Sunday, March 23, 2025
Sunday's parting shots
Checking in on the bunny of 13th and B
Here's an update from the reader:
Our friend continues to hop around the vacant lot every evening — usually can be seen from 8 p.m. onward enjoying the fresh green shoots and grass slowly growing in. No sightings of other rabbits. We are so curious about how he made this little corner of his home.Hope he stays safe. There are a ton of rat poison containers in that space, though also an insane number of rats ignoring them ... but otherwise seems to be doing OK.
Venerable Joe's Pizza becomes Jonas Pizza for a day to celebrate the Jonas Brothers
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
If you were wondering about yesterday's lines on 14th Street and Third Avenue, Joe's Pizza became Jonas Pizza for part of the day.
... as part of a Jonas Brothers 20th-anniversary event (they formed as a band in 2005), which included lighting up the Empire State Building Friday night.
Anyway! There was a Jonas Brothers slice and merch inside... as well as excited fans...
Later in the day, the brothers — Kevin, Joe and Nick — arrived on the scene for a quick DJ set...
And today, the American Dream Mall in New Jersey hosts the sold-out JonasCon ...
Week in Grieview
• After nearly 40 years, Sixth Street Specials prepares for its final ride in the East Village (Thursday)
• Lori McLean has decided to close her East Village jewelry shop (Tuesday)
• An evening to celebrate the life of Anton 'Munch' Albert at Tom & Jerry's (Thursday)
• An early spring report from 97 St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)
• Staggering toward the April 1 start of outdoor dining in NYC (Wednesday)
• Pink Olive set for East Village return (Friday)
• 'The Jonathan Larson Project' is ending its run early at the Orpheum Theatre (Saturday)
• You can get this fresh-baked bread at Foxface Natural on Avenue A (Thursday)
• Milk Bar's East Village outpost closed (Wednesday)
• Former corner market has been a Hive of activity this week (Thursday) ... Yummy Hive post mortem (Monday)
• Signage alert: Deli Delights & Waffle Wonders on Avenue A (Wednesday)
• St. Patrick's Day (night) at Casey Rubber Stamps (Tuesday)
• Another 1 Bites the crust: A French twist for the Bite space on 14th Street (Tuesday)
• Openings: Krave It on 2nd Avenue (Monday)
• Rent a former 7-Eleven on the Bowery (Tuesday)
... and on the first day of spring on Thursday, a double discard on Second Avenue — one from 2023 and the other from 2024?
Sunday's opening shot
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Saturday's parting shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
Today in Tompkins Square Park — Dana Beal, political and marijuana activist (second on the right)... with members of an anti-tech group (no website!) handing out flyers marked S.H.I.T.P.H.O.N.E. (scathing hatred of information technology and the passionate hemorrhaging of our neo-liberal experience).
'The Jonathan Larson Project' is ending its run early at the Orpheum Theatre
The world-premiere musical, which celebrates the dozens of unheard songs of the "Rent" creator, will play its final performance next Sunday, March 30.
The labor-of-love production began previews on Feb. 14 with a March 10 debut. It garnered solid reviews, though it apparently didn't pack the house.
Show creator Jennifer Ashley Tepper shared this in an Instagram post:
It's no secret that it’s incredibly difficult to hit the numbers needed in order to run a commercial off-Broadway musical in the current theatrical climate. I am deeply proud of the valiant efforts our team made to try to do that because we believed in 'The Jonathan Larson Project." I am deeply proud of the passionate reactions we've received from audiences every night. And I am deeply proud of our beautiful show and everyone who made it.
Larson died of an aortic dissection on Jan. 25, 1996, the scheduled day of the first preview performance of "Rent" Off-Broadway. He was 35.
In the early 1990s, Larson frequented the Life Cafe (which closed in 2011) on the NW corner of Avenue B and 10th Street. There, he worked on treatments for what would become "Rent," also set in this neighborhood.
The post-"Stomp" life of the Orpheum has included shows by Rachel Bloom and Eddie Izzard, which saw the theater return to its roots in the 1980s and early 1990s when it hosted Off-Broadway productions like Sandra Bernhard's "Without You I'm Nothing," Eric Bogosian's "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll" and John Leguizamo's "Mambo Mouth."
This will be the third show in the past two years to end its run early at the Orpheum — joining the "Star Wars" parody "The Empire Strips Back" and "The Big Gay Jamboree."
H/T Bayou!
Friday, March 21, 2025
Party like it's 2015
Brooklyn-based Two-Man Giant Squid (alums of a Tompkins Square Park Show Brain show) has just released a new self-titled LP.
The video here is for "I was a DJ in 2015."
You can check out their art-punk stylings on March 29 during a record release show at Market Hotel.
Pink Olive set for East Village return
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Pink Olive is set to mark its official return to the East Village with a grand reopening tomorrow.
In August 2023, Grace Kang closed her gift and stationery boutique on Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue after 16 years in business. She continued to operate her outposts in the West Village and Cold Spring, N.Y.
However, in January, Kang announced that she was returning to the storefront at 439 E. Ninth St., where she first launched the business in 2007.
As she said then: "The East Village was where it all began 18 years ago, and it holds such a special place in my heart."
I stopped by this week as Kang and her shop assistant, Jess, prepared the newly revamped storefront...
New merch highlights include 50-plus different housemade candles...
"We specialize in gifts that make people feel loved," Kang said.
The store opening is tomorrow (March 22) from noon to 4 p.m. You can RSVP here for admittance at 11 a.m.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
After nearly 40 years, Sixth Street Specials prepares for its final ride in the East Village
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
After nearly 40 years in business, Sixth Street Specials is closing and moving on from the East Village.
Owner Hugh Mackie tells me that the specialty motorcycle repair shop, which opened in 1986, will shutter by June 15 here on Sixth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.
A new for-sale sign arrived this past Friday and now hangs on the building. Mackie says the landlord has been great. He started working with the father and now his son, and they "have come to an agreement to be out of the space by June 15. The landlord's been 100% cool with me."
The shop is located in the building, which also serves as a living and working space for Mackie and his family. Mackie, his wife, and their son will move to an apartment they found in Queens. The rest of the building is now vacant.
The sale also prompted Mackie to retire, with longtime shop manager Joshua Mackenzie taking over the business and moving it elsewhere.
"Josh came here to relieve me from running the shop floor and has been managing it since COVID began," Mackie says.
Mackenzie worked at Sixth Street Specials from 1997 to 2002 and returned in March 2020.
He says he's looking for a space to move the business.
During the transition, he plans to keep the name Sixth Street Specials but says he might eventually change it.
And Mackie?
"Hugh will always have a bench," Mackenzie says. "It will be my shop, but he'll always have access."
Mackenzie plans to "stay on course with what we do, fixing old Triumphs," but he hopes the new location can fill a void for Upstate New York and New England, where there is a dearth of mechanics for these old bikes.
Mackie adds, "I hope we can spread the word and that the Triumph community will still come out and get work done."
I asked Mackie why he didn't want to continue in a new location.
"I've done this since I was young. God knows how we managed these years, with shop fires, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy — endless shit. I'm 66 years old, I can't imagine doing this for another 30 years," he says. "We're the last bike shop down here. Independent businesses get squeezed too hard! The old days of dumping tires are over. The days of junkies dumping gas are over. I can't run a business with no money, and all of my peers have moved on. Now, it's just millennials with new bikes. This place has always made money, one way or another we survived. Winters sucked, and the summers were too busy. But I can't keep doing it anymore."
And how does he feel about semi-retirement?
"Remember, it was a good thing. It's not a bad thing. When we started here, it was a dump. A drug den and a notorious tent city, heroin everywhere, people lined up to buy," Mackie says. "When I showed up, it meant safety; a business was now open on the street. I'm not looking for a bunch of nostalgia, just looking to get on with the next stage of my life."
Mackie says his cell number hasn't changed if you know him, although he admits he's planning on ignoring it as much as possible. He reminds me he's "old school, no website."
I became friends with Mackie after our previous EVG interview in 2019 when I crawled down the motorcycle ramp into the basement because I didn't realize there was an upstairs office. There, Mackie was sipping a cup of tea. (However, he admits he recently switched to coffee.)
I'll miss being able to drop by and hang out for a spell and talk about the neighborhood. On sunny days, we'd sit on the stoop and watch his son play with his toy cars or just people-watch. So, personally, I wish Hugh well with his next chapter, but selfishly, I will miss having him and the shop close by.
An evening to celebrate the life of Anton 'Munch' Albert at Tom & Jerry's
Per Tom & Jerry's:
The entire proceeds from that evening's sales will be donated to his family, so we hope you can join us for what will be a poignant evening of celebration.
Tom & Jerry's is at 288 Elizabeth St. between Houston and Bleecker.
The bar has also launched a GoFundMe to help his family pay for expenses and support his 9-year-old daughter.
Albert reportedly lived on Staten Island. He was 39.
Little information has been made public about the shooting, including a description or photo of the alleged shooter who, according to multiple published reports, fired several times into the bar, striking Albert.
According to the Post: "Witnesses told cops there was no interaction between the two men before the shooting, but police were unsure if the victim was targeted, cops said."
You can get this fresh-baked bread at Foxface Natural on Avenue A
Photos by Stacie Joy
Since November, house baker Joel Kodish has been offering a selection of fresh bread several days a week at Foxface Natural, located at 189 Avenue A, just south of 12th Street.
Kodish shared a breakdown of what’s available and when:
• Thursdays: Sourdough baguettes only.
• Fridays and Saturdays: Two types of sourdough loaves — the house loaf and a New York deli-style rye — along with chocolate espresso babkettes (muffin-sized babka).
With Fridays and Saturdays being the busiest days, customers can preorder or stop by for walk-in purchases.
Pickup typically runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., though it may start slightly later on Thursdays.
Due to limited quantities — typically 12 to 16 loaves and 12 to 36 babkettes — preordering is encouraged, but extras are usually available for walk-ins.
For more details or to place a preorder, visit the Foxface Bread Stand.
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