Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo of the lush wilds of Tompkins Square Park by Stacie Joy)... 

• NYC institution Corner Bistro eyeing an East Village expansion (Friday)

• About the Lower East Side Film Festival: 15 years of keeping it reel (Monday) ... At the opening night of the Lower East Side Film Festival (Friday)

• East Village mainstay Cafe Mogador celebrates its 42nd anniversary (Wednesday) 

• In Tompkins Square Park, a creative pushback against tech's reach (Sunday) 

• Last splash? Getting the Tompkins Square Park mini pool prepped for 1 more summer (Tuesday) 

• Key Food moved things around. We took notes. (Friday) 

• 14th & C development watch: The beast of 'The East' (Monday) 

• Happy Lower East Side History Month! (Thursday) 

• Celebrating the new ownership at the Phoenix (Thursday) 

• Remembering Jill Sobule (Saturday) 

• Los Tacos No. 1 coming to Union Square (Monday) 

• Openings: Irving Green on 9th Street (Tuesday)

• Closings on 14th Street: Amara Coffee, Dua Kafe (Thursday) ... Karma Bookshop has closed for now (Sunday) 

• The Alchemist’s Kitchen is opening an outpost on the Bowery (Thursday) 

• Reopneings: Fancy Juice on 1st Avenue (Tuesday) 

• Pop’s Pizza prepping for soft opening on Avenue B (Wednesday) 

• Seasoned Vegan Real Quick has closed on 2nd Avenue (Thursday) 

• Luckin Coffee, China-based powerhouse and Starbucks challenger, opening an outpost on Broadway and 8th Street (Monday) 

• Why Mimi Cheng's is temporarily closed (Monday) 

• Adda Indian Canteen is set to debut on 1st Avenue (Wednesday) 

... and if you noticed a 2014 Prius V dressed up as a Cybertruck outside LaMaMa on Fourth Street in recent days (photo by Derek Berg)...

This was part of LaMaMa's Emerging Choreographers Program from Thursday through yesterday. Synopsis! "'fame hOle' is a mobile dance opera created by Alex Romania and Stacy Lynn Smith set inside their 2014 Prius V; a conceptual roadshow on the impossible nature of the touring act of life in general in a collapsing colonial empire." 

Find info on other LaMaMa programs here.

Reports: Alleged pigeon poacher nabbed in Tompkins Square Park

EVG photo from January

This story made the round this past week: On Wednesday morning, the NYPD reportedly arrested a 67-year-old man for netting pigeons in Tompkins Square Park.

🚨BREAKING | Pigeon Kidnapper Arrested
A serial pigeon kidnapper was arrested in Tompkins Square Park this week. The man is accused of selling the birds for target practice in Pennsylvania. pic.twitter.com/6Du3BEc2TF

— Citizen NYC (@CitizenAppNYC) May 2, 2025

According to published reports, police spotted the suspect on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place.  

Per PIX 11: 

Dwayne Daley, 67, was allegedly caught caging more than 25 pigeons in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village at around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, according to the NYPD. 

He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor torturing, injuring, not feeding animals and violating parks and recreation laws, according to the NYPD. Daley is known to law enforcement for kidnapping the birds and selling them for target practice in his home state of Pennsylvania, police said. 

In February 2021, Daley was wanted for allegedly attacking a man who saw him poaching pigeons near Meeker and Union avenues in Brooklyn, according to court records. 

In early April, witnesses spotted a man netting pigeons at the infamous Avenue A mucky tree pit near Sixth Street.

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There have been reports of pigeon snatching for years, especially in the East Village.

Last day for Black Seed Bagels

If you were planning a last visit, Black Seed Bagels is closing today (4 p.m.) after 10-plus years at 176 First Ave. 

As co-owner Matt Kliegman told us a few weeks ago, the lease was up, and the company no longer needed such a large space here between 10th Street and 11th Street. When it opened in October 2015, the location served as Black Seed's commissary for five years, where they prepared their salads and spreads and operated the catering office. In 2020, they relocated that part of the business to a Bushwich address that better fit their needs. 

Black Seed was the first tenant at the address after DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffè, which had been in operation for 110 years here, decided to close in December 2014. 

Black Seed kept as many of the former business's interior architectural elements as possible, including the tiled floors and ceiling.

Hopefully, the next tenant will do the same!

Kliegman, a one-time East Village resident, told us that they will likely be back here someday in a smaller storefront. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Black Seed Bagels is closing its East Village location (but don't count out a return someday)

Saturday's parting shots

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Maypole dancers, please report to Tompkins Square Park...

Remembering Jill Sobule

Image via @jillsobule 

Jill Sobule, the singer-songwriter best known for her groundbreaking 1995 hit "I Kissed a Girl," which became the first openly queer-themed song to reach the Billboard Top 20, died Thursday morning in a house fire in Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul, Minn. She was 66.

According to published reports, Sobule was staying with friends while she rehearsed for an upcoming performance. 

In the East Village, Sobule was remembered for her storytelling and music. She was a 2023 Drama Desk Award nominee for her autobiographical musical "F*ck7thGrade," which played multiple return engagements at wild project on Third Street between 2022 and 2024.

The wild project shared the following on Instagram...

 

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[UPDATED] The Rock Against Racism concert has been postponed in Washington Square Park

Updated 5/4: Today's rainy forecast has forced the show's cancellation. Chris Flash, one of the organizers, said they'll put on another show with today's bands later in the summer in Tompkins Square Park.

-----

Tomorrow (Sunday!) afternoon, Washington Square Park hosts the Rock Against Racism concert.

The free show, featuring six bands and several speakers, is scheduled from 2 to 6 p.m.

Saturday's opening shot

Pull up a chair and take in some new murals at First Street Green Art Park (enter on First Street near Second Avenue or at Second Avenue and Houston). 

The sun will eventually give way to clouds with — just like last Saturday — a chance of a late afternoon or early evening shower or thunderstorm.

'Star' power

 

On Tuesday, The Slackers released a new single, "My Last Star," a collaboration with and tribute to Greg Lee. The co-lead singer of stalwart L.A. ska group Hepcat died in March 2024 after a brain aneurysm. He was 53. 

As you'll see in the above clip, the NYC-based band filmed parts of the video in the East Village, including the stage at Otto's Shrunken Head on 14th Street.

H/T Jill!

At the opening night of the Lower East Side Film Festival

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The Lower East Side Film Festival started last night with the opening feature, "The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick." 

The screening of the off-beat horror indie in the Jaffe Art Theatre at Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue featured a post-film Q&A with the cast and crew, among them director Pete Ohs, and stars Zoë Chao, Jeremy O. Harris, Callie Hernandez and James Cusati-Moyer. (Per RogerEbert.com: "'The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick' grooves with an improvised and charmingly undefined tempo. You can't help but be enamored by its horrific, claustrophobic spell."

Here are a few scenes from the evening, including the post-screening party inside the theater's lobby at 12th Street...

Find festival info here. It runs through Monday. 

Read our Q&A with festival founders (and East Village residents) Tony Castle and Roxy Hunt at this link.

NYC institution Corner Bistro eyeing an East Village expansion

Photo by Stacie Joy 

An iconic East Village corner space may soon be home to an NYC classic. [Find an update here.]

Reps for Elizabeth McGrath, owner of the decades-spanning Corner Bistro on West Fourth Street, are on this month's Community Board 3 SLA Committee agenda, seeking a liquor license for 94-96 Avenue A at Sixth Street — the onetime home of Sidewalk Cafe.

So far, only the application is on file with CB3. The accompanying questionnaire, which typically offers more insight into an applicant's plans, has not yet been made public. The CB3 SLA Committee is scheduled to meet on May 19. (Keep in mind that an application doesn't guarantee a concept will move forward — as we saw in December 2023 with the Paulie Gee's outpost that never materialized at 107 First Ave.) 

We've reached out to McGrath — daughter of Corner Bistro's original owners, Bill and Lorraine O'Donnell — for more details on the potential expansion. 

This wouldn't be the burger institution's first time branching out. Corner Bistro opened a location in Long Island City in 2012, which shuttered in 2020 due to pandemic-related pressures. An outpost at the Gotham West Market food hall in Hell's Kitchen also closed in 2020. 

The most recent tenant at 94-96 Avenue A, Offside Tavern, closed late last year. Before that, August Laura had a brief run beginning in October 2019 but faced a stop-start schedule during the pandemic and finally closed in December 2021. 

The address is best known as the longtime home of Sidewalk — the restaurant, bar, and live music venue (and host of the Antifolk Festival) that closed in February 2019 after a 34-year run.

Key Food moved things around. We took notes.

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Lost in Key Food on Avenue A? You may not be alone!

As we mentioned on April 22, Key was going to rearrange a few things ahead of a checkout aisle upgrade. 

First stop: the cake aisle — or rather, the former cake aisle (top photo). Gone are the "cakes for all occasions" signs (graduations! backyard parties! cake-worthy Tuesdays!). 

In their place? Soup. And packaged sides of an ambiguous nature. Think shelf-stable mystery mash.

Looking for sushi? It's no longer near the front. The nigiri's been quietly relocated to a smaller case near the deli. (Slim pickings if you wander in post-8:30 p.m.) 

What took its place? An expanded cake-and-dessert section, now featuring puddings and parfaits — but oddly, no signage about what occasions they're for.

And the cheese? Oh, the cheese. It's been divided like a dairy diaspora. Most of it now lives in dueling cases at the back of the store, flanking a surprise pasta island. Except feta, which has defected to hang with the olives and hummus where the original cheese section once stood.

Meanwhile, at the deli, the rotisserie chicken corner is thriving, now offering seasoned options like adobo and Italian herb, as well as Murray's organic birds for the purists.

As for the signage — look closely, and you might notice a new font gracing the iconic yellow Key Food signs. When asked, store manager Richie, who usually makes them, shared that this round came courtesy of "one of the scanner cashiers." A bold typographic pivot.

Despite the store's reshuffle, shoppers remained unfazed on Wednesday night during our first reorg visit. The aisles were calm, with a low-key energy. Phil Collins on the store's sound system.

Perhaps in the East Village, a little chaos is just part of the charm.

Thursday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

On the right, meet Moony — a rescue spending her first few minutes in Tompkins Square Park today with Jen Shorr, owner of Joyface and HiLot on Avenue C. 

Moony likely already became fast friends with Mellow on the left — one of the coolest, sweetest pups around.

Night 1 of the Lower East Side Film Festival

The 15th edition of the Lower East Side Film Festival is now underway at the Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue at 12th Street. (Other screenings are at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema on Lafayette.) 

Find festival info here. It runs through Monday. 

Read our Q&A with festival founders (and East Village residents) Tony Castle and Roxy Hunt at this link.

Happy Lower East Side History Month!

Lower East Side History Month is underway, and more than 60 Lower East Side cultural and community groups, small businesses, and residents are hosting a variety of public events, exhibits, tours, and festivals. 

Find the full schedule of free events here. 

The event launched in 2014 "in the hope that a collective celebration of our neighborhood would strengthen our connection to each other and our shared sense of community," organizers said.

Celebrating the new ownership at the Phoenix

Photos by @jwilson77 

The Phoenix (b1999) celebrated its new ownership last Thursday night on 13th Street with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an appearance by RuPaul's "Drag Race" star Alaska Thunderfuck. 

Garrett Ford, who took over the gay dive bar at the start of 2024, first started working there in 2008. He previously worked alongside owner Brenda Breathnach, who purchased Phoenix in 2009 and now runs 3 Dollar Bill in Brooklyn. The celebration followed renovations and updates to the programming. 

Below is Ford with Breathnach...

... and the official ribbon-cutting...

Here's a collection of other pics from the evening...

Phoenix, located at 447 E. 13th St., just west of Avenue A, is open daily from 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. There's a daily happy hour from 3-7 p.m. Follow them on Instagram @phoenixbarnyc for updates.

Closings on 14th Street: Amara Coffee, Dua Kafe

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Dua Kafe has closed at 520 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. 

While Google states the Albanian restaurant is temporarily closed, the space has been cleared out. A tipster informed us that the landlord sought a larger rent increase than the owners could afford and that they hoped to relocate to a different location.

There is a sign on the door that says, "For all deliveries, please talk to Johnny, the socks guy next door." 

So I went next door and spoke to Johnny, the socks guy, who confirmed the permanent closure.

Dua Kafe opened here in 2018, offering a touch of homespun warmth amidst the impersonal chill of the EVGB retail-residential complex that flanks both sides of the address.

Meanwhile, closer to Avenue B, Amara Coffee closed several weeks ago...

From an Instagram post from April 7: 

Thank you to each and everyone who came and supported us on our journey. We met incredible people who supported us and cheered for us. Sadly, we encountered difficulties and decided to close our doors. 

The coffee shop, which debuted last May, also offered pastries and sandwiches and showcased the work of local artists.

The space was previously Perk Espresso & Coffee Bar. 

The Alchemist’s Kitchen is opening an outpost on the Bowery

The Alchemist’s Kitchen, the holistic café and shop on Crosby Street, is opening a kiosk inside the Bowery Market. 

Per the signage, this outpost will feature botanical coffees, teas and "seasonal state-changing elixirs that combine scientific crafting with indigenous wisdom."

This corner stall was previously home to Current Coffee, which moved on at the end of March; they are now in a larger space in Midtown.