Photo by Cecil Scheib
Tonight's sunset with a Tompkins Square Park view...
Monday, June 10, 2024
A cat's tale
That's all, folks: Tacos El Porky closes on Avenue A after 3-plus months
Photo by Steven
Tacos El Porky has shut down after three-plus months at 151 Avenue A between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
On Saturday, the South Florida-based business announced via Instagram: "Our New York restaurant is closing its doors permanently. Thank You to all the people that came and tried our food; we’ll miss you! But… The Party continues in Miami!"
The taco shop debuted in late February ... taking over from its sibling El Primo Red Tacos, which came and went after four months. Owner Frank Neri previously told us they couldn't make enough money with the limited beef birria menu.
The closure comes after management appeared before CB3 for a beer-wine license last month and pitched to use the backyard space — a proposal with seven tables and 28 seats. (According to the minutes from the public meeting, they were also on the August 2020 docket for a similar ask but "refused to appear" before the committee.)
While CB3 gave conditional consent last month for the beer-wine, the committee stated Tacos El Porky could not use the backyard space for dining.
A lot of locals also spoke out against this applicant's quest to use the outdoor space. According to the minutes from the May meeting:
We have received a petition in opposition to the backyard use, and late night/early morning hours, signed by 143 nearby residents. The neighbors state that the applicant has been using the backyard for staff use, including cleaning mats, pots and pans and other kitchen equipment late at night causing noise and disturbances, as well as letters in opposition from the church next door, and ...We have received complaints about the applicant giving away and selling margaritas and shots. The applicant states that it was wine/agave-based tequila. We have photos of the applicant advertising these drinks, as well as a menu submitted that lists margaritas and shots, with no mention that it is agave-based. A resident asked the staff about the drinks and was told that it was real tequila and triple sec and shown a bottle of triple sec, and ...Five residents, including a representative from the 9th St. A1 Block Association, a co-owner representing residents of 149 Avenue A, and a representative from a condo association at 272 E. 10th Street, appeared to speak in opposition to the late-night hours and any use of the backyard.
As a reminder, tacos can work in these spaces (without the backyard). San Loco was in the south storefront at No. 151 for 15 years until February 2014.
The ongoing efforts to shutter unlicensed weed shops
For example, this past Thursday, authorities closed Smoke City Exotics at 166 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street...
...as well as the oft-busted storefront at 24 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street...
On May 7, Mayor Adams announced the launch of Operation Padlock to Protect "to hold illegal smoke and cannabis shops accountable."
After the first week, City Hall said that they had closed and sealed 75 shops and issued nearly $6 million in penalties. (And in the first month, the closure tally passed the 300-store mark.)
In the past, some businesses were back in operation a day or two later, or they used evasive tactics such as removing the signage and only opening late at night when ownership figured they were safe from raids.
The Task Force closed Hi Society at 97 Second Ave. between Fifth Street and Sixth Street on May 22. The shop, which had a velvet rope and doorman, was open the next day. The Task Force returned, and the shop has been shuttered ever since, with seven "seized" posters on the storefront.
Over the weekend, Colin Moynihan did a deep dive for the Times on the concern over the proliferation of unlicensed stores on the Lower East Side. The story includes local residents who "created a spreadsheet listing the locations of nearly three dozen unlicensed sellers, which they said they distributed to government officials, hoping to prompt enforcement."
Some background from the article, which you can access here:
Nearly 3,000 unlicensed cannabis stores are estimated to have opened across New York City since 2021, when a state bill was passed legalizing recreational marijuana and allowing for the distribution of retail cannabis licenses. There are 132 licensed adult-use dispensaries across the state, according to the Office of Cannabis Management, with 62 in the city.
... and...
... the rollout of the licensed shops has stumbled, tripped up by lawsuits, bureaucratic delays and a lack of financial assistance for retailers. At one point, policymakers promised to provide turnkey storefronts for new business owners. Those promises never came through.
The article quotes Jeffrey Hoffman, a cannabis lawyer and legalization advocate who supports closing the unlicensed shops. Given their numbers and the clandestine actions of some of the operators, he predicted it would take months or longer to shut down all the unlicensed shops.
Meanwhile, what will happen to all the storefronts that landlords previously leased to illegal cannabis businesses?
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Credit:
Photos 1 & 3 — Salim
Photo 2 — Steven
Photos 4 & 5 — EVG
Updated: What might be next for this 2nd Avenue storefront?
Fast-forward to the other day... when the gate was (finally) up, and the space appears to either be ready for a new tenant or a for-lease sign here between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
The coffee shop opened last summer, pivoting from the weed-related NYC Kind Cafe ... which took over for the short-lived Paint Puff "N" Peace in 2022 — one of the early unlicensed shops to arrive in the neighborhood.
Updated 5 p.m.
A for-lease sign arrived today... photo by Steven
Openings: Cafe 2BY2 on 10th Street
The shop features homemade desserts (tiramisu, cream brûlée taro puff) and coffee, tea and matcha lattes.
Posted daily hours: Noon to 10 p.m.
The space was previously Avenues, the real-estate office-coffee bar combo... and before that, EVG fave Turntable Lab, which lives on online.
Sunday, June 9, 2024
Week in Grieview
• After 25 Years on Avenue A, Juicy Lucy will move following vandal attack (Thursday)
• The former St. Emeric property could yield a 570-unit affordable housing complex on Avenue D (Wednesday)
• Carnitas Ramirez sets its opening date for new East Village taqueria (Wednesday)
• From parked cars to luxury condos on 9th Street (Monday)
• Mapping the public restrooms in the East Village (Thursday)
• Asian Taste looks to be reopening this month (Tuesday)
• Plywood free, you can now walk along the all-new 360 Bowery and its 22-floor office building (Thursday)
• Opening up Jennifer's Cafe on the NW corner of 4th Street and 1st Avenue (Wednesday)
• After 36 years in business, Ise Restaurant is closing its doors this month (Tuesday)
• Greenmarket season begins on Astor Place (Tuesday)
• 40 years gone! Revisiting a classic New York magazine cover story from 1984 (Monday)
• Garage Sale Vintage bringing its nostalgic vibes to the Bowery (Monday)
• Looking at two recent storefront reveals on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)
• Storefront renovations commence on the SW corner of the Bowery and Houston (Monday)
• At the reopening of longtime East Village staple Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen (Friday)
• Openings: Kyuubi Omakase on St. Mark's Place (Thursday)
• Friday night with The Damned at Hammerstein Ballroom (Sunday)
... and this past week, we spotted workers inoculating trees in Tompkins Square Park to help protect them from Dutch Elm Disease (photo by Steven)...
We'll always have St. Mark's Place
In the above recent photo, Ed Yoo captured a mosh-pit moment at the previous crash pad spot...
Saturday, June 8, 2024
Saturday's parting shot
[Updated] NYPD releases images of suspect in Astor Place slashing Thursday evening
Updated 6/9
Police have arrested a 35-year-old homeless man, identified as Steven Johnson, in connection with the slashing, the Daily News reports
Updated 6/10
According to the Post, Johnson hit a deli worker on St. Mark's Place in the head with a chain after he was asked to leave the store for blocking the entrance, per ADA Robert Wirtz. This happened the day before the slashing on Astor Place.
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The NYPD has released images of the suspect they are searching for in connection with the random slashing on Astor Place early Thursday evening.
Police said a 30-year-old man was slashed with an unknown object in the back of the neck. According to published reports, the victim is in stable condition at Bellevue.
The attack happened just before 5:30 p.m. on the busy plaza that houses the Cube and the food and beverage kiosk. Passersby said nothing precipitated the slashing between the suspect and the victim.
The suspect, who police described as 6 feet tall with a medium build, was last seen heading toward St. Mark's Place. He was wearing a dark-hooded sweatshirt, camouflage pants and black boots at the time of the attack.
Tompkins Square basketball courts remain closed for mural installation
Na Chainkua Reindorf will create "Gaze" — "a stylized eye which is a recurring symbol" in her work.
There is no word on the timeline for the project.
Masato Okano's punk poster exhibit at MoRUS ends this weekend
Photos by Stacie Joy
"Art Speaks More Than Words," a hand-painted punk poster exhibition by illustrator-musician Masato Okano, remains up at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) through tomorrow (Sunday!).
You can check out the large canvas banners, including the matinees by NYHC Chronicles at Niagara and Bowery Electric, today and tomorrow from 1-5 p.m. (There's no admission charge.)
Here's a look at some of the work...
MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
Friday, June 7, 2024
Friday's parting shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
From beneath the Hare Krishna Tree in Tompkins Square Park today... the start of the annual Hare Krishna Festival weekend in NYC.
Get the balance right
Shoegaze legend Miki Berenyi (of Lush fame) is back with new music and a new band — the Miki Berenyi Trio.
The video here is for "Vertigo."
You can catch the band tomorrow (Saturday night) at Webster Hall on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue ... with a great opening act — Lol Tolhurst x Budgie (the drummers of the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees).
At the reopening of longtime East Village staple Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen
Photos from May 31
Reporting by Stacie Joy
A refurbished Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen reopened last Friday in the basement space it has used for the past 50 years at 33 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.
Several people were waiting in line to enter before the announced 11 a.m. opening time.
Rev. Father Johan Lubiv, the administrator of St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church for the past four years, greeted me inside.
In the days before the reopening, the space received a deep clean and fresh coat of paint. While a new volunteer staff runs operations, Streecha features the same menu items and prices, with funds going to St. George down the block. (Streecha has long served as a fundraising arm for the church.)
Ahead of the reopening, there was some confusion over Streecha's future.
On May 23, Dima Kovalenko, who the church hired to be its chef and run the kitchen nine years ago, announced on Instagram that Streecha had permanently closed and that the "property owner" had other plans for the basement space. (Kovalenko, meanwhile, found a backer and will be opening a pop-up space under a new name nearby offering a similar fare.)
In a previous interview, Father Johan explained some of the misunderstandings. "I said to Dima to say, 'I am not working at Streecha, but Streecha continues to function.' This is misleading information that Streecha is closed."
Father Johan said St. George hired Kovalenko to run Streecha, though he claims he had "turned it into a private business, and that is not what this space is for."
Streecha will be open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The 3rd annual LUNGS Theater Festival takes place this weekend
The free performances are scheduled from 3 to 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. (Note: The program is the same each day.) For a detailed preview, visit the LUNGS website here.
Joseph Papp began the outdoor theater tradition on the Lower East Side in 1956 when he introduced "Shakespeare in the Park" in the (now-demolished) East River Park Amphitheater.
In 2022, LUNGS continued this part of his legacy with the free Summer Theater Festival.
Updated: Man slashed in unprovoked attack on Astor Place
Top photo via the Citizen app
2nd photo via an EVG reader
Updated 6/9
Police have arrested a 35-year-old homeless in connection with the slashing, the Daily News reports
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A man in his 20s was slashed in an unprovoked attack early last evening on Astor Place, according to police sources and published reports.
The attack happened just before 5:30 p.m. on the busy plaza that houses the Cube and the food and beverage kiosk. Passersby said nothing precipitated the slashing between the suspect and the victim.
"Right before, nothing. Yeah, no altercation. Just exploded out of nowhere," witness Michael Picardi told ABC 7.
The suspect, dressed in dark clothes and camouflage pants, was seen leaving the plaza and heading eastbound toward St. Mark's Place. The Daily News reported a witness took a photo of the suspect and shared it with investigators.
According to reports, the victim, who was slashed in the back of the neck and shoulder, is in stable condition at Bellevue.
Updated 6/8
The NYPD released these images of the suspect...
Thursday, June 6, 2024
After 25 Years on Avenue A, Juicy Lucy will move following vandal attack
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
After 25 years at 85 Avenue A, René Henricks is ready to pack up and move Juicy Lucy.
According to Henricks, on Tuesday morning around 11, a man carrying a shovel and another tool walked up to the juice and coffee shop, smashed its front window, and menaced the counterperson before continuing north on Avenue A toward Tompkins Square Park.
Henricks shared an image from the surveillance video...
... as well as a low-resolution video of the attack...
She has pleaded with the landlord to install a gate to protect the area where people camp out in front of Takahachi and DROM next to her storefront but to no avail. Henricks mentioned a fatal overdose in the nook a few months ago. She also said that she has to clean up needles and personal belongings daily.
The unnamed employee of two years working during the attack said that the man "seemed angry with the world and frustrated by the world" and noted that neither she nor Henricks had seen him before. He didn't say anything to her during the incident.
"I'm angry too! It's my responsibility to keep my staff safe, the landlord's responsibility to keep the building safe, and the Mayor and the city's responsibility to keep us all safe," Henricks said. "We have a good business, a quiet business, a family business."
I contacted the 9th Precinct, which confirmed the report and said that the detective's squad was investigating the matter. The perpetrator is, at present, unknown. The charge listed on the police report is felony criminal mischief.
Henricks, a longtime East Village resident, said she loves the neighborhood and plans to relocate nearby. The Juicy Lucy kiosk on First Avenue and First Street will remain open with extended hours.
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