Former Finnerty's space for rent on 2nd Avenue

Finnerty's will not be reopening at 221 Second Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street. 

A for rent sign now hangs outside the sports bar and self-described "party destination" featuring rent-a-keg service. 

The bar closed in March for the PAUSE and never reopened. There is not any message about the closure on their website or social media properties. 

Finnerty's, which opened in 2009, was an alleged Bay Area sports bar, where fans could watch games featuring the 49ers, Giants, Golden State Warriors or San Jose Sharks. Snubbed: the Oakland A's (and the Oakland Raiders before they moved to Las Vegas). 

This makes two like-minded bar closures on this block... Professor Thom's also never reopened after the PAUSE...

Steel structure for new Houston Street office building continues ascent

Since our last look on Nov. 2, there's noticeable progress on the 9-story office building rising at 141 E. Houston St. between Eldridge and Forsyth... the steel structure is up to what appears to be the fourth and fifth floors...

 

Some day it will be like this:

From acclaimed architect Roger Ferris, the only new development of its type on the Lower East Side, 141 East Houston is a new frame for viewing the neighborhood. Column-free and unbounded by walls, it reinterprets the area through a bold geometric perimeter of cladding and glass. State-of- the-art workspaces and private terraces reframe expectations, while a well-connected location recasts perspectives. 

With its glass frame and dynamic courtyard running the length of its eastern side, doubling as a second facade, 141 East Houston challenges the distinction between indoors and out.

East End Capital and K Property Group bought the property for $31.5 million in the spring of 2017. The links below provide more background on what has transpired on the site of the former Sunshine Cinema (RIP January 2018).

Previously on EV Grieve: 
• Sunshine Cinema-replacing office building moving forward; demolition watch back on

• Discarded theater seats and goodbyes at the Sunshine Cinema

• The 9-story boutique office building coming to the former Sunshine Cinema space

• A celebratory ad on the purchase of 139 E. Houston St., current home of the Sunshine Cinema

• The boutique office building replacing the Sunshine Cinema will be 'unbounded by walls' with an outdoor space called Houston Alley

Sunday's parting shot

A new tribute to Gem Spa (closed for good in May) on this freshly repaired sidewalk on Ninth Street ... photo by Steven...

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week include... (and thanks to Derek Berg for the photo of @krypfixed in Tompkins Square Park) 

• Report: Faulty wiring caused fire that destroyed SE corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street (Saturday) 

• Permits filed to demolish the former B Bar & Grill on the Bowery (Tuesday) 

• Indoor dining at 25% comes to an end after this weekend (Friday) 

• Bike lane detour confusion as construction starts along the East River Greenway (Friday) 

• Straight shooters: Marvel Studios brings 'Hawkeye' to 4th Street for Disney+ series (Tuesday) 

• Nón Lá debuts on 4th Street (Thursday) 

• Headless Santa now free to terrorize Rite-Aid shoppers on 1st Avenue (Tuesday) 

 • On 1st Street, Con Ed work shutters Cafe Himalaya and Prim Thai once again (Tuesday) 

 • The Tompkins Square Park Holiday tree is now lit (Wednesday) 

• Thai Direct reopens on Avenue A (Wednesday) 

 • This week's NY See panel (Thursday) 

• This week's Gallery Watch: Nosegay Tornado by Ambera Wellmann at Company (Wednesday) 

• A partial reveal shows off the now-taller 94-96 Avenue A (Thursday) 

• As Westville Bakery exits, Superiority Burger set to expand on 9th Street (Tuesday) 

• The Checkers on 1st Avenue closes (Tuesday)

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

Spray on: A new tribute to Basquiat on Great Jones

There's new art adorning the second floor of 57 Great Jones St. between the Bowery and Lafayette... artist-photographer Adrian Wilson (under his @plannedalism moniker) painted "Let Us Spray" here where Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and worked at the time of his death in 1988.

The building, once owned by Andy Warhol, now houses Bohemian, an upscale Japanese restaurant ... their curbside dining space includes a message by Al Diaz,  who, as a teen in the late 1970s, collaborated with Basquiat on a series of cryptic messages seen around the city signed from SAMO©. 

This isn't Wilson's first dalliance with the space. In the fall of 2018, he helped curate the Same Old Gallery, an exhibit that featured Diaz's work. The two also collaborated on a mural here to mark the 30th anniversary of Basquiat's death in August 2018.

In July 2016, the Greenwich Village Society of Historical Preservation (now Village Preservation) unveiled a commemorative plaque outside the building ...

We don't need another hero

A discarded Batman cape as seen on Eighth Street at Avenue C this morning by William Klayer... and not far away from where Marvel's "Hawkeye" was filming on Friday...

It's Day 2 of the holiday market and flea on 1st Avenue and 1st Street

Today marks Day 2 of the holiday market and flea on First Avenue and First Street at Peretz Square from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  ... and it looks like a good day for it with temps expected in the high 50s. You can find a list of participants at the Facebook Events page here.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by yesterday and shared these photos... 

Saturday's parting shot

A few of the vendors this evening outside the 3rd & B’Zaar Holiday Market at 191 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B...  a group of local merchants, artists and designers are behind the venture, which is open through Dec. 24. 

Look for "unique gifts at affordable prices" Wednsdays through Sundays from 1-6 p.m.

Photo by Stacie Joy

The Grinch at the 2nd Avenue F stop

Among the details: Cindy-Lou Who as a three-eyed cat-raccoon. 

Mural by @turrtlecaps and @citykittystreet.

Oh Santa

1) On 14th Street at First Avenue. The inflatable Santa made a return to the Christmas tree stand. In previous years, the Santa had been on top of a Cousin Eddie-worthy RV. 

2) Today would have been SantaCon.

Report: Faulty wiring caused fire that destroyed SE corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street

Faulty wiring at 48 E. Seventh St. was to blame for the six-alarm fire last Saturday morning that destroyed the Middle Collegiate Church, FDNY officials said yesterday. 

An FDNY spokesperson told 1010 WINS that the fire has been deemed "non-suspicious." 

The five-story building, which has been demolished, had been vacant since another fire this past Feb. 10. Faulty electrical wiring was also the blame for that three-alarm fire, FDNY officials said. 

No. 48, which included retail tenants Via Della Pace and Cafe Mocha, was under renovation this fall. 

There were approved work permits dated from Oct. 29 on file with the DOB. According to the permits: "Repairs due to fire; interior non-structural demolition, removal of damaged floor and roof framing, replace damaged floor and wall joists, reconstruct floor and roof joists, reconstruct roof joists, reconstruct roof bulkhead, repair interior stairs ... install new windows, installation of new roof." 

The estimated cost of repairs, per the permit: $1.2 million. It was unclear how far along workers were with renovations. In a Facebook post this week, a longtime tenant from one of the building's four rent-controlled units said they were planning on moving back in next summer. 

Meanwhile, workers have mostly cleared away the remains of No. 48.

And here's a quick video clip showing the work yesterday...

Updated 12:30 p.m. 

A detail from Myles N. Miller at NBC 4...

BFI sources say witnesses in the area first started smelling smoke around Midnight, Saturday. However the first 911 call wasn’t until hours later when a @nyctaxi driver saw flames rising from 48 E. 7 and pulled over to report it.

— 𝐌𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐍. 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 (@MylesMill) December 12, 2020

One last flea market for 2020 at 1st and 1st

There's one more flea market this weekend on First Avenue and First Street at Peretz Square ... this will be a two-day grand finale for the vendors, many of them from the Avenue B Flea. 

Some East Village-based musicians will be providing the soundtrack from 1-3:30... find a list of participants at the Facebook Events page here.

Organizer Lisa Marie promises to be back with more flea markets in the spring.

Friday's parting shot

Here are the resident red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, Amelia (top) and Christo, enjoying the pleasant weather today atop St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on 10th Street and Avenue A... thanks to Steven for the photo...

Gleaming the 'Cube'

 

The prolific John Dwyer and his merry band of Osees are releasing an epic live set titled Live at the Henry Miller Library Big Sur... which you can stream next Saturday, Dec. 19. (Details here.) 

Ahead of that they've released a view tracks from the show, including "Gelatinous Cube."

P.S.

Save Our Stages

Indoor dining at 25% comes to an end after this weekend

Indoor dining will close in New York City starting Monday.

Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk.

Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will continue.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020

As expected, Gov. Cuomo announced today that NYC restaurants must end indoor dining after this weekend following an ongoing increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Restaurants will still be able to continue outdoor dining, takeout and delivery. "You're going to see a bad December, a bad January. How bad is the question," Cuomo said at today's press briefing. You can read more about the new shutdown and its impact on the local restaurant industry at Eater. 

Some local restaurants preemptively closed for the time being ... while others today announced they are shutting down after this weekend until the spring, including Van Da on Fourth Street, whose last day in business for now is tomorrow. 

A new survey that the New York State Restaurant Association conducted revealed that 54 percent of NYC restauranteurs say it is likely that they will close in the next six months if another federal relief package does not come through.

Meanwhile, gyms and salons will be allowed to continue operating in orange zones with lowered capacity from 33 percent to 25 percent. Find more details at Gothamist. 

Cuomo said officials are especially concerned about "living room spread." The state's contact tracing data shows nearly 74 percent of new COVID-19 cases are coming from households and social gatherings, Cuomo said. Restaurants and bars accounted for 1.43 percent of new cases while gyms caused less than 1 percent, he said.

See more on this chart via the state...

Inside the long history of two East Village neighbors — Veselka and Dinosaur Hill

Back on Oct. 8, we had the scoop that Pamela Pier was retiring after 37 years of running the toy store Dinosaur Hill on Ninth Street just east of Second Avenue... and that neighbor Veselka would be taking over the lease for the storefront... all this came courtesy of East Village-based freelance writer Linda Dyett, who contributed the byline to us. 

Linda explored the long history between Dinosaur Hill and Veselka for a detail-rich article that is now online at The New York Times. (Find it here. It will be in Sunday's print edition.) 

Here's more about what to expect once Veselka expands into the former Dinosaur Hill:

[T]here will be more indoor seating, more wall space for the murals by the house artist Arnie Charnick, a larger kitchen and a sushi bar-style showcase for the team of women who make its pierogi by hand. 

Standing in another section of Veselka’s new space will be a gift from its soon-to-be former next-door neighbor: a rocket-ship gumball machine. The area will be called Dinosaur Dining.

Noted

As seen in Tompkins Square Park this morning by Derek Berg. It had a head yesterday. Why do people keep stealing heads?

Bike lane detour confusion as construction starts along the East River Greenway

On Monday, the city will begin flood-wall construction at the Solar One facility in Stuyvesant Cove as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.

This is considered Project Area 2, which encompasses work between 15th Street and 25th Street including Asser Levy Playground, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Murphy Brothers Playground as well as local streets around the Con Edison facility. 

Given the work start, the bike lane along this stretch of the East River Greenway — between 20th and 23rd — will close. Despite promises of a two-week notice ahead of any closure, there's no word of a detour route for cyclists, according to residents and community groups.

In addition, there's some confusion about these mystery signs that have appeared in and around different streets with bike lanes ... and the partially covered signs we spotted earlier on 10th Street at Avenue A have disappeared ... while other ones have arrived, such as on First Avenue by Fourth Street (h/t Choresh Wald) ...

... and Second Avenue at 10th Street...

The hotly contested flood-protection plan that will bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project is expected to start in the spring. (This is Project Area 1 between Montgomery Street and 15th Street.)

That work is expected to bring a permanent protected bike lane to East Houston and Avenue C. 

On Nov. 24, Community Board 3 endorsed the plan — specifically a 20-block protected bike lane along Avenue C and a protected bike lane on Houston Street from Second Avenue to the East River Greenway.

Here's a look at the current Avenue  C bike lane configuration at East Houston...

Per Transportation Alternatives: "These bike lanes are essential for New Yorkers getting around the Lower East Side, and these projects are especially critical in light of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project that begins in the spring and will shut down the East River Park for at least five years."

First night of Hanukkah in the East Village

EVG contributor Stacie Joy shares these photos from around the neighborhood... 

... and in order of appearance (from the top): 

-Duane Reade on Avenue B 

-Lancelotti

-Exit9 Gift Emporium 

-Russ & Daughters 

-The Sock Man 

-Holyland Market 

-99 Center Store on First Avenue and 5th Street

-Bluestockings 

-Jane’s Exchange 

-B&H Dairy 

-Key Food

2nd Avenue reopens to traffic; workers remove more of fire-ravaged 48 E. 7th St.

Second Avenue is open again to through traffic below St. Mark's Place... after the fire on Saturday morning, southbound traffic was rerouted across St. Mark's Place to Avenue A. 

For now, one lane ... as well as the floating parking lane and bike lane, are closed off for the work crews to use for access between Sixth Street and St. Mark's Place...

As for the southeast corner at Seventh Street...

Workers have mostly cleared out the rest of what was 48 E. Seventh St., where the six-alarm fire started ...

Looking north from Sixth Street, you almost can't even tell that Middle Collegiate Church suffered such massive damage...

There hasn't been any official word on the cause of the fire... or the fate of the remaining structure at the church.

Derek Berg got this dramatic shot yesterday of two fire marshals outside the church's north-facing wall...