Reaching the top at Zero Irving (aka tech hub)

Here's what is turning out to be a monthly look at 124 E. 14th St., aka Zero Irving (and formerly the Union Square Tech Training Center and 14 @ Irving ... and tech hub for life!) ... workers are apparently up to the tippy top here at Irving Place...

The latest Zero Irving e-newsletter (14th @ Irving Construction Update #36, and, by the way, #2 is already a collector's item) states the following updates:

Superstructure Concrete
The project’s superstructure contractor will be completing the 23rd floor slab the week of 9/7. They will continue to place stairs at the top of house, in addition to mechanical pads, curbs and the buildings parapets. Upon completion of this miscellaneous concrete the contractor will begin demobilization. This will include cocoon removal, removal of shoring and decking material and other demobilization tasks.

Cellar
The project’s electrical contractor is finishing installation of Switchgear Room equipment and feeder conduits in coordination with Con Ed’s site visits. End line boxes will be completed, along with overhead conduits throughout the cellar. Con Ed is anticipated to complete their pulls and tie-ins to switch gear room. The project is expecting permanent power by October 2020.

General Site
The project’s mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection contractors continue work on site to install sleeves and layout embeds and all other materials being placed into the deck on the 23rd floor. 

The newsletter makes mention of the 23rd floor. The official press release about the project lists this as a 21-floor building. Other news stories mention 21 floors too. The work permit lists 22 floors. Perhaps this 23rd floor mentioned is bulkhead-related. 

The 21-23-story building, developed jointly by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and RAL Development Services, will feature 14 floors of market-rate office space as well as "a technology training center and incubator, co-working spaces and state-of-the-art event space ... on the seven floors beneath," per the Zero Irving announcement issued last October. Food-hall specialists Urban­Space officially signed the lease for 10,000 square feet on the ground level last month.

The new building — long contested by local preservationists and community groups (see links below) — sits on the former site of a P.C. Richard & Son on city-owned property.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC

• Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood

• City Council unanimously approves tech hub; some disappointment in lack of zoning protections 

• The conversation continues on the now-approved tech hub for 14th Street

• P.C. Richard is gone on 14th Street; preservationists want answers about tech-hub commitments

It's full, wrapped in plastic: A Big Belly on B needs emptied out

An EVG reader shares these Big Belly photos from outside Sheen Brothers on Avenue B at 10th Street... the solar-powered trash can is full... and to prevent people from continuing using this for trash, or even stacking stuff on top, someone basically wrapped it with plastic and posted multiple notes ...

The Big Belly trash cans arrived here in July 2017 as part of the city's $32-million plan to combat vermin in rat-popular neighborhoods, like this one.

H/T Pete Martell!

Today's special guest at the Tompkins Square Park dog run

 Say a prayer! EVG regular Greg Masters spotted this today (Praying Mantis, right?) hanging out at the dog run in Tompkins Square Park...

CB3 wants your input on 2021 budget priorities

 Community Board 3 shared this information...

What parks need reconstruction? What programs need funding? Help us assess the needs of our community.

Every year the Community Board submits a list of capital and expense budget priorities to city agencies. This hearing is your opportunity to have input into these district budget priorities. Tell us how money should be spent in Community Board 3.

Organizations, groups, and individuals representing all segments of the community are encouraged to participate.

CB 3 Public Hearing — FY 2022 Budget Priorities

Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 6:30 p.m.
Online: https://zoom.us/j/94839426844
By Phone:  +1 646 518 9805, +1 929 205 6099
Meeting ID:  948 3942 6844

Farewells: Funny Face Bakery has outgrown its East Village space

[Photo Friday by Lola Sáenz]

A for lease sign now hangs in the front window at the former Funny Face Bakery space on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

However, it's a more-positive closure: Funny Face, which specializes in hand-painted face cookies of actors, politicians and various celebrities, is moving to a larger location outside the neighborhood.

Per a recent Instagram post:

Funny Face Bakery is moving up and moving out. We are so fortunate to have outgrown the space that has treated us so well for the last four years. It’s a bittersweet goodbye closing the doors to our East Village store. We survived the rain, but now we need to use it to grow.

No official word on the new location, though a source on the block said it will be in Brooklyn.

Sarah Silverman opened the bakery — originally called Cupcake Market — here in April 2016.

However, in a rebrand coinciding with a new online shop, Cupcake Market evolved into Funny Face last fall.

Turns out cupcakes weren't the big seller here. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, her hand-painted face cookies of the candidates quickly became hot items.

She soon started creating custom portrait cookies for her customers to celebrate birthdays and other special events... as well as launching a line of intricately designed cookies accurately (and eerily?) depicting various celebrities and movie characters (as seen below with "It" and "Hocus Locus")... and hiring a group of artists from Pratt and SVA to help with the design.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Funny Face Bakery (@funnyfacebakery) on Nov 3, 2019 at 6:15am PST

H/T MP and Derek Berg!

Saramsam is a new Filipino restaurant from Ravi DeRossi on 7th Street

Saramsam, a Filipino restaurant from Ravi DeRossi, is now open at 111 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. Here's more about it:

Saramsam means "casual dining" in Ilocano, the third-most spoken native language of the Philippines. Hailing from the city of La Union, Executive Chef Raj Abat says he wanted to create a restaurant that was Filipino down to its core — in its warm hospitality, nostalgic ingredients, and informal, communal style of dining. The twist? As part of proprietor Ravi DeRossi’s plant-based Revolution Hospitality Group, we serve Filipino cooking that’s entirely meat free.

[T]o create the menu, Chef Raj looked directly to the flavors of his own childhood — the funk of fermented bagoong shrimp paste, the sour tamarind of sinigang soup. From a plant-based sizzling “sisig” to an adobo of roasted mushrooms, we’ve got something for Filipino food experts and newcomers alike to discover.

You can find the menu and other details here. Saramsam is open for sidewalk dining Wednesday from 5-11 p.m. and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday. 

 

This is the third concept that DeRossi has tried in the space, following Fire & Water and Night Music. His other establishments include Death & Co. Ladybird and Amor Y Amargo.

Before this space at No. 111 was converted for restaurant use on Seventh Street, it was the Village Style Vintage Shop until the fall of 2016.

Report: Cloister Cafe granted temporary restraining order to reopen

Cloister Cafe will reopen tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 15) on Ninth Street after a judge granted it a temporary restraining order against the State Liquor Authority, Page Six reported. 

The SLA had suspended the Cloister's liquor license for alleged social-distancing infractions here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue last month. 

According to the SLA report that led to the suspension:

Investigators found the restaurant operating as a nightclub and hookah lounge with a live DJ, documenting numerous patrons ignoring social distancing with lines of customers congregating in front of the premises without facial coverings, at least twenty patrons consuming alcohol indoors under a fixed roof, and no receipts for food purchases.

For their part, Cloister Cafe claimed that the SLA didn't properly investigate the alleged violations — and just copied the claims from a Gothamist article.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Cloister Cafe owner sues state over suspended liquor license

Sunday's parting shots

Spotted on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B this evening... a little guilt with this freebie... (thanks to Steven for the photos!) ...

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included... 

• Lui's Thai Food will not be reopening (Tuesday) 

•  Scenes from Save Tompkins Day (Wednesday) 

• The formerly mysterious 84 2nd Ave. no longer looks mysterious at all (Wednesday) 

• At the start of the NYC Deep Playa Bike Ride (Monday) 

• A BLM tribute in Tompkins Square Park (Monday) 

• Ki Smith returns home, and debuts Ki Smith Gallery on 4th Street (Friday) 

• "Open" your eyes to this nighttime walk through the East Village (Friday) 

• These 2 buildings on Avenue A are getting taller (Tuesday) 

• Goats! (Tuesday) 

• Openings: Km1 brings Caribbean cuisine 1st Street (Wedensday) 

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

• Development watch: Novum EV (Thursday) 

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

• Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices opens on today on Avenue A (Friday) 

• This week's NY See panel (Thursday) 

• A deli for the former deli at the long-vacant storefront at 118 1st Ave. (Thursday) 

• Monk Thrift Shop has closed (Wednesday) 

• Closings: Broken Coconut, Snowdays, Blockheads, By Name (Tuesday) 

• Checking in on Checkers (Thursday) 

• An end-of-summer appreciation: The grocery cart garden (Monday) 

... and for these stressful times, Ash, the owner of Villainess, the secondhand designer black clothing store and event space at 181 Avenue B,  is hosting a socially distant and limited capacity crystal bowl sound bath on Wednesday evening. RSVP: villainessnyc@gmail.com

 ... and from a Citizen user was apparently having fun with this report...

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

Noted

And ICYMI... spotted at the Neighborhood Deli at 185 Avenue C between 11th Street and 12th Street... Eden tweeted it last Sunday and it went viral (dwarfing the Kardashianism singage tweet!)... the sign has also been spotted in other cities (and boroughs) these past few months...

St. Mark's Place between A and 1st now an open street for dining on weekends

St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue has been added to the list of the city streets closed off for dining on the weekends. 

Back on Friday, Mayor de Blasio announced 40 open-street additions for the city's Open Restaurants program. He also extended the program through Oct. 31. 

This block of St. Mark's join these other EV streets already participating in the program (as of July): 

• St Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue 

• Avenue B between Second Street and Fourth Street 

• Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue 

These corridors are in dining mode on Friday from 5-11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. 

Thanks to Steven for the photo!

Kong is missing

Back in February we had the story about how Kong, the stuffed animal that longtime East Village resident Nefertiti Jones had as a child, ended up in the Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden. (Link to the story is below.) 

Anyway, as the headline tells you, KONG IS NOW MISSING!

 

View this post on Instagram

I am heartbroken my beloved Kong was stolen from the 6th Street Community Garden. https://www.facebook.com/6bgarden/ Kong who was loved by so many people and had become a permanent fixture on Avenue B was taken a few days ago. If you have seen him please bring him back.

A post shared by Nefertiti Jones (@nefjones) on Sep 12, 2020 at 9:32am PDT

Previously on EV Grieve: 

King Kong lives: How a favorite stuffed animal from childhood became part of a community garden

Saturday's parting shot

A moment during the Pinc Louds set today in Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg...

This should be a photo of the Empire State Building

Still working out the kinks of the new Blogger platform. (Please see the earlier posts today. I would link to them, but...) Over the next few days we will be testing the new platform and working out the kinks of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). 

Anyway, the new uploading system is a little screwy... So please excuse our appearance while we're under re-construction. There will be a few more (pointless than usual) posts for testing purposes in the hours and days ahead.

The 1st Tompkins Square Arts + Crafts and Book Fair is TODAY

Via the EVG inbox...

Come and get works of art, hand made crafts, books, records, videos, and more — all offered by members of your community on the Lower East Side. There will also be book readings, musicians and speakers. At dusk, we will be showing the amazing film called "Loose Change" (a student-made documentary about 9/11).

Fair times are listed from noon to 6 p.m. Visit the Facebook invite for more details.

Noted

Parking in the time of curbside dining. As seen this morning on Avenue A at Sixth Street. 

Still working out the html kinks on the new Blogger content tool. Testing, testing.

This morning in photos of the sun through trees

From this morning Tompkins Square Park (above) and along the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street...

This is also a test of sorts ... because stupid Blogger has forced a new template on the Blogger community... the post-creating tool is taking some getting used to... As fellow Blogger user Goggla noted: "Formatting the HTML has become an obnoxious chore." +1.

So things may look a little funky for awhile... this also may mean fewer posts for the near future ...

Friday's parting shot

Thank you to Deb Kadetsky for this photo of the Tribute in Light tonight...

'Hold' on

Death Valley Girls have a new record, Under the Spell of Joy, out on Oct. 2. Ahead of that, here's a single from the release titled "Hold My Hand."

'Open' your eyes to this nighttime walk through the East Village

Here's info about a new nighttime walking tour through parts of the neighborhood... via the EVG inbox...

"OPEN" is a series of temporary light art installations occupying a selection of storefronts in the East Village. Visitors are invited to discover the neighborhood anew via a mapped out nightwalk. The walk links both empty and occupied storefronts transformed through a mix of light projections and radiant effusions of color.

Sponsored by the Designers Lighting Forum of New York (DLFNY), the Flint Collective NYC partnered with lighting manufacturers and local business owners to respond to a city transformed by the global pandemic. In the rhythm of closed storefronts "OPEN" offers an optimistic pause of light and color.

"People may be cynical in thinking of these storefronts as failed capitalism, but each one has a history and plays a vital role in creating and sustaining vibrant communities," said Yasmina Palumbo of neighboring business MUD NYC and site partner for OPEN.

The installation is spread out across eight sites in the East Village and is active from Saturday Sept. 12 through Sept. 20, 7:30-11 p.m.

The following sites are on the tour:

• 155 Avenue B
• 111 East 7th Street
• 336 East 11th Street
• 307 East 9th Street
• 436 East 9th Street
• 337 East 9th Street
• 107 Ave B
• Secret Site

And if a map helps...