A rally at City Hall for the former Charas/El Bohio Community Center

Residents and supporters of the former Charas/El Bohio Community Center at 609 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C have organized a rally at City Hall for March 15. 

Per the invite, attendees will "demand the city right the wrongs of the past and return our community center."

The rally starts at 11 a.m. on the south plaza outside City Hall this Wednesday.

The action comes before the landmarked building heads to a foreclosure auction on March 22 at the Hilton New York Midtown Fifth Avenue. (There is a Facebook invite to "Stop the Auction.")

The property that developer Gregg Singer purchased during a city auction in 1998 for $3.15 million fell into foreclosure last year. Through the years, Singer wanted to turn the one-time P.S. 64 into a dorm (more here), though those plans never materialized. 

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. 

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.  

There's also a petition in circulation titled, "Save Charas Community Center! Stop the Private Auction!"

Per the petition, which states, "Demand Mayor Adams use eminent domain to return the center to the people!"

For 22 years, from 1979 to 2001, 605 E. Ninth St. served as the home to the Charas/El Bohio Community & Cultural Center. Each year, thousands of people attended programs there. Charas hosted community meetings, children’s programming, art exhibits, music concerts, film screenings, plays, dance recitals, bicycle recycling, construction and youth jobs training, substance abuse treatment, and political organizing. 

In 1998, Rudy Giuliani sold Charas to a campaign contributor [Gregg Singer] for a paltry $3.15 million, and in December of 2001, Charas was evicted from the space, and the center was shuttered.

You can find the petition here.

News flush: The Tompkins Square Park restrooms, open once more

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The saga continues... so! After the restrooms reopened to the public this past weekend in Tompkins Square Park for the first time in four months... the men's and women's rooms were promptly shuttered on Monday.

Why? According to a Parks employee, workers installed a new toilet on the women's side, but the flange was faulty and leaking. Plumbers (or whomever) were called to the scene. Yesterday, the repair was made... and the restrooms reopened once more.

Here is the newest addition to the women's restroom... inside a stall still wrapped in some caution tape...

... the new toilet lovingly plastered to the wall "in wonky Tompkins fashion," per EVG contributor Stacie Joy...

For the time being, the restroom hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (!?) ... until the restrooms are locked up again when the field house renovations start this month.

As previously noted, during the 18-month reconstruction project, parkgoers are expected to use restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School.

Renovations underway at the former Dallas BBQ

Photos by Steven 

The gutting of the old Dallas BBQ has begun on the NE corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

Workers said that they didn't know anything about the new tenant.

Last June, hospitality vet Curt Huegel, whose portfolio includes concepts such as Bill's Townhouse, Campagnola and Printers Alley, received Community Board approval for the unnamed establishment. There was some debate over closing time, and the committee wouldn't approve a 4 a.m. close. Huegel did not respond to previous emails about whether he was still taking the prime space.

Dallas BBQ closed this past December after anchoring the corner since the mid-1980s. According to staff, the building's landlord would not renew the chainlet's lease and opted to rent the space to another business. 

First sign of the new Ichibantei outpost on 3rd Avenue

There's a help wanted sign up at 100 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street for Ichibantei Noodles, an apparent sibling to Ichibantei, which has been serving Japanese soul food since 2010 at 401 E. 13th St. near First Ave. (Thanks to EVG reader Tiffany Pan for the photo!)

This restaurant has been in the works for awhile... reps for Ichibantei received approval from CB3 last June. (According to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website, the establishment would feature room for 24 tables/98 seats spread over two floors.)

No. 100 last housed the vowel-deficient club VNYL, which shut down at some point during the pandemic. Until September 2015, the renovated building featured the second iteration of Nevada Smiths. 

Openings: Burgers on B

Photos by Stacie Joy

Burgers on B debuted on Saturday at 168 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street... 

The quick-serve establishment is in a soft-open mode, with a grand opening expected in two weeks.

Burgers are $6, and hand-cut fries are $4. Vegan patties will be available soon.

The special of the house: the Oklahoma, a smash burger with onions on the inside plus onion jam, cheese and pickles. 

The BonB website doesn't appear to be active just yet, though there is an Instagram account. 

The space was last Barnyard Cheese Shop, which closed in October 2021 ... before a brief encore presentation as Barnyard Express.

Wednesday's parting shot

An early evening view looking downtown over Tompkins Square Park via Cecil Scheib ...

Get ready to say so long to the Stomp sign

Photo by Steven 

Workers were spotted measuring the marquee today at the Orpheum Theatre on Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... word is the "Stomp" sign will be coming down soon to make way for signage of a new production. 

No word just yet on what might be next here in the famed theater. (There are rumors of an April start date.)

"Stomp" ended its 29-year run here in early January. 

According to Cinema Treasures: "The site on which the Orpheum stands is alleged to have been a concert garden as early as the 1880s and, as such, to be one of the oldest continuously operating places of gathering for entertainment events in New York City." 

In the 1980s, the Orpheum was well-known for Off-Broadway productions such as Little Shop of Horrors in 1982, Sandra Bernhard's Without You I'm Nothing in 1988, Eric Bogosian's Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll in 1990, John Leguizamo's Mambo Mouth in 1991, and David Mamet's Oleanna in 1992.

About Radhika & Saman, a pop-up shop featuring handmade clothing from India and Pakistan

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Radhika & Saman is a pop-up clothing boutique at 618 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Proprietor Saman Mahmood sells dresses (which can be custom-ordered), skirts, tops, and other accessories handcrafted by women in Pakistan and India.

Mahmood's business partner, Radhika Khanna, whom she met while a student at FIT in 2001, died of lupus in February 2022 at age 47. Part of the shop's proceeds goes to the Lupus and aHUS Foundation.

The storefront also includes handmade jewelry by Casey Clark ...

Radhika & Saman will be here through Sunday, though Mahood hopes they can either extend the pop-up shop or find a new space in the East Village or Lower East Side. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A corner lot awaits new development on 5th Street and Avenue D

Workers recently finished demolishing the former one-level grocery, Uncle Johnny's, and clearing the lot on the SW corner of Avenue D and Fifth Street. 

As previously reported, a 13-story mixed-use building is slated for this now-empty property...

As NY Yimby first reported: 

The proposed 125-foot-tall development will yield 62,200 square feet designated for residential space. The building will have 85 residences, with an average unit scope of 731 square feet. The concrete-based structure will also have 15 inclusionary housing units and a cellar but no accessory parking. 

Public records show that Manny Ashourzadeh, via Golbar LLC, is behind this new project. 

Uncle Johnny, the longtime grocery store, closed here in February 2022.

In recent years, several new developments, including the Adele ... Arabella 101 and NIKO East Village, have risen along this Avenue D corridor. 

Openings: Döner Haus on 14th Street

Döner Haus is now open at 240 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... this is after a weekend of giveaways as part of a soft opening/staff training session.

The quick-serve establishment sells "real German kebabs" (chicken, beef or vegan) in a bread pocket... as well as fries.

Döner's website lists hours of 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, with a 3 a.m. close on Friday and Saturday.

Part of this retail space previously belonged to Eddie Huang's Baohaus, which closed in 2020.

Previously

Stump town no more in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Steven 

Over the past two days, workers have removed several stumps from around Tompkins Square Park (using the trusty Rayco RG70X!) ...

... one of the workers said the city will be planting new trees in these spots...

The Park has lost several trees in the past few years... like this one... and this one... and this one.

[Updated] Slowing down speed merchants on 3rd Street

EVG reader Concerned Citizen shares this photo from earlier today... when the DOT was spotted putting in a NEW speed reducer on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. (Per the comments, this replaces the one the city removed during the milling-paving last year.)

The city added similar bumps along this corridor, though on Second Street and Fourth Street between A and D, back in September 2021. 

NYC residents can put in a request for speed reducers at this link.

RIP Tim Lomas

By Maggie Dubris 

Updated: A memorial of his life is set for May 20.

Tim Lomas, artist, musician, teacher, photographer and longtime East Village resident, died suddenly at home on Feb. 17.

In many ways, Tim was the quintessential East Villager, living in his top-floor apartment on Avenue B since the early 1980s. He had a plot in the 6th and B Garden, played at the Pyramid Club and 8BC with his band Mercury Mile, and walked his beloved Ginger in Tompkins Square Park. 

Tim’s art and ceramic work graces scores of apartments in the neighborhood, and the dinners he hosted sparked lifelong friendships, creating a tribe that spans borders and generations. 

Tim once said, “The greatest artwork you’ll ever make is the one you make with your life.” His life was truly a masterpiece. In addition to his songs, painting and ceramic work, and many collaborative creative projects, Tim was a talented teacher, serving for years as an inspiration to children at the Third Street Music School and the Ideal School.

In 2005, he traveled to Thailand to help in the tsunami relief effort, and there the seeds of his foundation, The Global Children’s Art Programme, were first sown. He went on to spend nearly every summer bringing the joy of art and creativity to underserved and traumatized children in Thailand, Greece, Turkey, and Cambodia. He worked with artists worldwide to create a network of local programs in Africa, India, and throughout Asia. 

Tim’s death sparked an outpouring of both grief and gratitude. Grief for the sudden loss of this precious spirit, and gratitude for his having touched and changed so many lives.

If you get a chance, walk by the 6th and B Garden, and look for the small plot filled with sculptures and outlined in twinkling lights. It’s one of Tim’s many contributions to the East Village that he loved.

For sale: 171 1st Ave., home of Momofuku and the only cast-iron building in the East Village

There's a new listing for 171 First Ave., the 5-story building between 10th Street and 11th Street. 

Here are the details via Avison Young: 

171 First Avenue, the only cast-iron property in the East Village, spans 10,674 gross square feet and consists of five total units across five stories. The ground floor space (and lower level) is occupied by Momofuku Noodle Bar, which is owned and operated by notorious restaurateur David Chang. There are four FM loft-style residential units across floors 2-5. 

Asking price: $10.59 million. 

Chang opened Noodle Bar here in 2004.

In 2019, a Miami real-estate investor bought both 169 and 171 First Ave. for $14 million, per the Post.

Image via Avison Young

Storefront reveal: Raf's at the former Parisi Bakery on Elizabeth Street

Workers have removed the plywood from outside 290 Elizabeth St. between Bleecker and Houston, where the owners of the Michelin-starred Musket Room down the street are opening a new café at the former home of Parisi Bakery. 

Raf's "aims to evoke the grand cafés of Europe and create an intimate space for café culture downtown," per Forbes. The new space will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Raf's will also be making use of Parisi's "immaculately preserved built-in bread ovens." Eater has a preview here. 

Reservations for Raf's start this week. 

ICYMI: Parisi Bakery, a sibling of the famed Mott Street institution, closed in the summer of 2021. The Elizabeth Street outpost had produced all of its bread for restaurants and groceries since 1974.

Monday's parting shot

Photo by Derek Berg 

Tompkins Square Park views tonight (March 6!)...

Check out emerging bands this week at the New Colossus Festival

The fourth edition of the New Colossus Festival gets underway this Wednesday. 

This celebration of independent music takes (March 8-12) at East Village and LES venues — Pianos, Mercury Lounge, Berlin, Heaven Can Wait, Bowery Electric and Arlene's Grocery. (There's also a special show with A Place to Bury Strangers at the Bowery Ballroom on Sunday.)

Check out the venue lineup here... and the band/musician (100-plus) rundown here. 

As we've said in previous years, it's a great (and inexpensive way) to check out a lot of new/emerging bands. (Find badge info at this link.)

The New Colossus Festival started in 2019.

The historic 137 2nd Ave. — the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic — is now for sale

The landmarked building constructed in the 1880s at 137 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street can now be yours for just over $22.5 million.

In 2019, the three-level (plus) space became the headquarters of the female-focused co-working club The Wing. Per reports at the time, "the HQ is intended to riff off the building's original details, such as existing terracotta tile floors, decorative pillars, moldings and skylights."

According to Curbed, who first reported on this availability, "The Wing's furniture is still in the building and can be included in the sale."

Here's what you get via the Cushman & Wakefield listing:

The Property features 50’ of frontage along 2nd Avenue and is located steps from New York's most iconic destinations and landmarks. The Property is currently configured as a state-of-the-art, turnkey, elevator commercial building that will be delivered vacant, making it a rare blank canvas opportunity for future purchasers. 

Its previous tenant retrofitted every inch of the space into pristine, Class A office space with excellent ceiling heights, abundant light and air, ample outdoor space, and flexible floor layouts. The Property also benefits from its flexible zoning allowing residential, commercial, mixed-use, recreational or community facilities. 

This wide array of potential uses makes this a perfect opportunity for a future townhouse or residential redevelopment, or a future headquarters for an office user as well as a wide array of other users including religious organizations, governments, family offices, foundations, doctors ...

A future townhouse!

The neo-Italian Renaissance brick building is the former German Dispensary, which opened in 1884. (In 1905 it became the Stuyvesant Polyclinic.) 

Here's more about the building from 2008 New York Times feature:

Like the branch library next door, the Second Avenue building of the German Dispensary was the gift of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, who ran the German newspaper New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung. That journal had great influence in Little Germany, on the Lower East Side around First and Second Avenues below 14th Street. The 1886 edition of Appleton's Dictionary of New York described an area in which "lager-beer shops are numerous, and nearly all the signs are of German names."

And... 

In more recent years — until its sale [in 2008] — the old dispensary building was part of Cabrini Medical Center. Although hospitals are notoriously hard on historic architecture, the interior of the Schickel building was remarkably intact, if run-down, with intricate stairway ironwork and door enframements, red marble wainscoting and a highly colored tile floor. 

In 2008, a British consulting firm bought the building for $13 million. Following the sale, the firm hired architects David Mayerfield Associates to restore both the interior and exterior. 

Per a feature at Daytonian in Manhattan: 

When dropped ceilings in the main hall were removed, the 1884 skylights, blacked out in World War II, were rediscovered. Similarly, stained-glass panels in the ceiling of the staircase were uncovered. The colorful encaustic tile floors had been covered over with concrete which was meticulously scraped away. 

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1976. Learn more about No. 137's history and architecture at Off the Grid here.

City and state officials continue cracking down on illegal smoke shops

Top 2 photos by Stacie Joy; others by EVG

Law enforcement officials returned to two East Village shops to slap them with restraining orders to prohibit them from selling unlicensed cannabis.

A restraining order now hangs on the storefront at Saint Marks Convenience & Smoke Shop, 103 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue. The retaining order notes that the "unlicensed sale of cannabis" is prohibited...

The shop remains in business, selling smoking accessories and exotic flavors of snacks.

Similar legal notices are affixed to the front of Runtz at 14 First Ave. between First Street and Second Street...

Here, though, there's a "partially closed" sign ... access is permitted to tenants, the landlord, employees, contractors, etc., "only for inspections, repairs, modifications, removal of personal property" ...

The shop appears to be permanently shuttered. (And it had been challenging for Runtz. Armed robbers reportedly took them for $5,400 shortly after opening this past August.)

Both businesses were the target of a multi-agency sweep on Feb. 9, a show of force after Mayor Adams and Manhattan DA Bragg announced that they had joined forces, cracking down on illegal storefront operations by targeting the landlords. 

In other cannabis-related news, the storefront for the cannabis lifestyle brand CannaCulture NYC has been closed for the past month at 118 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue. Someone covered the windows and painted over the façade at the shop, which opened last July...

Last Thursday, the Cannabis Control Board doubled the number of social equity licenses but didn't have an update on a timeline for opening up the broader licensing process for general retail outlets, Gothamist reported. 

Per Gothamist: "It could be several months before general business owners who don't qualify for a CAURD license get a chance to set up shop in the new legal cannabis market."

Avant Garden is on the move

Avant Garden, considered the crown jewel of the Overthrow Hospitality plant-based portfolio, will be relocating from 130 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue in the months ahead.

"After eight years in business, Avant Garden is still one of our busiest restaurants at Overthrow Hospitality," Ravi DeRossi, the owner of Overthrow Hospitality, told us in an email. "The 28-seat space with its tiny electric kitchen just isn't able to meet the demand anymore so we will be moving into a new and bigger space."

No details just yet where the new Avant Garden will live ... or the exact timing. 

"We do not expect there to be any lapse at all between the closure of the current location and the opening of the new location," he said.

The listing (PDF here) at Meridian Capital Group notes a June 1 possession date. The asking rent is $8,500 a month.

Michelin named Avant Garden one of NYC's five-best vegetarian restaurants, a list that includes Overthrow's Cadence and Soda Club.

During the first months of the pandemic in 2020, Avant Garden provided free plant-based meals to anyone in need.