 people with 24 tables — 15 inside and nine outdoors. There are also three bars with 38 stools in the two-level space.

The applicants were previously licensed for Nitedreams LLC on Banker Street in Greenpoint from 2003 to 2008, per the paperwork at the CB3 website.

The CB3-SLA meeting is next Monday at 6:30 p.m. The location: the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.

Bar 82, which closed at the end of March 2013, was the last retail tenant at 136 Second Ave.

Cafe Zaiya has closed on Cooper Square

The DOH closed Cafe Zaiya at 69 Cooper Square following an inspection on April 30.

The Japanese bakery-cafe that opened here in 2008 between St. Mark's Place and Seventh Street has remained closed since the DOH visit. And it appears that the cafe won't be returning. Workers cleaned out the space yesterday, and the location is no longer listed on the Cafe Zaiya website. (The other two locations are in Midtown.)

As for the DOH, the inspection turned up 73 violation points, including for "Insufficient or no refrigerated or hot holding equipment to keep potentially hazardous foods at required temperatures" and "Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service."

This location had passed all previous inspections, with only four violation points in 2017.

That's all for the Loop on 3rd Avenue

And just a little north of the usual coverage area... a for rent sign now hangs above the Loop, the small sushi restaurant on Third Avenue near 16th Street.

They named their signature rolls after Billy Joel, John Lennon, the Spice Girls and other pop cultural references. As The Infatuation noted a few years back: "We’d love to hate it, but it’s all pretty damn good."

And food writer Nick Solares, who shared the above photo, noted: "It was not destination sushi but a solid neighborhood option."

Tuesday's parting shot

The new puppy here in Tompkins Square Park is named, topically enough, Stormy El Chapo Daniels. (He responds to Stormy.)

Photo today by Derek Berg...

Another chance to hear about the L-train shutdown

The MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) are hosting two more town halls this month to discuss the upcoming L-train shutdown.

Here's the deal via 6sqft:

NYC Transit President Andy Byford, NYCDOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and other agency representatives will explain alternate transit options, address questions and reveal how the agency plans to help get the 225,000 daily weekday customers – 50,000 in Manhattan alone – to their destinations during the service interruption that will cut all L train service between Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan for 15 months beginning in April of 2019.

NYCDOT will discuss proposed changes like HOV restrictions on the Williamsburg Bridge, the addition of Select Bus Service to 14th Street, and additional protected bike lanes and bus lanes to offset the inconvenience of the missing subway.

The Manhattan meeting is tomorrow night from 6:30-8:30 (doors open at 5:30) at The Auditorium (at The New School) at 66 W. 12th St. between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

Preservationists: City schedules next public hearing on tech hub without any public notice

[Tech hub endering via RAL Development]

The proposed tech hub at the site of the now-former PC Richard complex on 14th Street at Irving Place is making its way through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. Back on Friday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer's office released her recommendation (see more on that below).

The application now moves to the City Planning Commission before a deciding vote by City Council later this year.

As previously reported, the 21-story building would house a digital skills training center, flex-office space for startups, market-rate office space and a food hall, among other things.

To make this happen, the site/area needs to be upzoned. This zoning change is of particular concern to some area residents and preservationists, who have stressed that the fabric of the neighborhood could be lost with a large number of out-of-context new developments south of Union Square along Broadway, University Place and Fourth Avenue.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has been leading the efforts behind a rezoning of the area to enforce some height restrictions and affordable housing requirements.

Now GVSHP officials have just learned that the city scheduled the next public hearing for tomorrow afternoon — without any actual public notice.

Here's an email via the GVSHP:

Last Friday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer released her recommendation on the proposed 14th Street Tech Hub, as part of the required public approval process. Brewer initially pledged not to include the need for neighborhood protections to accompany Tech Hub as part of her recommendation, as GVSHP and many others have called for, calling them “unrelated.”

However, GVSHP worked hard to persuade the Borough President that the Tech Hub without neighborhood protections would accelerate rampant overdevelopment in the University Place, Broadway, and 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors, as did thousands of neighborhood residents who wrote or called her. Following this, Brewer issued her recommendation (read the PDF here) including mention of the potential impacts upon the adjacent Greenwich Village and East Village neighborhoods and the need for neighborhood protections, as GVSHP has proposed and called for.

Outrageously, directly following this, the City scheduled the sole City Planning Commission public hearing on this matter for this Wednesday, May 9 with virtually no public notification (as of this morning, the city’s own Land Use Tracking System had still not shown that the City Planning Commission hearing had even been scheduled). Adding insult to injury, this item is scheduled as the LAST item on a long agenda for the day, making it virtually impossible to say how late in the day this item will be heard.

DON'T LET THE MAYOR CUT YOU OUT OF THE PROCESS FOR DETERMINING THE FATE OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

You can read more here.

In late February, CB3 approved a land use application to create the tech hub. In doing so, CB3 also included an amendment in their resolution calling for zoning protection.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC

Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood

P.C. Richard puts up the moving signs on 14th Street; more Tech Hub debate to come

Report: CB3 OKs proposal for Union Square tech hub; calls for zoning protections

About the bar-restaurant proposed for 2 St. Mark's Place

Looks like Bull McCabe's may have some bar company on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. (RIP Grassroots.)

Applicants are on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket for a new liquor license for 2 St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue/Cooper Square.

The questionnaire on file at the CB3 website (PDF here) shows that the applicants are involved with Draught 55 Bar & Kitchen on East 55th Street, a six-year-old establishment offering more than 40 craft beers.

The applicants describe the menu for the new space as a "spin on classic pub food with contemporary American offerings." The proposed hours are 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday-Wednesday; until 4 a.m. Thursday-Saturday. The seating chart shows 19 tables for 65 guests (that includes a bar with 10 stools).

No word yet on the name of the bar-restaurant for 2 St. Mark's Place.

The CB3-SLA meeting is next Monday at 6:30 p.m. The location: the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.

2 St. Mark's Place was most recently Ayios Greek Rotisserie, which closed at the end of 2017 after 16 months in business. Previously, the address was the St. Mark's Ale House, which had a 21-year run until July 2016. (And once upon a time it was the second location of the Five Spot Cafe.)

Printed Matter will have a bookstore inside the Swiss Institute's new 2nd Avenue home

[Photo from April 29]

Printed Matter, the Chelsea-based nonprofit art bookstore founded in 1976, is opening an outpost at the Swiss Institute's new home on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

Per artnews:

The venue will be dubbed Printed Matter/St. Mark’s and will carry artist’s books, prints, posters, and the like, as well as offerings from the Swiss Institute’s publishing imprint. Max Schumann, Print Matter’s executive director, said in a statement that the new partnership “presents an amazing opportunity to bring the creative, experimental, and critical work being done in the field of artists’ publications to a broader audience, which is at the heart of Printed Matter’s mission.”

At its Chelsea location, Printed Matter has long offered a rich array of talks, workshops, and so forth, and the organization said in a news release that a “robust program of public events” will be on offer in the Swiss Institute building...

The East Village location of Printed Matter will also open with the Swiss Institute on June 21.

Read more about Printed Matter's history here.

Meanwhile, here's a photo from the Swiss Institute's rooftop from Sunday...


[Photo by Grant Shaffer]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Swiss Institute moving into the former Chase branch on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Pink Bear Ice Cream and Steam Rice Roll has apparently closed on 14th Street

It appears that the quick-serve Pink Bear shop has closed on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Several readers (H/T Shiv and Gojira) noted the gate has been down of late during announced business hours. Both Google and Yelp report that Pink Bear has permanently closed. The phone is also disconnected.

Pink Bear opened back in the spring of 2016, and served a variety of rolled ice cream, not to mention traditional rice and noodle dishes.

Report: Ravi DeRossi bringing Fire & Water to 7th Street

[EVG file photo]

East Village-based restaurateur Ravi DeRossi is adding to his vegan empire later this year with the opening of Fire & Water at 111 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue — next door to his tapas cafe Ladybird.

Eater reported yesterday that DeRossi will "veganize two cuisines at once — sushi and dim sum" with Fire & Water.

A Japanese sushi counter with 16 seats and minimalist design will occupy one part of the space, offering a vegan omakase menu and a sake list. The price for the omakase has not been set yet.

On the other side of a dividing glass wall, there will be Chinese dim sum cart service in a 36-seat, flashier space with neon lights and red decor. Vegan small plates are on the menu in the dim sum portion. There will also be beer, wine, and no-abv cocktails.

DeRossi's executive chef, Tony Mongeluzzi, who oversees the kitchens at Ladybird, Mother of Pearl, Cienfuegos and Avant Garden, will reportedly have similar duties at Fire & Water.

The new home for Fire & Water was previously a showroom for furniture designer Todd Hase. That venture lasted one year. Village Style Vintage Shop, the previous tenant here, moved out to Brooklyn in October 2016.

Monday's parting shot

Photo on Second Avenue by Derek Berg...

An injured opossum on Avenue B

Photos and report by Mark Cyr...

Last night, the NYPD found an opossum lying on Avenue B, near Seventh Street along Tompkins Square Park, where a car had been parked. The opossum was alive and looking around at onlookers, but making no effort to move. In the words of the NYPD officer holding back the crowd of onlookers, "He is playing possum. We don't know what he might do."



An NYPD Emergency Services Unit (ESU) was called to deal with the opossum.

An NYPD officer explained that the NYPD's job was to remove any wildlife found at ground level. The ESU officers waited for an animal crate to be brought and then they dropped a loop over the opossum's head and moved him into the crate. The ESU officers said the opossum did not resist.







The ESU officers said that the opossum appeared to have a broken leg. They thought he had probably fallen asleep under a parked car and gotten hurt when the car drove away. They said the opossum would be taken to animal rescue for evaluation. The crowd applauded as the opossum crate was carried away.

This opossum was gray, not white. This does not seem to be the same opossum I photographed in Tompkins Square Park, in December.

FLASHBACK... to December


[Photo by Mark Cyr]

So to recap, the opossum the NYPD took away last evening is NOT Nicodemus Punch Sugarpop aka Parachute ChingChing Yanoonoo aka Opie...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The opossum has pretty much made Tompkins Square Park her/his home now

The opossum of Tompkins Square Park — now on video

Opossum where art thou?

Opossum drama in Tompkins Square Park

Funny business: Comedy club replacing comedy club on 4th Street

The coming soon signage is up on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery for New York Comedy Club.

They are taking over the former home of EastVille Comedy Club, who moved out to Brooklyn last month.

This will be the second location for the New York Comedy Club, which opened in 1989 on 24th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

"We're very excited about being part of such a vibrant neighborhood full of all kinds of other arts and performance venues," Amy Hawthorne, the club's director of operations, told me via email.

As of now, the club is looking at a mid-July debut (though they may have a soft opening before then).

"We'll be renovating the space to be more in keeping with the look and character of our original Gramercy location — darker room, brick wall background for the stage, and an audio system custom designed for the space by our co-owner, Scott Lindner, who is also a professional audio engineer," she said.

Lindner and Emilio Savone bought the New York Comedy Club in 2014 after years of working in entertainment marketing and live comedy production.

You can find more background on New York Comedy Club here.

Moxy East Village arrives at the lobby level

Right there... (bonus Jim Joe underlined)...



And a look through the blogger portal on the plywood...



Anyway, it's the 13-story, 285-key Moxy hotel going up at 112-120 E. 11th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

According to the Moxy website, the hotel opens at the end of this year...

Hot Box looking ready to debut on 2nd Avenue

The coming soon signs are up in the windows at 77 Second Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street... the home of Hot Box.

Here's the About via the restaurant's Facebook page:

Blending together a mix of East Asian broth, noodles and topped with the freshest ingredients, Hot Box serves deeply flavorful combinations on a signature burner system for a longer-lasting "fresh off the stove" taste.

And here's their menu from the recent soft opening...



And via Instagram...

A post shared by Hot Box Restaurants (@hotboxnyc) on Apr 26, 2018 at 9:19am PDT

A post shared by Hot Box Restaurants (@hotboxnyc) on Apr 11, 2018 at 7:17pm PDT

The restaurant's owners are on tonight's CB3-SLA committee meeting agenda for a new beer-wine license. However, this item will not be heard at the meeting.

Ciala, which briefly served Georgian cuisine before switching to French food, had an inauspicious five-month tenure at the address. Before Ciala, Ballaro had a seven-year run, closing in February 2016.

16 Handles returns all glown up

16 Handles recently returned from its closed-for-renovations state on Second Avenue between Ninth Street and 10th Street with new signage that no longer looks like 16 Hindles.

Here's more on the new look via the EVG inbox from Friday...

In celebration of the brand’s 10th birthday, 16 Handles East Village has a fresh new look, complete with custom neon signs, the brand’s signature bold colors, and exposed brick, giving the East Village store the ultimate glow up. The brand will also be working with local artists to paint murals to amplify the space.

The store has also incorporated an entirely new element — #TreatsBy16 counter-serve Fro-Yo, ice cream, and desserts — by bringing a soft-serve machine behind the counter. The very first product to launch with this new concept is the #GalaxyCone ... a deliciously sweet combination of Cotton Candy and Sweet Taro Pie frozen yogurt, served in a cotton candy cloud cone with stars and galaxy-themed hues of blue, pink, and purple.

Don't be surprised to see a human take your order (and cash) at the Astor Place Shake Shack

The Shack Shack at 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star debuted this past October on Third Avenue and Ninth Street.

Let's quickly revisit the press release about this opening of Danny Meyer's growing burger empire:

A reflection of Shake Shack’s relentless focus on excellence, experience and hospitality through innovation, the Astor Place Shack will introduce a new guest flow at the restaurant ... the Shack is designed to enhance operations and guest experience and will feature kiosk-only ordering, a cashless environment, and an optimized kitchen for greater throughput.

Custom-designed by Shake Shack, the Shack kiosk was developed to allow Shake Shack to serve more guests at peak times – whether in-Shack, for pickup via the Shack App, or even delivery – resulting in fewer lines, less wait time and quicker speed of service at every channel. Several kiosks will line the Shack and team members known as Hospitality Champs will be stationed around the kiosks to assist guests with their orders and answer any questions.

Apparently this kiosk service didn't reflect so well with patrons. During an earnings call with analysts this past Thursday, Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti reported that humans will be put to work taking orders here moving forward.

Business Insider had the story on Friday:

[A]fter receiving complaints from furious customers who wanted to pay with their hard-earned legal tender, the burger chain is reversing course and adding cashiers to cashless locations going forward, its chief executive officer told analysts.

"Some of the things we've clearly seen is that our guests do often want to pay with cash,” CEO Randy Garutti said in response to an analyst’s question. "In the first rollout at Astor Place, we did not accept cash at all, and there are people who have told us very clearly 'we want to pay with cash.'"

"So in this next phase, we're going to go ahead and have cashiers as well as kiosks," he continued.

Otherwise business is quite good for the chain here and elsewhere. Shake Shack posted first-quarter earnings that topped analyst expectations.

Meanwhile, to help re-acclimate anyone on how to interact with a human in this situation, here are some tips on what to say:

• Hi (or hello or, perhaps, hey)
• How are you?
• Is Danny here?
• Thank you!

H/T Eater and Edmund John Dunn!