Photo by Derek Berg
Special delivery this Valentine's Day on St. Mark's Place at Second Avenue...
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
2 weeks left before Gizmo closes and relocates from longtime East Village home
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Updated 2/26: Unfortunately, the deal for a new Gizmo space fell through, and Rosa and Hossein are searching again for a new space. Details here.
As we first reported on Jan. 3, Gizmo is leaving its longtime home at 160 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street for a new EV storefront.
Wife-and-husband owners Rosa Malmed and Hossein Amid told me that while they have not secured a new space yet for their sewing supply shop, they are still "in negotiations" for a new storefront...
The last day here is Feb. 28. Until then, expect markdowns on fabrics, trims, and zippers (50% off) and discounted prices on other merchandise.
And be sure to check out the table out front ...
Rosa said she opened the shop 32 years ago because she needed space for her alterations business.
Hossein told us that their rent has increased to a point where the couple can no longer afford to stay here.
Closings: Emilia by Nai on 1st Ave.
Photo by Pinch
A for-rent sign hangs above 174 First Ave. (south storefront), marking the official end of Emilia by Nai here between 10th Street and 12th Street.
There's no mention of a closure on the restaurant's website or Instagram account. A "Closed for Private Event" sign had been on the storefront for months.
This was a return (circa June 2022) to the address for Chef Ruben Rodriquez, who ran Nai Tapas Bar in the subterranean space until a move to Second Avenue in 2018.
Rodriquez has several other restaurants in the neighborhood, including the recently opened Bad Hombre at 29 Second Ave. — the former Amigo.
Per the listing (PDF), the asking rent at 174 First Ave. is $18,500 a month.
The Bloom Bloom-Book Club mashup returns this Valentine's Day (today!)
If you need a gift this Valentine's Day (TODAY), Book Club is once again hosting the East Village-based Bloom Bloom floral design studio at the shop-cafe on Third Street.
From 11 a.m. to whenever the flowers are gone, Bloom Bloom is selling grab-and-go wrapped bouquets and custom floral arrangements.
Book Club is at 197 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
This is the third year for the Feb. 14 collaboration between the two businesses.
Now $1.50, 99¢ Fresh Pizza enters a new era
Top photo by Steven
On the ever-shifting budget pizza front, new signage arrived Sunday at 71 Second Ave., marking the change from 99¢ Fresh Pizza to $1.50 Fresh Pizza here between Fourth Street and Fifth Street...
As far as we can recall, this is the first price increase for the sliceria since its debut 10 years ago. (Bring back Cool Gear!)
And 99¢ Fresh Pizza isn't the only local slice shop to up the price by 51 cents. 99¢ Pizza debuted mid-March 2023 at 418 E. 14th St., just east of First Avenue. By June, their budget slice was going for $1.50.
However, it took ownership until this past October to make the change signage official. (Thanks to EVG reader Tom for this shot from the fall...)
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Storm center: Scenes from around the East Village after Nor’easter moves off the coast
Soon, back to the "Remembering When It Snowed" posts.
Tuesday morning in review
Photo from 9th and A by Steven
Waking to a slushy snowfall this morning... as the entire NYC metropolitan area and northeast corridor remains under a Winter Storm Warning (the first in two years) until 6 p.m.
Readers have reported gusty winds and sloppy sidewalks... though not close to the 4-8 inches forecast (yet).
Meanwhile, flames were spotted coming from a manhole on the southbound lane of Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street ... as the salty runoff caused some sparks here... the FDNY was quickly on the scene.
Thanks to EVG reader Emma for this clip...
We've heard from several readers about the stubborn (and dramatic) manhole fire ... the FDNY (with Con Ed) eventually had to clear out part of (half of?) the open-air curbside space at Kazuza Lounge...
Monday, February 12, 2024
Monday's parting shot
Photo this evening outside Saifee Hardware by Stacie Joy
For the first time in two years, the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for all of NYC from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow (Feb. 13).
Per the NWS: "Heavy snow and gusty winds are expected with snowfall accumulations of 4 to 8 inches."
Given the forecast, EVG is suspending the "Remembering When It Snowed" posts until further notice.
A Citi Bike docking station for 3rd and A
The station isn't listed on the system map yet, though a Citi Bike rep confirmed this is a permanent dock (and not, say, relocated here from another spot during construction).
Citi Bike, now in its 11th year, reportedly saw record-high ridership numbers last fall. Citi Bike also announced that the current number of e-bikes in the system will double by the end of this year, per Streetsblog.
Meanwhile, the docking station on Fifth Street at Avenue A is still MIA (since October) due to the Con Ed transformer work.
On the CB3-SLA docket: Williamsburg’s Win Son Bakery plans East Village outpost
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.
The previous tenant here, the dance studio Exile Professional Gym (EXPG), never reopened after the PAUSE of March 2020.
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.
Peter Jarema Funeral Home ad comes back from the dead on 7th and B
Top photo and new reporting by Stacie Joy
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...
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!"
Via the NYC Municipal Archives, we found this street view from the early 1940s...
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.
There was also some thought — without much evidence — that the ad was created (or augmented) for filming 1974's "The Godfather Part II" (one of many movies and TV shows filmed at the bar).
Here's the scene (RIP Frank Pentangelli!) shot inside and outside the bar. However, we don't see any ads on the building ...
In case you Wonder what's coming to this Stuyvesant Street space
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.)
Yummy Hive announces itself on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street
Photo by Steven
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 alert: N25 on St. Mark's Place; YGF Malatang on 3rd Avenue
Top photo by Steven
Signage arrived last week at 27 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue for N25, a cafe serving nitro coffee and tea ... and Bánh mì.
This will be the second location for the brand that got its start in Taichung City, Taiwan.
N25 takes over for Gong Cha, yet another bubble tea shop to close along this corridor.
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.
[Updated] Bank of America makes it temp signage official on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street
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.
The new building was ready for occupancy in mid-2021... six years after the deadly gas explosion destroyed this corner in March 2015 and took the lives of Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.
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.
NOW SIGNAGE OFFICIAL... (thanks to Steven for the pics)...
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Counting down to 'The Equalizer' day in the East Village
Photos by Steven
Signs are posted around the neighborhood for tomorrow's shoot of "The Equalizer," the reboot now in its fourth season on CBS.
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...
Week in Grieview
• 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)
• Jolene set to close on Great Jones (Tuesday)
• Lions for Lula at 132 St. 1st Ave. (Friday)
• A smash & grab at the Grab & Go on Avenue B (Saturday)
• Tree rescued from concrete on Houston (Friday)
• Yuca Bar returns to service after renovations (Wednesday)
• Today in notes for traffic enforcement (Friday)
• A pop-up no more, Apollo Bagels opening first outpost in the East Village on 10th Street (Tuesday)
• Untitled building now with more Untitled (Monday)
... and from late Friday night, the crowd arriving for DJTM.8's Dark '80s night event at Gama Lounge on Avenue B (photo by Stacie Joy) ...
----
Recommended: 'Brighton Beach' at Anthology Film Archives
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.
Here's some analysis from Hyperallergic:
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.
Reconnecting with 'Past Lives'
Top image via A24
"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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)