There goes the Elephant

Over the weekend, workers continued gutting the former Elephant thai place on East First Street...

The Elephant closed in December. (You can read its history here, including an interview with the manager.)

What's next here?

The Feast reported that the team behind fancy cocktail emporium Summit Bar on Avenue C will open an Italian cafe this spring. They are considering the name Prima Strada, which translates to First Street. Word is the place will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and open at 8 a.m.

Tonda was closed this past weekend

We've been keeping an eye on Tonda, the pizzeria at 235 E. Fourth St. near Avenue B. The place was closed Friday and Saturday night.

During the previous weekend, Tonda was closed on Friday but open on Saturday. No sign on the front door... or nothing on their website about being closed. We tried their phone number, and got a message saying there was no room to leave a message. And their Twitter feed hasn't been updated since Aug. 11.

Lady Gaga can't save ApizzA on Avenue A

ApizzA's Lady Gaga sidewalk board has been retired...



The pizza shop on A between 12th Street and 13th Street shuttered last week...

Several readers passed along this tip... However, Neighborhoodr had the story first.

Animal Crackers busted

The NYPD has busted Animal Crackers, the family-run pet store on Second Street between First Avenue and Avenue A...

There was also an explanatory NYPD sticker noting the store was shut for receiving stolen property ... the sign has since been removed...

Thanks to @Roger_Paw for the tip.

Why some people really hate 'Gossip Girl' right about now

'Gossip Girl' is back to film in the neighborhood... with signs up on St. Mark's Place, Ninth Street and 10th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

And we've heard grumbling from people who had to dig out of snowbound parking spaces this weekend and attempt to find somewhere else to stow their cars...

Super Bowl Sunday dining along First Avenue

Atomic Wings...

Papa John's...

Earlier...

Hearth at 12th Street is usually open on Sundays... but not tonight ... and the bread delivery is still hanging there ...

7:07 p.m., Avenue A, Feb. 6 (Super Bowl Sunday)

Gas scare this afternoon on Avenue B

the FDNY responded to a call about the smell of gas coming from an apartment above Rue B on Avenue B between 11th Street and 12th Street...

According to EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams, there were rumors that workers had removed a stove from the apartment... and the gas line was not properly secured...

By the way, the date on the photos is incorrect — they were taken a little earlier this afternoon...

Inside El Jardín del Paraíso

East Fifth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D. More info on the community garden's history here.

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

The pits

A discarded Cherry Eight machine on East Second Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...

Sadly, its days of hi-lo double ups (for amusement only!) are over.

Mostly sunny today with temperatures steady near 39F; 70 percent chance of cargo shorts

Third Avenue near 13th Street.

This weekend in stupid tourists playing chicken with cars in a busy East Village intersection

Thanks to the good people over at The Late Adopter for sharing this link with us...

Just after midnight on Avenue A and Seventh Street, two reportedly "drunken tourists" started playing in the traffic....

According to The Late Adopter, the two were singing loudly and wildly running in front of cabs and cars, at one point lying down in the street. "After about 15 minutes a police van rolled up and detained the drunker of the two. Eventually an ambulance showed up too so kudos to NYPD for safety first."

My guess is that they were new singles who moved here.

The Late Adopter has more photos here.

Today in offbeat limos on East Third Street

[Via EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams]

No photographers were injured during the taking of this photo

EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams braving the beasts of Tompkins Square Park.

Noted

Somewhere on East First Street. Not too far from the Mars Bar. And I wish Slum Goddess wouldn't litter.

Week in Grieview

A dance for Ray's 78th birthday celebration. (Tuesday)

[Photos by John Penley via Facebook ... Bob Arihood and Slum Goddess have more photos]

Looking at Nelson Sullivan's East Village (Wednesday)

Appreciating the Salvation Army on the Bowery before it becomes a swanky hotel (Tuesday)

Discussing first dates in the East Village (Thursday)

Learning about Bowery Beef (Friday)

Seeing what's coming to 532 E. Fifth St. (Thursday)

Addressing Mars Bars rumors (Friday)

Keeping street art safe (Wednesday)

And some bonus video of DEP crews working late night Thursday on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... (thanks to the reader for this!)

Meet your new neighbor on Avenue A

Thanks to a tip from RyanAvenueA, we now know the future of 240 E. Houston at Avenue A. (Read that post here.) Meanwhile, who has been to a Union Market in Brooklyn? And what can you tell us about the stores?

9:55 a.m., East Third Street, Feb. 5.

Daily News brings further shame to the East Village

I missed this feature in the Daily News ... Thanks (maybe!) to EV Grieve reader Crazy Eddie for passing along the links — complete with an apology.

As you can see, we're No. 2 for singles! Woo!

And now, the lead to the section on the East Village:

Somehow this neighborhood once known for sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll keeps getting better. If this place were a rock band, in the 1990s it would have been a raucous merging of the Sex Pistols meets the Rolling Stones. Today, it’s more mellow indie rock meets John Mayer.

And!

One person scored a $1,900 one-bedroom on a fourth-floor walk-up. About $3,000 will get you a small two-bedroom. The farther east one goes, towards Avenue C and D, the less one pays, but the closer one gets to housing projects and traditional, immigrant areas known for their local flavor.

Parts of this area gets gritty, but public gardens fill the empty lots, some with Roman amphitheatres, others with weeping willow trees and small ponds filled with gold fish.

[Updated] Second East Village outpost of Nicky's opens on East Fourth Street

As this photo from EV Grieve reader Hanser shows, it appears that Nicky's has a new location... here on Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

And we've heard about it already from a commenter:

Anonymous said...
PLEASE HELP PLEASE HELP, I've just noticed a venue on E 4TH between A and B. Blasting music, Lady Gage, etc., loud people on phones, "Woo"'s from inside. Is this a special night or did some club just open up? It is SO LOUD. My building is on THIRD street and faces the back and I hear this hell and feel sick inside.

Do you know what this is? I can't make out the sign, it seems to be a red light up sign.

Kansas City Royals

Blockbusters: Union Market coming to 240 East Houston; Discovery Wines looking for new home

240 E. Houston has been on the block now for several months... and there's a taker. EV Grieve reader RyanAvenueA notes that signs just went up here for the Brooklyn-based Union Market.

Meanwhile, Discovery Wines will not be renewing their lease. Their last day is May 31 in this space at 10 Avenue A. Tim at Discovery Wines recently told me this:

"We're not going anywhere — we're staying in this neighborhood for the long haul. And while we have no concrete plans to move into a new space, we are aware of the options in the immediate area. Discovery Wines is a thriving retail shop with an established loyal customer base in the best neighborhood in NYC —" you can count on us to continue to serve our customers on lower Avenue A for many years to come."

Meanwhile, work continues on the upper levels of 240 E. Houston, which caught fire last July.

That was fast!: Last Friday a rally at 35 Cooper Square; today, a sidewalk shed

Jeremiah's Vanishing NY has the scoop on the scaffolding that arrived today at 35 Cooper Square.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Doom and doomer: More of Cooper Square primed for development

Cooper 35 Asian Pub part of development deal on Cooper Square

Cooper 35 Asian Pub putting up a fight before being torn down

[Photo via Jeremiah's Vanishing NY]

Report: Fire destroys apartment in the Jacob Riis Houses

Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo reports that a fire broke out last night around 11:30 inside a sixth-floor apartment in the Jacob Riis Houses on 10th Street and Avenue D. Sixty firefighters responded to the fire, getting it under control by 12:16 p.m. According to the DNA story:

No one was hurt in the blaze, and the cause is still under investigation, the FDNY said.

Paola Gutierrez, 24, of Brooklyn said the apartment belongs to her 59-year-old grandmother, who hasn't lived there in almost a year since she had to check into the hospital for unspecified ailments.

[Photo by Patrick Hedlund/DNAinfo]

Art around the Park, sort of

Tompkins Square Park via EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams.

Where's the Bowery Beef?

As we first reported back in January, a roast beef sandwich shop — the Boston-based Harrison's — is moving into the Bowery Poetry Club. Fork in the Road noted yesterday that the eatery will be called Bowery Beef. And they'll sell books and other printed media too. We asked one of the owners, Ray LeMoine, a few questions via e-mail:

This is your first restaurant venture. What was it about opening a cafe in the Bowery Poetry Club that appealed to you?

It's a space dedicated to literature. As a non-profit stage, Bowery Poetry Club is all-ages. Nice people involved.

How much of your space will be devoted to books/print media? (Newspapers too?)

Probably a shelf of newspapers, magazines and some books. Maybe an iPad app jukebox (Joke! re: iPad!).

Your opinion of the 2011 version of the Bowery as opposed to say, the Bowery from 10 years ago?

Now you can catch a Chinatown bus to anywhere for cheap.

The NY Post declared that the Bowery was "out" for 2011. Any concerns about that?

Yes.

Are you downplaying the Boston angle here?

Maybe. I don't really know. Go Sox!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Bowery Poetry Club to get literary cafe, roast beef

Bookstore-cafe wanted for the Bowery Poetry Club

Fork in the Road had more on the new venture yesterday. Find that article here.

About those Mars Bar rumors

Oh lordy, we've heard so many Mars Bar rumors of late... We won't even repeat most of them... Among other rumors:

• The bar was closing for good this past Sunday.
• The bar stopped putting in orders for beer delivery last week.
• The bar is on a month-to-month lease, which is paid through February.

There was a little more hysteria involving the video shoot/farewell party ad for Saturday afternoon making the rounds earlier this week...

The reality is, no one really knows what's happening here... and if owner Hank Penza knows, then he's not telling anyone...

EMTs escort LES Jewels from Ray's

The NYPD and FDNY EMTs were called to Ray's where L.E.S. Jewels had collapsed yesterday afternoon around 3, Bob Arihood notes.

Witnesses said that the Ray's counter person had called 911 several times earlier because Jewels had allegedly accosted and threatened a customer inside the store.

As Bob's photo shows, EMTs removed the restrained and unresponsive L.E.S. Jewels from the store and took him to a hospital.

And here's a slice of the CBGB pizza

Last Friday, I mentioned that Two Boots on Bleecker was introducing a new CBGB slice. I stopped by to try a slice after work. Sold out!

Anyway, finally remembered to swing by to try again...

I haven't had any slices from Two Boots in a good long time... and I was surprised by how much I liked this one...

Previously on EV Grieve:
2011, the year punk pizza broke: Two Boots introducing the CBGB slice

Squirrels in Tompkins Square Park — real and frozen

[Via EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams]

{Courts of EV Grieve reader BaHa]