Cantilevering condoplex next to Rite Aid looking glassy

A milestone of sorts to note at 75 First Ave., the 8-floor (plus that bulkhead) cantilevering condoplex next to Rite Aid between Fourth Street and Fifth Street — workers have put in the glass on the north-facing side.

And some details about the building via the 75 First Ave. website, which lists that nine of the units are in contract:

The building lobby boasts a fumed glass door entrance, lava stone floors and walls, and a contrasting yellow travertine stone desk. Black stucco adorns the elevator walls, while the private residents lounge features a yellow travertine stone fireplace, white stucco walls with brass reveals, a pool table, and several areas of seating. Additional amenities include a full-time doorman, a landscaped rooftop, a fitness center, and bicycle storage.

Available units include 1 and 3-bedroom homes with several 1-bedrooms featuring sizeable home offices, and a dazzling selection of Penthouse residences crown the building. Each home of 75 First Ave blends a modern open layout with sleek finishes, Italian doors and hardware by Lualdi, and gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows. Kitchens are equipped with white and greige matte lacquered cabinets custom made in Italy by Arclinea, white Carrara marble countertops and backsplash, Fantini faucets, and top-of-the-line Miele appliances. Bathrooms are adorned with custom sinks and vanities, and Piasentina stone flooring.

The Colonnade Group developed the building, created by HTO Architect and designed by Stefano Pasqualetti.

This project has been taking its time. The ground breaking took place in September 2016. The build included nearly 14 months of inactivity.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• 2020 vision: New completion set for Rite Aid-adjacent condoplex on 1st Avenue

• High-rise for 75 First Avenue back in play

• Long-stalled First Avenue site now has a brand-new rendering

• Plywood report and the future of 75 1st Ave. (Spoiler: condos)

Sunday's parting shot

At the Ninth Street and Avenue A entrance to Tompkins Square Park today... photo by William Klayer...

Week in Grieview

[Photo on A today by Derek Berg]

Posts this last week included...

• RIP Annette Averette (Wednesday)

• RIP Carol Porteous-Fall (Friday)

• SOS: Local business owners discuss their COVID-19-related rent challenges (Thursday)

• Bluestockings closes on Allen Street; new LES location in the works (Thursday)

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

• Checking in with East Village artist Ethan Minsker (Wednesday)

• Closing Day at Gaia’s Italian Café (Tuesday)

• John's of 12th Street is back in action (Friday)

• More details about the slashing outside the Black Ant (Monday)

• Bali Kitchen will offer a weekend service through August (Saturday)

• Ben & Jerry's peace out of St. Mark's Place (Friday)

• A petition to allow patrons to sit at a bar without having to order a meal (Saturday)

• This week's NY See panel (Thursday)

• Van Đa returns to service on 4th Street (Thursday)

• Sidewalk bridge arrives ahead of the demolition of the former Church of the Nativity (Tuesday)

• Gutting the former Hells Angels clubhouse on 3rd Street (Wednesday)

• iSouvlaki debuts on 12th Street (Tuesday)

• Parlor says goodbye to the East Village after 25-plus years (Thursday)

• Lhasa is a Tibetan restaurant coming to 1st Avenue (Monday)

• Le Sia has closed on 7th Street (Wednesday)

• Former Associated in Stuy Town now for rent (Monday)

• What's happening with the Ten Degrees space on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

... and didn't get the chance to note some of the downed limbs in Tompkins Square as a result of the late-night storms this past Thursday... Steven shared these photos...







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

New signage and an expansion for Dual Specialty Store on 1st Avenue

Activity this morning at Dual Specialty Store, 91 First Ave. between Fifth Street and Sixth Street.

Workers are in the process of putting in new signage here... (and it is now going by Duals! Unless that s is a typo...)



And it appears that they are opening a Dual outpost — selling herbs and teas — in the empty space (formerly a spa) upstairs...



Will check back in on this later.

Dual, one of the more unique and essential shops around, carries a wide variety of bulk Indian spices, herbs, groceries and beer.

Learn more about the 32-year-old shop here.

An unplugged riot anniversary show in Tompkins Square Park

An unplugged (mostly!) version of the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot 32nd Anniversary show was set for this weekend.

There was a full slate of bands, including Spike Polite and Sewage as seen below, and speakers...



Unfortunately, given today's forecast for rain and potential thunderstorms, organizers cancelled Day 2.

Here's a quick look from yesterday via EVG contributor Stacie Joy...









Pinc Louds also performed in the Park last evening... she has been garnering a following this summer in the Park... follow her on Instagram here for upcoming dates.

A tribute to Elijah McClain in First Street Green Art Park

New this past week in First Street Green Art Park ... a tribute to Elijah McClain by the Brooklyn-based artist Vincent Ballentine.

As he wrote on Instagram:

#elijahmcclain was a specifically painful story for me. After teaching art for 5 years, he reminds me of all the young men I’ve worked with. To the artsy, sensitive, introverted and magical minds, you have purpose.

Elijah McClain was walking home from a convenience store in Aurora, Colo., carrying a bottle of iced tea last August when three police officers tackled him after receiving a 911 call about a suspicious man in a ski mask. McClain, a 23-year-old massage who taught himself how to play violin and guitar, was put in a stranglehold by police and injected with ketamine. He died six days later.

Bali Kitchen, officially closing today, will do a weekend service through August

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Bali Kitchen is having its last official day of service today here at 128 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (Chef/owner Jazz Pasay recommends you that order online ahead of time.)

The penultimate day found the chef and his husband, David Prettyman, in the weeds with long lines of people waiting to get a last bowl of gado-gado or nasi goreng.



As previously reported, the Indonesian restaurant is closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I asked Jazz and David about the situation and their future plans.


[Jazz & David]

Jazz says that "a large percentage of our business is catering for offices, hundreds of people for lunches and events, and since the offices are closed [due to COVID-19] there is no work. Also, there are no tourists — we get a lot of Indonesian tourists, and international students, and so business has dried up."

There is some hope though if you can’t make it in today for a meal, as Jazz is creating a limited-menu weekend run, just for August (the lease is up at the end of this month). Bali Kitchen will be open Saturdays and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a new weekly menu.

Also in the works: a potential pop-up restaurant concept focusing on seafood with Essex Market’s Marketline-based southeast Asian dessert stall Moon Man and Sea Monster Indonesian grilled seafood pop-up partner Nigel Sielegar.


[Jazz and Sielegar]

Both Jazz and Nigel talked with me about the importance of raising awareness about Indonesian food and culture, and speculated about why Indonesian food isn’t widely known.


[Jazz with neighbor Lek of Lui’s Thai Food]

In the interim, Jazz and David plan to keep the catering business open and have also been tossing around the idea of mobile food delivery. You can keep tabs on what Bali Kitchen is up to on Instagram.



Previously on EV Grieve:
• A visit to Bali Kitchen on 4th Street

A petition to allow patrons to sit at a bar without having to order a meal

In response to Gov. Cuomo's recent mandate that people sitting outside a bar also need to be ordering a "substantive" amount of food from the establishment, Abby Ehmann, owner of Lucky on Avenue B, launched a petition to amend the executive order.

On June 22, outdoor dining returned to NYC. At the time, Cuomo did not specify that only restaurants could provide the service. Bars, who previously were selling drinks to go, could now set up tables provided they also continue to serve snacks.

However, with some bars — notably White Horse Tavern — not adhering to any kind of social distancing, Cuomo said on July 23 that to stay open, establishments needed to offer more than chips and pretzels.

"To be a bar, you had to have food available — soups, sandwiches, etc.," he said in a press conference. "More than just hors d'oeuvres, chicken wings, you had to have some substantive food."

Now bars, already under a financial strain and working with skeleton crews, need to create a menu and whip up a kitchen or be forced to close — even if they never served food before the COVID-19 PAUSE.

"The ever-changing rules and lack of clarity are creating enormous challenges and concerns for small business owners who are in a crisis," Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, told The Daily Mail last week.

To the petition:

The resulting mandate not only puts an onerous burden on bar owners, it has no bearing on safety or health. All super-spreader events have been about ventilation — or the lack thereof — and proximity, not what the people were ingesting.

Rather than legislating what customers must order, I believe it would be safer and smarter to require customers be seated while consuming whatever they want. If no standing is allowed, the possibility of overcrowding is eliminated.

New York is fortunate that our capable leadership has managed to flatten the curve and make us among the top states in the nation in virus containment. Restaurant and bar owners celebrate that success and want to help ensure that our numbers remain low. We are aggressively invested in keeping our customers healthy.

If we, as business owners, are able to maintain social distancing, with tables six feet apart, and require that all our customers be seated, we can easily help contain the spread of the virus. SEATING NOT EATING is a far more elegant solution. It also does not require additional staffing or other expenditures that place an additional burden on an industry that is already suffering severe financial hardship. What people consume on our premises isn’t the problem. HOW they are consuming does, and I believe they should be seated.

You can find the petition at this link.

Another weekend for pop ups at 50 Avenue A

Milk Money Kitchens is hosting another weekend pop-up breakfast service at 50 Avenue A (the former Villa Cemita space) between Third Street and Fourth Street today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Today's menu: Organic egg sandwiches from Eggdays and coffee via Black 6 Coffee Trading Co as well as kombucha popsicles from The Better Pop.

Milk Money Kitchens, which provides commercial kitchen rentals and consulting services for food businesses, is opening soon right next door on Avenue A.

6 posts from July 2020

[Recent skyview from 1st and 1st]

A mini month in review...

• Closing Day at Gaia’s Italian Café (July 28)

• One month on, a look at curbside dining in the East Village (July 23)

• Odessa is closed for now, but will it reopen? (July 22)

• The final days at I Need More, the late Jimmy Webb's rock 'n' roll boutique on the LES (July 18)

• Let's stroll through Tompkins Square Park on this June 1, 1967 (July 8)

• 6 E. 2nd St., home of Ramones history, is for sale (July 6)

By the 'Month'

Dehd, the Chicago-based indie-rock trio, just released a new record titled Flower of Devotion.

The above video is for the track "Month."

Ben & Jerry's peace out of St. Mark's Place

The East Village is without a Ben & Jerry's once again. The family-owned location on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is now officially closed. The signage came down this afternoon...



Steven took the top two photos... Lola Sáenz shared this shot...



... and via Derek Berg...



A rep for this location said that the final blow was the break-in/looting here on June 1.

This Ben & Jerry's opened at 24 St. Mark's Place in January 2018.

As noted before, there was a Ben & Jerry's outpost at 41 Third Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street for 22 years before its closure in September 2010.

H/T @mishamc!

Previously on EV Grieve:
7 years later, a Ben & Jerry's is returning to the East Village

RIP Carol Porteous-Fall

Carol Porteous-Fall, a longtime East Village resident, eco-activist and yoga enthusiast, died on July 20 after being diagnosed with leukemia in the spring.

An online memorial service is set for tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 1 at 3 p.m. You may find the memorial tomorrow at this link.

A GoFundMe campaign that was established by her friends in the spring is now being used to settle her estate and provide her son Lateef with some aid.

Carol had been a friend to this site, and contributed on occasion.

She wrote this about herself on LinkedIn:

I’m excited about music, yoga, psychology, social justice, dancing, reading, watching, community gardens, cultures, riding my bike around the city, and more ... just by experiencing life from various vantage points, really, and getting to know all kinds of people.

John's of 12th Street is back in action

[Photo from earlier this month]

After being sidelined for two-plus months for building "mechanical issues," John's of 12th Street reopens this afternoon.

Moving forward, they'll be open for takeout and delivery from 4 to 10 p.m. They'll have outdoor seating available — starting tomorrow, Aug. 1 — from 4 to 9:30 p.m.

John's, which first opened in 1908, is at 302 E. 12th St. just east of Second Avenue. Find the menu here.

CB3 hosting virtual town on workplace rights

Community Board 3 is hosting the following virtual town hall on Monday evening (Aug. 3) at 6:30:

Know your Workplace Rights During COVID-19 and the Reopening of NYC with Commissioner Lorelia Salas, NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection

You can register to take part and find more program details via this link.

Noted

Spotted outside the former Hells Angels Clubhouse on Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... homemade signage that reads:

Make 3rd Street the Hell's Angels again

The Hells Angels left here in March 2019. The building, as we just noted, is in the midst of a gut renovation to apartments.

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood — and perhaps the rest of New York.

Today is the last day for Bluestockings on Allen Street; new LES location in the works

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Updated 8/8: Bluestockings has a new home here.

As previously reported, Bluestockings, a volunteer- and collective-run bookstore, activist space and fair-trade café, is closing its 21-year-old Allen Street location.

Today (Thursday!) is the last day in business. From noon until 6 p.m. you can support the space by shopping its sidewalk sale and buying books, priced $1 to $5, or filling a bag for $10. Also for sale: fixtures, posters, shelves and equipment.

I stopped by to say goodbye during the sidewalk sale yesterday ...







I was allowed inside to take a last look at the now-empty store, which has been here at 172 Allen St. between Stanton and Rivington since 1999...





"We are negotiating for a new space, only a few blocks away and hope to stay in the neighborhood that fought for us," says Collective member Red Schulte. "We so appreciate our community that has stayed with us through thick and thin. We are committed to the Lower East Side and will stay here for as long as we’re wanted."


[Red Schulte]

They request that you wear a mask when you shop and pay via credit card or Paypal. Online sales will continue on at this link even after this location closes.

SOS: Local business owners discuss their COVID-19-related rent challenges

Save Our Storefronts (SOS), a coalition of East Village merchants and community members, is calling on New York State to enact commercial rent relief.

In this video, released yesterday, local business owners document the challenges they are facing with commercial rents during the COVID-19 pandemic...



Visit www.saveourstorefronts.nyc for more information on the campaign, including the petition that's in circulation.

Assemblymember Harvey Epstein and State Sen. Brad Hoylman are drafting a bill on commercial rent relief legislation, which they plan to introduce soon, to help create a path to small business and nonprofit recovery based on sharing the burden of the crisis.

According to a Hospitality Alliance survey, only 19 percent of New York City businesses paid June rent and only 26 percent of landlords waived any rent.

Van Đa returns to service this evening on 4th Street

Van Đa, which serves regional Vietnamese food at 234 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, reopens this evening after taking time off during the COVID-19 PAUSE. (The restaurant collaborated with chef Hannah Wong for a weekend takeout service here in the spring.)

For now, Yen Ngo, owner of the Michelin Bib Gourmand Van Đa, will be offering curbside dining, takeout and delivery Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m.

You can find the new summer menu here.