Another Evening at Ray's Candy Store: A Special Restaurant Week Chef's Tasting Event!
Date: Monday, Aug. 20 (Today!)
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: 113 Avenue A at Seventh Street
Cost: $10 per person (cash only)
Join us at the shop and enjoy a most unique tasting menu cooked up by Chef Ray himself! Once again, guests will be served a 5-course tasting menu made up of a selection of Ray's favorites! Your choice of egg cream, coffee, tea or soft drink included.
Some news to note from last week ... when LIHC Investment Group, one of the largest affordable-housing owners in the country, finalized a deal with the city to preserve 669 Section 8 apartments, including 243 in the East Village.
Here are details via a NYC Housing Preservation and Development news release:
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) join LIHC Investment Group to announce the preservation of 669 units of project-based Section 8 housing in high-cost New York City neighborhoods where the majority of similar buildings have converted to market-rate.
This preservation is made possible through tax-abatements under Article XI and new 40-year regulatory agreements with the City of New York covering six different properties in Inwood, Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Williamsburg and the Lower East Side.
The agreements were reached through Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan, which outlines commitments to protect affordable housing and created policies and programs intended to fight displacement.
And here are details about the housing in this neighborhood...
Lower East Side I & II Apartments are located at 384 East 10th Street and 199 Avenue B in Manhattan. Lower East Side I contains 152 project-based Section 8 units, while Lower East Side II contains 91 project-based Section 8 units. All units will be maintained as affordable to tenants whose annual income does not exceed 50 percent of AMI.
Co-owners LIHC and Center Development Corporation will execute approximately $7 million in capital improvements including installing new kitchen countertops and appliances; bathroom fixtures, tile floors, and fittings; laminate wood flooring, doors and lighting in all apartments.
The owners of Calexico, the Cal-Mex burrito-beer chainlet, is vying for the current Brick Lane Curry House space at 99 Second Ave.
Brothers Brian, Dave, and Jesse Vendley are on tonight's CB3-SLA agenda for a new liquor license for No. 99, which is between Fifth Street and Sixth Street...
The questionnaire posted to the CB3 website (PDF here) shows proposed hours of 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. The layout features 15 tables inside and six tables for a sidewalk cafe ... plus a 14-seat bar.
Calexico currently has a handful of NYC locations (Upper East Side, Greenpoint, Park Slope, Red Hook, among them) as well as in Detroit — and Bahrain.
As for Brick Lane Curry House... there is an unconfirmed rumor on the block that they will relocate a block to the south... to the former Heart of India storefront...
A Japanese restaurant is coming to 131 Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.
Applicants representing an LLC called Ays Noodle Company have applied for a beer-wine license for the former Baci e Vendetta space.
The restaurant is TabeTomo.
The applicants are on tonight's CB3-SLA agenda, though this item won't be heard in front of the committee.
There are also renderings of the interior on the front doors...
According to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website (PDF here), Tabetomo will be open daily from 11 a.m. to midnight. The questionnaire lists eight tables to accommodate 24 diners. There's also a 15-seat bar.
This is the second L.A. ramen transplant to venture into the East Village this summer. Tatsu Ramen, with two locations in Los Angeles, opened its first NYC outpost last month at 167 First Ave.
Baci e Vendetta closed at 131 Avenue A in March after nearly 16 months in service. Nic Ratner, a partner in Baci e Vendetta, told me that business for the Italian cafe wasn't sustainable with only a beer-and-wine license.
Here's more about them via the Thai Direct website:
Our Thai bowls are healthy versions of famous street Thai dishes using our own Thai sauces made with authentic, natural, and non GMO ingredients with no MSG and no or minimal amount of sugar added. Our Thai sauces are gluten and dairy free.
We offer two ways for you to enjoy our Thai bowls. You can either choose one of our beloved bowls or create your own signature bowl to enjoy it the way you most prefer. Kin Hai Aroy! (Bon Appétit in Thai)
The bowls are available for pick up or delivery. (Most of the 32-ounce bowls are priced at $12.)
Thai Direct debuted in early 2017 in Brooklyn, serving Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick, according to this article via DNAinfo.
According to a tipster: "They withdrew completely and are not interested in that space at all."
That space previously housed Lovecraft, which was inspired by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. That bar-restaurant closed in early 2018 after three-and-a-half years in business. The other piece of this parcel, the slice joint Johnny Favorite's, shuttered in August 2017 after debuting in April 2015.
The signage arrived for Gala on Saturday here at 92 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street ... joining the neon hand-held skewer...
We don't know too much about Gala just yet (their questionnaire on file with CB3 described it as a "high-end Chinese restaurant.") ... it's opening in the former Blue 9 Burger space.
You may now buy your Halloween costume this August (Monday)
... and there's a free screening tomorrow at 1 p.m. of "Desperately Seeking Susan" at the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street... On Thursday, the day that Aretha Franklin died, our friend Alex pointed out this scene from the film ... featuring Madonna (who happened to turn 60 on Thursday) at Love Saves the Day (one of the buildings destroyed in the deadly March 2015 gas explosion on Second Avenue) ... and a soundtrack courtesy of Aretha ...
EVG regulars Vinny & O shared these photos from the new Target store, which is holding its grand opening celebration today at Grand and Clinton on the Lower East Side. (This outpost officially debuted back on Wednesday.)
Targeters are handing out a variety of freebies ... and there are photo opps with a giant pair of red Target sunglasses.
Not to be found: An homage to the Lower East Side with a CBGB-themed TRGT storefront, which was the widely panned centerpiece of the grand opening on 14th Street and Avenue A last month.
Jacqueline DeBuse, a Target PR rep, indicated that no similar publicity stunts are planned on Grand Street. “We know with the East Village grand opening,” said DeBuse, “some guests loved it, and others felt we missed the mark. So we really listened to that feedback as we were preparing the opening for this store.”
The Target is one of the retail tenants in the 15-story development at Essex Crossing Site 5 — aka The Rollins. A Trader Joe's is set to open in this complex later in the fall.
A 23-year-old homeless man, identified as Arturo Valdez, was fatally stabbed in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Chrystie Street yesterday afternoon in a reported feud over the drug K2.
According to the Daily News, the suspect, Larry Fullewellen, 70, was arrested last evening at Port Authority. Fullewellen, who was still carrying a bloody knife, was charged with second-degree murder.
"This used to be a nice park," one witness told the Daily News. "The young kids come out here and play ball. They’re not thinking about K2 or murder."
Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen, the basement cafe that serves as a fundraising arm of the St George Ukrainian Catholic Church, is coming back from its customary summer hiatus.... and will be open tomorrow (Sunday!) and next weekend... per their announcement on Instagram...
Updated: The rain has moved the festivities inside MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
The MoRUS Film Festival heads to La Plaza Cultural on the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C this evening... for a David Bowie extravaganza ... which will include a screening of "The Man Who Fell to Earth," the Nicolas Roeg sci-fi classic from 1976. The festivities get underway at 7 p.m. with music via DJ Stephen Popkin.
The assault occurred steps away from the greenspace around 11:10 a.m. near 4th Avenue and Union Square East, leaving the victim with a laceration to his head, cops said.
Emergency responders rushed the man to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The suspect, whom police described as about 5 feet 10 and who wore a black shirt and multicolored shorts, fled eastbound on East 13th Street.
Other media outlets are reporting the same basics at the moment. There isn't a better description of the suspect for the time being... and the motive for the attack is unclear.
The 7-Eleven on Grand Street in Seward Park is closing (The Lo-Down)
... and EVG reader Emily Reese shared these photos of Jim Power hard at work installing mosaics featuring local businesses on the southeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place...
In this archive, you'll discover photos like this from the early 1960s showing the north side of First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, including (L-R) 40-56 E. First St. (For a reference point, Prune is at 54 E. First St. today.)
You can find "Carole Teller’s Changing New York, 1960s-1990s" featuring shots of the East Village, Lower East Side and some other areas right here.
And here's one more photo from this series... a look at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place circa 1991...
The Tompkins Square Library branch is at 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. Find the full list of free activities — such as a walking tour of Tompkins Square Park on Saturday — that the library offers at this link.
