Closing Day at Gaia’s Italian Café

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

People, including me, are lined up and prepared to wait in the 95-degree heat on Sunday for a chance at scoring a last takeout meal at Gaia’s Italian Café.

Located for more than nine years at 251 E. Houston St. between Norfolk and Suffolk, Gaia Bagnasacco's eponymous restaurant is closing for many reasons, none of which its owner cares to discuss.

COVID-19 has not made anything easy on small businesses — ditto for the ever-fluctuating rules and regulations from the city. But there are also literal signs of a dispute with the upstairs neighbor (featuring "Vote Trump" messages), and indications that the disagreement hasn’t been helpful.



The restaurant posted this message on social media: "please be aware that the Gaia Italian Cafe due to end of the lease, eviction and to two year of harassment will close, our last day of operation is on July 26th" leaving open the possibility it will reopen elsewhere.

When pressed, Gaia would only say that she is keeping her options open, including looking for a possible take-out/to-go-only spot.







Gaia, famed for her Milanese cooking and her at-times fiery temper (she’s gotten into some scuffles online with reviewers on Yelp and Facebook) as well as in person. On this Sunday, people are lined up to, as one patron jokes, "Have her yell at me one last time before feeding me the most delicious home-cooked meal ever."

Some people have come bearing gifts, including rubber duckies, which Gaia collects.





Fellow restaurateurs, such as Yudai Kanayama from Izakaya, have come to show support.


[Yudai Kanayama]

Despite the heat, humidity and line — no one seems to be complaining.



After a long wait, I nab one of the last plates of house-favorite spinach and ricotta gnocchi in tomato sauce and a rare smile from Gaia. Worth it.



Gaia recommends keeping an eye on her website and social media presence for any potential future updates.

iSouvlaki debuts on 12th Street

Today marks the official debut of iSouvlaki at 139 E. 12th St. at Third Avenue.

James Paloumbis, whose credits include Merakia on West 22nd Street and Gossip Coffee in Astoria, is behind iSouvlaki, described as a fast, casual grill.

Per a rep:

Highlights from the menu include meritha (assorted platters), loukaniko souvlaki and pork tylikto. There are a variety of Greek salads and vegetarian options available. An assortment of Greek desserts are featured, including sour cherry yogurt and halva. Greek beers and small bottles of wine can also be purchased.

For now, they're offering takeout as well as a few sidewalk tables. Delivery starts on Aug. 11. And the hours: Monday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m., with an 11 p.m. close on Friday and Saturday. Their website goes live on Monday. You can call them — 212-401-5747 — in the meantime.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• iSouvlaki Greek Grill on tap for 139 E. 12th St.

A quick entrance and exit for O Ramen & Dim Sum M on 9th Street

After just two weeks, O Ramen & Dim Sum M has closed up for now here at 350 E. Ninth St. just west of First Avenue.

Word along the block: Business was nearly non-existent, and the owners decided to shut down for a few months. They'll apparently try again when the food market might not be so brutal.

The previous tenant, beQu Juice, closed here last November after nearly six years in business.

Thanks to Steven for the photo!

More details about the slashing outside the Black Ant on Friday night

Here’re some still shots... take a good look please!

Anyone with information, please call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can DM 📲 @NYPDTips too. There’s a 💵 #reward! pic.twitter.com/R5soCHFmFm

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) July 26, 2020

The NYPD released more images and surveillance video of the suspect wanted in connection with a slashing outside the Black Ant on Friday night. There's also up to a $2,500 reward for information that will help in the investigation.

As previously reported, the man, said to be drunk, showed up as the restaurant on Second Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street was closing and demanded to be served. Tensions escalated after staff wouldn't serve him.

The man reportedly then whipped out a knife while fighting with staff and other patrons. Spencer Grammer and her friend were among those jumping in to help.

Grammer, an actress known for her voice work on "Rick and Morty," was slashed on the arm while her friend was stabbed in the back. Both were treated and released from Bellevue for their injuries.

Grammer, an East Village resident, said this in a statement to USA Today: "My friend and I did what anyone else would do in the same situation. Several others, predominantly women, were also attempting to prevent the altercation from escalating."

Urine in trouble if you pee here?

Dave on 7th notes new signage on Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B:

Any person urinating in public will be prosecuted

Area under surveillance

(Don't tell anyone, but it's a fake sign. Urinating in public is a misdemeanor. Per Administrative Code Section 16-118 — Public Urination are eligible to plead guilty and pay a $50 fine by mail. This program is available to persons charged with this petty offense only, and only if no other summonses are issued to the individual at the same time.)

City temporarily removes makeshift living quarters from the NW corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street

[Photo Saturday by Steven]

Workers from the Sanitation Department on Saturday reportedly removed the encampment beneath the sidewalk bridge on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street.

The action came on the same day that the Post criticized Mayor de Blasio for his non-action on such encampments — despite his calls to remove them around the city.

The Post spoke with people who were upset by the makeshift living quarters that had increased in size here between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place in recent weeks:

“It makes me feel uncomfortable. It makes our city dirty and noisy,” said neighborhood resident Olga, 78, who’s lived in the East Village for 33 years.

“There was one woman who was making pee-pee and caca by the bus stop. It was very dirty and disgusting. Nobody wanted to use the bus stop.”

The owner of an eatery across the street also said the situation appeared to be spiraling out of control.

“They started camping out there when the weather got warmer and recently it got bigger,” the restaurateur said.

“Some of them have mental issues. They drink a lot and fight with each other. They throw bottles.”

Although the Post posted a video showing city workers cleaning out the sidewalk on Saturday, people had returned by yesterday...


[Photo by Steven]

In recent years, this corner has been a gathering spot in the summer for travelers/crusties. In October 2018 (pre-sidewalk bridge), for instance, the NYPD set up a light tower here to deter anyone from congregating and camping out.

This corner is the site of the deadly gas explosion in March 2015.

Workers are currently wrapping up construction of a six-story, 21-unit condoplex for 45 E. Seventh St.

In recent months residents-readers have also expressed concerns about encampments popping up on other Second Avenue locations, including outside the former Starbucks on Ninth Street, the northeast corner at Sixth Street, the northeast corner at Fourth Street, the northeast corner at Third Street (at the former Bean) and along the former Church of the Nativity between Second Street and Third Street.

Former Associated in Stuy Town now for rent

Broker marketing is now up along the former Associated Supermarket on 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... the space is apparently between downtown and downtime...





The listing hasn't arrived online just yet.

The supermarket, that served Stuy Town and parts of the East Village, closed this past December.

Joseph Falzon, the store’s owner, previously told Crain's that a confluence of factors had cut business nearly in half. For starters, construction on 14th Street for the L train obscured the supermarket with a 12-foot fence for nearly two years.

A Trader Joe's opened across the street in early January. (The Target on 14th and A opened in July 2018)

During the pandemic, City Harvest is using the space for a distribution center called the Stuy Town Pantry.

Lhasa is a Tibetan restaurant coming to 1st Avenue

After three years on the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street, Little Tong shut its doors in mid-March. (They did return shortly after for donation-based takeout meals.)

A sign is up now at the space with news of the next tenant — Lhasa, a Tibetan restaurant (thanks to Steven for the photos!) ...



Will update when more details are available about the new venture.

In an Instagram post from March, Simone Tong, Little Tong's chef and owner, cited the coronavirus outbreak as the driving force behind the closure. The Midtown East location remains open.

What's happening with the Ten Degrees space on St. Mark's Place

In recent weeks it has been difficult to tell what businesses might be temporarily closed and which ones may be gone for good.

Ten Degrees, the bar-bistro at 127 St. Mark's Place, has been dark of late, and the interior has looked to be in disarray...



However, the space here between Avenue A and First Avenue is only closed for a renovation. Management has been sharing updates on Instagram, with the latest posted this past Friday... they are using the COVID-19 PAUSE to take "the opportunity to make some remodeling changes and get the bar looking fresh."

Here's the 99-Cent Pizza & Hot Dog signage on Avenue A

[Photos by Steven]

The signage arrived back on Friday here at 131 Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street...



Aside from pizza and hot dog, the small to-go shop will serve — per the sign — "sandwich, cheese bread and chicken wings."

And as previously noted, this will be the third 99-cent pizza shop on Avenue A between Houston and Ninth Street, joining Alphabet 99-Cent Fresh Pizza and 99¢ Pizza. (There's also FDR 99¢ Slice Pizza just off of A on Second Street.)

Week in Grieview

[Tuesday's EV sunrise]

Posts this last week included...

• RIP Phyllis Somerville (Tuesday)

• RIP Frans Nieuwendam (Wednesday)

• One month on, a look at curbside dining in the East Village (Thursday)

• Odessa is closed for now, but will it reopen? (Wednesday)

• Good samaritans slashed outside 2nd Avenue restaurant (Saturday)

• A memorial for Fahim Saleh on East Houston Street (Monday)

• Drag racing on First Avenue (Saturday)

• Mother of Pearl and Honey Bee's close to make way for a larger Amor y Amargo on Avenue A (Monday)

• At the Lower East Side Sports Academy car wash on Avenue D (Friday)

• Bluestockings is leaving its Allen Street home of 21 years: "This is not goodbye" (Tuesday)

• Renovations at long last for the haunted beauty at 104 E. 10th St. (Tuesday)

• A grim small business outlook (Wednesday)

• Last day for I Need More (Monday)

• Pastry alert: French bakery set to open next month at 229 1st Ave. (Tuesday)

• Hit Japanese coffee cafe Hi-Collar moves to a larger space on 9th Street (Monday)

• New brief says city must stop plans to raze East River Park (Wednesday)

• About the for-rent sign at Tac N Roll on 4th Street (Monday)

• (Another) new owner for 243 E. 7th St. (Thursday)

• This weeks NY See panel (Thursday)

• The East Village Eviction Free Zone (Friday)

• A locksmith for this retail space on 10th Street (Monday)

• The former Lions & Tigers & Squares space is for rent on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

• Sushi Kai opening soon on 9th Street (Thursday)

... and a new Frank Ape-Sac Six zen collaboration on Avenue A...



---

Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

[Updated] Police protection for the Samuel S. Cox statue in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Steven]

The NYPD put up barricades last evening around the Samuel S. Cox statue at the Seventh Street and Avenue A entrance to Tompkins Square Park. Police told residents who asked that they were there to protect the statue. (They've also restricted access to the chess tables.)

There was a large police presence here last night. Three officers are on duty this morning.

The statue, created in 1891, has been in this location since 1924. It was tagged overnight with ACAB and "black power" on July 16-17.

Cox (1824–1889) was a longtime member of Congress who "spearheaded legislation that led to paid benefits and a 40-hour workweek for postal employees."

However, according to the History News Network: "Cox fancied himself a champion of the United States Constitution but somehow his interpretation of the Constitution always seemed to deny rights to Blacks. On June 2, 1862, a year after the Civil War had begun but six months before the Emancipation Proclamation, Cox argued in Congress that the United States was made for white men only."

Earlier this summer, the city announced it was removing the statue of Theodore Roosevelt — long considered a racist symbol — from the American Museum of Natural History's entrance.

The death of George Floyd has led to the removal — by protesters in some cases and city leaders in others — of statues across the country because of the racist ideals they represent.

It wasn't immediately known if any direct action against the Cox statue was in the works.

Updated 7/26

A reader says they police removed the barriers from around the chess tables on Monday afternoon...

[Updated]: Good samaritans slashed outside 2nd Avenue restaurant

ABC 7 is reporting that an intoxicated man slashed two diners who were trying to help restaurant workers last night on Second Avenue.

The incident was said to happen before midnight at Dia on Second Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street. [Updated: The location changed to Black Ant, right next door to Dia.]

Per ABC 7:

According to witnesses, the incident started when an intoxicated man approached restaurant workers and demanded to be served.

The workers refused to serve him a drink, which angered the man, and that's when the couple attempted to defuse the tense situation.

The man was slashed in the back and the woman in the arm.

The couple, said to be in their 20s, were treated and released from Bellevue. The NYPD has not released a description of the suspect.

Updated 9 p.m.

A lot more details about what happened have emerged throughout the day.

The location of the slashing has changed to Black Ant next door. The Post had six reporters on the story:

The mayhem erupted at around 11:30 p.m. at The Black Ant on Second Avenue, where a man, who appeared intoxicated, tried to get a table at the cozy eatery. He was rebuffed because the restaurant was about to close — sending him into a dyspeptic tailspin, multiple sources and bystanders said.

The drunk wouldn’t leave the restaurant, and instead began fighting with a male diner, who picked up a chair and began swinging it — and soon, more than a dozen employees and onlookers joined in the al-fresco free-for-all.

That's when Spencer Grammer, 36, and her friend Jan Phillip Mueller, 31, who were not originally involved in the argument, tried to diffuse the situation.

Per the Post, the suspect was "described as buff, bald and wearing a white shirt, and who may have had a female companion — had already fled on Third Street. Cops don’t believe the attacker was homeless, sources said."

The NYPD released this image of the suspect...



Grammer, an East Village resident, is a voiceover actor on Adult Swim's "Rick and Morty" and the daughter of Kelsey Grammer.

[Updated] The fast ... and the furious

There was one vague reader report last night before midnight about some drag racing happening on First Avenue at St. Mark's Place... this is the morning-after shot...



... and there's some video, sent as a response to a Gov. Cuomo tweet warning weekend partygoers to be safe...

Crowds parked for fake staged drag racing for a planned online event at St Marks & 1st. Crowding up East Village for a spike. pic.twitter.com/qgWk4rXx4A

— Alexis Idone (@purebellanyc) July 25, 2020

The "fake staged drag racing" looks pretty authentic from the video clip.

Updated 7/26

Here's a reader photo showing the gathering — estimated up to 150 people and 25 illegally parked cars — on First Avenue and St. Mark's Place...



The reader who took the photo said: "It was truly one of the most effed-up things I've witnessed in my many years in the EV. And I've seen some crazy stuff."

According to different reader estimates, it took the NYPD nearly an hour to arrive and break up the drag racing — and this was after numerous calls to 911 and 311 and laps around the block by the participating cars.

Repave Tompkins?

There's a message to Repave Tompkins in one of the chalk hearts at the entrance to Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A and Seventh Street.

You can definitely make the case for that just by looking inside the entrance at the pathways ...

Friday's parting shot

A quick, socially distant set this evening by Moral Panic on Second Street...

Heart and soul

Local band SUSU, led by Liza Colby and Kia Warren, debuted a new single last week (via Bust!) called "It Can’t Be Over" from their upcoming debut EP, Panther City.

Here's your Ralph's signage on Avenue A

As we've been reporting, an outpost of Ralph's Famous Italian Ices & Ice Cream is coming to 145 Avenue A and Ninth Street.

And as you can see, the Ralph's signage has arrived. (Thanks to Steven for the photo!)

The business dates to 1928 when Ralph Silvestro started selling Italian ice (or water ice) from his truck around Staten Island. The first retail store opened in 1949 on Port Richmond Avenue in Staten Island. In recent years the company has franchised out, expanding to other parts of NYC as well as Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester County.

No word about an opening date just yet for Ralph's.

At the Lower East Side Sports Academy car wash on Avenue D

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m meeting with Lower East Side Sports Academy founder Frankie Alameda on a very hot Thursday afternoon on upper Avenue D near 14th Street. We're in the shadow of the Con Edison substation and across the street from the Manhattan pump station (NYC Environmental Protection municipal water treatment building). His sports academy’s team is in action — washing cars as part of an ongoing fundraiser.

Frankie has set up a mobile car wash station to help provide summer jobs and activities for local kids and to provide a much-needed service for those who own or drive vehicles.



Frankie’s arriving with pizza for himself and the kids, and with bags of PPE to provide to community members who may be in need. Masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and wet wipes are all provided by the office of local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein.



Between overseeing the kids’ work on the line of waiting cars, distributing tips from satisfied customers, and greeting neighborhood regulars, Frankie answers my questions about the car wash.

How did the car wash idea get started, and how is it tied in to the Lower East Side Sports Academy?

The car wash concept started with the idea of raising some money for LES Sports RBI baseball team, for uniforms, equipment, healthy snacks and scholarships for the kids.

How can kids — and their families — get involved with the car wash and the LES Sports Academy?

LES Sports kids earn a stipend and get tips as well from our customers. We have created five jobs for the community. The parents come and help with posting on social media, bringing their cars, and helping with some food.



When is the car wash available and how long do you expect it to last?

The car wash is available every day from noon to 7 p.m. and we plan to stay until the end of the summer, adjusting the hours to accommodate play once that is allowed and it’s safe.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown, what has been the best part of this experience, and what has been the worst? How are the kids coping?

The pandemic has given us time to focus on new ways to reinvent ourselves and the community. The worst part is not being able to have physical sports for our kids ... I believe most kids are coping with the pandemic, but some have very tough times being home in a small apartment with a large family. Cabin fever!

You mentioned that you hope eventually to buy a generator and a van. What are some of the needs you and the kids have going forward? How can the community support the effort?

Since we opened the car wash, we noticed we needed more things to make our work more efficient and make the cars nice and clean. We are hoping to get a mobile car wash van, with a power wash, and lastly, a generator to be complete.









What’s next for the car wash team?

Sharing our best practices with other youth sports organizations.

You can keep up with the Lower East Side Sports Academy and the car wash — as well as other activities for kids — here. They have a PayPal account at this link.

The East Village Eviction Free Zone

As seen on Avenue A (the flyers are posted elsewhere in the neighborhood). No other information was posted with the flyer, which reads:

Sisters and Brothers, East Village residents: Many of our friends and neighbors, as a consequence of the pandemic, have fallen into serious rent arrears and are in danger of losing their homes due to no fault of their own. Any of us could be facing the same fate. We must come together as one body and defend one another!

We are calling on all of you to help organize the East Village Eviction Free Zone in order to prevent the looming reality of mass evictions throughout our community.

We are calling on you to be part of an Eviction Watch Network that will spring into action the moment one of our neighbors is faced with being forced from their homes out into the street. The kind of action we are talking about is Direct Action to block the marshals from evicting our neighbors.

By coming together and defending one another we will force the banks and the politicians to enact policies that draw funds from the rich in order to bail out the owners and the tenants facing this housing crisis. The calamity of the virus should not be born by those least able to do so, while the immorality and injustice of evicting women, men and children from their homes amidst the pandemic, which threatens to reemerge, is self evidently obscene and must be opposed!

Build the East Village Eviction Free Zone!!

Stay tuned for more to come!