A song in EVG's heavy rotation since its release last month — "The World's Biggest Paving Slab" by the UK (Leeds!) band English Teacher.
Friday, September 29, 2023
2 men arrested for allegedly dealing drugs outside an NYPD block meeting
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Yesterday afternoon, the 9th Precinct held a Sector A Build the Block Meeting at Virginia's, the bistro on Third Street at Avenue B.
Few people were in attendance (business owners I spoke with were unaware it was taking place).
Topics for this part of the neighborhood during the session included drugs and crime on Third Street and Avenue D ... smoke shops and illegal cannabis sales and enforcement ... package thefts from residential lobbies... additional street lights for Third Street between A and B (a DOT issue), and shoplifting at Duane Reade on Avenue B and Second Street.
An unexpected highlight: Despite the heavy NYPD presence, at the tail end of this meeting, two local residents were observed selling/purchasing white powder drugs directly outside the meeting (next to a giant POLICE MEETING sign) and were arrested.
For those about to shred... [UPDATED]
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 1!), the city will have a shredding truck on Avenue B and Eighth Street outside Tompkins Square Park. Updated: Now happening on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.
You can shred up to one standard-size file box per person.
Remember: Just paper! No batteries! No dead laptops or monitors! No art projects that belonged to former lovers!
Thursday, September 28, 2023
The 12th annual Harvest Arts Festival starts Saturday in East Village community gardens
Updated: Due to the rainy forecast, the opening-night party is now on Saturday at 6 p.m. — still at LaPlaza...
This year's festival, which runs through Oct. 8, includes 10 days of free activities at dozens of East Village/LES community gardens, each featuring various performances, concerts, workshops and other related events. Check the LUNGS website here for the day-by-day, garden-by-garden schedule.
The opening night party at La Plaza Cultural on the SW corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street features jazz standards from Trio Daphne and "Blue Note Americana" from Kid Java.
A farewell to Big Lee and the Hard Swallow
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
The Hard Swallow is going out in Coney Island style this weekend.
The neighborhood bar at 140 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street closes after service on Saturday night.
This comes two-plus months after the sudden passing of co-owner Leroy "Big Lee" Lloyd, who was 51.
Maria "Sasha" Lloyd, his wife and business partner, has planned a closing-night party on Saturday — which also happens to be close to Lee's birthday — featuring regulars from the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. (Big Lee grew up in Coney Island.)
"Anyone who feels connected to the bar and Big Lee is invited to come here on Saturday," said Sasha, a lifelong neighborhood resident. "Lee didn't want tears; he wanted a celebration."
She has also hired a videographer to record testimonials about Big Lee as a keepsake for her two sons, Nicholas and Jacob. (People who can't make the event can record a video and post it on social media with the hashtag #ThankYouBigLee, and those will be included in the keepsake for the family, she said.)
I recently stopped by the bar and met (from the left) bar manager Audreana "Storm" Janelle, bartender Socks Markley, Sasha and bartender Caitlyn "Aurora" Milkman
Sasha said she is having difficulty mourning and grieving while still in the same apartment and bar. She and Big Lee had the Hard Swallow for over eight years; it was their whole life, she said.
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Buffing out the Basquiat plaque on Great Jones
The incident motivated EVG regular Lola Sáenz to clean up the plaque. She made some progress, though she realized it would need to be professionally buffed out.
Today, photographer-artist Adrian Wilson (via @plannedalism) was able to restore the plaque and make it legible once more here between the Bowery and Lafayette... 
Earlier this summer, Angelina Jolie announced a new venture, Atelier Jolie — "a creative collective for self-expression" — opening in November inside the space.
Vogue dropped a feature on Jolie and her new project earlier today.
Openings: Spice Brothers on St. Mark's Place
Photos by Stacie Joy
Spice Brothers recently debuted at 110 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue.
Lior Lev Sercarz, who sells crafted spice blends to chefs via his company La Boîte, teamed up with David Malbequi (below left), owner of David's Cafe next door, for this venture...
And we've already heard good things about the Eastern Mediterranean street food (like the shawarma platter) ... beer and wine are also available here...
The restaurant takes over from Isabella, which Malbequi and Daniel Rivera, his partner from David's, ran.
The fullest of full reveals at 699 E. 6th St.
As previously reported, the residential building will include 11 units, a storefront and space for an unspecified community facility on this long-vacant corner. Not sure where the storefront will be — the Sixth Street side?
And still no sign of listings... maybe you've seen some?
A gas station was the last tenant here in the 1980s. And for decades it was an entertaining empty lot.
Tix for Basquiat x Warhol at the Brant Foundation now on sale
Here's what to expect from the space at 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue... via the EVG inbox...
The Brant Foundation is pleased to present Basquiat x Warhol at the Foundation's East Village location, curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Peter M. Brant in collaboration with Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer. On view from Nov. 1, 2023, through Jan. 7, 2024, this is the first time the collaboration has been the subject of a major New York exhibition since Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat at Gagosian Gallery in 1997. The exhibition is traveling from Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and has benefited from the collaboration between the two institutions.
The Brant Foundation's first show here in the spring of 2019 featured work by Basquiat — some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion. A career-spanning Warhol collection was here back in the spring.
Tickets for the new show are $20, and $15 for EV residents. (Kids under 12 are free, etc.) Find ticket info here.
Openings: Bar Miller on 6th Street
Image via the Bar Miller website
Bar Miller, an 8-seat omakase restaurant, is now open at 620 E. Sixth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C (in the former Mayanoki Sustainable Sushi space next door to Grape and Grain).
The establishment comes via Jeff Miller and TJ Provenzano, who operate Rosella on Avenue A.
Per Thrillist: "Bar Miller will offer 15 courses of nigiri, sashimi, and some less traditional dishes that highlight pickled ingredients alongside a bar program with US-made wine, cider, and sake."
Bar Miller is open Wednesday-Sunday with seatings at 6 and 8:30 p.m. (Reservations available here.)
Aside from Mayanoki, Miller and Provenzano were also involved with the last iteration of Grape and Grain. Still waiting for word on what is next for that space.
H/T Peter Arkle!
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
[Updated] The Wegmans signage has arrived on Astor Place
The doors open here on Oct. 18, a date made public over the summer.
As previously noted, the 87,500-square-foot space at the landmarked 770 Broadway is the first Manhattan outpost for the grocer.
EVG's Stacie Joy received a tour of the two-level supermarket back in July. You can revisit that post here.
And by the end of the day, the first sign was up... pic by Stacie Joy...
Police seeking help ID-ing 12 suspects in late-night robbery on Avenue C
'The NYPD is searching for a dozen suspects from a robbery on Sept. 17 at 12th Street and Avenue C.***ADDITIONAL IMAGES*** pic.twitter.com/vHGk9R5wXg
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) September 25, 2023
According to the NYPD and published reports, a 23-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman had just left a bar on Avenue C at Eighth Street around 3:45 a.m. when they encountered the group — eight males and four females — several blocks away.
One of the suspects displayed an unspecified weapon, and others in the group were said to have taken the couple's cell phones, wallets and debit cards.
"This neighborhood is good. You can tell who's who," a local resident told PIX11 News. "I don't know any of these people whatsoever."
Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online. All calls are strictly confidential.
Cheers to The Whiskey Ward
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Regulars and employees, past and present, gathered last Wednesday night for a farewell to the Whiskey Ward.
The low-key neighborhood bar at 121 Essex between Rivington and Delancey has been on the Lower East Side for nearly 24 years.
I arrived as co-owner Sandee Wright was prepping to open on this special night...
... along with bartenders Chloe Troy...
... and Chelsea Pinchera ...
Wright said the closure had nothing to do with a landlord or rent increase. "We're going out under our own terms."
Why are they closing?
"It's time," said Wright, a longtime Lower East Side resident who relocated a few years ago.
"Things changed a lot after COVID, and people had less disposable income...and whiskies were hard to come by, especially ones like Pappy Van Winkle. It's impossible to get the good stuff — the bottles no one else has."
"I'm going to miss this place terribly," she said. "Every brick of it."
"I love everything about this place and the people," Wright said. "They are my family."
~~~Postscript~~~
As we understand it, a friend of Wright's plans to apply for a new liquor license and take over the space — operating under a new name — in the months ahead.
Construction watch: 180 2nd Ave.
Most of the construction netting and the sidewalk bridge were recently removed...
The Chicago-based Polish National Alliance was the previous owner of No. 180. The building housed the Józef Pilsudski Institute of America, the largest Polish-American research institution specializing in the recent history of Poland and Central Eastern Europe. (They found a new home in Greenpoint.) According to public records, an LLC bought the building for $6.75 million in June 2014. City Realty listed the new owner as Robert Stern.
Approved work permits show that workers are converting the building to residential use and adding two floors — from five to seven — in the process ... with one residential unit on each floor.
As previously reported, dating to June 2017, the building was designed to earn LEED Platinum and Passive House certification, complete with a green roof with solar hot water panels for each residential unit.
As for the ground-floor retail space, the Ninth Ward was the previous tenant. That New Orleans-themed bar closed in February 2016. The Ninth Ward was said to return to this space after the gut renovations, but that was in mid-2017.
The updated rendering now shows a December 2023 completion date.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Monday, September 25, 2023
Monday's parting shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
A moment today at the Green Oasis Community Garden on Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D...
Signage alert: Kolachi at 130 1st Ave.
Photo by Steven
Kolachi has made it signage official at 130 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
The incoming quick-serve spot with a handful of seats for to-stay dining features paratha rolls (and fries).
As Eater reported last month: "Owner Saif Qazi formerly worked in finance; this is his first restaurant and a means to bring food from his home in Pakistan to a greater audience in New York."
The bakery Sweet Generation was here for nearly six years before a move to a larger location in Brooklyn in late 2020.
Trek cycles off the Bowery
Updated 9/27: A Trek employee said this location will remain open until the end of the year.
The brand arrived here in September 2019 ... one of several outposts around the city, including on First Avenue in Stuy Town.
Before Trek arrived, this storefront in the retail base of Avalon Bowery Place sat empty for three-and-a-half years (the last tenant, Tatyana Boutique, left in January 2016).
The retail space next door remains for rent too... Blue & Cream decamped for Greenwich Village at the end of 2022.
Casa Bond next for 334 Bowery
There's now a hiring notice posted on the storefront for Casa Bond (not to be confused with Zero Bond!)...
Not sure at the moment who's behind the venture. (There's a placeholder Instagram account here.)
As we've noted, this has proven to be a difficult space to make work... Xeo Cantina closed here in June after a year in service ... following Gia Trattoria's four months in business ending in December 2021.
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