Looking for 1,000 people to stand with the 1,000 trees to be cut down in East River Park

On Saturday morning, opponents of the city's current plan to bulldoze East River Park as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project are hosting an action in the amphitheater to help raise awareness of what they say is a flawed plan to protect the area from future flooding. 

Here's more about the event, which starts Saturday at 11 a.m. via East River Park Action, one of the organizers:

We are calling for New Yorkers to show up on September 11th with our bodies to oppose the city’s destruction of East River Park — a preventable health hazard and an ecological disaster and to demand flood protection that does not strip this environmental justice neighborhood of its greenspace. 

We need a truly resilient plan that addresses root causes of climate change instead of prioritizing traffic flow on the FDR. Heat is our city's number one weather-related killer. Trees reduce heat. 

After September 11, 2001, the shabby, fenced-off amphitheater in East River Park was rebuilt by the city. Companies all over America contributed materials to repair it. The new amphitheater was dedicated to the children whose parents died when the twin towers collapsed. 

Now in total disregard of history, the will of the neighborhood and the more than 100,000 New Yorkers from all boroughs who use the park, the city is planning to demolish East River Park and clear cut 1,000 trees for the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan.

Meanwhile, as previously reported, Comptroller Scott Stringer's office reviewed the $1.2 billion contract from IPC Resiliency Partners. 

Stringer subsequently sent the contract back to the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) for more information, including "how the project's lead contractors plan to meet the legal standard that minority/women-owned business enterprises receive 30 percent of the work," as The Indypendent reported. 

However, Mayor de Blasio reportedly "overruled" Stringer's office and asked that he register the low bidder's contract for the massive floodproofing project. 

Through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, East River Park Action obtained a copy of Stringer's report. (You can find a PDF of it here.)

According to Jack L. Lester, an attorney for East River Park Action: "The Comptroller's report highlights the deficiencies and inadequacies of the qualifications presented by this private company slated to receive a huge amount of taxpayer money. We want the new Mayor and City Council to investigate and follow up with the questions raised by this disclosure."

To date, Council Speaker Corey Johnson has refused to hold an emergency hearing on the matter and has not provided any comments as to why. 

This fall, workers are expected to start razing the 57.5-acre plot of land, cutting down the 1,000 mature trees and eventually rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill.

East River Park Action and other advocates say there are better ways to preserve the park and provide flood protection, such as the one mapped out in the years after Sandy. In late 2018, the city surprised community stakeholders by announcing a complete overhaul of a plan discussed over four years of local meetings.

In October 2019, the city announced that they would phase in the construction, so only portions of the park are closed to the public at any given time. 

According to various reports, the city has committed to leaving a minimum of 42 percent of East River Park open for use. It is projected to be completed in 2025, a timetable opponents say will never be met.

Tonight at 6:30, city officials will provide CB3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee with an update on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Find the Zoom link here. 

Updated: For reference, find the report from independent consultant Hans Gehrels of the Dutch environmental group Deltares at this link.

Beloved Cafe shapes up on the LES

Updated: The cafe opened on Sept. 30

The new LES home of Beloved Cafe is shaping up at 196 Allen St. just south of Houston.

As the Commercial Observer first reported back in March, the San Francisco-based, health-focused cafe is bringing its organic juices, teas, smoothies, salads and plant-based bowls to its first East Coast outpost.

A recent Instagram post offered more details on what to expect (orgasmic sourdough donuts!) when the cafe debuts this fall...

 

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The original location opened in San Francisco's Mission District in 2017. 

Part of this Allen Street storefront previously housed Palà, the pizzeria that closed in May 2017 after 11 years in business.

New awning alert at Via Della Pace's new 4th Street home

Photo by Derek Berg

ICYMI: Via Della Pace is reopening in a new space at 87 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery. And now the awning is in place.

As we noted in January, the owners were on the CB3-SLA docket for a new liquor license for this space.

The 17-year-old Italian restaurant lost its home during the devastating fire on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street in December 2020.

Via Della Pace had been closed since the previous fire on Feb. 10, 2020. At the time, the owners were unsure if they would ever reopen on Seventh Street. The fire last Dec. 5 took care of that, as workers had to demolish the five-floor building. (Giovanni Bartocci, the restaurant's co-owner and chef, was able to salvage the Via Della Pace sign, per an Instagram post.)

No word on an opening date.

This part of the storefront at 87 E. Fourth St. has been vacant since Cucina di Pesce closed in September 2018.

Beard Papa's still bringing the cream puffs to St. Mark's Place

Coming-soon signage for Beard Papa's is now up in the window on the second floor of 11 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. 

Last fall, public records showed that Beard Papa's — a 2000s-era chain that sells cream puffs — would be the new tenant across the street at 16 St. Mark's Place, the former St. Marks Babrshop that moved around the corner (and changed names). No. 16 is now the Home Town Village Convenience Store, which moved here from next door. (All this will be on the midterm.) 

Anyway!

Beard Papa's got its start in Japan in 1999, and now has 400 locations in 15 countries... and there are already several outposts in NYC. Look for a fall 2021 opening here.

Coming soon: City Clouds, Kumon, GlossLab

A few new coming-soon businesses to note... 

• City Clouds, 120 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue

A convenience store/smoke shop is in the works for this long-vacant space. Turntable Lab, who moved away from here in November 2016, was the last tenant.

• Kumon, 99 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street 

This will be the latest NYC location for the educational center that offers afterschool math and reading programs. East Side Ink moved from this space one storefront to the south in early 2017.

• GlossLab, 68 Bleecker St. between Broadway and Crosby

The fast-growing membership-based nail studio is opening in the former Café Angelique space.

The Brant Foundation debuts its next show, Julian Schnabel's 'Self-Portraits of Others'

Starting tomorrow, the Brant Foundation debuts its next show, "Self-Portraits of Others," a solo exhibition of new works by Julian Schnabel. 

Per the Brant website:

Created between 2018 – 2020, this series explores the evolution of Schnabel's artistic practice while making "At Eternity's Gate," a film about the life of Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition features 25 plate paintings that examine the theme of portraiture throughout art history.

Some details... the exhibit is open to visitors, free of charge. Advance tickets will not be required and walk-ins are welcome during open hours:

Wednesday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Thursday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Friday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Proof of a COVID-19 vaccination is required to enter.

"Self-Portraits of Others," up through December, is the third exhibition to be held at the Brant Foundation 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

In its first, from March to May 2019, the Brant Foundation featured an exhibit by Jean-Michel Basquiat, some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion. Brant later extended the show by a few weeks.

The Brant Foundation features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors. Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.

Brant had said the space would host two exhibitions open to the public each year. 

[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).