Photo by Peter Brownscombe
On this first day of January, Ray celebrates his birth month at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A near Seventh Street ... as he turns 90 ...
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Week in Grieview
Posts this past week included (with a storefront photo from Ink on A)...
• Gregg Singer's reign as owner of the former of P.S. 64 is said to be over (Thursday)
• Remembering longtime East Village resident Dr. Kamala Joie Mottl (Friday)
• O'Flaherty's opening an art gallery at the former UCBeast space on Avenue A (Thursday)
• Long-vacant 8th Street building where worker died is being offered as a development site (Tuesday)
• That's all for East Village mainstay Dallas BBQ (Wednesday)
• The city's first legal, regulated adult-use cannabis shop opens on Astor Place (Wednesday ... Thursday)
• Yo La Tengo celebrates Sun Ra Arkestra at its annual Hanukkah show finale (Tuesday)
• Pure Wine debuts on 10th Street (Friday)
• Icicle works: Frozen pipes cause damage to several East Village businesses (Tuesday)
• 133 Avenue D, co-owned by A-Rod, is on the sales market (Thursday)
• Sunny's Florist will be closed all of January (Friday)
• HAGS is reopening on 1st Avenue (Friday)
• MulchFest begins (Monday)
• Signage alert: Red Onion on 10th Street (Friday)
A memorial on Avenue A for James Cunningham
Video footage at the scene, police officials said, shows the two men arguing for about 20 seconds before Codrington is seen slashing Cunningham with a knife. NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the two men had no prior connection before Dec. 19.
Police officials said that the same knife was used in a violent rampage in which Codrington also allegedly killed a doctor in Marcus Garvey Park and assaulted several other people before his arrest on Christmas Eve.
The Daily News reported that Cunningham was a regular at Spike's, 218 Avenue A ... "who often came into the bar to order a seltzer or soda, never drank alcohol but instead used the bar as a community center."
One EVG commenter had this to say about Cunningham: "He was my friend for 35 years and was the best type of person. James would have given the last of anything he had so another wouldn't have to go without."
On Dec. 22, Codrington allegedly choked a bartender and stabbed two Good Samaritans at Teddy's Bar and Grill on Second Avenue in East Harlem. Media reports stated that Codrington showed up at the bar with a pit bull and a baseball bat to settle a score.
Police reportedly used surveillance video from Teddy's to link him to the knife attack on Avenue A.
Early on Dec. 23, a 60-year-old pediatrician was found dead in Marcus Garvey Park. Police said that Codrington and the victim, Bruce Henry, got into a verbal spat that ended with the doctor being stabbed multiple times. The NYPD's investigation led detectives to Codrington and his girlfriend driving Henry's Mercedes-Benz in the Bronx on Christmas Eve.
Essing said Codrington faces two counts each of murder and attempted murder and additional charges of second-degree assault and criminal mischief. Codrington had 12 prior arrests, Essing said.
Codrington reportedly confessed to the crimes, telling police that he tossed the knife used in the crimes into the Hudson River.
Sunday's opening shot
Not sure why someone discarded these — you can technically wear them ALL YEAR.
And Happy 2023!
Photo on Ninth Street this morning by Steven...
Saturday, December 31, 2022
The most-viewed EV Grieve posts from 2022
Dallas BBQ menu pic by Stacie Joy
As we've seen in previous years, posts related to crime and closings were among the most-viewed posts for 2022...
• Dec. 31 is the last day for East Village mainstay Dallas BBQ (Dec. 5)
• Stuyvesant Street closings official: Angel's Share, Village Yokocho and Sunrise Mart are gone (April 4)
• About those fireworks last night on the East River (Oct. 13)
• Man found dead with a slash wound to his neck on Avenue A (Dec. 19)
• Exclusive: This is the new tenant for the former Gem Spa space (Oct. 3)
• "American Horror Story" brings the porn and 1980s mobiles to 9th Street (July 1)
• Police: Delivery man slashed in face at 7th Street and Avenue A entrance to Tompkins Square Park (Oct. 6)
• SantaCon 2022 route revealed (Dec. 8)
• Lower East Side mainstay El Sombrero has closed (Nov. 30)
• Basquiat's former loft space on Great Jones is available for lease (Nov. 7)
The Grassroots Tavern closed on New Year's Eve 2017, and the space is still empty
As we mentioned in the fall, the retail spaces now have their fourth broker looking to lease the storefronts.
The Grassroots Tavern was the last business here, closing after service on New Year’s Eve 2017... ending a 42-year run in the lower level. The upstairs tenant, the record store Sounds, shut down in October 2015.
After the Grassroots closed, Bob Precious tried to open a bar-pub here, but those plans never materialized after 18 months.
As noted, No. 20, known as the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832. It received landmark status in 1971 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
And perhaps in 2023, we'll see a new tenant here.
As a P.S., we were sorry to hear that longtime co-owner Doug "Dougie" Bunton (who always wore the same leather vest!) died back in the spring at age 67. We did not receive any other details about his passing.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• An end of an era at the Grassroots Tavern
• RIP John Leeper
• RIP Bob Spedalere
• 20 St. Mark's Place, home of the Grassroots Tavern, has been sold
• Your chance to live in this historic home above the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place
• New owner lined up for the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place
• After 42 years on St. Mark's Place, the Grassroots Tavern closes on New Year's Eve
• RIP John Leeper
• RIP Bob Spedalere
• 20 St. Mark's Place, home of the Grassroots Tavern, has been sold
• Your chance to live in this historic home above the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place
• New owner lined up for the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place
• After 42 years on St. Mark's Place, the Grassroots Tavern closes on New Year's Eve
The Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket is CLOSED this Sunday (New Year's Day!)
In case you have plans to visit the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket tomorrow (Sunday, Jan. 1)...
Per Grow NYC: "All Greenmarkets, Farmstands, and Fresh Food Box locations closed. No clothing or food scrap collections."
They'll be back on Jan. 8.
H/T Steven
Why you might need to change your New York's Eve plans
ICYMI: Management for the grocery on Avenue A and Fourth posted (with festive signage!) their holiday hours earlier this week... noting a 10 closure tonight, New Year's Eve...
Otherwise, Key is back to its 24/7 schedule.
Meanwhile, see you in Times Square!
Saturday's opening shots
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer
and Vixen
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?
Friday, December 30, 2022
Built to 'Still'
A top-20 album of the year contender... here's the Irish band Just Mustard with "Still" taken from the May release, Heart Under ...
Remembering Dr. Kamala Joie Mottl
Her daughter, Legacy Russell, executive director and chief curator of The Kitchen, shared her mother's story with us... it starts with her graduation from the University of Hawaii in 1969 as a writer and editor at the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts.
True to her free spirit and open heart, she left to backpack and stay at youth hostels on her own across Europe. After she returned to spend some months living near her sister Tahi in the Boston area, Dr. Mottl began graduate school at New York University, studying psychology and specializing in gerontology. Dr. Mottl's move at that time to a walk-up on Saint Mark's Place at apartment UWG ("Upper Westside Gallery") began her 50-plus year journey and joy in New York City.She remained in the same beloved apartment until her final days. Dr. Mottl over the decades became a regular radical fixture on Saint Mark's Place and within the East Village spanning every chapter of its change, an active advocate in organizing for tenant protections with her fellow neighbors across generations, through and beyond the site of 31 Saint Mark's Place.Critical to her specialty and ongoing investment in her community work and support, Dr. Mottl worked with elders and their families at the Washington Heights Mental Health Center in Harlem and participated in early labor union strikes with the 1199SEIU union.Dr. Mottl met Harlem-born Black American photographer and community organizer Ernest Russell (1944-2016) in the East Village, a meet-cute that began, as legend has it, when Dr. Mottl was wearing no shoes and strolling in the rainy East Village street. She caught his eye and they struck up an exchange. While the two were initially fond of one another, as Dr. Mottl told it, her heart had not fully made its decision until their first kiss.Dr. Mottl finished her clinical career in gerontology at Roberto Clemente Community Health Center in the East Village. Thereafter she continued to actively volunteer and participate in elder programming and activities at Stein Senior Center and Sirovich Senior Center for Balanced Living, hosting reading groups, Kwanzaa ceremonies, and, after many years, resuming her viola playing and participating in a seniors-only band that performed in community gardens across the East Village.She loved, and was loved by, her family, friends and neighbors. An organizer who held central the traditions of Black feminisms, an advocate for the sustainability of Black life across all ages and backgrounds, and a tireless Black creative contributor to the field of psychology and beyond it, Kamala also loved nature, animals (especially her pets Girlie, Piano, Kinky Liberty, and Freaky-Dawn Bubbles), and her neighborhoods that spanned time zones.Aloha, Kamala, our cosmic kuuipo. We hope you are having sweet dreams.
Pure Wine debuts on 10th Street
Photos by Stacie Joy
Pure Wine opened on Wednesday at 86 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.
Christopher Freund, formerly the head sommelier at Gotham Bar & Grill on 12th Street and Betony on West 57th Street, is the owner of the retail shop.
Freund told us that he was looking to create a store "that is both casual and inviting for customers."
"I have run Michelin-starred restaurant wine and spirit programs, and now am I excited to bring that same level of service, hospitality and education to a neighborhood bottle shop," he said.
The shop is currently open Monday-Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., with a 9 p.m. close on Sundays.
You can follow Pure Wine on Instagram here.
Sunny's Florist will be closed all of January
Photos by Steven
If you're in the market for some fresh flowers to start the New Year, plan ahead.
Sunny's Florist — with arguably the best flowers in NYC — is going on its usual winter hiatus starting New Year's Day here on the SE corner of Second Avenue and Sixth Street...
HAGS is reopening on 1st Avenue
Photos by Steven
After nearly a three-month closure, HAGS returns to service this evening at 163 First Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street.
As previously reported, the well-regarded restaurant had to close "due to long-standing inherited, unsafe structural damage and plumbing issues in our building."
Owners Telly Justice and Camille Lindsley shared the news in an Insagram post earlier this month...
Justice and Lindsley opened HAGS — described as a restaurant "for Queers and everyone else" — this past July.
The retail space had been vacant since Fuku closed in the spring of 2018.
Signage alert: Red Onion on 10th Street
Photo by Stacie Joy
Signage for Red Onion arrived this week at 277 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
As previously noted, Red Onion will be a health-focused Indian restaurant. No word on an opening date yet. In the meantime, you can check out their website here.
The previous food establishments here — Chichen Itzá and Tompkins Village Cafe — only lasted a few weeks each.
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Thursday's parting shots
Multiple EVG readers shared photos of the epic lines, which stretched back to Lafayette Street...
The Housing Works store is the first and only one with the state’s official seal for cannabis dispensaries.
After today, the shop is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Top photo by @unitof; second photo by StevenNew York's first legal sale of recreational weed took place in a dispensary in Manhattan on Thursday, just meeting deadline to open a store in 2022. Housing Works Cannabis Co. is the first and only licensed dispensary to open in the state this year.https://t.co/yoPqNxRHzz
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 29, 2022
Gregg Singer's reign as owner of the former of P.S. 64 is said to be over
Photos yesterday by Stacie Joy
Gregg Singer's nearly 23-year tenure as owner of the former P.S. 64 on Ninth Street has apparently come to an end.
According to a press release from members of Save Our Community Center CHARAS/former P.S. 64 (SOCCC-64), Singer has been found in default of his mortgage and the property has been foreclosed.
Last Friday, New York State Justice Melissa Crane ordered the foreclosure and sale of the former P.S. 64 at 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C with a default, including penalties and interest totaling approximately $90 million.
The order could send the property back to auction within 90 days, according to SOCCC-64. You can read Crane's 20-page decision and order here.
The property that Singer purchased from the city in 1998 for $3.15 million fell into foreclosure earlier this year and was reportedly in the hands of lender Madison Realty Capital.
The five-floor building is being offered for use as medical space or educational-related purposes. Meanwhile, some residents want to see the space used again as a community center, as it was during its time as Charas/El Bohio Community Center. Singer evicted the group on Dec. 27, 2001.
It's important to note that the 135,000-square-foot building is zoned for “community facility use” and any conversion to a condoplex or residential housing would require a time-consuming zoning variance.
In October 2017, then-Mayor de Blasio's statement at a Town Hall put forth the idea that the city would take steps to reacquire the building. According to published reports, the Mayor said he'd work to "right the wrongs of the past."
SOCCC-64 members hope that Mayor Adams considers this request. Per the group's press release: "We are excited to finally have the opportunity to return the building to full community use, and are ready to work with Mayor Adams to restore this once vibrant community hub," said Chino Garcia, co-founder of Charas.
Singer wanted to turn the building into a dorm (more here), though those plans never materialized. (In past years, the Joffrey Ballet and Cooper Union were attached to the project.)
Meanwhile, work continues at the site. As we first reported on Dec. 21, workers arrived at the site ...
For a detailed history of Singer and the space, you can check out this article at The Village Voice.
O'Flaherty's opening an art gallery at the former UCBeast space on Avenue A
Artist-curator Jamian Juliano-Villani (pictured below in July) announced on Instagram yesterday that she was moving her gallery into this space between Third Street and Fourth Street.
Per the post:
We are THRILLED to announce that as of today, O’Flaherty's officially has a NEW HOME!!!!! Opening this February, we welcome you to our new location at 44 Avenue A (formerly the UCB theater). More details on our first opening soon.
O'Flaherty's had a year-long run at 55 Avenue C at Fourth Street (we covered the opening here), culminating with a barn burner of a show late this past summer.
And for some background... citing financial difficulties, Upright Citizens Brigade Theater closed UCBeast in February 2019. The comedy venue opened in September 2011, and UCB took over part of the expanded Two Boots empire — the video store on Avenue A and the Pioneer Theater around the corner on Third Street.
The Pioneer Theater, which screened indie, underground and cult fare, closed on Nov. 7, 2008, after an eight-year run. As owner Phil Hartman said at the time: "[I]t was always a labor of love and never commercially viable."
In the spring of 2021, Marcello Assante was looking to open Cinema Paradiso here... a cafe, restaurant, and center for cinephiles to enjoy foreign and independent features. However, Community Board 3 would not approve a full liquor license for all hours of the space, which Assante argued was necessary to help the venture be profitable.
In the spring of 2021, Marcello Assante was looking to open Cinema Paradiso here... a cafe, restaurant, and center for cinephiles to enjoy foreign and independent features. However, Community Board 3 would not approve a full liquor license for all hours of the space, which Assante argued was necessary to help the venture be profitable.
Top photo from August by EVG/photo of Jamian Juliano-Villani from July by Stacie Joy
133 Avenue D, co-owned by A-Rod, is on the sales market
In 2018, the former Yankee (and Mariner and Ranger) teamed up with real-estate veteran Barbara Corcoran to buy 133 Avenue D, a 20-unit building between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
Now, that building is back on the sales market with an $8-million ask.
As the Post first reported at the time, the pair bought the property from disgraced former President Trump attorney Michael Cohen and partner Eric Nelson for $8.3 million.
No word on how much, if any, work went into the building during A-Rod and Corcoran's ownership... or why it is being offered at a slight loss.
In March 2021, the building made headlines when a longtime resident returned home from a months-long COVID-related hospitalization to find that 133's management cleaned out his apartment and changed the locks.
As for A-Rod, 133 Avenue D was his first foray into New York City real estate. However, his Monument Capital Management company reportedly owns about 15,000 apartments in 13 states.
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