The team behind the popular Taiwanese-American Win Son Bakery in East Williamsburg will appear before CB3's SLA committee tonight for a liquor license at 23 Second Ave. between First Street and Second Street.
Like the Brooklyn outpost, the East Village location will serve as a café, bakery and restaurant ... with proposed hours of 8 a.m. to midnight daily. (Find a PDF of the questionnaire here.)
The bakery opened in September 2019 at 164 Graham Ave. at Montrose Avenue... several years after the Win Son restaurant debuted (to long lines).
Many of their goods have been celebrated, like the mochi millet doughnuts. The New Yorker called their Mortadella Pancake a perfect breakfast sandwich in November. You can check out the Win Son Bakery menu here.
Also on tonight's agenda: The AYS Hospitality Team (that includes Tabetomo on Avenue A) is behind two new concepts on the same block...
• AYS Libations LLC, 126 St Marks Pl (op) — the former East Village Social space ... (PDF here)
• AYS Libations LLC, 122 St Marks Pl (wb) — the former Holyland Market... (PDF here)
Tonight's meeting starts at 6:30. Find the Zoom link here. This is a hybrid meeting, and there is limited seating available for the public — the first 15 people who show up at the Community Board 3 Office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.
In a surprising move on Friday, workers put up a new ad for the Peter Jarema Funeral Home on the north-facing wall at 108 Avenue B and Seventh Street.
During exterior renovations last June (first reported here), workers sandblasted away the former ad for the funeral home that's on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.
According to work permits on file with the Department of Buildings, the landlord had approved plans to remove the "deteriorated metal cornice" and "build up and maintain existing brick parapet."
Here is the result of that work last summer...
The decades-spanning ad touted "Air Conditioned Chapels," and there was a smaller sign for "Vazac Hall Catering" (and "Fine Food"), a nod to the business before the current and longstanding tenant Vazac's/the Horseshoe Bar/7B... (photo below by Stacie Joy from 2019)...
I reached out to Danny Buzzetta, the owner/managing director of Peter Jarema.
He figured the old ad had been there for at least 60 years and still featured the phone number listed as OR 4-2568 (letters representing 6 and 7 with the known constant of the 212 area code).
Buzzetta said that someone affiliated with the restoration contacted him last year, saying that after the building finished the brickwork, he wanted to put up a new sign as an ode to an East Village "legacy" business. (We're still determining if this was someone from the landlord, Gibraltar Management Company, or the contractor. We're chasing down that lead now.)
"Honestly, I was shocked because I was very upfront that I don't have the money to pay for this, and as appreciative as the thought was, I never actually thought it was going to happen," Buzzetta said. "But lo and behold, here we are!"
We previously tried to figure out how long the ad was here. As we understand it, the corner bar dates to the mid-1930s. The funeral home was established in 1906, per its website.
As far as we can tell, the ad is for Treadway Shoes (at 67 Avenue B?). A 1980s photo from the Municipal Archives shows the funeral home ad in place, though it's obviously older than that, given the presence of the dated telephone exchange.
Wonder currently operates 10 locations throughout New York City and New Jersey, offering pick-up, delivery, and dine-in (ordered via touch screens) from a collection of chefs that include Bobby Flay, Marc Murphy, Jose Andres, Nancy Silverton and Marcus Samuelsson ... and restaurants such as Tejas Barbeque, Di Fara Pizza and Barrio Cafe.
While this is primarily a delivery and to-go business, this outpost will include a dine-in option.
A Wonder spokesperson said they are targeting a spring opening.
As previously reported, Village Yokocho, Angel's Share and Panya closed in these spaces in April 2022. Another restaurant, Sharaku, in the corner space at 14 Stuyvesant St., shuttered earlier in the pandemic. (Sunrise Mart in a separate building next door on the second floor also shut down.)
Cooper Union, which leased the buildings from their owners and had subleased them to the Yoshida Restaurant Group for more than 25 years, said it was the tenants' decision to move on. (This post has more background. Yoshida had not paid rent since 2020.)
Signage for Yummy Hive arrived Saturday on the SW corner of 10th Street and Second Avenue.
The logo promises "deli and sips,"... and workers previously told us this would be a corner deli-type place. Seamless has a Yummy Hive menu for the address, and it features a robust selection of breakfast and lunch items. A look inside also revealed a salad bar.
Workers said the space should be open in two weeks.
This storefront has been empty since Capital One® left in 2019.
Signage is up for YGF Malatang at 92 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street.
Per the brand's Instagram account: "The restaurant specializes in malatang, a type of hotpot very popular in the streets of China, often confused with ramen. But make no mistake, malatang is a totally different concept."
The chain is said to have more than 6,000 outposts in China, Japan and Korea ... this is the first in NYC.
This Third Avenue retail space has been empty for years, since Beijing Express quickly closed in 2019.
The new Bank of America branch is shaping up at 119 Second Ave. at Seventh Street... and now with temp signage ...
... and a look inside...
As we reported last Oct. 4, BoA will be the first retail tenant at the condoplex.
According to an email from the bank:
Come see us at our new location. We have ATMs, banking, lending and small business associates, as well as financial advisory specialists, ready to help you with your banking needs. Opening date: 03/11/2024.
This arrival means the closure of the BoA at 72 Second Ave. and Fourth Street, a space that has served as a bank branch since the building went up in the late 1920s as the Industrial National Bank.
Updated 2/14
NOW SIGNAGE OFFICIAL... (thanks to Steven for the pics)...
The Queen Latifah actioner will be around Stuyvesant Street, Ninth Street ... and large swaths of First Avenue between St. Mark's Place and 14th Street, and Second Avenue between Seventh Street and 10th Street, among other blocks, per the signage.
Also spotted: An "Equalizer" van!
And let's just flashback to the intro to the Edward Woodward years (1985-1989)... when New York was New York!
Watching this is like reading a crime piece in the Post...
... and a hand for that opening theme by Stewart Copeland of the Police...
Posts this past week included (with a sunrise photo from 4th and A)...
• Remembering longtime East Village resident Merle Ratner, killed by a tow truck on 10th Street and Avenue C on Monday evening (Tuesday)
• DA: Man who attacked Ray outside Ray's Candy Store sentenced to 10 years in prison (Wednesday)
• Exclusive: Lucy discusses the future of her iconic East Village bar (Thursday) ... New landlord serves Lucy's with a termination notice on Avenue A (Monday)
• City unveils the final rules for the permanent outdoor dining program (Monday)
• "Goodbye to the Brick and Mortar" at the Tompkins Square Library (Wednesday)
• These East Village tenants held a dance party to call out their landlord's sewage treatment (Sunday)
• The long-empty 6 Avenue B set to begin a new residential era as The B (Tuesday)
• Report: East Village home with the Cape Cod-style cottage on its rooftop is in contract, dammit (Tuesday)
Anthology Film Archives is screening the U.S. theatrical premiere of "Brighton Beach," a long-lost documentary from 1980 by directors Susan Wittenberg and Carol Stein.
Set against the iconic Coney Island boardwalk, "Brighton Beach" is a neighborhood in constant re-formation. This 1980 documentary offers a vérité portrait of the immigrant communities that changed the Brooklyn neighborhood — mostly Soviet Jews and Puerto Ricans — as they mingle on the boardwalk with long-time residents, eye one another, and coexist around a shared sense of uprootedness.
The documentary is not just a peek at the neighborhood during that time — its inclusion of archival footage and photographs from throughout the 1900s renders it a 20th-century retrospective. Brighton Beach neighbors Coney Island, which for decades was New Yorkers' epicenter of summertime recreation. Footage spanning every era depicts different generations of beachgoers, bygone rides like the Parachute Jump or Human Pool Table in action, performers like the Barry Sisters at the Amphitheater, or more niche events like a beauty contest for elderly women.
It's catnip for history nerds, and the visual conversation between past and present makes for a fascinating study in how neighborhoods evolve. That more than 40 years have elapsed since the initial release only deepens this conversation — now, the entire thing is a period piece.
The 60-minute film is playing through Thursday. Details here.
"Past Lives," one of 2023's more celebrated films, was recently made available to stream.
Writer-director Celine Song's generation-spanning film follows two childhood friends from Seoul to the East Village.
This neighborhood is the backdrop for the adult characters (played by Greta Lee and Teo Yoo) and former sweethearts as they contemplate what might have been... and maybe could be.
Locations here included First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...
... and the Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place.
Here's an interview with Song and Steve Buscemi at the Angelika, discussing the climatic last scene on First Street ... and how she found this block (thanks to FocusPulling for this clip)...
"Past Lives" received two Oscar nominations: best picture and original screenplay... and likely deserved more.
And you can see it still on a big screen at Cinema Village on 12th Street between University and Fifth Avenue.
The high on this Feb. 10, under mostly cloudy skies, will reach 60, according to the Weather Channel and a look out the window.
Meanwhile, EVG reader Terry Howell shared the above photo, taken in January 2011 from the NE corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place... looking at 51 Astor Place, the old Cooper Union engineering building and the Film Academy Cafe.
Day 8 of Sophie's being obscured by these oil-processing trucks on Fifth Street just east of Avenue A... part of the never-ending transformer work at the Con Ed substation along Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street.
The sidewalk also remains closed on the north side of the street (just past Sophie's at No. 507). Con Ed security hires helpfully tell pedestrians to walk in the street.
After a long month of almost non-stop clouds and rain, the crowds came out for this afternoon's stupendous 120,000-mile wide cluster of sunspots. Lucky for us, it was not pointing directly at the U.S. when the coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted. Stay tuned for an almost-total eclipse of the Sun on April 8, and lets hope for another clear day!
The Chicago-based Dehd has a new record due out May 10 on Fat Possum.
Ahead of that, they released this video-single "Mood Ring." (If you want to skip the setup, the song starts at the 2:25 mark. And this Dehd video is still my fave.)
The Lions Bar & Grill is slated to open this month at 132 First Ave. on the SE corner of St. Mark's Place.
The folks at Endless Hospitality Group (The Wayland, Goodnight Sonny, Madeline's Martini, etc.) are behind this straightforward concept with food from Chef/partner Luigi Petrocelli.
Per the EVG inbox:
The Lions is a back-to-basics American bar and grill. We serve classic cocktails, frosty mugs of beer, and all-night food centered around a house-ground burger, a fun and thoughtful bar menu, and weekly specials.
More details to follow.
The Lions takes over the space from Endless Hospitality Group's Bar Lula, which had a two-plus year run here and closed after service on New Year's Eve.
A quick follow-up to a post from a few weeks back, when we noted the new sidewalk bridge along 280 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, the site of an incoming 12-floor mixed-use building.
In creating this, the workers entombed a tree near Avenue B in concrete.
However, as these photos (thanks, Salim!) show, the construction crew drilled out the concrete that filled the tree well... allowing it to take in water now...
As for the new development, it will contain 224,809 square feet of space — for residential, commercial and community use. The residential portion will total 211,028 square feet for 157 apartments, per DOB records. The retail section will feature 12,000 square feet, while the community facility is 1,300 square feet.
