King Geronimo and his queen at Ruby/Dakota

Photos by Stacie Joy 

On Friday evening, King Geronimo and his queen stopped by Ruby/Dakota on Second Street to check out "East Village Date Night." 

The painting by Lee Smith depicts the couple familiar to anyone who passes by Avenue A and Sixth Street on a weekend night.

The two spent time hanging out with gallery owner Hannah Studnick...

"East Village Date Night" is part of Ruby/Dakota's inaugural show, "Home is You, Right Now," which closes Friday. 

You can check out the show that has caught the attention of New York's Jerry Saltz through Friday, when there's a closing reception Friday evening from 6-8.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Ruby/Dakota opens on 2nd Street: Gallery is a tribute to family legacy and personal healing

A walk across the new Delancey Street pedestrian bridge

The new Delancey Street pedestrian bridge was opened to the public starting yesterday. 

So we decided to walk across the steel-tied arch bridge spanning a length of 209 feet over the FDR...

The bridge was manufactured in Italy, assembled at the project site, and then installed by crane in June.

After crossing the FDR, you continue down a long, winding walkway with high covered fencing on both sides... 

Finally you arrive at the new Ballfields 1 and 2, complete with a baseball-softball diamond and a soccer pitch all with permeable turf.

Aside from the fields, there is no way out here — you need to go back the way you came. Here's a diagram via the City Department of Design and Construction...

The bridge is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (So no night games!). Also, the new ballfields do not have any drinking fountains yet, so it's BYOW. There are several porta-potties nearby. 

The bridge does offer a glimpse of ongoing the billion-dollar-plus East Side Coastal Resiliency project. Workers are elevating the land 8 to 10 feet above sea level to protect the area from future storm surges, a project the city says will be completed by the end of 2026.

Good heavens! A corner-market closure on 3rd Avenue

Heavenly Market & Deli has closed on the NE corner of Third Avenue at 11th Street after 10 years in business.

EVG reader Seth Treiman, who shared these photos, noted that management had recently removed equipment, leaving some on the curb and putting some in a truck...

Yelp confirms a permanent closure, and a look inside also offers some proof...

Ownership has reportedly opened Yorkville Market on York Avenue and East 88th Street. 

Heavenly Market & Deli opened in 2014 here in the retail space of NYU's Third Avenue North Dorm, taking over the storefront that housed Fern Cliff Deli.

Café at Atelier Jolie on Great Jones Street seeks beer-wine license

Eat Offbeat, the café in the back of Atelier Jolie on Great Jones Street, is seeking a beer-wine license for its business between the Bowery and Lafayette.

Reps for Atelier Jolie/Eat Offbeat will appear before Community Board 2 this evening. Here's a PDF of the questionnaire. 

The café, open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., serves coffee, pastries, and lighter fare. The organization, which hires refugees from around the globe, also has a Chelsea Market outpost. 

Eat Offbeat debuted in early December, right when we took these photos (they've added a table that seats 5-6 since these pics)...

We had a choice cup of Turkish coffee and a piece of baklava. The space is nice, though it's not designed for people to sit around for hours. We returned around the December holidays for another cup of Turkish coffee, and the café was full as word spread about its existence. 

The back of the ground-floor space was previously home to Bohemian, an invite-only Japanese restaurant that provided some snobby intrigue for food writers 10-plus years ago. 

Angelina Jolie opened Atelier Jolie here last December. The creative collective offers a platform for customers to collaborate with tailors, artisans, and designers. The two-level building has an atelier on the second floor and a retail outlet on the ground floor. 

The building is an art-world landmark that attracts new wheat pastes and stickers daily. Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and worked in the upper level of the carriage house from 1983 to the time of his death in 1988. Andy Warhol was a previous owner. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Angelina Jolie is creating a collaborative space for designers and artisans in Basquiat's former studio on Great Jones Street

Monday's parting shot

Daylight fades along Second Avenue... with St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery in the background...

The new Delancey Street pedestrian bridge reopens today

Photo last week by William Klayer 

The new Delancey Street pedestrian bridge is back in service starting today. [Updated: We walked across it. Photos here.]

The city also announced that East River Park Ballfields 1 and 2 are now available for "permitted and open play." 

Also, notably: "The bridge will provide access to Ballfields 1 & 2 only, with no outlet to other areas of the park. Please note there is no water service on-site, so plan accordingly to bring your own supply."

The bridge is also only open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., so there are no night games on those fields, which are surrounded by an active construction zone, as the map on the Community advisory below shows...

Crews installed the new bridge, one of the new access points for East River Park, overnight on June 8. (The previous bridge was removed in early 2022.) According to the City Department of Design and Construction, the 215-foot-long bridge weighs 125 tons (much larger than the previous one) and is fully ADA-accessible. 

It's nice to see a little progress, as nearly three years in, much of the 57.5-acre park looks like a barren wasteland — especially below the Williamsburg Bridge.

 

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The "phased work operations" in East River Park began in November 2021 in Project Area 1 between Montgomery Street and 15th Street. Workers have been burying the park under fill and cutting down many trees as part of the billion-dollar-plus East Side Coastal Resiliency project. They are elevating the land 8 to 10 feet above sea level to protect the area from future storm surges. 

The city has said it will maintain public access to at least 42% of the park throughout construction, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. 

You can find more updates and construction notices at this link.

An end-of-summer appreciation

EVG reader Tulsi shared this photo of a well-maintained sidewalk garden on 13th Street and First Avenue that we've admired. 

Per Tulsi: 

There are tomatoes growing in this garden, and so far they have managed to survive squirrels, rats, birds, and humans. There are a group of very silly/pretty tree gardens in this corner. They were delightfully decorated with aluminum foil, plastic forks, and rocks earlier in the summer, and they are full of very healthy plants now. Cheers to the health of these tomatoes and to the gardeners — I hope they reap ripe rewards.

Sunday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Winter Wolf waiting to play late this afternoon in a Show Brain-promoted concert at Tompkins Square Park...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with an opossum pic in Tompkins by Clay Roberts)... 

• The Loisaida CommUnity Fridge on 9th and B needs a new home — here's why (Monday) 

• RIP Hettie Jones (Tuesday) 

• A happy retirement to Jane and Billy, closing Katinka after 45 years in the East Village (Wednesday)

• Printed Matter/St. Marks is leaving St. Mark's Place (Thursday) 

• Gov. Hochul makes a splash with funding for new in-ground swimming pool at Tompkins Square Park (Friday) 

• German supermarket powerhouse Lidl is opening an outpost on the Lower East Side (Monday) 

• The multipurpose courts in Tompkins Square Park are closed for painting (Monday) ... Painting it black on the TF in Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday) 

• NYU buys dorm on Cooper Square that everyone already thought was an NYU dorm (Tuesday)

• Renovating 82 2nd Ave. for the arrival of Kebabwala from the Unapologetic Foods team (Tuesday) 

• At a 6th & B Garden Variety performance with Angela Di Carlo and Dirty Martini (Thursday) 

• A look inside Castellano Electric Motors on the Lower East Side (Thursday) 

• A late summer refresh for Bin 141 (Wednesday) 

• A signage setback at Ben's Deli (Wednesday) 

• A lot of hoop-la for this high-tech basketball backboard in Tompkins Square Park (Friday)

• '24 comeback for Elvis on Great Jones (Monday) 

• UWS hotspot Bánh Vietnamese Shop House opening a new restaurant in the East Village (Monday) 

• A quartet of murals for 2nd and A (Wednesday) 

• Summer ends on a positive note as the shopping soundtrack of our lives returns to Key Food (Friday) 

... and a reader shared this photo of some comfy new seats to wait for the M9 on Avenue C...

A repainted multipurpose court comes into view in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The multi-purpose courts/TF will reopen on Tuesday... after workers complete repainting the surface of the space along Avenue A and 10th Street. 

The crew will apparently be working on Labor Day to get this done.

 Here's how it's looking now...

The walking track around the perimeter seems to be taking shape. (Does anyone with an aerial view of the courts along 10th Street have any photos to share?)

The asphalt was just getting broken in again after renovations from Oct. 16 to Dec. 1. In addition to new asphalt, Parks added benches, fountains and three basketball backstops. 

We'll see how everyone co-exists in this new configuration. The court has been a skating hotspot for decades. 

So far, "suburban" is the word we're hearing about the new look.

As Quartersnacks noted in June 2023 about the repainted surface: "It will be a shock to the system in terms of the park's Feng Shui, but skateboarders have adjusted to way worse changes."

Sunday's opening shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

The Labor Day weekend move-in/out and capturing all the feelings on Fourth Street and Avenue B... 

Saturday's parting shot

Here's a late-summer look at the world-famous wisteria on Stuyvesant Street. 

s neighbor Harold Appel noted, "The wisteria not only survived the spring pruning, it is thriving!"

6 posts from August

A mini month in review... (with a photo from 2nd Avenue by Rainer Turim) ... 

• A new East Village home for Gizmo (Aug. 22) 

• Remembering Harold Meltzer (Aug. 21) 

• Prepping Theatre 80 for its next chapter on St. Mark's Place (Aug. 19) 

• East Village musician Jesse Malin provides an update on his spinal stroke and thanks everyone for their ongoing support (Aug. 17) 

• The 4-year-old East Village Neighbors Community Fridge will no longer be in service on 12th Street and 1st Avenue (Aug. 16) 

• Mayor Adams unveils the 14th Street Community Improvement Coalition for long-problematic East Village corridor (Aug. 9)

About 2 free shows in Tompkins Square Park this weekend

The annual New Village Music Festival is today from 2-6 p.m. in Tompkins Square Park. 

According to organizers, the festival "was created as a vehicle to unite people of all ages and ethnicities. It is a free outdoor community concert that celebrates music, culture, and community." 

 You can find more details on the official Facebook page and website. 

And tomorrow (Sunday!) afternoon... Show Brain is back with a slate of bands...

Saturday's opening shot

A morning view today from Cooper Square...

Psychedelic purrs

 

For the long weekend, a long set of music... a live performance by the Osees from the Freak Valley Festival in Netphen, Germany, earlier this summer. 

Osees, who have a new album out now (their 35th in the past year or so), are one of our favorite live acts. See for yourself this Oct. 24-25 at Warsaw in Brooklyn.

Have a nice Labor Day weekend. See you Tuesday.

Summer ends on a positive note as the shopping soundtrack of our lives returns to Key Food

After nearly three weeks' worth of deathly silence in the aisles of Key Food, we heard the familiar strains of Janet Jackson's "Control" upon entering the grocery at the start of the Labor Day weekend... from her third studio album of the same name (1986). 

Hop to it 

I'm in control, and I love it, hahaha, that's right 

Control

Now I've got a lot 

Control

As previously reported, the PA system at the grocery on Avenue A and Fourth Street went kaput (paraphrasing), and management needs to wait for a part to arrive to jumpstart the music and the directives for store personnel (Richie, line two, please). 

The store is open 24/7, and you'll always hear some random song from your deep past booming from the PA above.

Gov. Hochul makes a splash with funding for new in-ground swimming pool at Tompkins Square Park

Say so long to to Tompkins Square Park mini pool. (And yes, Tompkins Square Park has a mini pool.) 

On Wednesday, Gov. Hochul announced nearly $150 million in capital grants to fund 37 projects "as part of the New York Statewide Investment in More Swimming (NY SWIMS) initiative — New York's biggest investment in swimming since the New Deal." 

Here's more from Hochul's office: 

The program provides grants between $50,000 and $10 million to help municipalities design, construct, rehabilitate, or modernize public swimming facilities, focusing on supporting disadvantaged and underserved communities that lack access to safe swimming and outdoor recreation opportunities. Applications were evaluated on characteristics of project need, impact and viability. 

Tompkins Square Park will receive $6.1 million for the new pool project. Specifics: 

The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation will reconstruct and expand the mini pool at Tompkins Square Park by removing the existing above-ground mini pool and replacing it with an in-ground pool, doubling the current capacity. 

Additionally, they will replace the filtration system, expand the pool decks, replace the perimeter fencing and gates, and add outdoor pool showers and a new lifeguard chair. 

And nearby on Houston and Pitt, the Hamilton Fish Recreation Center Pool is getting $10 million: 

This project will reconstruct the recreation center, outdoor terraces, pool, and pool filter plant at Hamilton Fish Park. The architectural renovation will transform this historic site by bringing it up to today’s safety and accessibility standards for the benefit of the community. 

There is no word on the timing or timeline for the local pool projects. The Tompkins mini pool was closed for the second consecutive summer while the field house underwent renovations. 

If this project gets underway next year, the pool could be closed for a third summer. However, given the design and procurement phases, that's an ambitious timeline.

A lot of hoop-la for this high-tech basketball backboard in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Derek Berg 

Tompkins Square Park is the temporary recipient of a "smart basketball hoop." 

A company called huupe is behind the technology that provides a lot of feedback on your game. 

NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue, huupe CEO Paul Anton, local elected officials, CB3 members, and several TV news crews were on hand yesterday to unveil the basketball courts along 10th Street near Avenue B. 

Here's more from the Parks Department: 

The new basketball hoop technology offers a range of advanced features designed to elevate the game. Its waterproof backboard functions as a video screen, delivering expert training content, live TV, and interactive elements to enrich the playing experience. 

Equipped with advanced sensors and an integrated webcam, the hoop provides real-time feedback on shot accuracy, trajectory, and court positioning, allowing players to refine their skills with precision. Additionally, huupe facilitates global gaming by enabling real-time shooting contests with players from around the world, boasting 99% accuracy in tracking remote competitions and fostering a competitive, international community. 

The concept for huupe originated from a remote game of 'PIG' played via Snapchat between lifelong friends Paul Anton and Lyth Saeed. Their experience highlighted a gap in remote sports interactions, sparking the creation of huupe ... Now, Anton and Saeed are dedicated to extending its benefits to underserved communities.

The hoop was installed on Tuesday and will be up until early October. (No word on whether the huupe has a built-in alarm to deter it from being stolen.)

If you want to recreate this at home, the Huupe Mini is $599, while the outdoor Huupe Pro costs $9,995.

We've come a long way from the bottomless milk crate. 

Earlier this summer, the courts were closed for several weeks to resurface, install new rims and backboards, and paint a new mural.

Thursday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Part of the doorways of 10th Street series...