Bologna bandit on the loose!

EV Grieve reader Jaime noted that someone — or something! — carefully placed a cold cut of unknown origins on this ad here on Avenue A at Third Street...

Witnesses spotted the meat tosser fleeing in this vehicle...

Police searching for armed robbery suspect who held up Gem Spa

On a more serious note, as DNAinfo reports, the NYPD is looking for the above suspect who has held up various stores in Murray Hill, the West Village... and on Oct. 6, he allegedly robbed Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place at 3 a.m.

Per DNAinfo, "The suspect, described as a heavy-set man between the ages of 25 - 40 years old, allegedly entered five businesses over the past two months armed with a gun, before demanding cash and fleeing on foot."

Late shift at the Meatball Factory

On Wednesday, we had a photo one of the awnings going up at the classy-sounding Meatball Factory on 14th Street and Second Avenue.

A reader, who happens to live in the same building, passed along another photo...

The reader notes that the Meatball crew has been working late. "Construction lasted until 2 AM [Wednesday] night/this morning! Not cool ... the construction noise has been getting later and later over the past few weeks."

As an aside, the resident notes that workers renovating the space painted 231 Second Ave. on the plywood. However, the address of the previous tenant — the Arthur Treachers-Nathan's-Pizza Hut combo! — was 251. E. 14th St. Which means various tenants of 231 Second Ave. have been getting mail for the Meatball Factory. No word yet on any secret meatball recipes.

Previously.

Meanwhile, enjoy Karl Fischer's 263 Bowery penthouse for just $15k per month

We've all been busy watching the hyper-luxurification of the Bowery in recent years. Karl Fischer's 263 Bowery is one of the higher profile projects ... just south of Houston... where workers demolished the onetime four-story building that housed the Restaurant Auction Outlet in the summer of 2008.

The million-dollar condos hit the market just about a year ago. Turns out that the three-bedroom penthouse remains on the market, going for $3.495 million now. But. In the meantime, the unit just hit the market as a rental — a tidy $15,950 per month, per Streeteasy.

Here's the listing at Douglas Elliman:

This beautifully appointed sundrenched 2177 sq ft 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom Penthouse duplex boasts picturesque city views with over 660 sq ft of 3 private outdoor spaces. Award winning architect Karl Fisher combined with Richardson Sadeki's minimalistic vision provides the perfect combination of form and functionality, from the flowing layout with unique concrete floors, to the sophisticated sleek finishes. Residents of 263 Bowery enjoy virtual doorman services, common roof deck, private storage unit and 421a Tax abatement. With its desirable location 263 Bowery has the very best of what downtown has to offer from the New Museum to the incredible new Sperone Westwater gallery & trendy Keith McNally's new restaurant Pulino's.

Seems like a nice perch to watch the ongoing slaughter!

Take a look yourself Sunday during the open house from 2-3 (p.m.)

Open Double Wide and...: Double Wide Bar & Southern Kitchen opening this weekend on East 12th Street

We don't know much about the new bar-restaurant opening at 505 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B (the former homes of Totem and Mundial). (We talked about the space in late August when some neighbors were upset by the late-night renovations here.)

We traded emails with one of the partners of the new venture. He invited us to stop by for a tour. (Never made it by for some reason...) The place is called Double Wide Bar & Southern Kitchen. And according to the Double Wide Facebook page, they're opening this weekend.

One detail: We asked the partner about the rumored "white trash" theme. "'White trash' may have come from descriptions of some of our menu items, like Frito Pie, Sloppy Joe Sliders, Chicken Fried Steak, etc (with four-star quality and ingredients)."

Stay tuned for more details...

[Updated] The Double Wide folks say that they'll be "partially" open this weekend...

Previously.

MTA eliminates that pesky Alphabet City in new subway map

[Via Second Ave. Sagas]

Meant to note this earlier in the week... when the Times ran a piece on the new MTA subway map... In a "decluttering" effort, the MTA streamlined the map to make it easier to read ... in the process, Avenues A, B, C and D (among many others in the city) are no longer represented.

Hmm, I don't know. I like things cluttered. Like stores. And maps. And streets. Why does everything in the city have to be so neat and orderly. Like you have to have a shiny Cemusa coffin instead of a ramshackle newsstand.

Anyway!

2nd Ave. Sagas has a lot more on the changes here.

Oh, and here's a look at the older map...

[via]

h/t Shawn Chittle

Caller No. 12, you're on the blog: More about Chinese takeout/delivery

Several people thanked us (for some reason!) for our Chinese delivery/takeout post from Friday... Well, thank you for everyone who left a comment — 41 in total, including the person who chastised us for ending our headline with a preposition. Woo. (Read the post here.)

EV Grieve reader LesMis asked if we could drill a little deeper... Sure. What the hell. We take requests.

Per LesMis: "I love good old fashioned New York Chinese food, just like I ate as a kid. Sure, I like the fusion, the exotic, the healthy, the Thai-masquerading-as-Chinese and even the Sushi joint-afterthought-for-people-who-don't-eat-sushi-but-got-outvoted-by-the-group varieties. But sometimes, I just get a hankering for the now unfashionable and often ridiculed basic dishes. Chop Suey, Chow Mein and Lo Mein rule."

So basically, he's looking for a low-brow menu with some standards and specifications:

• Folding cardboard containers.

• High standards of hygiene and food protection.

• High quality (fresh oil, vegetables and meat well-prepared classic style)

As a guide, two of his favorite places for this fare are Charlie Mom on Sixth Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street ... and Cottage on Irving Place and 16th Street. But a little closer to our neighborhood.

OK then. Uh, anyone?

Police say this woman is stealing purses from Katz's

The Daily News reports that police are looking for the woman in this video that they say has stolen three purses from Katz's since May. She is "stealing from customers as they're busy eating."



And only three? I could have stolen around 15 purses on my last visit... and maybe a backpack or two. People leaving stuff lying around unattended.

She also allegedly nabbed a purse from the Clinton Street Baking Company in June.

Anyway. You know what to do if you have information: Call 800-577-TIPS.

Did Starbucks borrow East Village juice bar ideas?

According to Page Six today — yes! Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz reportedly hired away the manager of Liquiteria on Second Avenue and 11th Street to train staff in Seattle for the chain's new juice-bar concept. Liquiteria owner Doug Green had this to say about Schultz "He befriended us, asked about our concept, then took her. It is a huge slap in the face."

Schultz had been spotted checking out Juice Press on First Street and Liquiteria back in March.

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

Uh-oh. 75 St. Mark's Place hit the market yesterday. It's initial asking price: $4.6 million. Here's the Corcoran listing, which is full of passages that give us the fear:

This is a rare opportunity to own a premium mixed use building on St. Marks Place. Located between 1st and 2nd Avenues, and home to the famous Holiday Cocktail Lounge, 75 St. Marks Place stands out as an excellent and flexible financial investment. The building has been owned by one family since 1973, meticulously cared for and in excellent condition. It contains the Holiday Cocktail Lounge on the ground floor (scene of innumerable TV and film shoots), 4 free market, 1400 square-foot apartments, one of which was completely renovated this year. The remaining three residential units are 2 bedroom + home office, one bathroom apartments, and are substantially below market rent, offering significant upside potential. All are very attractive, with soaring ceilings, Southern exposure, and large enough to feel like a home to any occupant. Two apartments are month-to-month, with the third lease expiring early 2012 so the rent roll is poised to increase substantially. The commercial lease is controlled by the owner, so it can be delivered vacant or the Holiday Cocktail Lounge continued. It is a long-run financial success made all the more valuable by considerable additional income as a film location. In addition, with a 4.0 FAR, there are ample air rights to expand in the event of a condo conversion, a great alternative given the paucity of condos in the area.

Got all that? One family has owned it since 1973 ... rent increase ... delivered vacant ... condo conversion. Good lord. Might as well set up the dumpster out front tomorrow morning.

OK, OK so no reason to get all doomsdayish... yet. The listing does seem to flatter the Holiday, calling it "famous" and "a long-run financial success." Encouraging? Promising?

The Holiday kept going after Stefan's passing in early 2009. While the Holiday has undergone a few changes (some cheesy promotions, several new full-screen TVs that attract the sportos), it's still a classic bar rich with East Village history.

Stefan opened the Holiday here in 1965. (It had been a bar since 1936.) Read more about the bar at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York here ...

And now, a walk-off passage from an article by former East Village resident Mike Hudson in the Niagra Falls Reporter a few years back:

[L]ike many Manhattan dives the Holiday Lounge had its writers.

For years Allen Ginsberg had a large apartment in a building almost directly across the street, and he and other Beat writers like Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso and Herbert Huncke spent considerable time with the bookies, dope dealers, working girls and alcoholics for whom the Holiday was a second home.

[adm on Flickr via JVNY]

Please don't piss or urinate here

"please do not piss in this property. do not urinate. thank you" ... spotted off Union Square. Photo by Marisa Gertz via La Dee Dah, where she has a fine collection of Urban Etiquette Signs.

Noted

Duane Reade on 14th Street... the one near First Avenue... not the one at Third Avenue ... or at the former Virgin Megastore or... and this costs $19.99?

Steven Tyler checks into the former Morrison Hotel Gallery space

As we first pointed out, the Morrison Hotel Gallery checked out of 313 Bowery at the end of September. In recent days, workers have been converting the space into Riff...

[Bobby Williams]

...which will feature the new clothing line that Steven Tyler worked on with Andy Hilfiger (Tommy's Hilfiger’s brother) for a rock-inspired clothing line called Andrew Charles. Tyler's 22-year-old daughter Chelsea also appears in the ad campaign... and in the window at 313 Bowery.

The clothing line is for Macy's, where Tyler will be tomorrow or something. Anyway, it's our understanding that this is just a temporary shop ... so get your leopards and scarves while you can...

Can the meatballs be far behind?

Here on IHOP Way 14th Street at Second Avenue, the Meatball Factory awning has arrived. Workers will be attaching it to the corner space that once housed the Pizza Hut-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo. (Read more about the plans here.)

As you may recall from July ... a Meatball Factory rep told an EV Grieve reader that the meatballs here "will put the Meatball Shop to shame."

Thanks to Jennifer at Xoom for the photo.

Today in Joe Franklin sightings on Second Avenue

[Dave on 7th]

Joe looks to be picking up a copy of the Voice near 14th Street...

[UPDATED] Reader report: DOH temporarily closes Butter Lane Cupcakes

Multiple readers have noted this morning that the DOH has temporarily closed Butter Lane Cupcakes on Seventh Street...

[Dave on 7th]

The new inspection report isn't online yet... there were 5 violation points in May; 25 during a Sept. 14 inspection... Meanwhile, BL fans are sad...

[UPDATED] 4:03 p.m. A reader just walked by and reports that Butter Lane in back open. No mention of the closure on their Twitter feed.

Heathers lives

Last month, the CB3/SLA committee voted not to renew the East 13th Street bar's liquor license. So it was left up to the State Liquor Authority to have the final say. According to the Heathers Facebook page:

HEATHERS LIVES!
License is renewed, and in hand!!!

According to the SLA, the license now expires Oct. 31, 2013.

This is the second time in recents months in which the CB3/SLA committee voted not to renew a bar's license "with complaint history." ... only to have the State Liquor Authority give the OK for the renewal. (See TenEleven)

Behold the new hawk in town

Bobby Williams has been keeping tabs on a juvenile red-tailed hawk who arrived a few days ago in Tompkins Square Park...

You can see that this hawk does not have a red tail yet ... something about molting their feathers after their first year... Actually! Per roger_paw in the comments: "Red-tailed hawks don't develop their signature tail feathers until they've reached a certain age." Check out her hawk photos here.

And yesterday, the new hawk dined on a rat (entrails alert!) ...

The Chocolate Library is checking out of St. Mark's Place

We heard a rumor that the Chocolate Library on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue would either be closing and/or relocating.

A tweet dated Oct. 3 provides a lot of info ...

Been a tough go here. Do you remember all that nonsense late last year about the name? The owner had to change the shop's name to Chocolate 101 after the education department told him the law forbade the use of the word "library" in business names. In February, the education department reconsidered and allowed the owner to keep the "library."

Anyway, is the East Village the best place for speciality chocolate shops? We've now seen the Chocolate Bar, Bespoke and the Chocolate Library come and go fairly quickly.

Maybe Puddin' will stick?

Free Wifi arrives just in time for Occupy Tompkins Square Park

[Bobby Williams]

In early September, we noted that workers were in Tompkins Square Park doing whatever it is you do to install WiFi equipment... And according to Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo, the free wireless service went live yesterday.

What you need to know, per DNA:

Users can connect to the "attwifi" network by selecting the network and then clicking a box agreeing to the company’s terms and conditions. No usernames or passwords are needed, and there are no limits on use.

Anyway, just in time for Occupy Tompkins Square Park Saturday...

Tis the season for finding random body parts

You know, Halloween... Bobby Williams made these discoveries at Ninth Street near Avenue C...

...and then Avenue A at Seventh Street...

Any comments about things costing an arm and a head around here? (You don't really have to answer that...)

Today's sign of the apocalypse: IHOP is opening in the Limelight

The Real Deal has the scoop. IHOP will open in the Limelight Marketplace, the former church, club and current shopping center. The Real Deal reports that the IHOPPERS will take over parts of two floors.

Anyway, here's Johnny Thunders playing at the Limelight circa 1988 via a Nelson Sullivan video...

Reminders: SPURA review hearings today

A last-minute reminder in the EV Grieve inbox ... edited a bit...

[via The Lo-Down]

The City of New York is continuing its discussions and decisions regarding the SPURA site on and near Delancey and Essex Streets. There will be two sessions today at which people can again speak out on behalf of preserving (or not) the historic Essex Street Market, which remains an option for CB3's recommendation to the city (see David McWater's draft testimony here).

Today's public scoping — specifically to hear comments from the public — is divided into two timeframes: 3 to 5:30 pm and again at 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. You may come and speak at either session for up to 3 minutes and/or you can submit written comments about the Draft Scope of Work for an Environmental Impact Study of the SPURA project (now known as "The Seward Park Mixed-Use Development Project"), or specifically about keeping the current Essex Street Market intact, in its historic location.

More information here.

University Settlement's Speyer Hall
184 Eldridge Street, Second Floor

Read more on this issue at The Lo-Down .... and BoweryBoogie ... who have following the story...

Occupy Tompkins Square Park this weekend

Demonstrators from Occupy Wall Street will be headed to the East Village on Saturday. John Penley is organizing this event set to start Saturday at noon and end Sunday at noon. Via Facebook:

Picnic starts at noon. General Assemblies at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Bring food, sleeping gear, drums, guitars, banners, signs and your friends. In memory of Monica aka Catherine Shay, Bob Arihood and Terry Taylor [the homeless Tompkins Square activist who died in 1994].

"I talked to about 100 people from the neighborhood at Zucotti Park [Sunday] and they were all thinking about the same thing and immediately said, 'Hell yes let's do it,'" Penley told me via Facebook.

Also, Penley said, the presence of the protestors will draw attention to the Park's legacy of activism.

“One of the reasons that we want to do this is to educate the new people living in the neighborhood about what went on in Tompkins Square Park in the '80s and the '90s, and the police response to it,” he told Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo.

Planning meetings for Occupy Wall Street were held in Tompkins Square Park in August.

More details later this week...

Facing eviction, Village Scandal holding sale to pay for legal fees

[DigitalMan@mac.com - ©2011]

Village Scandal, the vintage hat shop, is in its 16th year at 19 Seventh St. However, owner Wendy Barrett (above, right) says that she has been battling eviction ever since A.J. Clarke became the property management in 2004. After an ongoing series of legal fights, a court issued a Warrant of Eviction to the marshal on June 10.

Barrett recently shared four shopping bags of legal documents with us during a store visit. "I've become a bag lady," she says rather grimly.

It's a complicated story that involves more than $60,000 in back rent and real estate taxes that have been accruing since 2004. She claims that A.J. Clarke has been "deliberately manipulating" her to keep the store in eviction status. And she has every document related to the case. Barrett lays out the details of the ongoing legal battle in the following video filmed during the summer... (Too much to detail in a blog post, to be honest.)



An appellate court just turned down Barrett for a 60-day extension to perfect her appeal. Today, her attorney, Andrew Molbert, is refilling the request to reargue her case. Meanwhile, Barrett is trying to raise money so the issues of the case can be heard in State Supreme Court. She says that she was never able to present her side of the case in any court.

So that means the store is selling items at 50 percent off to raise money for legal fees. They'll also be a fundraiser soon at Cafe Mocha on Second Avenue. (She's also asking for people to sign a petition of support at the store to send to A.J. Clarke.)

"This is the most egregious abuse," she says of the ongoing eviction drama. "I've been tortured by this."

7-Eleven's feeble attempt at an anti-blogger shield on the Bowery

We've heard that there is at least one local "blogger" head-scratchingly interested in the daily mundane updates at the incoming 7-Eleven on the Bowery.

To ward off attempts to document the installation of the Buffalo Chicken Roller machine and Quarter Pound Big Bite® heater, workers have placed brown paper over the front windows.

Below, we point out the weaknesses in the 7-Eleven defense plan.

Uh, hey — will someone please give me a boost?