As noted, a crew here is working on the bricks, though we don't know the extent of the project — it looks like the whole wall is under repair.
Jerkface created the wall-size mural back in the fall of 2014.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Faceless Charlie Brown mural is now headless
2 East Village residents 'shaken and scared' after assault inside their building
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Two longtime East Village residents are recovering from a beating they suffered inside their building by a group of men who said they were soliciting business for an energy company.
On Tuesday, March 5, at around 2 p.m., Wayne Rada (pictured above), co-founder of the LISA Project, said he buzzed in two people claiming to be from the "electric company" who came to his fifth-floor apartment to get him to sign up for Brown's Energy Services, an alternative energy supplier based on Staten Island.
Rada and his husband, LISA Project cofounder Rey Rosa, escorted the two workers to the elevator to show them the first-floor office where they could leave sales material.
The elevator stopped one floor down, and Rada and Rosa saw four to five more employees who said they were representing the same company.
Rada remarked that the group looked "more like a package theft ring," and Rosa took out his smartphone to photograph the men. At that point, the group allegedly pounced on Rada and Rosa, pushing them into the stairwell while punching and kicking the two. Rada described it as "gleeful rage."
Rosa was able to dial 911 on speakerphone and escape the men's clutches.
Rada, treated at Bellevue, suffered an orbital fracture of the left ocular bone, a concussion, extensive bruising, and four broken teeth, as well as the loss of a molar. Rosa has strangulation bruises.
Both said they were severely shaken and having a difficult time recovering from the incident.
Police sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, confirmed that four men were arrested, and two others have outstanding warrants in connection with this assault. It's not immediately clear if the alleged suspects were actually in the building to pitch renewable energy services or if they were carrying bogus documents.
The suspects left behind photocopied documents, including an ID badge (we blurred the person's name) with Brown's Energy on it ...
"Unequivocally, we don't have any agents who work for us," he said. "We are a supply company and have only four in-office employees."
Palmese said they will hire third-party marketing companies for in-person pitching, telemarketing, and sales at concerts, sporting events, and other venues. He said he'd get back to us with information about any third-party vendors but had done so by the time of this post. He also did not respond to follow-up calls.
Back in his East Village building last week, Rada discussed the assault ...
... and pointed out where there were still blood droplets on the stairwell floor and walls where the suspects slammed his head onto the concrete...
"This is all too, too much ... happening inside my building. It's surreal and makes it impossible to sleep," Rada said. "[The attack] repeats over and over in our heads. We are so shaken up and scared."
A 7-floor development in the works for the NW corner of 1st Avenue and 2nd Street
Developers filed the permits with the city this past Friday.
According to the paperwork, the proposed building — using the address 88 E. Second St. — will be 19,278 square feet, with 2,994 square feet designated for commercial space. Plans call for 22 residential units (likely rentals, given the square footage).
The filings list Manny Ashourzadeh of Romah Management Corp. as the owner (they also have a 13-floor building in the works on Fifth Street and Avenue D). Queens-based Gerry Caliendo is named as the architect of record.
Demolition permits were filed last summer, and some asbestos abatement taking place.
New Double Dragon, the last business in these buildings, closed last July. The basement was home to the HaveAHeart recording studio.
The First Avenue Laundry Center and the Serenity Spa upstairs were previous business casualties in these three buildings. The other retail spot had been various quick-serve places, last occupied in 2015.
An EVG reader shared this view of the three doomed buildings that will yield the new development...
Openings: The Lions on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place
The team at Endless Hospitality Group (The Wayland, Goodnight Sonny, etc.) is behind this establishment, which offers "martinis, burgers and fries, cold beer and great music." The menu is here.
Kitchen hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.; to midnight Sunday and Monday.
The Lions takes over the space from Endless Hospitality Group's Bar Lula, which had a two-plus year run here, closing after service on New Year's Eve.
Aliens of Brooklyn leaves the East Village to harvest the Chelsea Market
Photos by Steven
After two years in the East Village, Aliens of Brooklyn has moved on to the Chelsea Market...
In an Instagram post, owner Joseph Angel Tijerina said, "I had 2 wonderful years in East Village and now it's on to bigger and better things … Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I have to flutter like a butterfly in search for my next conquest. I am grateful that I get to close this chapter and move on to my next era..."
He opened his clothing and accessories brand at 305 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue in the spring of 2022. (Read our Q&A with him here.)
This was his first storefront after nearly 10 years of selling from pop-up spaces and flea markets.
You can tabs on his business via Instagram. Good luck with your new location, Joseph!
Signage alert: Crispy Burger on 1st Avenue
Photo by Steven
The Dolly Llama space didn't stay vacant for too long.
Signage is up now for Crispy Burger at 137 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.
This is the latest outpost for the chainlet that has outposts in Staten Island, Queens, New Jersey and Jacksonville, Fla. The quick-serve business specializes in fried chicken.
The ice cream and waffle shop The Dolly Llama was here for a few months before closing for a "renovation" last summer, never to reopen.
Flushing-based cafe and bakery Sweet Cake is opening an East Village outpost
Photos by Pinch
Sweet Cake is opening an outpost at 215 First Ave., just south of 13th Street.
The Flushing-based bakery and cafe, which serves coffee, matcha drinks, and Asian-style desserts, is now hiring at this location. 
The shop debuted on Northern Boulevard in January 2023. No word on an opening date here.
The previous tenant, the East Village Art Collection (EVAC), closed last April after the art venue failed to open for a group show featuring 25 artists from around the country (and overseas). The artists had to jump through many hoops to eventually retrieve their work.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Week in Grieview
• Two bystanders shot after a nearby argument escalated to gunfire in Tompkins Square Park (Saturday)
• 1 year after building fire, A&C Kitchen grandly reopens on Avenue C (Wednesday)
• Housing lottery underway for units in this new building on 10th Street (Monday)
• The NYPL's archive of the legendary East Village Eye now available to the public (Tuesday)
• 'Americans in Paris' at the new Grey Art Museum on Cooper Square (Friday)
• Architectural sculpture digest: A look at some unique 'Houses and Hotels' at O’Flaherty's (Thursday)
• A familiar face returns to Key Food (Wednesday)
• Coming attractions: The 'Kim's Video' documentary debuts at the Quad on April 5 (Thursday)
• Full reveal at 14 Avenue C, where the team behind The Commodore is opening a new outpost (Monday)
• An update from G's Cheesesteaks, opening May 1 on Avenue B and Houston (Thursday)
• This day on the Bowery in 2007 (Thursday)
• Your faceless Charlie Brown mural update from 12th Street (Tuesday)
• Boris & Horton reopens on Avenue A (Tuesday)
• Openings: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday) ... Not as Bitter brings the fresh fruit lattes to 10th Street (Tuesday)
• PLNT Burger closes its Union Square outpost (Monday)
• Meet Belvedere, the Russian tortoise (Thursday)
• Perk Espresso & Coffee Bar closes on 14th Street (Monday)
• Goodbye Dolly (Monday)
• Awash in debt, Body Shop shuts down operations (Tuesday)
... and a post we didn't get around to posting this past week... Starlight Convenience coming to 110 Third Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street... (bring back the Variety Theater!)
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EVG Etc.: Another week for the Veselka documentary; a national championship for NYU women's hoops
St. Patrick's Day weekend outside McSorley's on 7th Street by Steven
• Report shows that more New Yorkers are struggling to afford public transit (City Limits)
• NYC can restrict shelter stays for adult migrants to a single 30-day placement, with extensions granted only under "extenuating circumstances," according to the terms of a new settlement (The City)
• Wegmans denies the "frivolous" lawsuit by the owner of Osakana on St. Mark's Place (PIX 11)
• No end in sight on the MTA construction project that has turned a two-block stretch of Forsyth Street between Delancey and Stanton into a — paraphrasing — shithole (Gothamist)
• The Veselka documentary got another week at the Village East (theater site ... previously on EVG)
• Check out all the programs and shows at La MaMa on 4th Street (official site)
• Congrats to NYU's undefeated women's basketball team, who won the Division III national championship! (Washington Square News)
• More praise for Foul Witch on Avenue A (stupidDOPE)
• A map of the 22 restaurants that "define" the East Village (Eater)
• Jamian Juliano-Villani, who owns O'Flaherty's on Avenue A, makes her debut solo exhibition with Gagosian this month (Ocula) ICYMI: The current exhibit at O'Flaherty's (EVG)
• The Forever Young film series features "insubordinate teenagers from around the globe" (Metrograph)
Sunday's opening shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
A happy St. Patrick's Day to those who celebrate and/or enjoy moving the jointed arms on the decorations at Key Food.
Saturday, March 16, 2024
[Updating] 2 people shot in Tompkins Square Park
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Updated 3/19: Police sources, who did not have permission to speak on the record, told us that they have identified the alleged gunman and have photos and video of him circulating internally.
Updated 3/21: The same suspected gunman fired more shorts in Tompkins.
Updated 3/26: Police made an arrest in the shooting.
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A dispute in Tompkins Square Park turned violent this afternoon as a gunman fired 5-6 shots, striking two people, including an unintended target — a woman in town visiting her son who's running the NYC Half Marathon tomorrow, police said.
According to NYPD sources in the Park, a fight broke out outside the fence to the playground near Temperance Fountain. Two men were said to be hitting a third man. Police said the victim had a gun in a crossbody bag. He took 5-6 shots, striking two people. At least one, a 53-year-old woman visiting from Illinois, was an unintended victim, police said.
The woman was hit in the hip by a bullet and was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where she is expected to survive. Her son was at the scene looking for his mom before the NYPD transported him to the hospital.
A 31-year-old man was hit in the buttocks. His injury was also not considered life-threatening. It's not immediately known if he was one of the men involved in the initial dispute.
The NYPD has blocked off the entrance on Avenue A at Ninth Street ... and put up crime scene tape, keeping people from heading in that direction from Temperance Fountain. Police were continuing to search for the shell casings.
A detective at the scene said the nearby cameras in Tompkins were not operating, so there wasn't any surveillance video from the shooting.
The gunman is still at large as of 2:30 p.m.
The shots rang out just before 1 p.m., scattering parkgoers enjoying a sunny day in Tompkins.
Initially, we were told only a partial bullet fragment was found in the park but farther away from the scene and more toward the center of Tompkins ... however, evidence collection teams appear to have found additional material ... they were spotted removing it around 4:30 p.m. ...
Crime Stoppers is also seeking information on today's shooting...
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.
Tompkins is now fully open, although some NCO officers may still be on patrol.
Saturday's opening shot
Friday, March 15, 2024
Friday's parting shot
Photo by William Klayer
A new mural outside Performance Space New York on First Avenue at Ninth Street by Ellery Neon ... created for the 2024 Spring Gala happening TONIGHT...
'Judgment' day
Scream from New York, NY, the debut record from NYC's Been Stellar is out this June 4.
Ahead of that release, they shared this single (and video!) for "Passing Judgment."
'Americans in Paris' at the new Grey Art Museum on Cooper Square
The inaugural show for NYU's fine art museum (fka, the Grey Art Gallery) opened on March 4 and is titled "Americans in Paris."
A description:
Following World War II, hundreds of artists from the United States flocked to the City of Light, which for centuries had been heralded as an artistic mecca and international cultural capital. Americans in Paris explores a vibrant community of expatriates who lived in France for a year or more during the period from 1946 to 1962. Many were ex-soldiers who took advantage of a newly enacted GI Bill, which covered tuition and living expenses; others, including women, financed their own sojourns.Showcased here are some 130 paintings, sculptures, photographs, films, textiles, and works on paper by nearly 70 artists, providing a fresh perspective on a creative ferment too often overshadowed by the contemporaneous ascendency of the New York art scene.
And a brief look around...
This show runs through July 20. Related to the exhibit, there are also panel discussions and film screenings here (check the website).
Hours:
- Tuesday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
- Thursday-Friday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- Saturday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
There isn't an admission fee... and the show is worth your time...
Friday's opening shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
As seen at Book Club on Third Street... "Some Strange Music Draws Me In," the first novel by East Village resident Griffin Hansbury. (Griffin also wrote the nonfiction "Feral City" and "Vanishing New York," both as Jeremiah Moss.)
Griffin will speak this evening (March 15) at the Strand with Hugh Ryan. More information is here.
As previously noted, Griffin/Jeremiah has been a longtime friend of EVG... and is really the reason the site exists today (as it almost went away in 2008).
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Meet Belvedere, the Russian tortoise
Photo by Steven
Urban Park Rangers were in Tompkins Square Park today for an educational program... a special guest included this Russian tortoise that someone had abandoned in Central Park.
The Park Rangers named it Belvedere after the iconic mini castle in Central Park.
This day on the Bowery in 2007
On this day, the country blues-turned-punk club had been closed for almost five months (Oct. 15, 2006). John Varvatos would open a store in the space some 13 months later.
So here's a look at some more recent ghosts of the Bowery.
... at this time, 313 Bowery, the former CBGB Record Canteen and CB's 313 Gallery space, was still for rent ... before the Morrison Hotel Gallery arrived in 2008... (the first of several businesses here; it's now the gallery Amanita)...
And this all seems longer than 17 years ago...
Coming attractions: The 'Kim's Video' documentary debuts at the Quad on April 5
First, to the official description:
...an elegiac tribute to the iconic video store in New York City that inspired a generation of cinephiles before it mysteriously closed its doors and sent its legendary film archive to a small and slightly dubious Sicilian village for "safekeeping." But what starts as an homage to cinema quickly becomes a rescue mission to ensure the eternal preservation of the beloved video collection.
Meanwhile, the official trailer was dropped for it last week.
The Quad Cinema on 13th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue hosts the NYC theatrical premiere on April 5. Post-screening Q&As with Yongman Kim, the man, the myth, and the legend behind Kim's empire will also be held there. (Details here.)
"Kim's Video" opens April 12 at the Alamo Drafthouse in the Financial District.
After Sundance last year, Deadline called the doc "a playful and intelligent film" ... while Variety said it's "a flaked-out, one-of-a-kind story of film obsession." On the other hand, IndieWire graded it a C+.
The video empire had a modest start in Kim's dry-cleaning business at 99 Avenue A in 1986 ... there were also two locations at different points on St. Mark's Place, including the Mondo Kim's at 6 St. Mark's Place (pictured above). The last Kim's Video & Music closed in 2014.
As you may know, Kim's massive collection of DVDs and videos is now available to rent from the Alamo Drafthouse in the Financial District. (Background on all this here.)
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