Ki Smith returns home, and debuts Ki Smith Gallery on 4th Street

The Ki Smith Gallery is now open on Fourth Street (first reported here) ... EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the soft opening on Wednesday evening to check out new works on paper by Caslon Bevington, Morell Cutler, Charlie Hudson, Max "Senor Melon" Hodgson, Sono Kuwayama, Julia Powers, Luke Ivy Price, Kiyomi Taylor and Sei Smith...


[Sono Kuwayama]


[Caslon Bevington]


[The work of Kiyomi Taylor]


[Charlie Hudson]

Ki Smith is an East Village native and current resident... he most recently showcased emerging artists from a space on West 125th Street. Smith has worked for 10 years as an independent curator. His résumé includes launching the Bushwick-based gallery and performance space Apostrophe in 2012.

"It took us 10 years to make it back to the East Village where I grew up," Smith said with a laugh.



The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. You can follow them on Instagram here.

Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices opens on today on Avenue A

[Photo by Vinny & O]

The EV outpost of Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices and Ice Cream officially opens today at 145 Avenue A at Ninth Street.

Daily hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

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.

This marks the third outpost in Manhattan.

Previously.

Thursday's parting shot

In the rain on Second Avenue today ... via Derek Berg...

Sept. 10

EVG reader IzF spotted this today on Third Street between Avenue C and Avenue D... currently the leader.

City nixes MoRUS Film Festival this weekend at the Peachtree Community Garden

Updated 2 p.m.: Green Thumb now says that MoRUS can complete the last three nights of the festival on Oct. 2-4.

The four-night MoRUS Film Festival is now down to one evening.

According to a MoRUS spokesperson, the NYC Parks GreenThumb, citing COVID-19 concerns, are now prohibiting the screenings Friday through Sunday at the Peachtree Community Garden on Second Street.

MoRUS is refunding tickets for those nights.

Tonight's screenings at Le Petit Versailles on Second Street near Avenue C are still a go:

• Thursday, Sept. 10: "InSects & FlowerSex (The Birds & The Bees)"
Le Petit Versailles, 247 E. 2nd Street, 8 p.m.

A lively, living mixed-media series of shorts featuring films from 1930s to 1970s. In keeping with Le Petit Versailles' legacy of creative disruption, the evening will include avant garde movies such as "Killers of the Insect World" and "Woody Woodpecker & The Termites from Mars" with live sound by LeLe Dai aka Lullady, a radio collage soundtrack by Jeanne Liotta and live soundtrack performances by Pinc Louds and by Richard Sylvarnes.

The viewing for these screenings will be on the sidewalk outside the space.

This was the eighth annual Film Festival for the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, which archives urban activism from 155 Avenue C.

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 NYC ... as well as political observations on current events...

Development watch: Novum EV

Here's a look at the 7-floor, 20-unit residential building under construction at 238 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

The broker bunting arrived on the sidewalk bridge here earlier in the summer for the condoplex, which is going as Novum EV (Or NOVUM EV)...





The listings for the 1- and 2-bedroom units (and penthouse) do not appear to be online just yet. Noted amenities include fitness studio and wet bar, outdoor recreation area, cold storage and triple glass exterior windows.

Landlord Vinbaytel Property Development has put up several East Village condos in recent years, including at 227 E. Seventh St., 67 Avenue C and 26 Avenue B.

Workers demolished the previous building on the lot, a two-level structure once owned by the Blue Man Group, in the summer of 2019.

Previously on EV Grieve:
7-story residential building planned for former Blue Man Group facilities on 3rd Street

Swiss Institute is back open on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

[Image via]

The Swiss Institute, the nonprofit arts organization, reopened yesterday here on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

The return exhibit is titled Tenet, based on Christopher Nolan's budding blockbuster of the same name (which we can't see in NYC for the time being ... because theaters remain closed).

A preview via artnet News:

[T]he time inversion-themed film — specifically the delay of its release — has served to inspire a presentation of video works by Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Moyra Davey, Yu Honglei and Steffani Jemison.

Like "Tenet," each of these pieces features the manipulation of time, with the artists rewinding, speeding up, slowing down, or otherwise editing their footage to alter the normal sequence. Each work will be on view at the institution for one week during the show’s run.

The show runs through Nov. 1. Hours: Wednesday-Friday, 2-8 p.m.; Saturday, noon-8 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m. The admission is free. You can also visit Printed Matter in the lobby.

The nonprofit institution was created in 1986. They opened the EV outpost in June 2018 at the site of a former Chase branch.

ICYMI: Cuomo says indoor dining can resume in NYC on Sept. 30 — at 25-percent capacity

[B&H Dairy as seen in 2018]

In case you didn't catch this news yesterday afternoon... Gov. Cuomo announced that indoor dining in New York City can resume on Sept. 30 with a 25-percent occupancy limit.

And the bullet points on guidance for indoor dining in NYC:

• 25 percent occupancy limit
• Temperature checks will be required at the door for all customers
• One member of each party will be required to provide contact information for tracing if needed
• No bar service — bars will only be used as service bars, a source of making drinks and serving them tableside
• Masks must be worn at all times when not seated at a table
• Tables must be six feet apart
• Restaurants close at midnight
• Strict adherence to all State-issued guidance
• Restaurants should operate with enhanced air filtration, ventilation and purification standards
• Limit air recirculation and allow for outside air ventilation
• Outdoor dining will continue in the interim

Indoor dining has been banned since the COVID-19 PAUSE went into effect on March 22. More than NYC 1,000 bars and restaurants have shuttered since then, per Eater.

East Village closures include Jewel Bako, Porsena, Oda House and Mermaid Inn... and maybe Odessa.

A deli for the former deli at the long-vacant storefront at 118 1st Ave.

A quick note from the EVG tipline... a deli looks to be the new tenant for the long-vacant NE corner space at 118 First Ave. at Seventh Street. (H/T Upper West Sider!)

Paperwork filed for this address with the state lists the corporation name as East 7th Deli & Cafe Corp. (The storefront is no longer on the rental market.)

No. 118 First Ave. had been vacant since Golden Food Market closed here in the summer of 2017 after 35 years in business. Before their lease wasn't renewed, an LLC with a West 11th Street address bought the building in the spring of 2017 for $5.8 million, per public records.

Golden Food Market owner Ali Fardos now runs East Village Organic a few storefronts away.

A tapas-wine bar was in the works for No. 118 in April 2018, but those plans never materialized.

Checking in on Checkers

[Photo by Steven]

The Checkers outpost has First Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street had been very quiet these past six months... and there was some speculation among Checkers Watchers® that this quick-serve location was not going to reopen following the COVID-19 PAUSE. (Last we checked, this Checkers looked checked out.)

However, as the top photo from yesterday shows, Checkers returned to service this week for takeout and delivery... and there's even one seat for dining alfresco.

Hard to believe but this Checkers has already been here for almost six years.

[Postponed] A march for a safe schools reopening

Updated 9/10: Given today's rain, the march has been postponed until next Thursday — Sept. 17.

Students, parents and teachers from District 1 will be gathering on Seventh Street and Avenue B tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to rally for a safer return to school this fall

Here are details about the March for Our Schools and Our Lives via the EVG inbox...

Please join schools and community allies from across District 1 for a March for Our Schools and Our Lives, Thursday, Sept. 10, 3-5 p.m.

At a time when we should be investing new resources into our under-funded schools to get kids back to learning, parents back to work, and the economy up and running, school budgets across NY State have been decimated making educating our kids challenging for a normal year. The State’s funding cuts have made it all but impossible to open schools safely during the pandemic.

For that reason schools across District 1 have joined forces to demand better for our children, our teachers, our families and our entire community because our lives literally depend on it.

The march will end at City Hall.

Students are set to arrive for in-person classes on Sept. 21. Many public school teachers reported back to their schools yesterday in the first phase of the system reopening.

Scenes from Save Tompkins Day

Photos by Stacie Joy

Monday was a day of celebration on the ballfields/TF at Tompkins Square Park... a day that marked the one-year anniversary of the city's decision not to put artificial turf on the northwest corner of Tompkins... sacred ground for generations of skateboarders.

The skate community marked the day by bringing in a variety of vendors for a flea market of sorts in which all the money was being donated to at-risk local businesses and BLM-related causes. (Organizer Adam Zhu, an East Village resident, reported in an Instagram post that more than $10,000 was raised on Monday.)

EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these portraits from the afternoon in Tompkins...






































...and on the TF...

The formerly mysterious 84 2nd Ave. no longer looks mysterious at all

Workers have removed the construction netting and scaffolding from outside 84 Second Ave. ... providing a look at the refurbished building here between Fourth Street and Fifth Street...



As we've been posting forever, No. 84 is in the midst of a gut renovation that will take the building from its current 5,829 square feet to 8,439 total square feet with a horizontal enlargement in the rear of the property. The modified No. 84 will feature new retail space as well as four residences.

This property has changed hands twice in recent years. Highpoint bought the building for $7.8 million in the spring of 2018. According to public records, the building sold in May 2016 for $5.1 million. The Sopolsky family had owned it for years.

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 had remained empty since her death.

The plywood rendering shows the all-new No. 84 looking something like this...



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.

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

• There are new plans to expand the mysterious 84 2nd Ave.

• Renovations underway at the (formerly) mysterious 84 2nd Ave.

• A rendering and vintage erotic playing cards (NSFW) at the under-renovation (and mysterious!) 84 2nd Ave.

Monk Thrift Shop has closed

The Monk Thrift Shop at 97 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue is out of business. The shop had not been open since the COVID-19 PAUSE... and the space was recently emptied out.

The hit-or-miss Monk debuted here in the spring of 2010 ... in the former home of house, funk/soul and techno vinyl specialists Dance Tracks (RIP 2007) ...



The Monk outpost remains open in Williamsburg.

Openings: Km1 brings Caribbean cuisine to 1st Street

Km1, short for Kilometro Uno, recently debuted on First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... focusing on "food from the Greater Antilles islands, with comforting dishes like mofongo, yucca fries, and shrimp served out of a half-pineapple on deck," per Eater.

And The Infatuation recently had a preview:

In addition to burgers, ceviche, and honey-glazed jerk wings, the menu has a bunch of Dominican dishes like a vegan pastelon layered with mushrooms and coconut sauce, and some extremely crispy mofongo with skirt steak and a light tomato broth.

And no liquor license at the moment...



Km1 is at 58 E. First St. Open daily 5-11 p.m. Phone: (646) 669-7547.

This address has seen several quality restaurants come and go in recent years. Esperanto Fonda lasted nine months here, closing in May 2017. Before that, this was home to BARA for two years and Prima for three years. The Elephant, a Thai restaurant, was previously here for 17 years.

Earlier today on Avenue Bee at 2nd Street

Via the Citizen app...