Up all night

Sophie's and Mona's will be among the bars with the proper permits pulling an all-nighter on New Year's Eve...

When moose attack at hipster LES hotspots

From the AP wire...

NEW YORK -- A restaurant-goer says she was struck by the decor at a Manhattan restaurant -- but not in a visual way.

Raina Kumra says in a negligence lawsuit filed last week that a stuffed moose head plummeted off a wall and onto her head at the Scandinavian-themed White Slab Palace on Oct. 4. She says she suffered a concussion and other injuries after being hit by the 150-pound moose head, adorned with 3-foot-wide antlers.

The owner of the Lower East Side restaurant didn't immediately return a telephone message. Nor did Kumra, who is representing herself in the case.

She's seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit was filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Rumors: The Blockbuster on Houston is closing

I'm not a fan of Blockbuster, but I was told by a reliable source that the store on Houston in the Red Square complex is closing...However, I spoke with a manager there who said that this was not true. (He didn't sound all that convincing, but ...)

Regardless, if this rumor was true, then it wouldn't really be a shocker. No secret that the DVD rental business is hurting. (Blockbuster shut their location on 15th Street and Third Avenue.) Plus, you can rent DVDs for a $1 at Blockbuster kiosks at Duane Reade on 14th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue as well as the Kmart on Astor Place...



Still, where do you do something old-fashioned like rent DVDs these days in the East Village? Two Boots has a greatly reduced video selection... Mondo Kim's is gone... Cinema Classics is gone...And there was a DVD/video store on 10th Street between Avenue C and D -- is that still open? And Intervideo Electronics on First Avenue next to McDonald's rents movies...What places am I forgetting about? Many people I know do NetFlix or check them out from the Tompkins Square library branch.

How soon before there won't be any place left to buy books or music (chain holes like Barnes & Noble, Best Buy aside...)...let alone rent DVDs...?

Kobe Bryant's slam chunk

Our obsession interest in the former spay/neuter wall on Avenue A near 12th Street continues. As we pointed out the other day, the building's landlord, Desides Weinberg, was critical of the spay/neuter mural because it had not been properly maintained through the years... As Media magazine reported, chunks of the mural had fallen off the side of the building over the years.

Fine. As an EV Grieve reader pointed out...have you looked at the new mural here lately?

All the Indian food that's fit to eat?: The Times Restaurant and Bar

I've never noticed this restaurant along Eighth Avenue near 40th Street... just across the way from The New York Times Building...




Was this restaurant always here? Did they change their name -- or font -- when the Times arrived across the street in 2007? A Sulzberger family side project?



(Times building photo via)

Posts that I didn't get around to posting in 2009: No night deposit?

Here's the note that greets guests during after hours at the Provenzano-Lanza Funeral Home at 43 2nd Avenue ....

Posts that I didn't get around to posting in 2009: The work of a Red Sox fan?

Graffiti that was up in the Sophie's men's room...before being quickly removed.

Posts that I never got around to posting in 2009: Notes that we found on the sidewalk

Somewhere on East Ninth Street.

Posts that I never got around to posting in 2009: Keep an eye out for graffiti vandals

On Second Avenue near Fourth Street. At the HAUNTED HOUSE.

We now know what building is for sale for $15 million on East Third Street (hint: buy an alleged illegal hotel and live next to the Hells Angels!)

Back in late October, we speculated about what home was for sale for nearly $16 million on East Third Street. (Read all about that right here.)

Now, thanks to a tip from a reader, we apparently have our answer: 73-75 E. Third St., directly to the west of the Hells Angels HQ. According to the listing, the 49 units in the buildings are going for $15.7 million...



75-75 E. Third St. is currently home to the Sanctuary Guest Streets, the vegan bed-and-breakfast with rooms going for $180 per night.



There are some Third Street residents who have alleged that this is an illegal hotel...(The DOB has received nearly a dozen complaints about the hotel in the last two years...)

And this was also the hotel with the guests who enjoyed relaxing on the bench in front of the Hells Angels HQ.



Perhaps, in the short term, the language should be changed to "not for hotel guests or potential new landlords..."

For further reading on EV Grieve:
The Hells Angels kindly request that hotel guests please refrain from sitting on their bench

Continuing to speculate about what 10-room, $15-million home is for sale on East Third Street

Moving away because of those sausage-party dinners at Schiller’s

Well, you may have already seen this breakup letter in the Times this past weekend... John Vorwald, a former editor at The New York Observer, who lived at the corner of Ludlow and Rivington Streets for six years, decided enough was enough with the yunnies and he's moving on...

You gussied yourself up with shiny new hardware: Thor, Fat Baby, Spitzer’s. Hordes of banker boys in J. Press checked shirt/chino uniforms and manicured necklines swarmed to you faster than to the promise of a government bailout. They enjoyed sausage-party dinners at Schiller’s (“It’s like Pastis, but edgy!”), used winter as a verb and eyed sun-speckled Germans and Australians “on holiday.”

Toothsome Upper East Side girl packs (never fewer than four) tarted up in too-new Lilly Pulitzer dresses and slurped down sugar-free Red Bull and Grey Gooses at the Stanton Social. Hipster millennials, rocking extra-skinny jeans, oversize Elton John glasses and cocked-back fedoras, turned Pianos and Welcome to the Johnsons into their own private Thompson Twins video. Hold me now. Hold my heart.

Under wraps: Work starts on two high-profile new East Village eateries

First, at the former Australian Homemade ice cream/candy shop on St. Mark's Place near Avenue A ... where, as Eater reported, Michael Huyh may or may not open his Asian-Taco joint called Baorrito here... In any event, Huyn is opening something here...



Meanwhile, on the Bowery and Second Street, at the former Kelley & Ping space... As Fork in the Road noted, Taavo Somer and his Freemans crew are opening a "classic American diner" here. Per the Voice from the Nov. 16 CB3/SLA meeting: "Somer plans to fully utilize the bi-level space, creating a 63-seat restaurant with a 38-foot counter on the first floor and a 19-foot bar on the second. His application met with a show of support from members of the community, who bemoaned the current state of the abandoned restaurant, which has become a haven for drug deals and muggings."

Noted

At Think Coffee, Bowery and Bleecker, this weekend.

Singas Pizza opening on Avenue C

Singas Famous Pizza recently closed on Second Avenue near 11th Street...



...and they've relocated to the renovated storefront on Avenue C and Sixth Street, where they'll compete with Bite Me and Moon Pie...

Avenue C's Mr. C's on the block

Speaking of Avenue C, the former Mr C's space between Seventh Street and Sixth Street has been for lease for several months now...the Italian trattoria closed in October after just five months in business...



...and everything remains inside (dishes, glasses, daily specials on the chalkboard, etc.) as if the workers just disappeared...

Another Grimace sighting in the East Village

A few weeks back Jeremiah noted the presence of Grimace out front of McDonald's at First Avenue...(Bob Arihood also got a nice shot of the mascot...)


[Photo via JVNY]

And then, the other night in the restroom (the one on the left) at Mars Bar...



Which reminds me that I heard a good Mars Bar restroom story the other day. Just need to remember the details...

A view toward the Williamsburg Bridge circa 1913

Was poking around Shorpy.com when I found this photo... Summer 1913. "Bird's eye view of N.Y.C. from roof of Consolidated Gas Building." George Grantham Bain Collection.

It's looking to the south east... if you click on the image, then you can see some familar landmarks...such as Tompkins Square Park and the two old steeples at St. Brigid's...I keep staring at it and finding something different...

But how will we know what reality show to watch or strip club to hit?

As the Times reports:

[F]or the month of January, Show Media, a Las Vegas company that owns about half the cones adorning New York City’s taxis, has decided to give commerce a rest. Instead, roughly 500 cabs will display a different kind of message: artworks by Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz and Yoko Ono.

The project is costing Show Media about $100,000 in lost revenue, but John Amato, one of Show’s owners and a contemporary-art fan, said: “I thought it was time to take a step back. January’s a slow month. I could have cut my rates but instead I decided to hit the mute button and give something back to the city.”

Uh, gee, thanks?

Santacar back in the East Village on Christmas night

After delivering presents to the eligible 378 million* children in the world (roughly 91.8 million homes), Santa was back driving around in the East Village last night in his Santacar. He looks surprisingly refreshed and clean for having climbed down 91.8 million chimneys.



Thanks to EV Grieve reader Cheryl for this Santacar photo....

* estimated

Bring out your dead...trees

It appears some folks are getting a headstart on the city's annual MulchFest, which usually happens the second weekend of the new year... Late yesterday afternoon, a pile of abandoned Christmas trees appeared in Tompkins Square Park...



Though, on closer inspection (yes, I actually inspected them, kind of), the trees appear to be the leftovers from the lot on Second Avenue and 10th Street...