EVG Etc.: Remembering Wayne Kramer; celebrating Black History Month

Early evening view from 2nd Avenue

• RIP Wayne Kramer of the MC5 (Pitchfork ... The Associated Press... Detroit Free Press) 

• New York eyes rule changes to hire thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers who have legal work status in the U.S. (Bloomberg ... Gothamist) 

• Police seek four men who robbed the market on Eighth Street at Avenue D (CBS 2 ... The Post)

WANTED ROBBERY: 1/31/24 @NYPD9pct @ 8:00 AM inside 403 E 8 St four unidentified individuals approached a store employee. One of the individuals displayed a firearm & the others proceeded to remove currency & tobacco products from the deli. Any info call us at 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/cj8PBdb5u7

— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) February 1, 2024

• Gov. Hochul called the rollout of New York's cannabis program a "disaster" (The City) 

• Celebrating Black History Month at the Abrons Art Center on the Lower East Side (Official site) ... take a guided tour of African American history in the East Village (Village Preservation)

• Inside the new exhibit, called "A Union of Hope," at the Tenement Museum (PIX11 ... official site) 

• Veselka has closed its outpost in the Market Line food hall on the LES after five years (Eater) 

• Inside the home of a yoga instructor on St. Mark's Place (Curbed)

• East Village students call for a ban on horse carriages in the city (The Village Sun)

• Sietsema praises the Thai dishes at the newish Rynn, 105 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue  (Eater) 

• A quickie review of Potenza Centrale on Avenue B (The Infatuation ... previously on EVG) 

• A tiny Orthodox synagogue, a relic of the old Jewish Lower East Side, struggles to survive (NY Jewish Week) 

• Yu and Me Books reopens on Mulberry Street after fire (NY1 ... NBC 4) 

• Check out NYC's new garbage truck (Gothamist)

• Next up in the 35mm series at the Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue and 12th Street — "Casablanca" on Feb. 12 (Official site) 

• Vaya con Dios! It's the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration of... of "Point Break"! (Metrograph) Too cerebral? You could also see "Alphaville."

 

Saturday's opening shot

Catching the sunrise from Tompkins Square Park this morning... the EVGcast (aka the Weather Channel app) shows that we're in for sunny skies with temps in the 40s through Thursday at least...

Catch the Drift

 

London-based trio Night Tapes has released several singles of late... the video here is for a track from December titled "Drifting," which the band describes as an "existentialist pop song."

Music venue wanted for former Rockwood Music Hall 2 space on the Lower East Side

A recent arrival on the rental market: 192 Allen St. between Houston and Stanton, the former home of the Rockwood Music Hall 2 space. 

The listing (PDF here) via Gavios Realty Group shows an interest in keeping the space as a music venue...

The listing also notes that the 1,500-square-foot space includes high-end sound equipment, a stage and professional lighting. No word on the asking rent. 

Rockwood Music Hall, facing financial challenges, announced in November that the venue was "getting back to basics" and closing its Stage 2 space. Stage 1 remains in use for live music as it has for nearly 20 years. 

Stage 2 opened in 2010 and was the larger space with a 175-person capacity. (Stage 1 holds 50 people.)

Report: Kushner Cos. continues East Village exit plan

EVG file photo of 170-174 E. 2nd St. 

After sucking the life out of its East Village portfolio, the Kushner Cos. continues selling off its East Village properties. 

According to The Real Deal, the company has just sold five apartment buildings to Penn South Capital for $41 million: two buildings at 170-174 E. Second St., 325 E. 10th St., 23 Avenue A, and 49 ½ First Ave. 

Per TRD: 

The multifamily sale is Kushner's third in the neighborhood in as many months. The firm unloaded six East Village properties to David Gleitman's Targo Capital Partners for about $58 million in late December. In November, Kushner sold 504-508 E. 12th St. to Sabet Group for nearly $20 million. Kushner’s East Village exit was over a year in the making. 

The firm started shopping 18 buildings in the Manhattan neighborhood in late 2022. Since 2018, it has turned its focus to building a suburban apartment portfolio that spans Maryland, Virginia, and the firm’s home state of New Jersey.

At one point, Kushner Cos. was the second-largest owner of East Village residential buildings, trailing only Steve Croman. 

Previously on EV Grieve:
• More about Jared Kushner's East Village buying spree

• Tenants claim: Kushner and Westminster want to destroy this building's beautiful garden

• Reports outline how Kushner Companies is aggressively trying to empty 170-174 E. 2nd St.

• Local politicos join residents of 2 Jared Kushner-owned buildings to speak out about poor living conditions, alleged harassment 

Looking at the Astor Place CVS renovation plans

Over at the CVS on Astor Place, renovations, including aisle rearrangement and new self-checkouts (now in place), continue. 

EVG reader Jacob Ford found the plans for the reno on display ... (they're upside down, so you may need to tilt your computer/phone upside down, too, for a more accurate look)...

The new self-checkouts come out at a time when other chains are doing away with them. As Boing Boing called them, "the shopping equivalent of an automated phone menu." 

CNN reported on Jan. 23: 

A newly-released study by researchers at Drexel University published in the Journal of Business Research found that "regular checkout" – the kind featuring a human cashier – makes customers more loyal to a store and more likely to revisit in the future than self-checkout. The study comes as some companies remove self-checkout machines and others adjust their self-checkout operations. 

Jacob shared this with us: 

What CVS (and Wawa) hilariously do is make the robot ask you more questions than even the humans at Kmart used to. Or, in CVS’s case, ask you to ask an employee to type a code so that you can type in your own birthdate to buy Tylenol.

The CVS, the first retail tenant for 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/the Death Star, opened in late 2015. 

Thursday's parting shots

And several readers have noted this — basically like why — on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

On the Job: Talking with playwright Max Wolf Friedlich at the Connelly Theater

Photos and text by Stacie Joy

Updated 2/28: The play has been extended through March 23.

---

The doors at the Connelly Theater, 220 E. Fourth St.,  are locked when I arrive to meet playwright Max Wolf Friedlich.

After a "Hey, I'm here!" text, he pops out of the venue with a smile, clutching a can of grapefruit Spindrift.

We take a brief tour of the site here between Avenue A and Avenue B before the scheduled 2 p.m. matinee of his well-reviewed play "Job," a psychological thriller about an employee at an unnamed big tech company who has been placed on leave after becoming the subject of a viral video. 

The play, starring Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon, enjoyed a buzzy five-week engagement last fall at the Soho Playhouse. Positive word-of-mouth —and reviews — have followed the production here for this six-plus week run. (When I leave at 1:30 p.m., there is already a sizable line on this rainy afternoon.)

We leave details of the play and its plot aside and talk about keeping theater affordable and accessible (there is a weekend matinee with gentler pricing) and the neighborhood and his connection to it. 

"I grew up doing theater in the East Village — at the Kraine, NY Theater Workshop, Bowery Poetry Club, Under St. Marks," he says. "I went to high school in the East Village, and many of my best friends lived here. It's my favorite neighborhood in New York. Somehow, despite all the changing demographics, it still feels like a real neighborhood — a real community."

He continues: "Being able to eat Casa Adela or Katz's on show days? Doesn't get much better. The Connelly is gorgeous, and Josh [Luxenberg, director and general manager] and his team have been so accommodating and attentive. Our whole team truly loves being on East Fourth."

"Job" is scheduled through March 3; tickets can be purchased here. 

Happy 25th anniversary to Lavagna!

Lavagna, the unassuming and quintessential East Village restaurant, is celebrating 25 years in business this week at 545 E. Fifth St., just west of Avenue B. 

The restaurant, which serves traditional Italian trattoria fare, opened on Feb. 1, 1999. 

Congrats to Yorgos, Rob and everyone in the front and back of the house at Lavagna. 

Open daily from 5-10 p.m., with a 1 p.m. start on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Image via Instagram

1 St. Mark's Place enters its blue phase

Whenever we post something about the 22-story building at 360 Bowery, people inevitably ask about the other new office project four blocks to the north. 

So here's a look at the 9-story office building on the NE corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place (we've seen alternative addresses for 1 St. Mark's Place and 3 St. Mark's Place). 

Currently, the east-facing wall is covered in some sort of blue construction materials...

... the color reminded us a bit of a former heralded (and long-gutted) building at 19-23 St. Mark's Place...

Per its rendering, 1 St. Mark's Place has a July 2024 completion date. 

More back story here.

6 posts from January

A mini month in review... (with a photo at Gizmo by Stacie Joy) 

• Reports: Man slashed after asking man to stop urinating on car along 14th Street at 1st Avenue (Jan. 23) 

• Why we may have seen the last of longtime East Village bar Lucy's (Jan. 22)

• The Veselka documentary, narrated by David Duchovny, opens at the Village East on Feb. 23 (Jan. 19) 

• Observations on the growing humanitarian crisis with asylum seekers in the East Village (Jan. 16) 

• Documenting the demolition of Middle Collegiate Church (Jan. 8) 

• Longtime East Village sewing shop Gizmo will be relocating in early 2024 (Jan. 3)

Report explores the impact of Mount Sinai Beth Israel's potential closure on the local community

A new report outlines how the pending closure of Mount Sinai Beth Israel on First Avenue at 16th Street will negatively affect vulnerable patients and other medically underserved residents downtown. 

Members of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary were joined Monday by Assemblymember Harvey Epstein and State Sen. Kirsten Gonzalez at the Community Board 3 office on Fourth Street to release the results of the health equity impact assessment that explores the consequences of closing Beth Israel. 

Among the results from the report, titled "Lower Manhattan Lifeline: What Beth Israel Medical Center Means to Local Residents" (copy here): 

• Lower Manhattan seriously lacks hospital capacity. Below 14th Street, there is only one full-service hospital with 180 beds for more than 300,000 people. That's less than one hospital bed per 1,000 people — far below the state and national averages of 2.4 beds per 1,000 people.

• Closure of the nearest hospital above 14th Street — Beth Israel — would send people needing emergency care to Bellevue and NYU Langone, which are already "high volume" ERs with average wait times of more than three hours. 

• People with disabilities and frail elderly people, some of whom have depended on Beth Israel for their entire lives, are terrified of losing what they regard as their community hospital and worried about the cost and physical challenges of traveling to uptown Mount Sinai hospitals. 

• The zip codes from which significant percentages of Beth Israel patients are drawn — especially 10002 — include some of the city’s poorest residents, higher-than-citywide rates of public insurance, speaking a language other than English at home, and having only a high school or less education. These are the people who told our surveyors they fear the closure of Beth Israel will leave them without nearby hospital care. 

"There are massive equity implications to Mount Sinai's attempt to close Beth Israel Hospital," Epstein said. "The results of the health equity impact survey show that people with disabilities and low-income folks will suffer the most. The closure of MSBI would disproportionately impact the most vulnerable people in our community. We will not stop fighting to preserve this vital neighborhood hospital." 

Organizers sent a copy of the report to New York State Health Commissioner James McDonald, who must decide whether to approve the Mount Sinai Health System's request to close Beth Israel. 

Beth Israel executives have said that the closure is necessary because the hospital has racked up over $1 billion in losses in recent years.

As previously reported, there's a pending July 12, 2024, closing date on the books. In October, officials reportedly notified state regulators — who must sign off on their plans — of their request to shutter the 799-bed teaching hospital.

Everytable has closed its Avenue B outpost (and every other NYC location)

Everytable, the Los Angeles-based fast-casual concept focused on healthy meals, has closed all NYC locations, including the outpost at 229 Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street. 

The gate has been down at Avenue B for several weeks. Google and Yelp both list the location as permanently closed. In fact, all the NYC outposts — we counted seven locations — have closed. 

An Everytable rep told an EVG reader: "Last week, we made the incredibly tough decision to leave New York for now." The rep said they would take a "step back in this moment to build a truly revolutionary company." (We reached out for comment as well.) 

The Everytable website no longer lists any NYC addresses, with 11 locations still serving in Southern California. 

Here's more about the company, per a June 2023 news release on a $25 million round of funding: 

Founded in 2016, Everytable is a mission-driven food company based in Los Angeles that fights for food justice and equality by providing healthy and nutritious food that is both accessible and affordable for everyone. Everytable is a multi-channel, fresh-prepared food business blending stores, subscriptions, delivery, and SmartFridges supplied by a central kitchen, with meals priced according to the neighborhood. 

The Avenue B location opened in May 2023. 

H/T EVG reader Diane Jones Randall

That penthouse with a cottage atop 1st Street and 1st Avenue is ... back... on... the... market!

Image via DroneHub Media 

The penthouse unit at 72 E. First St. — aka The Minthorne House — at First Avenue with the Cape Cod-style cottage on its rooftop is BACK on the market. 

One of the most unique East Village homes sold in the summer of 2017 for $3.5 million. Now the circa-1841 space with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms spread out over two floors has a $9.75 million ask, this after renovations. (Find the listing here.) 

Per the listing (which Curbed first noted): 

The crown of the penthouse is the Cape Cod-style roof cottage and private landscaped terrace, one of New York City’s most delectable hidden gems. With ceilings up to 12', exposures on three sides, an open view to the south, and a level of finish equal to the rest of the house, the cottage is a transportative oasis. 

As a standalone studio, it can function as a guest suite or a private home office. A banquette with bay windows overlooks the planted terrace, with shrubbery, an apple tree, and multiple seating and lounging areas.

You can find more photos and descriptive descriptions right here.  

Until 2017, Gale Barrett Shrady was reportedly the owner. The cottage addition was the handiwork of her late husband, artist Henry Merwin Shrady III. She called the charming cottage a "magical little spot" that served as her son's bedroom through college.

P.S.

Bring back Boca Chica!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Penthouse with rooftop cottage sells on 1st Avenue

That penthouse with a cottage atop 1st Street and 1st Avenue is for sale

East Village Loves NYC seeks a new commercial kitchen to help feed NYC’s food insecure

File photo by Stacie Joy 

East Village Loves NYC — the local volunteer group formed in the spring of 2020 to feed people in need during the pandemic — is looking for a commercial kitchen to use to continue their mission to help end food insecurity in New York.

Since June 2020, EV Loves NYC, now a 501c3 nonprofit organization, has prepared meals from the kitchen at the Sixth Street Community between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Here's more via an Instagram post:

The need for food and love in our city has only gotten greater and we're still operating out of a setup the size of a suburban home's kitchen. (Don't get us wrong: We are forever grateful to Sixth Street. They opened their doors to us and gave us keys, no questions asked, in June 2020 when we were just a small group of friends, not yet a not-for-profit org.) You are our best resource, as always. Can you think of any leads? Corporate kitchens? Kitchens in event spaces or church halls or arts venues? Anything?

You can find contact info on the EV Loves NYC website here... or DM them on Instagram.

In the spring of 2020, a handful of friends got together to prepare meals for neighbors. Early on, Ali Sahin, the owner of C&B Cafe on Seventh Street, donated his kitchen on Mondays for the group to cook its meals. By June 2020, they had outgrown the space and started assembling deliveries at the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

Eventually, the group became known as East Village Loves NYC, with volunteers in the four digits. In their first year, the group cooked over 100,000 meals, not to mention donated 325,000 pounds of groceries and 7,000 pounds of pantry bags.

 

Previously on EV Grieve:
• These East Village residents are helping feed families in Queens during the COVID-19 crisis

Ongoing building issues force Caffe Corretto to close after only 2 months in service on 12th Street

Photo from June 2023 by Stacie Joy 

After more than five months of frustrating limbo during building repairs, the owners of Caffe Corretto announced yesterday that they will not be reopening at 511 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

East Village residents Colin Vickery and Leah Blewett, partners in business and life, were behind this project that they say was inspired by the all-day cafes of Rome. Sadly, though, they only were able to realize their dream of running a restaurant for two months last summer.

The two shared this statement with us yesterday:

We are heartbroken to announce that Caffe Corretto will not return ...

After years of planning, two joyful months of service, and five months and counting of frustrating limbo, the ongoing repairs to our building have forced us to depart permanently. Following a gas leak that was discovered in August, we were required to close our doors, and while we've worked hard since then, the space still cannot be used for our restaurant at this time. 

We remain hopeful that the robust and comprehensive business interruption insurance that we purchased to protect us in the case of an event like this will come through. However, without that crucial support for our young business, we must bid farewell to our home on 12th Street. 

We want to share our warmest thanks with our team, our investors, our friends and family, and especially our guests. Welcoming you was an unmitigated delight, and we will miss you dearly. 

We're so grateful for all of the love and support you've shown us, including through this interminable closure, and we look forward to seeing you around our neighborhood for a caffe, a slice, or a cold vermouth over ice with a twist.

In a follow-up email with EVG's Stacie Joy, Leah said:

We love the idea of reopening at some point, but for now, it's far away and would for certain require our business interruption insurance to pay according to the terms of our policy. Until then, there's not much we can do except vacate the space and wait and see.

Caffe Corretto opened last June, offering an appealing mix of breakfast pastries and lunchtime pizza al taglio ... while the evening menu featured a variety of pasta dishes, seasonal salads, and other entrees via Chef Alessandro Urbisci. 

Previously, Raclette was here for six years, bowing out in 2022.  

360 Bowery sheds it construction elevator

A milestone of sorts at 360 Bowery, where workers have removed most of the construction elevator from outside the 22-story office building at Fourth Street.

We saw the first sign of the new development above the plywood about a year ago. 

The developers of this project within the Soho/Noho rezoning area are a collaboration between Morris Adjmi Architects, CBSK Ironstate and AECOM-Canyon Partners.

This development — offering full-floor office suites — replaces the single-level B Bar & Grill (1994-2020) on the property, previously a gas station.

And from specific vantage points, you can barely tell that it's there...

Amid an influx of asylum seekers in the East Village, elected officials urge the city to open more reticketing centers

Photos last week by Stacie Joy

City Council leaders say the Adams administration needs to create more reticketing centers in NYC to meet the demand created by the Mayor's 30- and 60-day shelter limit stays. 

The letter, signed by District 2 Councilmember Carlina Rivera, House Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, and Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, calls the situation at the city's lone center, located at the former St. Brigid School on Seventh Street and Avenue B, "untenable and increasingly unmanageable." 

The lines here are only getting longer as more asylum seekers arrive here to reapply for a cot assignment or shelter location. Those in the line have been evicted due to the city's shelter limit, implemented late last year, which is 60 days for families and 30 days for individuals.

As previously reported, the long lines often result in many people being unable to enter before the site closes, forcing some to sleep outside the building or in Tompkins Square Park, where the city removed the public restrooms on Jan. 9.

Here's more from the letter: 

With more than one center and a consideration for locations in each borough, the City can ensure people do not stand on line in the cold without access to even basic facilities like bathrooms. Multiple locations would also ensure that people are closer to culturally competent, community-based programs and services. 

Volunteers with LESReady!, a Lower East Side nonprofit with organizing and service-provision experience, have identified four potential sites in Council District 2 alone that could support overflow pending the City's approval. It is important that we provide the same services available at St. Brigid's at these additional locations and ask that the managing agencies also do more to provide translation services for both those seeking asylum and the local police precincts who help with the crowds present. 

And... 

Currently, having one reticketing center has not only led to physical capacity concerns, it has created a burden on the adjacent local community and its public spaces. Resources are needed to keep up with quality of life issues. It appears that efficiency at St. Brigid's has been in decline, with travel hardships and the overall cost-effectiveness of the process in place in question. Public safety concerns have increased without a support network available even locally to those waiting. 

Line-cutting has been an ongoing issue. Other problems have been observed by officials and residents ... which likely prompted this newly posted Reticketing Center Code of Conduct. (The city published the Code in multiple languages.) 

The 18 points covered include "ignoring directions from staff and City partners" and "setting fire to anything."

The letter concludes with the Council leaders urging the city to act "quickly and compassionately in creating a better system for the thousands of people coming to St. Brigid's for assistance."

Since October, the former school has operated as a Reticketing Center overseen by the NYC Emergency Management (formerly the Office of Emergency Management or OEM).

According to published reports, the city has spent more than $3 billion on housing and services for asylum seekers since the spring of 2022. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

Observations on the growing humanitarian crisis with asylum seekers in the East Village

More about the new taqueria opening in the former Chicken & the Egg space

A quick follow-up post to the item last Wednesday about Chicken & the Egg closing in the front space at 221 Second Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street.

• Sincerely, Ophelia, the speakeasy in the back, remains in operation.

• As we noted, the new food vendor is Dear Rufino Taqueria. The owners of Zona Rosa out on Lorimer Street and Metropolitan Avenue are behind this new venture, expected to debut in the coming week.

Yuca Bar remains closed for renovations

Photos by Steven

The renovation of Yuca Bar on the NW corner of Seventh Street and Avenue A is taking longer than expected. The signage originally stated a closure until Jan. 25.

However, there is work left to complete...

Yuca's Instagram account now lists a February reopening.

The restaurant offering Latin cuisine and weekend brunches closed for the renovations on Jan. 2.