EVG Etc.: Street vendors fear deporation; Con Ed considers double-digit rate hikes

Sunrise from 3rd Street 

Local stories of interest from other sources this past week include... 

• The Trump administration's move to re-examine federal funding could have a significant impact on NYC's public housing (The City) 

• Trump threatens to kill congestion pricing (City & State) ... though he'd need to break the law to do so (Streetsblog) 

• Cart vendors worry about being a target in ICE sweeps (Eater ... CBS News) ... What mass deportations would do to NYC's economy (The New York Times) 

• Con Ed is looking to increase customers' electric bills by an average of 11.4% and gas bills by 13.3% starting on Jan. 1, 2026 (Gothamist) 

• Cops searching for suspect who smashed man's face with a glass outside Phebe's on Fourth Street and the Bowery (amNY) 

• A visit to City Lore on First Street — "A hidden New York gem curates culture that might otherwise be lost" (ABC 7) 

• Hawk season 2025 is in full swing (Laura Goggin Photography) 

• Honoring Flaco Eurasian eagle-owl with a new book and exhibit (West Side Rag ... previously on EVG)

• And a diversion from The Hollywood Reporter's cover story on "Babygirl"'s Harris Dickinson, an East London native, who stayed here during the filming: 

He lived in the East Village, right on Houston Street, and though he took constant advantage of the proximity to Katz's Deli (and its world-famous Reuben), he couldn't handle the neighborhood's frenetic energy. "People were accidentally ringing my buzzer at night, and I was in a constant state of stress," he says. "My cortisol was so high that I felt like I was going to explode." 

"Babygirl" screens locally at Village East by Angelika, Regal Union Square and Regal Essex Crossing.

Friday night lights

We've heard reports of a Mustang adorned with Christmas lights in the neighborhood. 

We finally got a nighttime shot from an EVG reader (thank you!). showing the car Friday evening on First Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. 

This makes us nostalgic for the "In the Air Tonight" car!

Sunday's opening shot

The Blue Man Group's final NYC performances are at the Astor Place Theatre today. (Tix on StubHub were $550 each for the 2 p.m. show and $279 for the 5 p.m. set.) It will conclude a 34-year run with 17,800 shows and 82,150 gallons of paint. 

We never saw the show (and we didn't do a last-week visit like with "Stomp"). 

But there are still chances! Productions of Blue Man Group will continue in Berlin, Boston, Las Vegas and Orlando. 

In 1987, a trio of Lower East Side artists — Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink — started what would "arguably become the most financially lucrative performance art troupe in the world." Cirque du Soleil bought the show in 2017. 

Before taking up residency on Astor Place on Nov. 17, 1991, the group played out and about at various local venues, including King Tut's Wah Wah Hut on Avenue A at Seventh Street (where Niagara is now).

Saturday's parting shot

Happy 26th anniversary to Lavagna, an EVG favorite East Village restaurant at 545 E. Fifth St., just west of Avenue B. 

Visit the Tuscan restaurant from 5 to 10 p.m. daily, with a 1 p.m. start on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hellmouth strikes again

 

EVG reader TechSquared shared this quick clip from last night on Avenue C between Second Street and Third Street... we always enjoy a bubbling hole in the street!

Speaking of Avenue C, did anyone catch this geyser during the middle of last month between Seventh Street and Eighth Street...?

 

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Anthology Film Archives hosting an epic Willem Dafoe movie series

The Anthology Film Archives is paying tribute to the always-seems-to-be-working Willem Dafoe. 

The actor has worked with directors such as Abel Ferrara, Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow, David Lynch, Paul Schrader, Lars von Trier, John Waters, Wim Wenders, David Cronenberg, Sam Raimi, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, and Sean Baker, among many others. 

The expansive "Wild at Heart: Willem Dafoe" series will feature several of these collaborations. The series runs from Feb. 7 to 26, and Dafoe will appear for a Q&A following a few screenings. (And both "Wild at Heart" screenings are already sold out.)

More details and ticket info here. The Anthology is on Second Avenue and Second Street. 

Dafoe lived for a time in the East Village after moving to NYC in the 1970s.

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Saturday's opening shot

Early morning view from 14th Street and Avenue A... the photogenic clouds will allegedly give way to sunny skies later today, per the Weather Channel.

Friday's parting shots

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Happy 10th anniversary to C&B Café owner Ali Sahin and his team at 178 E. Seventh St., between Avenue A and Avenue B.

C&B opened in January 2015, and they've been great neighbors ever since. They sponsored the tree lighting in Tompkins Square Park, provided kitchen space to the volunteers who went on to form EVLovesNY, fed unhoused neighbors, provided Thanksgiving meals at Graffiti Church, refilled the community fridge, and taught kids from the Amsterdam School how to make cookies for free. The list goes on.

'Kiss' them for me

 

Over the next few weeks, we'll highlight indie acts performing at this year's New Colossus Festival, which will take place in East Village and LES venues from March 4 to 9. 

Here's dark-wave Canadian artist Frankie Flowers with "Kiss Me Like the World Is Ending." 

Find Festival info here.

6 posts from January 2025

Photo on 2nd Avenue by Asha Schechter 

A mini month in review... 

• Taking a look at the all-new Baker Falls, now in soft-open mode on the Lower East Side (Jan. 22) 

• A visit with Anne DeVita (Jan. 22) 

• Why School for the Dogs abruptly closed in the East Village (Jan. 7)

• Reader report: Car crashes into Blink Fitness on Avenue A; driver flees (Jan. 6) 

• Tompkins Square Park upgrades: When will the field house and restrooms reopen? (Jan. 6) 

• When we found out about a mysterious early-morning transport on 2nd Avenue (Jan. 3)

A moment with Marianne Faithfull on St. Mark's Place in 1992

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Marianne Faithfull with her longtime accompanist Barry Reynolds at Sin-é, the legendary music cafe at 122 St Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue in June 1992. Photo by Allen Ginsberg. 

Faithfull died yesterday. She was 78.

Where does the East Village rate in the list of NYC's noisiest neighborhoods?

We're No. 7! We're No. 7! 

The New York Times did a deep dive on a favorite topic: Noise. 

Here's what a search of the city's 311 logs revealed:

Using 311, New Yorkers can file noise complaints and report violations of the noise code to the appropriate agencies. (Categories include loud neighbors, construction noise, street music, and “aircraft and boats.”) The 311 logs are publicly available via NYC Open Data and include location information, allowing us to determine which of New York City’s 59 community districts were the noisiest last year. In 2024, New Yorkers called in a total of 753,222 noise complaints. 

Incredibly, almost 10 percent of them came from residents of Bronx Community District 12, which encompasses several neighborhoods including Williamsbridge and Baychester.

Manhattan District 3, which includes the East Village, Lower East Side, Chinatown and Two Bridges, finished a distant seventh with 19,588 noise complaints via 311 last year.

Read the full piece at the Times here. 

This is a good time to revisit this June 2024 EVG post: What's the 311? How East Village residents can effectively file complaints.

Signage alert: Win Son Bakery on 2nd Avenue

Signage is up for Win Son Bakery at 23 Second Ave. between First Street and Second Street. (Thanks to the EVG reader for the pic!)

It has been almost a year since we first mentioned that the popular Taiwanese-American Win Son Bakery in East Williamsburg would open a place in this neighborhood. 

Like the Brooklyn outpost, the EV location will serve as a café, bakery and restaurant. 

The bakery opened in September 2019 at 164 Graham Ave. at Montrose Avenue, several years after the Win Son restaurant debuted. Many of its goods have been celebrated, like the mochi millet doughnuts. The New Yorker once called its Mortadella Pancake a perfect breakfast sandwich. You can check out the Win Son Bakery menu here. 

No word about an opening just yet. 

The previous tenant, the dance studio Exile Professional Gym (EXPG), never reopened after the March 2020 PAUSE.

After 10 years on 1st Avenue, SenYa has closed

Photos by Steven 

A pizzeria is taking over the SenYa space at 109 First Ave. between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. 

There's now a rather generic-looking sign up on the gate of the former Japanese restaurant with the coming-soon info. 

SenYa debuted here in the spring of 2015. 

On the topic of pizza... a few blocks to the south between Third and Fourth, we have a cheap-slice switcheroo, with Basilic Pizzeria taking over for the short-lived Halal Bites Pizza...

Thursday's parting shot

An EV resident shared this photo today... when a juvenile red-tailed hawk paid a visit and got the cat's attention. 

H/T Steven!

The incoming Whole Foods Market Daily Shop shapes up in StuyTown

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

The transformation of the former Associated continues at 409 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

Workers told us progress is "going quickly" and the "next stage" should begin soon. (We don't know exactly what the next stage might entail.) 

As previously reported, Whole Foods Market is opening a smaller-format store, Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, in this space...

Last Fall, Beam Living shared the following email with StuyTown residents about what to expect: 

This store will be one of the first locations of the new Whole Foods Market Daily Shop — a recently announced quick-shop concept from the grocer. Whole Foods Market StuyTown will provide a convenient option for grab-and-go meals and snacks, weekly essentials, and the wide range of fresh, seasonal produce that Whole Foods Market is known and loved for. This location will also feature Juice & Java, which provides coffee, tea, fresh-pressed juices, smoothies, sandwiches, soups, and desserts. 

You can read this EVG post for more details. NYC's first Whole Foods Market Daily Shop opened at 1175 Third Ave. on the UES last fall. 

Associated closed here in December 2019. Joseph Falzon, the store's owner, previously said that a confluence of factors had cut business nearly in half. For starters, construction on 14th Street for the L train obscured the supermarket with a 12-foot fence for nearly two years.

Soda Club is moving from Avenue B to Avenue A

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Soda Club is moving from 155 Avenue B near 10th Street to 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street. 

The Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded vegan wine and pasta bar will take over the space that Amor y Amargo occupied until it relocated to its original home next door several weeks ago. 

Overthrow's Ravi DeRossi confirmed the move. 

"It's a super busy restaurant," he said of Soda Club, "and we're turning away a lot of people in the small space that we currently have on Avenue B."

Construction at No. 95 will commence ASAP... with an anticipated mid-March ready date. 

He said Overthrow will hold onto 155 Avenue B. 

"We have a few ideas, but nothing solid yet," DeRossi said. 

Soda Club debuted on Avenue B in the spring of 2021.

The T Mobile shop that always looked closed on 14th Street and 1st Avenue has closed

Photos by Steven

The T Mobile store has closed on the SE corner of 14th Street and First Avenue.

Door signage points patrons to the location several blocks to the west on 14th Street...

This wraps up 10 years at this spot... arriving in April 2015. The previous tenant, Pizza Bagel Cafe, abruptly shuttered in November 2014. 

Anyway, T Mobile often looked closed. We sometimes thought they didn't want to look too inviting for anyone to wander in. This has long been a troubled corridor, with many people staggering around like some kind of zombie apocalypse.

Some Downtown Funk and Junk coming to 9th Street

Reporting by Stacie Joy

A vintage clothing-jewelry story is coming to 333 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

We don't know much about the new venture, Downtown Funk and Junk, but it sounds promising. 

This storefront was previously Yosei Nails. 

The new shop will be adjacent to vintage veterans Spark Pretty. 

The storefront to the west, the former Pride Smokes, is currently on the rental market. 

Wednesday's parting shot

Work by Vittorio Marella — Il nostro primo mare, 2024, oil on panel ... part of a group show at Spazio Amanita titled "Sonder" up now through Feb. 23. 

The gallery is at 313 Bowery between First Street and Second Street.