The sun makes a return today... the exclusive EVG forecast (via AccuWeather) calls for sunny to partly cloudy skies and much colder; breezy this afternoon with highs around 28°. Tonight's low is 17°, with the EVGRealFeel® of 12°
Saturday, February 5, 2022
Friday, February 4, 2022
Teenage fanclub
Catching up to this Pom Pom Squad release from late December 2021... in which the NYC band shared this cover and frame-by-frame video reproduction of Nada Surf's "Popular" from 1996.
Also, Bandcamp Fridays are back ... in which the music platform waives its revenue share for the day.
East Village weekend ski report
Thanks to Goggla for the pic!
RIP Hanne 'H7L' Lauridsen.
Photos by Stacie Joy from 2014
Longtime East Village-based multimedia artist Hanne Lauridsen died Sunday at age 84.
A friend said that the Danish-born Lauridsen, also known as Hanne H7L, "peacefully passed away in her home on East 11th Street, cared for by loving neighbors and surrounded by her art." (A cause of death was not revealed.)
Even if you didn't know Lauridsen, you likely saw one of her art cars parked on the street...
... or cross-country skiing in one of her leopard outfits whenever there was a snow cover on the streets. (She was immortalized in The New York Times one snowy day outside Tompkins Square Park here.)
This bio outlines her expansive career that saw her exhibit in galleries in the United States and Europe.
We'll update this post if there's information about a celebration of her life.
The Bronx Brewery East Village debuts tomorrow (Saturday!)
Top photo by Jason Greenspan
The Bronx Brewery East Village opens tomorrow at 64 Second Ave. between Third Street and Fourth Street. (First announced in March 2020.)
A rep for this outpost of the Bronx Brewery, which opened in 2011, shared this info about the multi-level EV location:
Aside from the 14 beers on tap, the Bronx Brewery East Village will also feature the first U.S. location for the Swedish brand Bastard Burgers. (The food will be available for delivery a few weeks after the launch.) You can find the BB menu here.
[T]he space’s focal point is the pilot brewery system, a fully-functional brewery in the center of the seating area that will be used to expand their popular Y-Series ... limited-release, often experimental beers brewed in collaboration with creatives ranging from activists and musicians to artists and entrepreneurs.
The series will continue to provide a platform to celebrate and spotlight the community, contribute to charitable organizations and support the diversity of the city. Past Y-Series collaborations have benefited organizations like SapnaNYC (serving low-income immigrant South Asian women), the Humane Society, community gardens and Callen-Lorde (providing healthcare services for the LGBTQ community). The Y-Series beer roster for the new location is currently being developed and will prioritize local East Village/LES talent, including local artist ClockWork Cros and Mikey Likes It.And!
The space features corrugated steel accents and exposed i-beams, a nod to the industrial setting of the original Bronx location ... A concrete-topped bar with perforated metal sheeting anchors the front taproom area, with neon lights in the design of the NYC subway map overhead.
The back seating area is on a catwalk overlooking the pilot brewery system; guests can watch beer being brewed in real time as they eat and drink, taking in the sounds and smells of the brewhouse and cellar hop additions.
The Brewery's hours of operation: 5-11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays with a midnight close on Fridays; noon to midnight on Saturdays and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. Find more info on this location at this link.
No. 64's retail space has been vacant since NYC Velo moved next door to No. 66 in the spring of 2016.
Second interior pic by Charlie Bennet
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Reader report: USA Super Stores (U-S-A!) coming to the former Duane Reade on 3rd Avenue and 10th Street
An outpost seemingly came out of nowhere this past November on the NW corner of Houston and Avenue D — site of a former Duane Reade by Walgreens. (There's also a USA Super Stores on the UES — AT A FORMER DUANE READE! PATTERN DETECTED.)
USA Super Stores have a little bit of everything, from groceries to housewares to clothing — all at discounted prices. ("Cozy Fuzzy Sleep Pants" — $5.99; a 4-pound bag of Domino Sugar — $2.99.)
No word on an opening date. One day it will just be open!
This Duane Reade by Walgreens on the corner of Third and 10th closed in early March 2020 ... several years after expanding and gobbling up several small storefronts, forcing Excel Art and Framing Store and East Village Cheese (which was never the same) to relocate.
A look at the B Bar & Grill demolition on the Bowery
EVG reader Robert Miner shared these photos, showing that workers have mostly wiped out the former outdoor courtyard (and Taco Bar!) ...
All this is happening to make way for a 21-floor office building on the property. (We got a first look at the Midtown-friendly monstrosity here.)
As for the B Bar, the one-time hot spot (circa the mid-1990s) was expected to close for good in August 2020. However, the place never reopened after the PAUSE in March 2020.
We first reported on this new project in January 2021.
Find more background at our last post or below...
As the bank branches turn on 2nd Avenue
The HSBC on the SW corner of Ninth Street and Second Avenue made the cut and will transition to a Citizens Bank on Feb. 17.
Ahead of that, workers yesterday installed the deep-green Citizens signage (with the daisy wheel logo ) ... EVG contributor Steven was there to mark the occasion...
... and at the end of the day, a temp HSBC was back on the marquee...
HSBC arrived here in the spring of 2010 ... before it was a bank branch, the Max Brenner's Chocolate by the Bald Man haunted this space.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
The sewer-repair work on 11th Street
Yes!
Apparently, a sewer line broke along here — ugh ... Steven shared these photos from earlier today... showing that the block is closed off to traffic while repairs continue ...
I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant
Photos and text by Susan Schiffman
Tenant: Jeanne, since 1986
Why did you move to the East Village?
I am a native New Yorker. My father is from Queens. He is Italian American. My mom is from Brooklyn; she is Irish. We like to call that a mixed marriage. I am one of those classic Italian-Irish mixes from that era of New York.
My dad became a firefighter and they moved when they got married and started to have kids. I was born in Flatbush. They moved to Staten Island like everyone else after the Verrazano Bridge was built. I grew up in Staten Island and I went to NYU. That is how I ended up in the East Village. It was a no-brainer.
I had a friend in college who lived on 1st and 1st. It was 1980, and it was like venturing into the wilds. People told me not to go to the other side of Tompkins Square Park. My first apartment was on 11th between 1st and A.
I had a friend who lived on 2nd and B. When I went to visit her, I would stay over. It felt safer that way. When my daughter was in junior high in the late 90s, her friends’ parents did not allow them to visit. Until the restaurant scene started percolating.
Where did your daughter go to school?
She went to public schools. She began elementary school in the Lower East Side School. It was in the PS188 building. The name was changed to East Village Community School when they moved to 12th Street. It was the first small progressive school in District 1. Neighborhood School became the second. I kind of pulled her out. There was a shooting one day nearby. I moved her to PS19, a more conventional, traditional elementary school.
When I first moved Chloe to PS19, it wasn’t going well. They would say, “we’re going to take a spelling test,” and Chloe had no idea what a spelling test was. The progressive alternative schools in the neighborhood didn’t give tests or grades. Students received report cards, but they were narratives about how they were doing, not letter grades.
I made an appointment with Judith Foster, who had been Chloe’s kindergarten teacher at the Lower East Side School, for some support and guidance. She was now the principal at The Neighborhood School. Judith is an incredible educator, resource and support for students and parents.
For middle school, Chloe went to the Lab School in Chelsea. It was a good sequence because she learned how to navigate the city. She used to go to swimming lessons on 23rd Street. She could walk from PS19 as a 5th grader through Stuyvesant Town with a friend.
By the time she went to junior high, she would take the bus. She could take the subway in the daytime. She went to Bronx Science for high school. The kids were from every neighborhood in New York City. They had the run of the city. They lived in Chinatown, Jackson Heights, Roosevelt Island. I feel good about that.
The city is a great place to bring up kids.
It’s nice to have a couple of good friends still in the East Village because so many people are gone. I met Raquel through downtown theater people. I met her when she had the New York Theater Asylum, and I remember bartending there. Chloe must have been a baby. We’ve known each other for over 30 years. She’s a unique character in the East Village.
How did you find your apartment?
I was living on 11th Street and 1st Avenue in a tiny little two-room apartment in the back of a tailor shop. There was one room, and it didn’t have windows. I should have had the storefront, but what did I know? I was still in college.
I got pregnant with my boyfriend, who was like the coolest dude. He had a recording studio in a basement. Remember when everyone had music in the basement in the 80s? We had Chloe there. 11th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. I still remember going into labor. I said, “go get the cab.” We had a $5 bill taped to the dresser for the cab to take us uptown to the midwives at St. Luke’s Roosevelt. All the way up to Lincoln Center — $5!
My boyfriend had to go up to 2nd Avenue to get a cab. Cabs were not coming to Avenue A. There were three of us now living in this tiny little place. We realized we had to get another place. We didn’t think we could afford anything.
I knew the people that were living here, in my current apartment. They were friends who I worked with in the experimental theater scene.
When one of my friends decided to go back to Germany, he offered us the apartment. He knew we had a baby and needed more space. It was an act of generosity. This was like a palace with 2 bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen. It’s not that many square feet, but it feels very spacious. My daughter could have her own room. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. What we were paying wasn’t very much, but it seemed high at the time. And it has gone up. But it is still affordable. It’s how I can be an artist. It was a sublet when they left.
One of them lives in the city part-time, and the other stayed in Germany. Eventually, by the book, with the legal percentage increase in rent, the lease would be in my name. We were young and in flux. I was in flux, but I had a baby, so I couldn’t be that much in flux.
And that is why I still have the apartment. People say, “you are so lucky.” It is not about luck. We lived through some hard times over here. There were the frequent insurance fires, abandoned buildings, the dope and crack years, the gentrification wars, and of course, the devastation of AIDS.
What do you love about your apartment?
So many things. But I think the most important thing is the light. And people might laugh because they think there is no light in NYC. But because of the way the apartment is situated, the light moves around all day long. So different rooms become lit. I move around with the light. My daughter tried living in a bunch of other places. And said, “I am spoiled for life. I didn’t realize it, but I need an apartment that actually has sunlight.” I was worried when they built the building next door. That it would cut off my light.
I used to lie in bed and see the Empire State Building. That does not happen anymore. But I can still see the moon. This is East. When the moon rises, I can see it. I’m also close to the roof. It’s not a particularly nice roof. It has a giant T-mobile tower and cell phone stuff everywhere, but it’s my porch.
I’ve done a lot of work with astronomy in my artwork. I have shot several films from my East Village roof. It’s important to go out and check-in with the planets and see where the stars are. I can see the bridges. We used to be able to see the World Trade Towers.
When I look at these floorboards, I know that these are the same floorboards walked on from the time this building was built in 1898. The East Village is a really wonderful part of New York City, and it is the only place in the world where I feel relaxed, accepted and at home.
There isn’t one closet in the apartment. It’s not like the Upper West Side. It’s immigrant housing. The wardrobe I have for my clothes was here when I moved in. I think it’s been here since 1920. It’s not fancy. I never changed anything. Why bother? I appreciate that history. I need to live in a place with a lot of history.
We had a downtown, underground culture mixed with the old communities that were here. None of us had any money. There was a huge creative spirit. All of these things mixed together made a very special cocktail. It’s a connection. We have a certain way of understanding history here. We’re on the continuum.
If you’re interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in The New Yorker!
Brindle Room is making an East Village return this spring in new 11th Street home
Owner Jeremy Spector confirmed that his restaurant, known for some pretty tasty burgers, will reopen this spring at 647 E. 11th St. just west of Avenue C.
Spector is on this month's CB3-SLA docket (Feb. 16) for a liquor license for the address, the former Virginia's. (Their lease was up on Dec. 31 at the address and Virginia's ownership decided to look elsewhere for a larger space.)
The Brindle Room spent 11 years at 277 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. The restaurant was open for takeout during the early days of the pandemic but stayed shut after the spring of 2020.
Spector vowed to find a new home for The Brindle Room. And he likes what he will have at No. 647.
"The place has really cool ceilings, and it's bigger and nicer than my old spot," he said in an email yesterday. "But most important to me is that it's in the same neighborhood. I'm pretty fired up — it's been two long years."
He also shared a clip about with a reopening announcement...
Local photographer opens door of former Tut at 189 E. 3rd St.
Photos by Stacie Joy
In this case, eons = six years. As some neighbors may happily remember, the Marshal seized the hookah bar-restaurant Tut here at the end of January 2016.
The space was home for short stints to Lumiere and Casablanca in the previous two years.
A hookah bar-cafe from the Tut team called Fire and Ice was in the works here later in 2016, but CB3 doused those plans.
Not sure why this space hasn't attracted some sort of business (is it the doors?). It's an excellent retail block with Jane's Exchange, 3rd & B'zaar and Book Club steps away.Anyway! The other day, EVG contributor Stacie Joy got a look inside the tomb-like former Tut's... frozen in hookah time...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Now Yoga moving to online-only classes next month
Photo from March 2019 by Stacie Joy
Now Yoga is closing its Fourth Avenue studio at the end of the month, transitioning to virtual-only classes starting on March 1.
Here's part of owner Renata Di Biase's statement:
This decision has not been easy to make, and it’s one I’ve only been able to fully arrive at after several months of being back in-person and entertaining various solutions for making our brick-and-mortar sustainable.
For a confluence of reasons, including the inherent challenges within the yoga industry as it is (which existed long before Covid and about which I wrote a few months ago), the ongoing reality of Covid-related interruptions to in-person business, and my own personal need to move on from a full-time directorship role, closing our physical studio makes the most sense at this time.
Of course leaving our beloved Astor Place home is heartbreaking. And yet the vibrancy of our online community has been a bright spot over the last couple of years, and the continuation of our virtual programming is a comfort in the absence of a physical studio.You can read here full statement here.
The studio has been at 61 Fourth Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street for 3.5 years.
However, the third-floor space won't be empty long come March. Di Biase reports that SaltDrop — "a beat-driven, mat-based celebration of movement" — will be opening in this studio.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Gallery Watch: 'Falling Through Flatland' by Chris Hood at Lyles & King
Text by Clare Gemima
Images by Charles Benton (please see below for descriptions)
“Falling Through Flatland” by Chris Hood
Lyles & King, 21 Catherine St.
Lyles & King showcases 12 explosively colorful paintings in its current solo show, “Falling Through Flatland.” The gallery kindly facilitated an interview with myself and artist Chris Hood, who answered a series of questions relating to his unique process, intentions for the show and overall painting practice.
How long did it take you to create the body of work exhibited in “Falling through Flatland?”
Though I work consistently most every day, the exhibitions tend to come together in moments of intense focus and creation. This body of work took around 5-6 months of painting time to create. It is both a culmination and lasering-in on efforts that span a few years.
Can you describe what your medium is and how you use it?
I use alkyd paint, which is not very common and quite difficult to work with. It is resin-based and therefore has a very organic and distinct materiality. Thick like honey in its natural state, but possible to thin and stain like watercolor. I came to this medium through my process of painting, which involves soaking through the fabric of the canvas with paint, as opposed to having it sit on the surface.
Can you elaborate on your painting process? Is it specific to “Falling through Flatland” or signature to your overall practice?
I build up layers of paint that push through the canvas from the back. It is a process that is unique but typical of all my work. The various strokes and washes prevent or collide with successive layers of paint enmeshing into the weft and producing a surface that appears literally from within the canvas. It can visually invoke sensations of memory and challenge what is in front and what is behind. It is a method that extends the paint and imagery into territories they would normally not tend to.
Of the show, what piece challenges you the most and why?
I hope to thread the viewer through variation and surprise within each piece and amongst the exhibition as a whole. This can be challenging enough for a viewer wanting a quick read. But one painting, in particular, All Futures (2021), is both visually distinct and acts as a kind of protagonist in the show at large. It presents a scrambled figure that seems to be either emerging or fading into a darkened space. Punctuated by flashes of light and black holes, the figure meets the viewer in between coming and going, like turning a corner on the street and running into someone you used to know.
Of the show, what piece do you feel most accomplished or satisfied in and why?
I am most satisfied with the paintings that are formally inventive and challenging. Some works cue your next steps, and you can see pathways open up. That is exciting.
Collecting imagery is clearly part of your process. How do you source it?
A landscape, for instance, might be depicted in three ways: sourced from a personal photograph, an appropriated digital landscape from a video game, and from a drawing or topographical rendering. I am interested in the vernacular narratives that come from these types of spaces, rather than the specific image itself, and aim to bring the subtle feelings of those spaces into the meaning of the work. There is often an art historical or traditional theme that I extend into contemporary and personal contexts. Everything is available.
At the opening, you spoke about how you operate mostly in an analog manner. If that is the case, how are you feeling about fine arts ascent into virtual spaces that are almost entirely hands-off?
Good art is transformative beyond the tools used to make it and I am mostly skeptical of virtual art for its reliance on staying within its algorithms. The hands-off nature of creating in virtual spaces eliminates most of the physical facilities for using a tool or rather misusing it (the once-radical developments in painting from brush to scraping, to pouring, to roller, to screenprint, etc.), and so the tool stays bound in its intention.
What is worse is the insistence of virtual art maintaining its ‘portrayal’ of art-ness. It is always the virtual thing as painting or as sculpture without speaking much to either direction. As always, the issue at hand is the soul.
You also mentioned to me at the opening of “Falling Through Flatland” that you were not a “conceptual painter.” What does that mean to you?
I was clarifying the importance of the subjective and individual experience. Although there are concepts that feed the work, how the painting exists as material in space is also important. Surprise and risk are crucial.
What are your upcoming plans for these paintings? Any shows on the horizon?
I plan to continue expanding this body of work for an upcoming Los Angeles art fair and Tokyo-based group show. I am also organizing several shows in Europe, which will take place later in the year.
“Falling through Flatland” will be on view at Lyles & King’s Catherine Street location through Feb. 5. Hours: Tuesday — Saturday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Top photo: Phantom Limb, 2021
Alkyd on canvas
Image Credit: Charles Benton
Below: Hypnotic Portrait 1, 2021
Alkyd on canvas
Image Credit: Charles Benton
All Futures, 2021
Alkyd on canvas
Image Credit: Charles Benton
~~~~~~
Clare Gemima is a visual artist and arts writer from New Zealand, now based in the East Village of New York. You can find her work here: claregemima.com
Notorious East Village landlord Raphael Toledano faces 5-year real-estate ban
[5th Street buildings that were part of Raphael Toledano's portfolio]
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a court victory yesterday against notorious East Village landlord Raphael Toledano.
An order by the New York Supreme Court bars Toledano from engaging in any New York real-estate business activity for at least five years, at which point he can petition the court for re-entrance.
Per a release from the AG's office:
This decision comes after Toledano repeatedly violated a 2019 agreement with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) that required him to stop harassing New York City tenants and stop engaging in illegal and predatory real-estate practices.
"New York tenants can breathe more easily knowing that Rafi Toledano is no longer in the real estate business," said James. "Through his deceptive and illegal actions, Toledano caused incredible pain and suffering to hundreds of vulnerable families, who are still feeling the effects of his harassment today. Every New Yorker deserves to live in a safe, decent home free of abuse and fear."Here's some of what James found from her previous investigation:
" ... established that Toledano engaged in a pattern of fraudulent and illegal conduct throughout his work as a landlord and real estate developer. Toledano harassed tenants in the East Village through coercive buyouts and illegal construction practices, and failed to provide his rent-regulated tenants with utilities, repairs, and other necessary services.
Toledano also engaged in deceptive business practices in his real-estate transactions, including repeatedly and persistently misrepresenting himself as a lawyer and advertising apartments with three or four bedrooms, when legally the apartment could have one or two bedrooms only."The AG's office outlined how Toledano violated his 2019 agreement:
- Failing to disclose his real-estate business activities to the independent monitor or to get the monitor's approval for further deals
- Diverting funds from a reserve account established by the agreement
- Failing to make penalty payments (other than initial payments totaling $520,000)
- Failing to maintain his properties in a manner that complied with applicable laws and protected tenants' rights, health, and safety.
It's not immediately clear how many properties Toledano still owns.
Last May, Madison Realty Capital (MRC) closed on Toledano's bankrupt East Village portfolio. Toledano had received $124 million in cash and lines of credit from MRC to finance his $97 million purchase of the buildings.
Toledano purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for a total of $140 million in 2015. Experienced real-estate players raised red flags about Toledano's heavy reliance on debt.
In an interview with The Real Deal in June 2016, Toledano, then 26, made "frat-tastic boasts about his wealth," including: "I'm worth a fuckload of money, bro."
Enchantments is ready to cast a spell in new home on Avenue B
The longtime (nearly 40 years!) occult-themed shop that sells custom-carved candles, incense and books, among other items, left its previous home at 424 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue last month.
You can check out the Enchanments website and/or Instagram account for exact opening times this week.
The new outpost is conveniently located next door to the just-opened Hekate Café & Elixir Lounge.
Glad to see someone finally settling into 165 Avenue B... the last full-time retail tenant here was the excellent junk-thrift shop Waldorf Hysteria, which closed some 15 years ago.
A reminder to keep Two Bridge's Diner in your dining plans
Teddy Vasilopoulos, whose family has operated diners down here dating to the early 1970s (Landmark Diner, Cup & Saucer, Everest Diner), is currently on the injured list.
The folks at the family-run tofu shop Fong On shared this via Instagram:
He’s currently ... recovering from an accident when he was pinned by his own food truck outside of Two Bridges.
Now his brother is helping and covering for him until he gets better, which maybe a while. So please go support his business so that he’s got something to come back to.Two Bridge's Diner is at 89 Canal St. just west of Eldridge ... and just west of the Cup & Saucer, which Teddy's brother John operated for 30-plus years before its rent-hike-induced closure in 2017. John and Teddy opened Two Bridge's in June 2019 (after a brief stint as the Greek Shack).
Find the Two Bridge's menu here. The phone: (212) 925-2963
Astor Place Wegmans watch, automatic sliding doors edition
The buildout for Wegmans at 770 Broadway on Astor Place has entered a new phase.
Today, reps for the grocer will appear virtually in a public hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission about a façade improvement at the landmarked building. (Thanks to Upper West Sider for the tip!)
Wegmans plans to ad automatic sliding doors — similar to the ones you'd find across the way at CVS or at Whole Foods on Union Square — to what will be a new entrance on Fourth Avenue.
Sliding-door fans can check out the detailed proposal here. (That link also includes info about the Zoom call.)
Receiving approval for sliding-glass doors might be one reason that this Wegmans outpost isn't scheduled to open until the second half of 2023.
As previously reported, Wegmans signed a 30-year lease last July for what will be the grocer's first Manhattan outpost.
Kmart closed in this space after 25 years on July 11. Wegmans had agreed to buy out Kmart's lease to make this deal possible.
Previously on EV Grieve:
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