After over 50 years, Ludlow Garage on the Lower East Side to close its doors

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Ludlow Garage is closing its doors on Saturday after more than 50 years in business. 

Co-owner Jerome Vasconcellos (below left) and his brother-in-law, Mario Marques, decided to sell their auto repair mechanic shop at 151 Attorney St. between Houston and Stanton and rent out the Ludlow Garage body shop directly across the street.

Mario has been in the business for 57 years, Jerome for 51. Ludlow Garage was on Ludlow between Rivington and Stanton before moving to Attorney Street in 1982.

The two own both buildings and the businesses housed in them. The new owner of the complete auto repair/mechanic building on the west side of the street will be using the space as a private garage for personal use to store his vehicles — it will not be torn down. 

The body shop will be rented out, and the new owner taking over the smaller space will likely keep the three employees. 

I asked Jerome a series of questions while visiting the garage on Tuesday.

Why sell now after all these years? 

"We're tired. OK, we're tired," Jerome told me. "We work six days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day, you know? Maybe I am going to spend a little time with my kids. Enjoy time with them, make it up to them for when I wasn't there. When you own a business, it's tough. I'm ready to retire… and move down to Florida. One of my kids lives in the Bronx, and two live in Florida."

"I get up at 4:30 in the morning so I can leave Rockland County [where Jerome and his wife Letitia, the shop's office manager, live], and I don't leave here until 6 p.m., so I don't get home until 7:30, depending on traffic. It's a lot of hours."

Where will Ludlow Garage customers go? 

"I'm selling the customer database to someone reputable so customers can still get service," Jerome said. "So when they call this number, it will go to another mechanic shop." 

Have you told your customers? 

"Yeah, the customers know. All my good customers have my personal cell phone — they can call me if they have a problem, and you know I will refer them, or if they need advice, I can help," he said. "I have customers who left here years ago still call me from Wisconsin, Ohio, all over — just for advice. I tell them, "Just text me, and I'll get back to you right away." I always call back. The way I do business — it's not about the money; it's about doing the right thing."

And what will happen to the remaining vehicles?

"I am trying to notify every customer. The new owner will take possession in February, but I have six weeks to get this place emptied."

And across the street at the body shop? 

"The new renter will start in January. He'll change the name. But he hasn't said the new name yet."

What would you say to the people who are sad about the closure?

"I would say, first of all, thank them for the business they've given us — the whole neighborhood has given me the opportunity to serve them. I appreciate everything over the years," he said. "I came to this community from nothing and watched it go from bad to better. I've seen the whole transition. I come from Guyana." 

He's emotional, and I am, too. On a personal note, I see these folks all the time, and I will miss them. 

I blink back a tear and grab my camera equipment to get some photos of the team, the space, the cars, and the equipment. The team points out a 100-year-old car ("from 1925, Stacie!"), a historic rotor and break machine on its way to the Bronx, and a few vehicles that Jerome is working on restoring.

Jerome later lets me on the truck lift for an elevated vantage point for photos. He jokes, "Don't jump! We don't have insurance for that."

Tipsy Shanghai eyes former Monsieur Vo space on 2nd Avenue

Photos by Steven

The owners of Tipsy Shanghai are planning on opening a restaurant at 104 Second Ave. at the NE corner of Sixth Street.

Reps are on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket for a beer-wine license, though they have received conditional approval and won't be appearing at Monday's meeting. 

Tipsy Shanghai serves traditional Chinese cuisine and has locations in the West Village and Murray Hill. (Their outpost on East Broadway closed last year.) 

While the chainlet started in 2018, its signage notes "century-old restaurant from China." 

Monsieur Vo closed here earlier in the fall after a September 2022 debut. 

And until a time in 2007, the storefront was Bamboo House!

Ben's Deli is really truly ready to reopen SOON

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Temp signage went up this week at Ben's Deli, the closed-for-renovations market at 32 Avenue B between Second Street and Third Street. 

Owner Sammy Ksem (pictured above left with Sam) said a new permanent sign is coming. However, they want to make sure the new one is correct. In August, the city made Sammy remove the previously new sign, saying it was too large. The city also hit him with a $6,000 fine. 

Sammy said he is frustrated with how long the renovations have dragged on at the shop. (They closed in September 2023.)

However, Ben's is ready to reopen ANY DAY NOW...

The space includes a revamped deli counter with, among other items, an all-day breakfast...

There's also a party in the works to welcome the neighborhood back. 

Meanwhile, you can still expect to see previous longtime (40-plus years!) owner Ben Gibran and his family at the shop. Ben sold the business to his cousin Sammy in early 2023 and has remained a presence here... chain smoking in his van outside while watching Snakes of Africa videos on YouTube.

Wednesday's parting Instagram post

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And then there 0 — the last of the 4 East Village 7-Elevens is closing this week

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

And then there were none. 

After 13 years on the Bowery between Third Street and Fourth Street, the 7-Eleven is closing its doors. 

The posted signage states the store has permanently shuttered, though it was still open for business on Monday.

The cashier on duty said they'd likely be open until Friday. 

Unlike the Avenue A outpost that had been slowly emptied out, there is still a lot of merchandise at the Bowery 7-Eleven...

The owner of the Avenue A 7-Eleven blamed the rampant thefts for his store's closure. 

While an official explanation for the shutter wasn't offered on the Bowery, the cashier told me, "Things are very bad now."

"People — they're breaking things, stealing, scaring away customers at the door," he said while pointing to the entrance where there were several panhandlers. "Very bad."

The Bowery store opened in December 2011... and it was the first of four to open in the East Village, ushering in a wave of storefront suburbanization that repelled some residents. (On Avenue A, the No 7-Eleven group spoke out against the pending arrival of the multinational chain.) 

The St. Mark's Place outpost closed in 2013, with 14th Street going in 2021. 

Seven & I Holdings, the chain's Japan-based parent company, revealed in an earnings report last month that it would close more than 400 "underperforming" stores, CNN reported. The company did not provide a list of store locations, and it wasn't known if the two remaining East Village locations were on the list. 

When is the 2024 Cookie Walk?

Signage went up over the weekend for the 2024 edition of The Cookie Walk, a favorite local holiday tradition featuring more than 60 varieties of homemade cookies and desserts. This year's event will be on Dec. 14-15 at St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on Avenue A and 10th Street. 

The two-day Walk takes place in the church basement on Dec. 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ... and Dec. 15 from noon to 3 p.m. (or until they run out). 

As the name suggests, you take one of the provided boxes (or two) and walk around cookie-filled tables (no sampling!) to pick your faves. 

More details will follow (we haven't seen the event listed online just yet). 

And not to ruin the holiday mood... but SantaCon also takes place on Dec. 14.

Knock Out Café bringing coffee, art and yoga to 13th Street

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Knock Out Café is set to debut at 530 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The owners are Julio Garcia and Felipe Sarmiento (from left below), who are partners in life and in the business.

Aside from traditional café fare such as coffee and pastries, Knock Out will sell magazines and apparel. The downstairs space will be a gallery with new artists each month, with plans for Saturday morning yoga classes.  

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit the Knock Out website... and Instagram account.

For more than 28 years, this space was home to The Baroness, who closed her eponymous latex atelier and boutique and moved to France in 2021.

I emailed the Baroness in France to say hi and give her an update on her home for so many years.

"I was just telling someone how long the shop has been empty, which seemed rather depressing," she said. "So I'm delighted that it has been taken over — please pass along my best wishes for their endeavor."

The Union Square Holiday Market returns (gulp) tomorrow

Workers have erected the stalls for the 2024 edition of the Union Square Holiday Market. (Thanks to Doug for the photos!) 

The market, featuring 150-plus vendors, opens tomorrow if you're ready...

Hours: Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a 10 a.m. start on Saturdays and Sundays.

It closes for the season on Dec. 24

Tuesday's parting shot

A makeshift memorial for the now-closed (as of yesterday) 7-Eleven on Avenue A 11th Street...thanks to EVG reader James Chambers for the photo!

From the EVG archives: 

• Someone already REALLY misses the Second Avenue Dunkin' Donuts

The Avenue A 7-Eleven is now closed. The reason why may not surprise you.

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Yesterday, workers began dismantling the 7-Eleven on the SE corner of Avenue A and 11th Street, including painting over the wraparound sign. 

As expected, the store officially closed after 11 years in business.

I spoke with Mr. Singh, who bought the business from the previous owner seven years ago. He was emotional but optimistic about the store's closure. He declined to have photos taken but spoke a bit about his life, his philosophy and faith, and the now-shuttered franchise he licensed on Avenue A. 

Singh, 50, and his wife and kids live in Queens after immigrating from India in the early 2000s. He credits his strong Sikh faith with keeping him optimistic about the future. 

He used to work the overnight shift at Punjabi Deli on Houston Street to save money to buy the franchise. He spoke movingly about his history working his father's land in India by hand, taking care of his family as a breadwinner from his teenage years until now. 

When I asked him why the store was closing, he reiterated what I'd heard on my last visit: rampant theft.

He explained that he is responsible for paying for everything that happens in the store. For example, when two armed robbers stole most of his cigarette packs, he was responsible for the $17 or $18 per pack. He still had to pay the distributor when people shoplifted six-packs of beer. 

While the 7-Eleven parent company covers the store's rent, he pays 51% of every dollar he makes to the parent company. He also rents 7-Eleven machines from them. The Slurpee machine, he said, costs $700 per month to rent, and he has three of them. And when they broke, he had to pay for repairs. He also had to pay payroll, which he said was a high cost for two employees per shift.

He mentions daily shoplifting by kids from a nearby school, plus people who just saunter in, take what they please, and walk out. He said he is not allowed to stop them, and even if his cashier were to run after them and take the purloined items back, they'd be leaving the register unattended to do so. 

They called the police occasionally, though the thieves were always long gone when the officers arrived. 

I asked him what he plans to do next. Singh said he might look at another space in Queens near where he lives. He says he doesn't have ill will or bad feelings toward people and credits his faith in God and the holy book to the fact that things will be alright.

He thanked all the customers who visited the shop over the past seven years and wished everyone well in the future. 

As I was leaving, the third-party contractors were putting paper up on the windows, and we watched them for a minute.

Singh looked at me and said, "I am not afraid of hard work. I have been a hard worker my whole life. God will protect me, and I am not sad."

This is the third 7-Eleven to close in the East Village since 2013. The last one, on the Bowery, will be shutting down next. Look for that post tomorrow.

Boris & Horton preparing to close East Village cafe at the end of the month

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

At Boris & Horton on the NW corner of Avenue A and 12th Street, management has posted notices that NYC's first dog cafe will be closing at the end of the month... they're also asking for any job leads for their staff...

Nine months after a successful crowdfunding campaign and newly enacted subscription plan, Boris & Horton announced that it would have to close unless it found a buyer for the business. 

In an Instagram post on Friday, daughter-father co-owners Logan Mikhly and Coppy Holzman stated that the financial challenges returned even with hiring additional staffing and enhancing events. 

"Despite these efforts, we've experienced a significant drop in our monthly subscriptions, with almost 90% churn, and our sales are slightly down compared to last year when we initially made the difficult decision to close.

We reached out for more details.

"We've decided not to do press and just work on connecting with potential buyers or closing down," Mikhly told us. She promised to keep us posted if there were any updates. 

The space was pretty mellow late yesterday afternoon...

Following a customer fundraiser, Mikhly and Holzman reopened the Avenue A location in March after a deep clean and reorganization. They announced they had hired a general manager and an events manager and updated the HVAC system and refrigeration. 

Boris & Horton still had to shutter its year-plus-old Williamsburg location in May.

Opening alert: Joe's Wine Co. on 3rd Avenue

Updated: Joe's Wine Co. is now open at 113 Third Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street. 

We first spotted the coming-soon signage back in early May. According to its Instagram account, "From classics to surprises, our wines and spirits in the East Village have it all." 

As previously noted, there was some discussion about the name and whether it was an attempt to capitalize on Trader Joe's Wine Shop, which closed around the corner in August 2022. (And as someone noted, do people think Joe's Pizza on 14th Street is part of Trader Joe's?) 

You can find the business website here.

Licensed cannabis shop The Flowery blooms on 3rd Avenue

The Flowery NYC, a licensed cannabis dispensary, is opening an outpost on the northeast corner of 10th Street and Third Avenue. 

Coming soon signage marks the space (h/t Steven!).

This will be the latest branch for the Florida-based medical and recreational cannabis provider... which recently opened in Forest Hills. The Flowery, which offers a delivery service, also plans locations in Soho and Williamsburg. 

This corner space previously housed TD Bank, which downsized in 2022 to a storefront in the same building next door. The game hall Sugar Mouse is on the lower level here.

Mondays parting shot

Walking east toward Avenue A this evening... on the sidewalk that previously housed the Boulton & Watt patio...