Casimir starting a burlesque night; launching a mini-fondue bar

From the EV Grieve inbox...

[Peekaboo Point]

Starting Oct. 27 at 10 pm, East Village French bistro Casimir will host “Thursday Night Burlesque,” an evening of titillating entertainment sure to astound and delight. Join performers Peekaboo Pointe for classic burlesque, Russian contortionist Miss E. Katarina and exotic fan dancer Jezabel Express for saucy and sizzling fun – and admission is free! It’s the perfect way to kick off your weekend.

Every Thursday Night Starting October 27, 2011
10 pm
Free Admission

Featuring
Peekaboo Pointe - Classic Burlesque
Miss E. Katarina - Contortion (Russian)
Jezabel Express - Fan Dance

Also....

Date of Opening: November 9 or November 10

The former Moroccan Lounge at East Village French institution Casimir will be transformed into Casimir Fondue. The cozy 35-seat annex to the main restaurant will operate as a fondue-only min-restaurant featuring cheese, meat and chocolate fondue. New décor highlights the warmth of the space, making it the perfect backdrop for Casimir Fondue’s indulgent offerings. This new and exciting concept is the brainchild of new management that is poised to reinvigorate the restaurant, an early pioneer of the East Village dining renaissance. New owner Mario Carta has amassed over a decade of expertise managing and developing restaurant concepts which he plans to utilize in this his latest endeavor.

On Avenue B between Seventh Street and Sixth Street...

[Image via]

Oh, the Kenneth Cole bus is here

On Seventh Street ... via Dave on 7th.

Not so nice: Demolishing XOXO on Second Avenue

The Death Watch continues along the 11-17 Second Avenue, where the low-lying buildings will soon be pulverized to make way for a 12-story apartment building.

[Bobby Williams]

Meanwhile, EV Grieve reader Steve Carter sent us some photos of when workers demolished the other side of East First Street in 1997 to make way for the sterile, glassy hell of Avalon Bowery Place... and back in the day before sidewalk sheds and construction netting...

XOXO at 19 Second Ave. was Julius Klein's performance space and gallery — things that developers don't have much use for...

And today, of course...

[Updated] Letters about St. Mark's Bookshop; and an uncertain future

From the EV Grieve inbox ... a compilation of letters sent to President Bharucha of The Cooper Union on behalf of St. Mark's Bookshop....

Dear President Bharucha

Like many admirers of the Cooper Union I have been very disturbed by the thought that you may force the St Mark's Bookshop to close by imposing rents on them which they cannot pay. The St Mark's Bookshop is as much a New York institution as the Cooper Union is. I urge you not to make this irreversible cultural mistake.

Please reduce the bookshop rent to $15,000 a month until the economy improves. To destroy one of the city's last, great independent stores for the sake of what to you would be a paltry increase in income would be ... if I may say this as someone who has been proud to appear in the Great Hall on many occasions, and to bring the PEN World Voices Festival there ... unforgivable.

Many of us care about this deeply. Save the St Mark's Bookshop. Please.

With my best wishes,

Salman Rushdie.

Dear President Bharucha:

My father is an artist and taught at Cooper Union in the early 1960s and I have lived in the East Village since 1986. I've been a patron of St. Mark's Bookshop when it was located on St. Mark's Place and then when it moved to its current location. I walk by Cooper Union several times a day, always proud that my family was part of its legacy.

I am surprised and disappointed that a community has had to launch a campaign to urge you to reduce the rent of St. Mark's Bookstore, and to now learn that you are still about to make a decision. You should not have had to think twice about this. It's the right thing to do.

The bookstore is a vital, vibrant part of this community, a community that has changed dramatically over the past two decades. The neighborhood is in danger of becoming just like all the other neighborhoods in New York, beholden to those with deep pockets but sorely lacking the artistic and creative qualities that have made the East Village the most special of places, and that give it literary and artistic value. Surely Cooper Union--dedicated to the arts, architecture and humanities--can understand this. Surely, as an icon in schools promoting the importance of visual thinking, you can understand the power of symbols?

My father and I were dismayed to learn that you will not reduce the bookshop's rent by $5,000 a month during hard economic times. What does Cooper Union stand for? A school that does not charge tuition to its students--one of the best schools in the country in what used to be the most arts-friendly neighborhoods in the nation? Please stay true to your founding values and reduce the rent of this worthy bookstore.


Heidi Boghosian
Avenue A
New York NY

Dear President of Cooper Union,


As a novelist based in downtown Manhattan for thirty years I'm desperately worried by the idea that St. Mark's may be lost because of the high rent imposed by Cooper Union. Surely everything Cooper Union stands for would seem to insist that this unique bookstore must survive. I'm far from alone in saying that from my earliest years as a writer in New York I've largely educated myself by means of what I've found on St Mark's shelves: the classics and contemporary works I knew I needed, and a host of unusual and unexpected works I didn't know I needed, but which proved invaluable for my literary and intellectual development. St Mark's has been both a library and an informal meeting place for decades of my life as a writer here.

To allow St Mark's to die would be a serious blow to the cultural vitality of lower Manhattan. It is no ordinary bookstore, it is that increasingly rare thing, an independent that is perfectly attuned to the tastes and needs of the community it serves. It would be a careless act to let it go under, and it would be a source of real regret for all concerned in years to come. Its loss would be very badly felt. We would all suffer, and more deeply than would the institutional bottom line. This is a special case. Please, I beg you, allow St Mark's to continue to nourish one of the last truly creative communities in Manhattan.

St Mark's Bookstore is a special case.

yours


Patrick McGrath

Dear Mr. President,

In the 1930s, Cooper educated my immigrant great-uncle for free. He went on to create an award-winning invention that revolutionized allied military communications in World War II.

He was the first member of my family to go to college. Now a university professor myself, I am writing to ask Cooper to invest -- once again -- in something of unquestionable value to our world and for our future.

I understand that the cost of operating a university, particularly one of Cooper's famed generosity and caliber, in downtown New York is overwhelming.

However, in the case of St. Mark's -- which helps set and preserve the cultural tone of the Cooper area -- issues of value and cost need to be evaluated from higher perspectives.

The East Village doesn't need another sushi bar or boutique. It doesn't need to follow the fate of Soho and become a suburban mall.

It needs to maintain the high intellectual, cultural, and artistic standards for which it has so long been known -- the standards that draw top students, as they did my great-uncle, to Cooper and NYC: students who will later bring honor back upon Cooper through their contributions.

The loss of St. Mark's -- easily the finest curator and purveyor of intellectual, cultural, and art-and-design volumes in the US, matched only by a few counterparts in Germany and France -- would mean more than few thousand dollars in additional rent it would bring.

Please show the world that Cooper is dedicated to much more than easy profit by making an exception in this one important case and allowing St. Mark's to continue to operate.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Professor S.I. Salamensky
Theater and Performance Studies
UCLA

Meanwhile, last night, Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo reported that St. Mark’s Bookshop isn’t any closer to having its rent reduced by Cooper Union after a meeting with school officials. Cooper Union offered a deferral of one month’s rent, co-owner Bob Contant said.

Per the article:

“They claim they’re broke and they can’t afford it financially,” said Contant, noting that the school offered the shop a chance to postpone paying a month’s rent to another time over the course of the next seven years left on the lease.

Updated:

Here's the Daily News headline today:

St. Mark's Bookshop not granted rent cut from landlord, faces closure despite community's support

Per the article:

Owners Bob Contant and Terry McCoy found out their bid for a $5,000 rent cut was nixed by landlord Cooper Union in a meeting with T.C. Westcott, a vice president for finance and administration at the arts and engineering school.

"They don't feel they can do anything in terms of the rent," McCoy said. "She started out by telling us that Cooper is really losing a lot of money."

Contant and McCoy meet with Coop President Jamshed Bharucha tomorrow.

Former 13th Street crack house may become housing for homeless LGBT youth

The long-vacant building at 222 E. 13th St. near Third Avenue may be getting a new life as housing for 12-to-18 homeless LGBT youth. On Monday night, CB3's Land Use Commitee unanimously voted in support of the proposal at the former SRO and notorious crack house that has been boarded up for nearly 20 years. Per the website of the Cooper Square Committee, who is spearheading the campaign:

Their proposal (in partnership with the Ali Forney Center) is "to turn a vacant city owned building at 222 E. 13th St. into housing for 12 - 18 homeless LGBT youth. Community Board 3's resolution will urge HPD (the City's housing agency) to grant us site control so that we can apply for the funds needed to renovate the building. We appreciate the support of the more than 500 people who signed the petition in support of our proposal. We will continue to need community support to move this project forward to a successful conclusion. There are over 1,500 homeless LGBT youth in NYC, so this is a small, but important, step in addressing the larger crisis."

Find more information on the project here.

For a lot more of the complicated history on this building, read our post here: A haunted house on 13th Street?

For further reading:
The New Community Activism (City Journal)

And now, photos of a rat eating a bagel in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Get your bladder-busting 100-ounce beer tube!

Last noticed this 100-ounce special at Cafetasia on Avenue A back in May ...

Now, EV Grieve reader Kurt spots a new happy hour sign... don't recall the beer being served in a tube last time...

Maybe it's time to landmark the Saint Mark's Lions

Workers are on the scene here today at 96 Saint Mark's Place ... don't know what they're up to...

...we're hopeful that they won't be removing the iconic lions...

[Photos by Allen Semanco]

Report: Cops bust Craigslist apartment scammer

In the Post today, there's an NYPD Daily Blotter item about a woman trying to lease a man an apartment on East Sixth Street that was already occupied.

The victim responded to an ad on Craigslist and arranged with Emma Hunt, 25, to lease the pad on East Sixth Street, between First and Second Avenues, for $3,250, court papers claim.

The victim forked over the money and was given a set of keys that didn’t work, cops said.

Hunt was arrested Oct. 19 and charged with grand larceny.

What do we think of the renovated Met Foods so far?

Renovations continue over at Met Foods on Second Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street... One reader remarked that it was "nice to have it looking clean."

It certainly is cleaner... and it looks bigger. I'm not a regular here, so I don't have much to say on the matter... New deli is in the works...

Curious what will happen with the floor...

As Jeremiah has written about, a Ratner's was located here for more than 50 years ... (Read Jeremiah's post here.) The R remains, but for how long? Hate to see another sliver of history disappear...

And so far, that exposed piece of Ratner's old wall is still there.

9th Precinct asking supers and maintenance workers to meet this morning

Several weeks ago, the NYPD put up "beware!!" and "be safe!!" flyers on sections of East Third Street and East Fourth Street between First and Second Avenue...

And several readers told of having their apartments broken into by someone who accessed the buildings via the roof...

So now... if you walked along First or Second Avenue the last few days, or side streets between Second and Sixth... then you probably saw these flyers...

EV Grieve reader Steph took this photo... we're told that it's an educational-type meeting for the workers. You know, when you go on a lunch break, lock the door behind you and what not.

I took a look at the 9th Precinct crime stats for the year... As you can see, there has been an uptick in burglaries in the past 28 days — 22 reported during the period, which is 11 more than the same time period last year. (100 percent increase! Call the Post!)

Overall, though, reported burglaries are down this year compared with 2010.

Tonight at Theatre 80: Transgendered Jesus, Juggernut and more

[Transgendered Jesus via]

The Howl! Arts month-long benefit supporting HOWL H.E.L.P. is winding down... (H.E.L.P. = Howl Emergency Life Project. Read more about them here.)

And an evening of music and what not tonight: Transgendered Jesus, Juggernut, The Love Butchers & The Blowdryers

8-11 p.m. $10.00 Theatre 80 St Marks, 80 St Marks Place

Find the whole schedule through Monday here.

The Meatball Factory opens today, puts up new mailbox

Earlier in the month, a resident who lives above the new Meatball Factory on Second Avenue and 14th Street noted that the restaurant had switched addresses.

The address of the previous tenant — the Arthur Treachers-Nathan's-Pizza Hut combo! — was 251. E. 14th St. But the Meatball Factory is using the address of the apartment building — 231 Second Ave., which caused some mail confusion ... all the Meatball Factory mail was going to the residents.

Anyway! Problem solved... the Meatball Factory put up a mail slot in the lobby of 231 Second Ave.

And thank you if you made it this far.

Oh, and The Meatball Factory opens today.

Cookies in return for info on stolen bike

Oh, met to post this the other day... spotted along Fourth Avenue near 12th Street...

'My Mars Bar Movie' world premiere on Thursday

Thursday marks the "world theatrical premiere" of "My Mars Bar Movie," the 87-minute documentary directed by Jonas Mekas, the 88-year-old filmmaker-poet-writer-curator... (His full bio is here.)

Here's a description of the film via YouTube:

For some twenty years Mars Bar, on the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Manhattan, has been my bar. That's where we went for beer and tequila whenever we had to take a break from our work at Anthology Film Archives, and it was also a bar where most of those who came to see movies at Anthology ended up after the shows. We always had a great time at Mars Bar. It was always open, there was always the juke box, and very often there was no electricity, and it was old and messy and it didn't want to be any other way — it was the last escape place left in downtown New York. So this is my love letter to it, to my Mars Bar. Mars Bar as I knew it.

Find ticket info here.

H/t to One Folded Sunset for the post yesterday.

See hawk

Early one recent evening in Tompkins Square Park. Photos by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[via EVG reader Tom]

Protest at 515 E. Fifth St. (The Villager)

Good news from the revamped Waverly diner (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Cooper Square Hotel sells for $90 million (The Wall Street Journal ... via Curbed)

Pete Seeger at Occupy Wall Street (Slum Goddess)

Another night with the Chillmaster (Marty After Dark)

Sauce opens on Rivington (BoweryBoogie)

East River Park still rather stalled (The Lo-Down)

New sign for David Schwimmer's place on East Sixth Street

You may recall that the new home going up at 331 E. Sixth St. may possibly belong to David Schwimmer... And someone had added a message to the "what's going on here?" sign... The sign was this way for weeks ...

Anyway, workers have finally replaced the old sign...

And what's happening behind the sign? A quick look through the peephole...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse

[Updated] Why you need to give Jamshed Bharucha a call today

From the EV Grieve inbox...via the Cooper Square Committee

Please contact Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha immediately. President@cooper.edu or (212) 353-4250.

A Board committee is meeting [today] to decide if they will reduce St Mark's Bookshop's $20,000/month rent by $5,000. Thousands of emails or calls will influence the decision.

Tell the President to reduce the bookshop rent to $15,000 a month until the economy improves. You can add any additional comments.

Your support is invaluable.

Updated. Missed these reports from earlier... both Gothamist and Runnin' Scared noted that there wasn't any meeting scheduled today... A Cooper Union spokesperson told Runnin' Scared that the discussions are ongoing and "the outcome will be announced by the end of this month."

Mermaid Inn closed for renovations this week

The sign explains what's happening... "installing new floors, redoing our bathrooms, painting, retiling and generally sprucing up the place."

Back open Friday.

The Prisoner of Second Avenue

[h/t Neil Simon]

Fine Fare takes steps to curb recycling-related issues

Quick follow-up to the story that Patrick Hedlund reported on at DNAinfo last week... A lot of roughhousing and stuff happening at the recycling center outside the Fine Fare on Avenue C and East Fourth Street... which was causing quality-of-life issues for nearby residents...

As Hedlund reported in a follow-up piece, Fine Fare put up some signs and painted a no-hanging-out zone along East Fourth Street...

We swung by this past weekend to take a look and take a few photos...

BMW Guggenheim Lab continues to shrink

Yesterday, a work crew and very large crane arrived on East First Street to pack up the BMW Guggenheim Lab... toward the end of the day, this is what it looked like...

Comings and goings on Second Avenue

Something called Health Mart Pharmacy is opening at the former UPS Store near 11th Street...

... and Crembebe, a boutique specializing in kid's fashions near Fourth Street, has closed...