[Updated] Jackhammers in tow, city workers investigate the Mystery Puddle of Avenue A

Uh-oh! There just might be something to that Mystery Puddle in the southbound lane of Avenue A at Sixth Street. 

Goggla reports that jackhammer-toting city crews are currently on the scene digging a hole under the East Spillage. (H/T Ade!) 

Hopefully, whatever the workers find won't lead to months of excavation and metal street plates like we've seen on Seventh Street and First Avenue. 

For now, though (brace), we may have seen the last of the Sixth Street Seaport. (H/T Molly!)

Updated 6 p.m. 

Work appears to be done for the day...

Should only have about another 4-5 months of work left here!

The 9th annual MoRUS Film Festival arrives in community gardens tomorrow evening

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) on Avenue C is once again hosting its end-of-summer tradition — its annual film fest, a four-evening event titled "Steal This City: NYC Urban Occupations on Film" that starts tomorrow evening in local community gardens.

For its ninth iteration, MoRUS teamed up with the Loisaida Center, with additional support from ABC No Rio, to present the curated collection of films and guest speakers that will examine "how in a city where real estate dominates spatial reality, activist-driven occupations show how another world is possible."

Here are highlights for tomorrow night:

Thursday, Sept. 9, 7 p.m.

"Steal These Walls: Graffiti and the Fight for Free Expression"

Green Oasis/Gilbert’s Community Garden, 370 E. Eighth St. b/t Avenue C and Avenue D

This night explores the cultural complexities of graffiti and the use or occupation of public walls, spaces and structures to create a space for alternative communities and foster the rise of new art forms, from graffiti to murals to hip-hop.  

• "Graffiti/Post-Graffiti" (1985, 30 minutes). Directors: Marc Miller and Paul Tschinkel 

This documentary captures a key moment in the evolution of graffiti from illegal street art to rarified commodity exhibited in high-profile galleries.  

• "Girl Power" (2016, 92 minutes). Directors: Sany and Jan Zajíček

Following female graffiti writers from 15 cities — from New York to Prague to Cape Town and all the way back to New York, the documentary illuminates their paths as they navigate this predominantly male world where men often share the view that graffiti is not for girls. 

Just added! "We have the honor to host the esteemed "first lady of graffiti," Lady Pink, and SoHo Renaissance Factory co-founder Konstance Patton in a panel for our opening night." (Thursday's rain date: MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.)

You can find more details on the festival right here. Advance tix are available at Eventbrite. You can also buy tickets on the evenings of the screenings in the garden venues. (They offer sliding-scale pricing.)

Inaugural show for O’Flaherty’s debuts tonight at 55 Avenue C

O'Flaherty's makes its debut tonight at 55 Avenue C.

No, it's not a bar, but rather a new art gallery via artist-curator Jamian Juliano-Villani here at Fourth Street. (The gallery is said to be an homage to Irish pubs and Juliano-Villani's own drinking habits.) 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy took these photos the other week as Juliano-Villani prepped the space for the first show.

First, about the show, titled "Dingle does O'Flaherty's" ...

Dingle is a 70-year-old freak living in LA. The work in this show spans 50 years, the photos are from 1974, the sculptures are from 1994. These figures are 27 years old; however…Don't call them dolls, she'll be pissed. These are "psycho-tods," a fucked up form of anti-everything nihilism or something along those lines. These are babies with intention, hating the world and ready to destroy shit. 

Now about the gallery... this via Artnet News...

[I]n an effort to rebrand herself "beyond my stupid, cheeseball paintings," as she put it, she's opening her own gallery ...

"I've been wanting to do this for a while," Juliano-Villani told Artnet News. "My work is a combination of references anyway, but there's only so much I can do with painting, and I enjoy ideas way more."

While the space will function as a commercial gallery, she also sees it as something of a performance in disguise. "I'm going to start wearing black, really cool fake Prada suits," she said.

The gallery is open tonight from 7-9. (Checking on hours after tonight.)

And the flyswatter in the above pic will be available in the gallery's gift shop.  

Hidden 7th Street treasure Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen reopens for the fall

Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen on Seventh Street reopens today after its customary summer break. 

The no-frills basement cafe, which generates income for the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church on Seventh Street, offers inexpensive lunch specials and various Ukrainian potato dumplings (varenyky!). Or you can just get a $1 cup of coffee and pull up a folding chair and take it all in.

Streecha is at 33 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square. They are open 9-5 Wednesday through Sunday. Check out the Streecha Instagram account for info on specials.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to the Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen on 7th Street

Photos from 2018 by Stacie Joy!

Ladybird No. 2 debuts on 7th Street; Cadence expansion continues

The second outpost of Ladybird, the vegan tapas and wine bar, is now open at 111 E. Seventh St. 

As we reported early last month, Ravi DeRossi's plant-based Overthrow Hospitality decided to open another Ladybird in the open space in the building instead of launching a new concept. Ladybird II takes over for DeRossi's Saramsam, a Filipino restaurant that debuted last September and quietly closed in May. 

Across the street, DeRossi is also opening another space for Cadence, his hit vegan soul food restaurant that debuted this spring, next door to the current sliver of a location No. 122.

The new Cadence outpost will be open a little later this fall.

Cadence chef Shenarri Freeman has been praised for her creative cooking. In early August, Pete Wells at the Times gave the place high marks, noting: "In the increasingly crowded world of vegan and vegetarian restaurants, Cadence occupies a niche of its own."

"Both [Ladybird and Cadence] are at capacity almost every night of the week. It just made sense to expand them, either that or relocate them to larger venues," DeRossi told us last month. 

Chichen Itzá for 277 E. 10th St.

Signage is up now for Chichen Itzá, a Mexican restaurant, coming soon to 277 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

Earlier in the summer, the @TradedNY account reported that Chic-hen, which specializes in fried chicken over in Clinton Hill, was the new tenant. 

Looks like there may have been a Chichen/Chic-hen mix-up. For starters, Chic-hen offers a variety of salads, fries, wings, sandwiches, burgers and rice dishes. (We reached out to them to see if they're launching a new concept.) 

There was a Chichen Itzá Mexican Grill in Sunset Park that's now closed. They have a similar logo to what's on the window here. (Efforts to reach someone affiliated with that establishment haven't been successful.)

We'll see if we can get this sorted out.

This address was home for 11 years to the Brindle Room, whose closure was made official back in June. Owner Jeremy Spector told us that he is looking for a new location for his restaurant that served "eclectic comfort food." 

Plywood report on the SW corner of 1st Avenue and 3rd Street

Over the weekend, workers removed the pretty exquisite Exquisite Cleaners signage from the southwest corner of First Avenue and Third Street as renovations continue here. 

ICYMI (first post here): A cafe, "specializing in small, handmade wines," is in the works for the space from the owners of Urban Wine & Spirits a few storefronts away. 

Exquisite Cleaners shut down in the summer of 2020 ... one of 10 dry cleaners in the East Village to close during the pandemic.

Esperanto has apparently closed on Avenue C

Several readers have noted that Esperanto has not been open lately on the northwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street. (H/T Salim!) 

There aren't any notices about a temporary or permanent closure on the restaurant's website or social media channels. However, the interior is now mostly empty...

Open Table also lists them as permanently closed. And the phone has been disconnected.

Esperanto, which served what they called "Latin fusion," had been open dating back to March (after a winter hiatus) ... with its usual sidewalk seating — offering views of La Plaza Cultural and 9th Street Community Garden & Park — as well as two curbside dining structures.

Esperanto first opened in 1999.

The first retail space for Tom's Juice will be on 4th Street

Tom's Juice, a made-to-order juice brand available for delivery around parts of NYC, will have its first retail outpost at 75 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery. 

Signage arrived late last week.

Tom Wright started the business in 2019, though it gained popularity during the pandemic as he turned it into a full-time venture.

Here's more via a Grub Street profile from June:

Unlike the blends available at many juice bars, Tom's Juice comes in single-ingredient, ultraconcentrated flavors. This month's lineup includes cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, grapefruit, celery, and extra-potent ginger-lime shots, among others. The corporate vibe at bigger chains is antithetical to the experience of ordering from Wright, who hand-delivers each juice on his bike, rain or shine.

You can follow Tom's Juice on Instagram for updates. 

Oddfellows had been in this small retail space until the summer of 2020.

Thanks to Derek Berg for the photo! 

First sign of the Mayfly on East Houston Street

Updated: The Mayfly opened on Sept. 28.

Signage went up over the weekend for the next bar for 269 E. Houston St. — the Mayfly.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy took these shots of the in-progress interior ...

The Mayfly is from the team behind Gael Pub, Trinity Pub and Juke Bar, among others. This place has been in the works dating back to the fall of 2019. (There was previously an April 2020 opening date, though the pandemic put all that on hold.)

You can follow them on Instagram for opening updates.

The space on the southeast corner of Houston and Suffolk has seen its share of bars come and go through the years. It has sat empty since Suffolk Arms shuttered in 2018 after two-plus years. 

Before Suffolk Arms, we had the Local 269, which never reopened after a flood wiped out the live music venue's equipment in the fall of 2012. Other recent tenants included Meow Mix and Vasmay Lounge.

Treetops now visible above the plywood on lower 2nd Avenue

Here's the first glimpse of Treetops, the 10-story condoplex now rising above the plywood at 14 Second Ave. here between First Street and East Houston.

You actually get a better view from inside the adjacent First Street Green Art Park...

As we've been reporting, preliminary work on the full-floor luxury condo building started here in January 2019. The completion date is listed as July 2022.

This site has been vacant for years, last housing Irreplaceable Artifacts until its demolition by the city in July 2000. There's a lot of back story, which the links below cover...

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Workers remove artifacts from the vacant 14 2nd Ave., fueling speculation of new development

• Development watch: 14 2nd Ave.

• Vacant lot at 14 2nd Ave. sells for $7 million; will yield to 10-floor condoplex 

• More about Treetops, the name of the condoplex coming to 14 2nd Ave.

Km1 returns to 58 E. 1st St.

Km1 had its grand reopening back on Friday here at 58 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The restaurant, short for Kilometro Uno, and serving food from the Caribbean, opened in the summer of 2020... but went dark late last year without any notice to patrons. 

Then in March, VistroBurger and PurpleThai arrived in the space. 

Not sure what all happened in the whirlwind — VistroBurger and PurpleThai relocated to Third Avenue in Gramercy Park — but Km1 is back. They are open daily from 5-11 p.m.

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.

Another end-of-summer appreciation: The grocery cart garden

Wrapping up summer number 2 with the grocery cart garden on Fourth Street near the Bowery...

This opuntia is the latest addition...

The prickly pear was adopted from Stuyvesant Cove Park, which is getting ready for flood-wall construction over the next few years. 

Thanks to Anna for her patience and creativity in continuing to tend to this mobile plot!

The mystery puddle in the middle of Avenue A

Sooo a few EVG readers have been asking about the mysterious puddle in a groove of the southbound lane of Avenue A at Sixth Street... 

The water level never seems to lower... and there isn't any sign of a leak. A thorough investigation of this body of water reveals that it is generally shallow enough to walk through and too small to traverse with a boat or raft. 

Oh, and the puddle pre-dates the heavy rains that the remnants of Henri and Ida dumped on the area.

Mystery aside, this puddle needs a name (Instagram and OnlyFans accounts can follow).

Sunday's parting shot

A view of Village View along Avenue A this evening...

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included... 

• Gardening in the East Village is 'a great way to meet your neighbors' — and other things (Thursday)

• City clears and closes the area around the chess tables in Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday) 

• Bon voyage to The Baroness (Tuesday) 

• In a New York Groove (Wednesday)

• 6 Avenue B doesn't appear to be part of a new (and rumored) Houston Street development (Tuesday) ... This East Village business strip has been cleared out ahead of rumored new development (Monday)

• It takes a court order to clean out the long-empty 89 1st Ave. (Wednesday) 

• The Sullivan St. Bakery pop-up on 9th Street has closed (Monday) 

• At the Protest: Queer Liberation March installation on 10th Street (Saturday) 

• 50-58 E. Third St. sold again (Thursday) 

• Here is the trailer for the Velvet Underground documentary (Monday) 

• Openings: Mochinut on 2nd Avenue, Little Rebel on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday) 

• Astor Place Wegmans watch, work-permit edition (Monday) 

• The new location of Cure Thrift Shop opens (Friday) 

• FULL glass reveal at this incoming Lower East Side boutique office building (Monday) 

• So long to the Clover Deli's iconic neon signage (Monday) 

...  and new awning-signage alert at 328 E. Ninth St. ... where Pillow-Cat Books, specializing in books for animal lovers, is opening soon... (thanks to Steven for the photo...)

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

About the Mermaid and Mai Tai Market at Otto's Shrunken Head

Otto's Shrunken Head is hosting a Mermaid and Mai Tai Market today from 5-10 p.m. featuring a variety of vendors selling vintage clothes, art, records, etc.

The rock-n-roll tiki joint is at 538 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... 

Tree pit sinkhole on 6th Street

Beware of the tree pit sinkhole on Sixth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue that has caused a partial sidewalk collapse as well...

This is outside 338 E. Sixth St. (Awash Ethiopian Restaurant — try the shiro wat! — is the retail tenant) ... Not sure when this happened — during the Ida downpour on Wednesday night?

Sunday's opening shot

Giving it the ol' collage try... a John Belushi-"Animal House" wheatpaste that recently arrived on First Street at Second Avenue... work by @sacsix... 

Saturday's parting shot

A moment during the "Fuck the Hamptons" event today at KGB on Fourth Street ... photo by Derek Berg