Thursday, June 3, 2021
Thursday's parting shot
At the Lil' Park Drag Show
Over the Memorial Day weekend, EVG contributor Stacie Joy went to meet these self-described "friendly local drag artists" ... for the show featuring lip-synching and dancing that took place behind the Park office...
And to the show... there was a technical glitch at the onset as the original small speaker system failed. However, an audience member came through... and with a smartphone and speaker hooked up via Bluetooth, the show went on with weather-appropriate songs such as "Rain on Me" by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.
Here's Bad News Bear ...
Anastasia ...
... and Jasper the Gem ...
There's another show coming up this Saturday afternoon at 4. [Updated: now in Washington Square Park]
Cinema Paradiso trying again with CB3 for Avenue A theater-cafe concept
Last month, we told you that Marcello Assante has plans to open a cafe-cinema at 44 Avenue A, the former home of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater's East Village outpost, UCBeast, as well as the Pioneer Theater.
The space on Avenue A, equipped with a movie screen, stage and theater seats for 100 people, seems suited to Assante's vision of creating a "big cinema culture" — a center for cinephiles to enjoy foreign and independent features.
Aside from new indie and foreign releases, Cinema Paradiso would also include a cafe for people to have a pre-or post-film meal and drink. He aspires to have the food and beverage service open during non-movie times too. (Assante, a Naples native, has owned and operated a handful of restaurants through the years, including Bella Ciao, Capri Ristorante and Marcellino in Little Italy as well as Local 92 on Second Avenue.)
He appeared before CB3's SLA committee on May 10 for a new liquor license for the venue at Third Street. Things did not go in his favor, as the four committee members and District Manager Susan Stetzer pushed back on the application, asking for more specifics about his plans. (Assante had said he wasn't sure if he'd serve drinks during the screenings, for example.)
In addition, the last tenant, UCBeast, only sold beer and wine, and the address was never fully licensed. They were also apparently a bad neighbor — at least the bar portion of the business. Stetzer, who resides nearby, said that the bar had a "horrible impact" on tenants living across the street. "The history of it was horrendous," she said during the virtual meeting. "I had constant complaints."
Given that, Stetzer, speaking as a resident and not the district manager, collected six signatures in opposition to Assante's application. (She said she only started gathering them the evening before the May 10 meeting.)
In the end, the CB3 committee wasn't opposed to the theater portion of the business. The space never being fully licensed, the UCBeast bar's poor reputation and the unanswered questions on the business plan moved the members to draft stipulations stating they'd approve a full liquor license for drinks before and during a movie or event. Alcohol sales would not be allowed during other times — thus nixing a bar-cafe service when a film isn't playing. (You can watch the meeting on YouTube. This application starts at the 20-minute mark.)
For his part, Assante didn't agree to the stipulations, opting instead to return before the group next Wednesday evening. (Zoom info is here.)
Ahead of that meeting, he wanted to share a letter with residents and the Community Board (it has been lightly edited for length and clarity):
My name is Marcello Assante. I am the applicant for Cinema Paradiso, attempting to obtain a full liquor license for our proposed location at 44 Avenue A.First off, please allow me to apologize for a misunderstanding with our presentation at the May 14 Community Board 3 meeting. It was not my intention to argue with the Board members about the misconceptions in their dialogue. Unfortunately, I am not the most practiced at presenting to community boards, and I hoped to clear up the questions.... we are a restaurant, café and bar that displays, creates, fosters discussion about and celebrates arts — not just a theater. Tragically, a theater cannot survive or thrive in this age of short attention spans and competing media.I am 65 years old, and I spent the last 30 years working my way up, from busboy to owner and operator of restaurants in New York City. These are small, family businesses, which I would not have had the ability to carry without the love and support of my wonderful wife, who is my partner.For the last 20 years, I have been involved in cinema, which is my passion... For the last 10 years, I have been working from creation to execution of Italian and French film productions and as a partner to a film festival in Italy.In the recent past, I have been involved in a cinema production with my friend and colleague Karl Bardoush, who is a professor of the arts at New York University, as well as with another friend, film director Abel Ferrara, who is known for "Bad Lieutenant," "King of New York" and many more.These, among other friends and colleagues of mine, directly lead to our conception and expectation to operate profitably, a European arts venue for fans of cinema, theater and jazz, in the face of so many theaters, who have had to close their doors.The Cinema Paradiso experience will bring together people socially around the film, theater and music arts, with food and wine, along with merchandise and cocktails. This is a unique concept ... and we are taking a risk.It is our hope that we will establish a base of serious fans of the arts for formal and informal presentations of these arts, along with lectures, discussions and community social meetings/debates about everything from the material presented to technical aspects of the making of these arts.There will be various formats for events, which we will find out about the financial viability of each as we go, and we hope to foster a sense that if you are not here, you might miss something a once-in-a-lifetime happening. At times, there will be special cuisine, which may be showcased with one of our other chefs or a guest chef. The main menu will be the cuisine of a lighter fare with an international but Mediterranean focus...Obviously, this neighborhood has culture and establishments on the agenda of many different locals and visitors. Still, we are not a place for the majority who come to this area looking to hit the bars. This is a restaurant and cultural establishment…we are not a comedy or rock club, we are not just a restaurant, and we are certainly not just a bar.Another example, so the board better understands the broad spectrum and breadth of our focus, is that one of our first planned programs will be a theater piece [that] involves one of the hottest up-and-coming writer-directors, Dustin Wills, doing a modern take on the Ancient Greek tragedy "Prometeo Incatenato" aka "Prometheus Bound." His recent endeavors include "Frontieres Sans Frontieres."To make Cinema Paradiso commercially viable, we need to have a full liquor license, until 1 a.m., as we requested, with no limitation of serving during events only, because this is a restaurant and café with a bar, serving brunch, lunch and dinner, that is creating and showing art pieces, and expecting to generate a loyal following of those in the film, theater and music art communities.To further prove that we are not a bar, we will be cutting down the bar from 20 feet to 10 feet to increase the number of tables.We look forward to your favorable response.
Think Coffee's brand-new curbside dining space catches fire on 4th Avenue
Stickett Inn bringing its cider to 1st Avenue
Per its website, real-life husbands Johnny Pizzolato and Roswell Hamrick opened the Stickett Inn on Route 92 in Barryville, N.Y. (Sullivan County!) back in 2012.
As Out previously reported: "In 2017 the brand expanded with Stickett Inn Cider, the dry and mildly tart signature beverage of the property's Bang Bang Bar." (An aside: the Bang Bang Bar serves Pinks Tacos, whose flagship location is right around the corner from the new cider spot on 10th Street.)
The opening of the Stickett Inn Cider EV outpost looks imminent ... as there has been a lot of activity in the space of late.
Thanks to Steven for the photo!
Tony's Pizza debuts on 2nd Avenue
This is the first of two Tony's for the East Village. Signage is up now for a Tony's Pizza at 231 First Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street — the former Vinny Vincenz, which closed in April.
H/T Steven and Upper West Sider!
Rockwood Music Hall returns with live music starting tonight
Per their announcement on Instagram: "For the time being, all upcoming shows will be 100% COVID-19 vaccinated crowds (including artists and staff)."
For more details and guidelines, check out their link here. You can find a list of shows at this link.
This is the first time that Rockwood Music Hall has been open since the PAUSE of March 2020. The venue was to celebrate its 15th-anniversary last year.
Nearby on Stanton Street, Arlene's Grocery has been hosting some in-person events (calendar here). Also nearby: Live music returns to the Mercury Lounge starting on June 26.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
'It's ok to cry'
HUGO GYRL created this in honor of Sophie Xeon, the Grammy-nominated experimental pop artist, producer and trans-rights activist who died in a fall at age 34 in January.
Per @hugogyrl's post on Instagram:
Happy pride Sophie; wish you were here to make your futuristic, post-Queer, post-body, post-music, music for us. Your work really touched me and it fucked me up when you died — I was always so excited to hear whatever you put out in the world.And...
While I was painting this, so many people stopped and expressed how much you meant to them. I'm not so great at portraits, but tons of people recognized you. Anyway, thanks for helping us envision a future, if that makes sense? You were/are a true creative icon, and a Queer and Trans Legend.Photo by @hugogyrl
RIP Penny Rand
Her friends recall her as a talented photographer and clothing designer as well as a loyal community member and housing activist.
With city budget cuts preventing the usual maintenance of Tompkins Square Park this past year, Rand helped organized volunteer days to pick up trash and weed and rake parts of the gardens.
In March 2015, she started the Sidewalks of New York Facebook group, which attracted nearly 4,600 members who shared "memories of New York, past and present."
Her decades-long residency dating to the early 1970s here included a friendship with Allen Ginsberg ... and allowed her to document the early days of punk. (Her photo of Harley Flanagan graces the cover of the Stimulators' first single from 1980, "Loud Fast Rules!")
Rand was an animal lover and adored her dog Leeluu and cat Annie.
She will be interred at a private graveside service this afternoon at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. Rand's friends are planning a celebration of her life in the Tompkins Square Park dog run on June 10 from 4-7 p.m.
Thank you to Steven for the reporting on this post.
787 Coffee is opening a new location (and office) on 10th Street at 2nd Avenue
A tipster told us about this pending arrival, and 787 Coffee confirmed the news.
The space that was previously Third Rail Coffee (on the right in the above photo) will serve as 787's retail space, while the former dry cleaners next door will be an office for the company.
With this opening, 787 will have four East Village locations, joining 131 E. Seventh St., 101 Second Ave. and 319. E. 14th St. (The company currently has eight coffee shops citywide.)
The Seventh Street store, which opened in October 2018, was the first for co-owners Brandon Pena and Sam Sepulveda, who wanted to bring Puerto Rican coffee to NYC. Their coffee is grown and roasted from a mountain-top farm in Maricao. (And 787 takes its names from Puerto Rico's area code.)
Third Rail Coffee did not reopen here following the PAUSE of March 2020. Next door, Danny's Cleaners merged their business with Lois Cleaners on the southeast corner of 10th Street and Third Avenue.
Thanks to Steven for the photo!
Spiegel said to be returning to 1st Avenue
Several readers say they have seen owner Shmulik Avital at the space in recent days. (He apparently confirmed the news of the return to one reader.)
There isn't any notice of a reopening on the Spiegel Instagram account, and no one responded to a message about the comeback.
The corner cafe that first opened in 2014 was serving takeout and delivery for part of last summer before going dark in early August. While there wasn't an official notice about a closure on any fronts, workers removed the signage on Sept. 9. The storefront has remained vacant since then.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Tenants: Pigeons have made empty apartment a health hazard in this Steve Croman-owned building on 7th Street
According to the residents, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation by the landlord, four rent-regulated apartments remain vacant (since 2019) in the 12-unit building.
One of the residences, apartment 4A, is said to be in deplorable shape.
Tenants say that someone left a window open inside the apartment. As the photos below show, the apartment is now home to several pigeons... as well as several dead pigeons. The apartment is also "filled with feces, flies and maggots on the dead animals," per the tenants, who have dubbed this space "Croman's Poison Pigeon Coop."
Croman's management company and the New York State Attorney General's office were made aware of these conditions on May 8. However, neither side responded to the conditions, the tenants said. (The tenants also said they were disappointed with the lack of action by the AG's Tenant Monitor, established as part of Croman's settlement with the State.)
Meanwhile, at least one city agency is investigating the conditions in the apartment... which you can see for yourself ... 
Croman was released from jail in June 2018 after serving eight months for mortgage and tax fraud. In a separate civil case with the AG's office, Croman agreed to pay $8 million to the tenants he was accused of bullying out of their rent-regulated apartments.
Croman agreed to relinquish direct control of his 100-plus rental buildings — including 47 with 617 units in the East Village — for the next five years as part of a settlement agreement. NYC Management — a division of the Besen Group — serves as the property manager for the portfolio.
According to a published report at The Real Deal in October 2019, "The notorious landlord is back in action and hasn't changed his ways" since his release from behind bars.
Department of Buildings: 202 Avenue A does not have a 'valid certificate of occupancy'
According to published reports, Tyler Thorpe was heading to the roof of the 5-story building to hang out with friends around 1 a.m.
Media outlets were quick to note that this was the second fatal fall from a Manhattan building in less than a week.
On May 22, Cameron Perrelli reportedly slipped and fell while climbing up from 202 Avenue A to the roof next door at 200 Avenue A.
"These accidents will not stop till something is done," her father, Louis Perrelli, told the Daily News on Saturday. "It is so heartbreaking for my family, and now another has to endure this tragedy."
In one development involving 202 Avenue A, the Department of Buildings inspected the address on May 26 regarding a "report of recreational use of the rooftop, contrary to the C of O."
The inspector found the following, per public records:
OBSERVED ROOF CONVERTED TO RECREATION SPACE PER DRAWING #A-106.01 ON ALT 1 APPLICATION #121188231 (PERMIT VALID THRU 10/17/2021) WITH SEATING FOR APPROX. 20 PERSONS, TABLES, BARBECUE AND SINK. BUILDING IS FULLY OCCUPIED WITH TENANTS OBSERVED ON MULTIPLE FLOORS. BUILDING ALTERED UNDER ALT 1 APPLICATION AND OCCUPIED WITHOUT A VALID CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY.
The DOB subsequently issued a Class 1 Environmental Control Board (OATH) violation.
There are three classes of OATH violations:
Class 1 (Immediately Hazardous)
Class 2 (Major)
Class 3 (Lesser)
According to public documents, the DOB imposed a $2,500 fine and scheduled a hearing for July 15.
The DOB states that Immediately Hazardous violations must be quickly rectified. If an acceptable Certificate of Correction is not received, then additional civil penalties may apply.
Highpoint Property Group owns 202 Avenue A, which goes by The Topanga, having purchased the building in late 2017 for $6.75 million. Workers later added a horizontal and vertical enlargement to the existing 4-floor structure, doubling the total square footage from 5,334 to 10,920.
The penthouses, which include outdoor spaces, rent for $12,000 a month, listings at Streeteasy reveal. According to 311 records, there have been nearly 75 noise complaints at the address going back to December, when occupancy began at the renovated building.
Media outlets reported that Perrelli, 24, who worked as a project manager for a global research firm, was attending a birthday party at 202 Avenue A when she fell into an airshaft around 3 a.m.
Perrelli's death, coupled with reports of other disruptive rooftop parties in the neighborhood, prompted local elected officials to introduce new legislation to demand accountability from property owners.
"This tragedy shows just how dangerous overcrowded or mismanaged rooftop parties have become and how often they have little to no safety protections or monitoring," local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera said following Perrelli's death.
Rivera is working on two bills to address this issue. She has already introduced Intro 1292, which would require tenants to sign and acknowledge their understanding of the city's noise codes. She's planning on introducing a second bill that would ensure enforcement agencies have easier access to phone numbers of overnight building supers or contacts and require better oversight of rooftop use and capacity.
Gaia Italian Cafe teases a return
Last July, Gaia Bagnasacco closed her Gaia's Italian Café at 251 E. Houston St. between Norfolk and Suffolk after nine years in business.
At the time, Bagnasacco recommended following her social media accounts for possible updates on an encore for Gaia's.
And anyone who did so was rewarded the other day on Instagram with this news of a Gaia's return ... there's a to-go spot in the works at an unnamed location ...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Something to sing about: Planet Rose is reopening on Avenue A
Not sure what their hours will be for now.
Meanwhile, no word of a return date just yet for Sing Sing at 81 Avenue A.
Gia signage arrives on the Bowery
Gia's Instagram account describes it as a "rustic and fun Italian restaurant." No word on an opening date. (As you can see on the storefront pic above, they are still hiring for all positions.) You can sign up for updates on the Gia website.
Actually, there were a lot of places here for a brief time between November 2014 and June 2015 ... this is when the storefront was divided into two spaces, and Forcella, Espoleta, Gia Trattoria, Slice of Naples, SRO and Bowery Pizza came and went over a six-month period.
Most recently this space was Gino Sorbillo, the first U.S. pizzeria from "the Neapolitan celebrity super-chef" of the same name. The "temporarily closed for renovation" sign arrived here in early January ... after a November 2017 opening.
Marinara Pizza makes this corner of 10th Street and 2nd Avenue their own
This past Friday, workers decked out the red exterior in white Marinara signage and awnings.
This will be the fifth outpost for Marinara, which has locations on the UES, UWS, Midtown East and Park Avenue South.
An EVG reader told us that their most popular slice is the MVP, which features stripes of marinara sauce, vodka sauce and pesto on a square pie (the pic is from the Marinara social media) ...
Two hyped pizza joints have been at this address (160 Second Ave.) in recent years. Lions & Tigers & Squares — the Detroit-style pizzeria from the Artichoke team — debuted in October 2019 before closing during the pandemic last summer. And before this, Nicoletta spent six-plus years in business here until the end of 2018.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Cafe Centosette closes on Second Avenue
• Cafe Centosette closes on Second Avenue
New alt.coffee concept vying for former Meatball Shop space on Stanton
East Village resident Nick Bodor recently told us about his plans to revive several of his former businesses under one roof, including alt.coffee (1995-2007 on Avenue A) and Cake Shop (2005-2016 on Ludlow Street).
It looks like he has found a potential new home for the business that will include an all-day cafe service, small bar, several weekly live music performances (ending by 10 p.m.) and a t-shirt emporium.
Bodor is applying for a liquor license for alt.cafe at 84 Stanton St. between Allen and Orchard — the former Meatball Shop, which shut down in February 2020.
He's on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket for the address. (The meeting is on June 14.) You can find the questionnaire online here.
Read more about his plans at this link.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Monday, May 31, 2021
Monday's parting shots
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