Week in Grieview

[Photo on St. Mark's Place yesterday by Christine Champagne]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Here's the 1st look at the new building proposed for the 2nd Avenue explosion site (Tuesday)

NYPD looking for suspect who robbed woman in 13th Street building (Thursday)

Help for Juan Carlo, the flower vendor at Bueno East Mart on Avenue A (Tuesday)

Lancelotti Housewares expands on Avenue A (Monday)

So long to the 3 rhinos (Wednesday)

NIKO East Village debuts on Avenue D and 6th Street (Wednesday)

The latest NY See (Thursday)

Mysterious 84 2nd Ave. sells again, this time for $7.8 million (Thursday)

Papilles now open on 7th Street (Thursday)

Flowers inside skateboard planter on 7th Street destroyed (Wednesday)

Tarallucci e Vino East Village reopens after a months-long renovation (Wednesday)

News roundup: Feds say that the NYCHA covered up public housing dangers for years (Monday)

More about Sauce Pizzeria, opening later this summer on 12th Street (Thursday)

A vigil for Yemen at Tompkins Square Park (Saturday)

Report: Tokyo-based yakitori restaurant with a Michelin star coming to Elizabeth Street (Wednesday)

The EVG podcast (Friday)

Blank slate at the Bowery Mural Wall (Tuesday)

Six months of inactivity at 75 1st Ave. (Tuesday)

The 7 restaurants that have closed on the Bowery in the past year (Monday)


[Mermaid Parade practice in Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg]

Bushwick-based chef looking to bring Short Stories to the Bowery (Friday)

Wax off: Mr. Moustache has closed on 14th Street (Monday)

Silky Kitchen set for 13th Street (Monday)

About halfway there at the incoming Moxy East Village (Monday)

Blue out at former Citibank branch on Avenue A (Thursday)

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10th Street's role in the worst mob movie ever made

[Photo in February 2017 by Daniel]

As you likely recall from February 2017, crews filmed scenes for "Gotti," the biopic starring John Travolta (above, to the left of the open door!) on 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

"Gotti," directed by "Entourage" star Kevin Connolly, was finally released on Friday ... and it arrived DOA. (Opening weekend box office tally here.) The film is currently enjoying a quite rare 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The Post thought it was so bad, it blurbed the review on the cover yesterday...



With these notices, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" is no longer the worst movie ever filmed on 10th Street.


[Photo from the Union Square Regal Cinema]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Mob scene on 10th Street as 'Gotti' crew and John Travolta hold forth

Saturday's parting shots

Happy early Father's Day from a discarded mattress on Avenue C and 9th Street ... photos by Bobby Williams...

Almost Solstice tomorrow at the Green Oasis Community Garden

Celebrate the almost solstice tomorrow (Sunday!) with the "Almost Solstice Event" at the Green Oasis Community Garden on Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D. There may even be music!

Enjoy part of your Saturday at the New York City Marble Cemetery

It's an Open Day today from noon until 6 p.m. at the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...

A vigil for Yemen at Tompkins Square Park

Today from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., a group of activists will hold a vigil on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place to raise awareness of the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen. (The group had been holding the weekly vigils in Union Square, and recently moved to Tompkins Square Park.)



Felton Davis, one of the organizers, provided some background:

At the weekly vigil for the people of Yemen, we display signs about children starving or dying of cholera. This past week, as the battle for the port city of Hodeidah began, people started saying that the situation in Yemen was an emergency.

But for a whole year — mostly at Union Square and now at Tompkins Square Park — we have been saying that it's an emergency. Delegations of activists have descended upon the offices of elected officials, and tried to get through to them that it's an emergency. Fifteen of us blocked the UN missions of Saudi Arabia and the United States on Human Rights Day in December, and were arrested, saying that it's an emergency.

When will the emergency be over, when Yemen ceases to exist as a nation, and is carved up by whoever prevails in the war? Is there any sort of less drastic way that the emergency could be dealt with? What room is there in all this for compassion — neutral compassion — and respect for the value of human life?

For further reading:
The Next Disaster in Yemen, The Atlantic

Humanitarian Crisis Worsens in Yemen After Attack on Port, The New York Times

What Happens if Mass Starvation Takes Hold in Yemen?, The New York Times

Friday's parting shot

Photo in Tompkins Sqaure Park today by Derek Berg...

The Gang's all here

Kazuashita, the new record from Gang Gang Dance — their first in seven years — is out on 4AD next week.

The label has released a few audio tracks this spring, such as the one here for "Lotus," the lead single.

The EVG podcast

I recently launched an EVG podcast, recording the episodes at the East Village Radio studio on First Avenue (in case you're wondering why there's some background noise, such as a grocery cart filled with recyclables).

We started with something music-related, talking with Mike Katz and Crispin Kott, the authors of the recently released book "Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City."

Here's the first one...



I also interviewed Goggla about the red-tailed hawks in Tompkins Square Park. Will be posting that edition soon.

Anyway, I hope to cover a variety of topics moving forward. More about all this later...

EVG Etc.: Gabrielle Hamilton's controversial decision; Seward Park's air-rights vote

[Life of the party the other morning on Cooper Square]

A look at Prune owner-chef Gabrielle Hamilton's controversial decision to team up with Ken Friedman, who has been accused of sexually assaulting and harassing dozens of women, at the Spotted Pig. Eater has an interview with Hamilton's partner and co-chef, Ashley Merriman, here. And Grub Street has a post titled "Gabrielle Hamilton’s Great Betrayal."

Seward Park co-op votes down $54 million air rights offer from developer (The Lo-Down)

What does the future hold for the leaderless Landmarks Preservation Commission? (ArchPaper)

Xi'an Famous Foods, with a location on St. Mark's Place, raised more than $73K last Friday for suicide prevention to honor Anthony Bourdain (Eater)

James and Karla Murray are hoping to raise some additional funds via Kickstarter for their upcoming mom-and-pop storefront art installation inside Seward Park — "Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S." They will begin their installation in late June and plan on having an opening celebration in July. (Kickstarter ... previously)

The Institute for the Development of Human Arts is hosting a day of community, art, music and spoken word tomorrow at 242 E. Second St. (Facebook)

Investigators seize NYCHA records in office raid (The Post)

When the feminist skaters of the art collective Brujas took over Performance Space NY on First Avenue this spring (Artsy)

On Fifth Street, Degustation is now a chef’s counter called Restaurant Ukiyo (Eater)

NYC is implementing a ban on Styrofoam starting Jan. 1, 2019 (Gothamist)

Photo essay of the old Essex Market (Curbed)

Crime story of the week: Someone is leaving rotten food at this Stuy Town resident's front door (Town & Village)

World Cup viewing guide in NYC (The Times)

Singer-songwriter Fiona Silver, an East Village resident, plays the Mercury Lounge on June 29 (Official site)

More on one man's quest to correct an error on the sleeve of the Clash’s London Calling (Flaming Pablum)

Hedda Lettuce hosting "Mommie Dearest" on June 20 at City Cinemas Village East (Official site)

New owners for the Indigo Hotel on Ludlow (The Real Deal)

A look at the penthouse Keith Richards recently sold at One Fifth Avenue (Guest of a Guest)

The IFC Center on Sixth Avenue revamps its expansion proposal (Curbed)

Lincoln Plaza Cinema's reboot (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

...and Derek Berg shared these photos from Fourth Street, where crews for the 1970s period piece "The Kitchen" were filming scenes...



Looks like the 1973 Plymouth Fury??? And fake snow!)



... and earlier...



The drama, set in Hell's Kitchen, follows the wives of Irish mobsters (Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss) who team up to take over running the business after their husbands are sent to prison.

Resident concerned over cracks caused by excavation work in lot next door

As noted earlier this week, the city issued a Stop Work Order at 118 E. First St. near Avenue A.

There is a complaint on file with the DOB stating that the excavation work caused an adjacent building to shake, with visible cracks forming.

A longtime resident who lives adjacent to the construction site shared this photo montage, showing the cracks on the building and in the tenant's apartment...



Per the resident: "I am not feeling safe here."

For now, the city will only allow for crews to do "emergency remedial work at rear exposure to install bracing." That work hasn't occurred just yet, the resident said.

Until the Stop Work Order, workers were prepping the lot for a 9-story residential building with seven residences and a retail space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
118 E. 1st St. arrives on the market with so many possibilities, and air rights

118 E. 1st. St. will yield to a new 9-floor residential building

Demolition of 118 E. 1st St. begins to make way for 9-story residential building

Construction starts at 118 E. 1st St., future home of a 9-floor residential building

Here's what the new condoplex at 118 E. 1st St. will look like

Bushwick-based chef looking to bring Short Stories to the Bowery

Looks as if one of the recently vacated bar-restaurants on the Bowery will have a new tenant.

Applicants are on this month's CB3-SLA docket for a new liquor license at 355 Bowery, the former Wise Men space between Third Street and Fourth Street.

According to the materials (PDF here) posted on the CB3 website, the applicants for the proposed Short Stories include Danny Teran, who runs several businesses in Bushwick, including Wheelhouse out on Wilson Avenue. (He is apparently known as "The Wolf of Wilson," per this Brokelyn feature.) Williamsburg Pizza investor Ashwin Deshmukh is also listed as one of the applicants.

The menu at Short Stories will feature "a mix of American, Cuban and Mexican fare." (Teran, a Cuban-American, specializes in Cuban cuisine. He also previously ran Millie's Cuban Cafe on Wilson Avenue.)

The application also shows six tables seating 12 diners as well as a 10-seat bar. (There appears to be some additional seating on benches.) The proposed hours are 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. during the week, until 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Wise Men closed last November after five years in business.

And before the Wise Men...


[Photo from 2011]

... there was Osaka Vibe/Orange Valve — aka, that kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery.

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

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation of sorts: That kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery

Former kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery is now home to the Wise Men

The 7 restaurants that have closed on the Bowery in the past year

Lower 'Eats' Side festival to feature food from 25 countries

Via the EVG inbox...

The Lower East Side’s historic Public School 110 (Florence Nightingale School) will hold an international food festival, Lower "Eats" Side, tomorrow (Saturday) from 1-4 p.m. featuring home-cooked food from more than 25 countries ... and prepared by the school’s own parent chefs.

The food festival will represent the different cultures and nationalities that make up the school today, and will be held at the school’s 1905 building at the eastern end of Delancey Street, rain or shine and open to the public. The P.S. 110 parent rock band, “The Nightingales” (winners of NYC School District 1 Battle of the Bands) will be performing.

Heading the food fair will be Sarita Ekya., P.S. 110 PTA treasurer and owner of the mac & cheese restaurant S’MAC.

The food festival will also feature a tag sale, raffles, family portraits and much more. The school first held this festival in 2015 to commemorate 110 years of P.S 110.

P.S. 110 is at 285 Delancey St. at Lewis Street. The $10 entrance includes all food and entertainment

NYPD looking for suspect who robbed woman in 13th Street building

The #NYPD is asking the public’s assistance in identifying the male pictured here in connection to a Robbery that occurred on Sunday June 10 inside of 326 E13 St at 4:25PM. If you have any information we ask you to call #800577TIPS #EastVillage #NYC pic.twitter.com/kiI2DjhMRg

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) June 13, 2018

Police are looking for a man they say robbed a woman in her apartment building Sunday afternoon at 326 E. 13th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Town & Village has more details:

The victim, 20, was entering her building ... at about 4:30 p.m. when an unknown man grabbed her from behind.

He then demanded her bag, and when she turned it over, he ran out. The victim is believed to have lost $1,100 worth of property, including an iPhone and cash, as well as personal items.

The suspect is described as black and in his twenties; and last seen wearing a baseball cap, black hooded shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online.

Blue out at former Citibank branch on Avenue A

[June 9]

Less than a week since its arrival, someone painted over the mural that Solus (via the L.I.S.A Project NYC) created last Friday at the former Citibank branch on Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street...



Perhaps the landlord prefers this look...

Today's selection

EVG regular Daniel shared this photo today from Tompkins Square Park... where someone was putting the Sing For Hope piano to good use ... the setlist included works by Philip Glass and Ryuichi Sakamoto as well as something from the "Amélie" soundtrack.

The piano is scheduled to be in the Park though June 24.

Grant Shaffer's NY See

[Click on image to go big]

Here's this week's NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.

Mysterious 84 2nd Ave. sells again, this time for $7.8 million

[Photo yesterday by Derek Berg]

Ownership of 84 Second Ave. has changed hands now for the second time in two years.

In its real-estate transaction listings this week, the Times noted that the property was sold for $7.8 million. (The paperwork hit public records on May 16.)

Per the Times:

A local private investor has bought this vacant four-and-a-half-story mixed-use walk-up in the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. The 4,812-square-foot building, to be gutted and renovated, was once the site of Sopolsky’s Dress Suits, which rented dinner jackets and tuxedos, and in the mid-19th century served as a temporary home for women. Any development of air rights, totaling 4,788 square feet, is subject to approval by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Buyer: 84 2nd Avenue Owner L.L.C.

Seller: West 26th Street L.L.C.

The buyer shares the address of Highpoint Property Group, a real-estate development company.

According to public records, the building sold in May 2016 for $5.1 million. Betty Sopolsky via an LLC was the seller, with the buyer listed as West 26th Street L.L.C.

The previous set of owners were looking to make some major renovations to this walk-up between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. Landlords of buildings located within a designated New York City historic district must receive a permit from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for major work.

Among other things, there were plans to create four residential units (condos?). Those work permits had yet to receive city approval. (The city disapproved them last October, per the Department of Buildings.)

There was also a petition in circulation in opposition to the planned alterations to the rear of the building.

In January, CB3's Landmark's Committee issued a partial Certificate of Appropriateness for the address. (They issued a similar partial approval in October 2017.)

According to the official minutes from the January meeting, CB3 OK'd the front façade plan and opposed the rear yard addition. Among other points, CB3 officials said that "great care should be taken to monitor this fragile building and its neighboring buildings."

As we understand it, the previous owner didn't follow through with the plans with the LPC, instead selling the building.

As we've noted several times through the years, the address has a dark past, which includes the still-unsolved murder of Helen Sopolsky, proprietor of the family's tailor shop who was found bludgeoned to death in 1974, per an article at the time.

The storefront has remained empty since her death in 1974.


[Undated image via]

The new owners haven't filed any new work permits with the city to date.

The front door was open yesterday, revealing a gutted interior ... and door to a garden out back, as these photos by Derek Berg show...





Previously on EV Grieve:
Plywood and a petition at 84 2nd Ave.

Workers clearing out the mysterious 84 2nd Ave. storefront

Renovations proposed for mysterious 84 2nd Ave.

Papilles now open on 7th Street

Papilles debuted this week at 127 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Here's what Florence Fabricant at the Times had to say about it in a recap of openings around the city:

Andrea Calstier and Elena Oliver, a French couple and fledgling restaurateurs in their early 20s, have joined with a more experienced partner, Nicolas Thoni, to create an intimate spot with an open kitchen. Mr. Calstier’s menu is rooted in French-Mediterranean fare. The name of the restaurant translates to taste buds.

And a few interior shots via the restaurant's Instagram account...

A post shared by Papilles restaurant (@papillesnyc) on Jun 5, 2018 at 4:53pm PDT

A post shared by Papilles restaurant (@papillesnyc) on May 30, 2018 at 8:17pm PDT

This space was previously home in recent years to Le Village and Table Verte, both via owner Didier Pawlicki.

More about Sauce Pizzeria, opening later this summer on 12th Street

In late May we noted that signs were in the windows at 345 E. 12th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue for a new restaurant called Sauce Pizzeria.

EVG reader Adam C. thought that the logo looked similar to that of Sauce Restaurant on Allen and Rivington.

Good eye, Adam. A rep confirmed that Sauce Restaurant and Sauce Pizzeria are from the same ownership.

Here's what the rep shared:

Sauce Pizzeria will be a nostalgic pizza parlor, where homemade sauces are the star, each simmering pot visible upon entering the quaint yet eclectic space. At the counter, guests will be able to choose from a selection of signature pies, composed salads, and signature bowls.

Owner Adam Elzer has a heavy “sauce on everything” philosophy and will offer extra sides of sauce with all orders to enhance meals.

Sauce Pizzeria is slated to open at the end of the summer.