BBQ/TKettle closed

The Korean-based BBQ Chicken chain at 26 St. Mark's Place that shares space with TKettle....



...is temporarily closed....reliable sources said that they need to get their permits in order.

Stop work order at Upright Citizens Brigade space

Totes the fault of the cargo shorts!1!111!!! (Read the comments.)

Cafe DeVille closed for the rest of the month

And keeping this restaurant theme going...Cafe DeVille on Third Avenue at 13th Street is closed for a holiday the rest of the month.



Hmm, OK...it's one thing for a mom-and-pop shop to close for a few weeks, but a fairly large place like this that employs so many people...?

Are New Yorkers addicted to luxury?

The Post takes a look at the new David Barton gym on Astor Place.

Throughout the day, a Ramones- and Bowie-filled soundtrack supports Barton's notion that his swanky $5 million gym will reflect the East Village's trademark punk and glam-rock spirit.

Trend?!

Indeed, the whole city's suddenly a nightclub. Not to be outdone, a huge trilevel Crunch half a block south of Barton's new gym offers an ear-splitting Tuesday-night deejay party and has a counter serving protein shakes and $4-plus iced coffees. There's also a Midtown Equinox, housing a deli-style takeout kitchen, and Rockefeller Center's Sports Club/LA, which has a sit-down restaurant, a bar and a sidewalk café.

"The mainstream offering doesn't cut it for some people anymore," says Barton.

And it isn't just gyms. Local entrepreneurs are giving Manhattan what it wants -- and Manhattan apparently wants everything in one place.

Hmm.

So what's the deal with this town? Is it an addiction to luxury -- or just ADD? According to Barton, it's all about choices.

"There are a lot of different people around and different gyms to service them," he says. Locals who complained about the closing of the enormous Barnes & Noble formerly occupying this space might note: While a bookstore is very East Village in theory, a 700-plus-store national chain that displaces ma and pa bookstores is not.

"You don't even shop in stores anymore," says Barton, suggesting online retailers that are hurting bookstores have made gyms "the new town square."

The downside for old-school New Yorkers is that such things tend to come off a little more new Times Square. Perhaps those of us wishing to exercise to the beat of our own drum, or bowl with the lights on, should consider moving to Arkansas? Fat chance. The sushi there sucks -- and just try getting it delivered after midnight.

For further reading:
No pecs, no sex (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

"Once a building is gone, it is gone forever"

The Wall Street Journal excerpts David Freeland's book, "Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville," released Aug. 1 in paperback. And here's an excerpt of the excerpt.

Almost anyone who has written about New York has pointed out how it lives in a perpetual state of renewal: built, torn down, and rebuilt in an endless cycle. This is not a process exclusive to New York: it has occurred on the South Side of Chicago, in the area surrounding Memphis’s Beale Street, in Miami, and in other cities throughout the United States. But in New York — and particularly Manhattan — the rate of change seems intensified.

And...

Manhattanites have often seemed remorseful at having ignored their physical history, having treated it so callously. At the same time they have sought to accept change as an inescapable element of life in the metropolis. "In Downtown: My Manhattan" (2004), Pete Hamill writes poignantly of this experience:

The New York version of nostalgia is not simply about lost buildings or their presence in the youth of the individuals who lived with them. It involves an almost fatalistic acceptance of the permanent presence of loss. Nothing will ever stay the same . . . Irreversible change happens so often in New York that the experience affects character itself.

But we never make total peace with the destruction of architecture. As evidenced by the popularity of Web sites such as forgotten-ny.com and vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com, our anxiety has grown in recent years, as more and more of the city we know has been replaced with new construction. The elegiac posts on these sites indicate that the process of coming to terms with architectural loss occurs in stages: first shock that something beautiful could have been destroyed; then resignation; and, finally, determination to appreciate the treasures that remain. If, as Hamill suggests, we approach loss with a fatalistic perspective, it is because we understand the irreversibility of destruction. Once a building is gone, it is gone forever.

I'm in a time zone

I also posted this at a new site that I'm part of: The New York Nobody Sings.

Wall Street gets a new street

Eurocobble, I presume,

Have you been toting middle school-style all summer?

From Style.com:

Backpacks showed up on several of the men’s Spring ‘10 runways — a good harbinger of trends to come, alongside the fact that I’ve been seeing hipster kids on the Lower East Side toting middle school-style all summer.

Moby and John Legend now have something in common

Yeah, well, anyway they both have bought condos at 52E4....(Can't wait for the pool party invite from these guys!) As The Wall Street Journal Reports:

Singer John Legend has signed a contract for an apartment listed at $2.3 million, in New York’s East Village neighborhood.

“I didn’t want a cookie-cutter place,” says the 30-year-old singer, who decided to buy the one-bedroom, two-bath apartment before a tour that began in June. The floor-through Lower Manhattan apartment of more than 1,300 square feet, in a new glass-and-steel residential tower on the Bowery and East Fourth Street, has 14-foot-ceilings and views in every direction. The price Mr. Legend agreed to pay couldn’t be learned. A similarly sized unit in the building sold for $2.59 million last month and another for $2.5 million in June. The 15-story tower, completed this year, has a doorman, an outdoor pool and indoor parking.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Taking a look at 52E4, and where the Moby mobile may park

Something about today's nypost.com is oddly erotic

At least the right-hand side featuring Amy Adams and the finger.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ad for Julia Child movie is oddly erotic

Today, I'm posting more posts that I never got around to posting

Good morning. As the headline suggests, you're about to see some posts that I never got around to posting for various reasons. Like, I forgot. Or I couldn't remember why I took the photo. Or, there was really nothing all that interesting about the picture. Or there was nothing really funny about the photo, like if I said about the shot below: "DBGB raises their prices!" And tried anyway.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Hold your horses

On Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Ella's new "spin on Hollywood glamour and the roaring 20's"?

A reader asked me if I knew what was going on with Ella, the upscale piano bar/speakeasy that opened last fall at 9 Avenue A.

Uh, I do not. I've never heard much about it. Eater ran Ella's epic opening press release:

For immediate release ˆ September 2008 - Carleton Varney, one of America's most innovative and respected interior decorators, brings his Dorothy Draper touch downtown to Avenue A. This fall, Varney and the young architect Robert Stansel III (GalleryBar), will showcase their designs of the new cocktail/piano lounge, Ella. Mr. Varney, best known for his work on Joan Crawford's homes and the Waldorf Towers, has proudly lent his flair and vision to his nephew Josh Boyd's next venture. Nightlife entrepreneurs Darin Rubell (cousin to Steve Rubell), Josh Boyd and Jordan Boyd have made what they call the LEV (Lower East Village) their place of business and community for the past eight years. Ella will be their third nightlife venture following the successes of New York City staple, Plan B and alternative art-space, GalleryBar.

"Ella is our spin on Hollywood glamour and the roaring 20's. We want to capture the energy and flair of the time by bringing it back with our music, design and staff", says owner Josh Boyd.

The dynamics of music at Ella will range from solo musicians to small bands. Emerging and established pianists and eclectic New York City DJ's will host nightly shows in the intimate piano bar. This downstairs room will seat 40 people for performances and exclusive private events. Musicians such as Regina Spektor, G Love, Alexa Ray (daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley) are slated to perform. The 1700 square foot top floor of the space will have a combined feeling of the décor of Hampshire House, The Carlyle and Hollywood's Lake Arrowhead Springs Hotel as well. Door designs from the original Camellia House in Chicago's Drake Hotel, will enhance Varney's decorations in the Dorothy Draper style ˆ a style Varney used this year at the 80th Academy Awards Architectural Digest Green Room design.

A list of $12 specialty cocktails, such as the Plum Gin Fizz (Muddled sour plum, 2oz Gin, splash of simple syrup, splash of lemon juice, shaken in a Collins glass) will be served nightly. Bottles of beer are $7 and glasses of wine will range from $10 to $20. Rotating selections of bar snacks, such as prosciutto, olives, and Gus' Pickles, from neighboring stores and the farmer's market, will be offered daily. The Ella staff will fit the theme dressed in classic sexy and sophisticated 1920's attire.

Anyway, the reader sent along what Ella hosted Tuesday night...

Posts that I never got around to posting: 49th ramen restaurant welcomed on St. Mark's

This is only two months old now!

Posts that I never got around to posting: Anne Hathaway's Francis Bacon

Posts that I never got around to posting: New door policy at 7B?

Posts that I never got around to posting: Jose Reyes eats potato chips

On Second Street near Avenue B.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Missed connections on Craigslist

boy that asked about world hunger/saving the environment + i was rude - w4m - 22 (Union Square)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2009-07-28, 5:23PM EDT

you were standing on 14th between 5th and 6th i believe, on the south side of the street asking people to donate to a cause. i can only assume this, as when you approached me i turned to you, noting your flushed face and sweaty brow, and replied with 'i have time, i just don't want to stop.' afterwards, i felt like more of an asshole than i have in my entire life. i sit here at union square typing this from a non-qwerty-keypad-phone. i know you have a tiresome and often unrewarding job, and i honestly didn't mean to be so abrasive. i have a quirky sense off humor that is typically off putting and difficult to understand because normally things i find humorous aren't funny at all. regardless, i hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. if you'd like, i'd like to buy you a cold beverage of your choice next time you are out in the heat saving the world. if anyone may know this young man, i ask that you please pass this on to him.

Via.


Blonde on houston around 11pm - m4w - 24 (Downtown)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2009-07-28, 10:54AM EDT

i was standing outside of the film forum talking with a friend at around 11 or 11:30 last night as you walked by. We were the only people outside of the theatre and when you walked by i grilled you pretty hard. you were completely stunning.

Via.

Posts that I never got around to posting: I'm so happy to be putting on a life preserver and maybe drown!

On the Staten Island Ferry.

Posts that I never got around to posting: "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!"

Got my first glimpse (like a month ago now!) of the Public Art Fund's latest exhibition at City Hall Park. It's by British artist Richard Woods. Went up at the end of June. And it gives me that "Three Little Pigs" vibe for some reason.




For further reading:
New City Hall Santaland-looking guardhouses: Cute or crazy? (Daily News)

Posts that I never got around to posting: Random passage from Where Thin People Roam, and Sometimes Even Eat

In the Times:

Leaving with a bottle of spring water was Gail Zweigenthal, a former editor of Gourmet magazine, where she had to balance Manhattan’s twin obsessions — eating well and looking good. “I exercise so I can eat,” said Ms. Zweigenthal (5-foot-3 ½, 114; like many residents of the Upper East Side, she was quicker to give her weight than her age).

Posts that I never got around to posting: One day you're a who's who, the next day your plaque is in the trash

Posts that I never got around to posting: Couch/body-in-carpet combo

On Avenue B.

Here comes the fear again: “THEY’RE BAAAACCCCKKKK”

Eater and Grub Street have the news on the rebirth of LeSouk on Avenue B ... And here Grub Street's take:

We just received an e-mail with the subject line “THEY’RE BAAAACCCCKKKK,” and the content is indeed enough to strike fear into the hearts of East Villagers. On Monday, Le Souk will reopen its doors after six months on hiatus following the loss of its liquor license and a successful lawsuit against the SLA. But residents of Avenue B, take solace: A spokesperson tells us that while the operation will be more or less the same at first, it may become more of a restaurant once its second, clubbier location in the Horus space at 510 Laguardia, Le Souk Harem (which will serve French-Moroccan cuisine but with more of an emphasis on the French), opens around Fashion Week. Details are still up in the air (we’ll keep you posted), but this much is certain: The beast has arisen.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: LeSouk to continue haunting the East Village

Ninth Precinct meets with residents to discuss quality-of-life issues surrounding the Cooper Square Hotel

Deputy Inspector Dennis Dequatro, commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, met last night with local residents who are concerned about the ongoing quality-of-life issues surrounding the Cooper Square Hotel.

According to Dequatro, Cooper Square Hotel officials have called for a meeting with the Ninth Precinct. The call occurred after the NYPD, State Liquor Authority, Health Department and other agencies visited the hotel on July 2, Dequatro said. Several violations were found, though he couldn't recall the specifics at that moment. (According to public records, the Department of Health issued the hotel 45 violations during a visit on July 16.)

Before hooking up with the hotel, police officials wanted to hear complaints about the hotel firsthand from residents.

Dequatro quickly discussed the nearly four pages of stipulations (they begin on Page 7 here) that the hotel agreed to in order to get CB3 to approve the liquor license. And Dequatro explained the difference between laws and stipulations, which are really just a civil agreement. Or something. If there's a violation of the stipulations, then the only recourse is to notify the State Liquor Authority (SLA), who will take it under advisement.

"Other agencies have allowed [the hotel] to open a business next to your windows," Dequatro said. "It's not going to be an easy thing to enforce...to correct. We can't work magic."

The residents, nearly 20 total (also in attendance -- Stuart Zamsky, head of the East Fifth Street Block Association, and Susan Stetzer, CB3 district manager) then chimed in with their stories.

One resident talked about the blowout this past Saturday afternoon on the hotel's increasingly notorious 21st-floor penthouse, apparently available for private events. The thump-thump-thump was deafening down on Fifth Street, the resident said. "No one could stand out there there without getting their eardrums blown out." When she went to complain, a hotel hostess dismissed her with the wave of a hand, she said.



Regarding the Saturday bash, another resident said he went to the hotel to complain, but no one would summon the manager for him. Anyway, the employee told the resident that he couldn't do anything because the hotel was paid $20,000 for use of the penthouse.

Another party raged Sunday night until 11, a resident said. A Sixth Street occupant said, "You get girls screaming off the penthouse. I can hear what the DJ is saying." And she lives on the first floor.

While Dequatro is aware of noise issues from the balcony and back garden, he was surprised to hear about the 21st-floor penthouse. "I wasn't aware this space existed until 10 minutes ago," he said. Some residents said that they were never told about plans for a penthouse during community meetings with hotel officials before the Cooper Square opened.



Meanwhile, down below: One Sixth Street garden-level resident said hotel guests throw cigarette butts and trash over the fence and into her yard.

Dequatro took the names of any residents willing to let the NYPD into their homes with sound meters during a hotel penthouse party (or elsewhere). However, the NYPD sound meters can't measure the bass coming from the speakers on the penthouse -- a source of many of the residents' complaints. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has the sound meters for this, though that agency, with a smaller staff, takes longer to respond, Dequatro said.

No date has been set for a meeting between the Ninth Precinct and the hotel.

In the end, Dequatro said he knew what residents were going through. "I understand that there are frustrations...I understand that there are tensions."

For further reading:
Residents discuss the problems created by the Cooper Square Hotel: Meanwhile, across the street, a party for a sports car (EV Grieve)

Notes from the Backside (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Party at Cooper Square Hotel (EV Grieve)

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Just wanted to follow-up on the Mystery Lot post from late July. Wanted to have a record of the lot from the 14th Street angle looking south toward 13th Street.







And thanks to everyone who left comments on the post. Chris Flash had a chance to look around at the interior of this property's former occupant, the Jefferson Theater. "The place was in horrible condition, but definitely could have been rehabbed. The lay-out was tight but perfect for sight lines and accoustics -- I could feel the history still living inside there."

A shame.

Dirt candy

As we've pointed out, seemingly everything was tossed out after Max Brenner/Chocolate by the Bald Man abruptly closed last week.

Meanwhile, EV Grieve reader Donald Stahl passed along this photo he took last Friday outside the former Bald Man's home...



Not even the gummi bears or marshmallows were spared.

Dumpster of the day

Outside Bounce Deuce.

City funding likely not behind new public art

On Avenue B near Eighth Street.

92 Seventh Street gets a sidewalk shed

...for the six-story residential building ...getting squeezed in here near First Avenue ... And the new building now sports its first floor.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Looking at the last days of Coney Island? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Ken Mac is back, and shooting in the Meatpacking District (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Shopping under the Manhattan Bridge (Hunter-Gatherer)

Restaurant supply store actually opening on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Eateries dealing with liquor license delays (The New York Times, via Eater)

"Bollywood Hero" flash mob in Times Square at 2:30 (Esquared)

How's their football team?: Welcome to Stuy Town U (NYPress via StuyTown Lux Living)

Looking at "The Blank Generation" (Stupefaction)

OTB doomed? (The Huffington Post)

Filming "Eat, Pray, Love" in the neighborhood (via)

Aces & Eights GM: "I understand that drunkards make your life miserable"

So, where were we? Tom Michaelsen, the general manager of Aces & Eights on Avenue A, is interested in engaging readers/the neighborhood. As he wrote yesterday:

I'd love to get ideas from the community as to how we could improve your quality of life. If anybody has anything constructive to say, I would love to hear it.

Someone suggested playing NYC classics such as "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Taxi Driver" on a designated movie night. And Marnie, a mother of two, had this to say:

My concerns about Aces & Eights LES are really, to be honest, not something that I think you alone can address. I appreciate your contributions to charities bringing potable water in places like India. I wonder, however, if your charitable contributions might not win you more respect if they were spent here in the neighborhood.

This neighborhood has many public schools which do not receive adequate funding, and therefore rely on the contributions of parents and local businesses.

Another thing we, as parents, need to deal with on a regular basis is not only the noise from local bars (which frankly, my children have learned to sleep through since birth) but the aftermath. The people urinating in doorways, the vomit on sidewalks, the garbage, the stench in the summertime.

I think if you could find a way to direct your efforts towards making real changes to the daily life of local residents we would all be a lot more tolerant of the noise and the general image of the bar itself.

Thank you for listening to those whose lives are impacted by your livelihood.

To which Tom responded,

We have actually already partnered with United Neighborhood House Junior Board, which support local settlement houses like Third Street Music School, University Settlement Society and Henry Street Settlement.

The event was quite a success and I am fully open to working with them or any other charities which benefit the community again.

Community consciousness is something I take very seriously. I understand that drunkards make your life miserable and I will do what I can to stem the tide of urine and vomit from our neighbor's doorsteps.

And another commenter found that A&E has already been a good neighbor:

I live around the corner from Aces & Eights, and when it first opened there was an issue with really loud HVAC equipment up on your roof. One of our residents was brave enough to march right in to your club and tell you about it. And you know what? The issue was taken care of, and the noise issue went away. I give you credit — that's not what we all expected to happen. thanks for being a good neighbor.

Meanwhile, there's another comment thread going here.

So, what else? Here's your chance. (And I think we have the cargo shorts/douche/frathole angle already covered.)