Earlier today on Second Avenue and Seventh Street

Second Avenue and Seventh Street this afternoon. A Jessica Delfino photo/video shoot? Photos by Bobby Williams.

What we don't know about — the fellow on the ground next to the tree. (Rumors of it being Gruber MacDougal are untrue.)

Because you wanted two posts in one day about 5 Napkin Burger

Since our post from this morning, the 5 Napkiners added their signage here at 14th Street and Third Avenue...

Someone to watch over St. Brigid's

Two photos via EV Grieve reader Robert M. ... showing the continued progress at St. Brigid's... And we can likely interpret that top photo in many ways...

[UPDATED] Headless mayor found in boozeless bar

Did you see the exclusive cover story at the Post today? "The city Health Department’s far-reaching Partnership for a Healthier New York City initiatives proposes to slash the number of establishments in the city that sell booze." Which means? Reducing bar and liquor store "density."

UPDATED:

Um, anyway, the Post is now reporting that Bloomy nixed this whole idea. I'd still like to see the anon commenter's list of EV bars to remove...

Checking back in on Monday night's CB3/SLA committee meeting

[125 First Ave.]

We've written a little about Monday's CB3/SLA meeting, in which the committee denied a permit for a beer/wine license for BAD Burger on Avenue A. (This after owner Keith Masco wasn't interested in compromising the hours for the license.)

Otherwise, it seems as if the committee was in a pretty generous mood. Of the 11 agenda items that Eater reported on, 10 of the applicants were successful in getting a license/upgrade/sidewalk cafe, etc.

A few quick items of note from Sarah Rose's report (read the whole thing here):

• Yes to the seafood restaurant/seafood market/gallery at 125 First Ave. that we wrote about here.

• Yes to the Prune people taking over Belcourt that we wrote about here.

• Yes to an upgrade to a full liquor license for Goat Town on East Fifth Street.

And BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down have more on that monstrosity approved for 199 Bowery.

The Wayland (soft) opens Friday

As you may have read at New York magazine or on Eater this week... the Wayland (soft) opens Friday in the former Banjo Jim's space on Avenue C at Ninth Street...

Eater posted the bar's cocktail and food menus here.

These previews featured some of the more specialty items, like the applewood-smoked ice in one of the drinks. Didn't see anything about beer. Funny question, but will they have beer?

"Menus aren't finalized but we are always planning on keeping a few beers in the $4 and $5 range," Rob Ceraso, one of the owners, told us via email. "Right now it's Modelo Especial cans for $4 and Bud Light and High Life for $5. Most craft beers are at $6 and we're working on being able to do a couple at $5 as well."

And they will eventually roll out some type of happy hour in the future.

As for the decor, apparently some of it has come via dumpster diving.

"We ended up rescuing almost all of the wood that we used in the bar from the [the Henry Street Settlement Day Care #3 building] that's getting demo'd around the corner from us," he said. "Most of it is original from 1875."

There will also be live music in the space. More on that later.

Previously.

Duke's is gone

After our post on Monday about Duke's on Avenue C ... several readers confirmed that the neighborhood bar near East Eight Street closed at the beginning of the year. A walk by yesterday confirms this: The signs had been removed; and workers have started taking down the bar...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Has Duke's closed?

Former Vampire Freaks space on the market

Shawn Chittle brings word that the former home of Vampire Freaks, which closed on Avenue A near 12th Street at the start of the year, is now for rent. No signs up (yet) ... but the landlord, Mr. Desider Weinberg, is asking $8,000 a month, including basement — good for 1,400 square feet.

And you may even get to keep this as it is ...

And you can you can still order the Vampire Freaks apparel online here.

Awnings for 5 Napkin Burger — and its sidewalk cafe

East Village resident Rob took this photo on the way to work yesterday ... not sure if the awnings at the incoming hamburger joint on 14th Street at Third Avenue will be big enough to cover their sidewalk cafe.

On Monday night, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd a sidewalk cafe for 5 Napkin, as Eater reported.

Previously, we questioned whether there was even enough room for a sidewalk cafe here. We took the following photos in the morning during the holidays. Just wait until, say, 7 p.m. some nice spring night.

Guess we'll find out.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Will there be enough room for a sidewalk cafe outside the new 5 Napkin Burger on 14th and Third?

When the Palladium came down

Speaking of 14th Street and Third Avenue... James and Karla Murray passed along the above shot that they came across in their archives — a mural revealed during the Palladium demolition... the view is looking east on 14th Street ... The Palladium closed in 1999 and was later torn down to make way for the NYU dorm of the same name...

Looking at an elementary school that costs $31,900 annually on East Second Street

[Rooftop rendering via the World Class website]

Back in July 2010, we had a post about the World Class Learning Academy taking over the LaSalle Academy space on Second Street and Second Avenue. As we learned, tuition for the U.K.-based independent school (for ages 3 to 11) could go as high as $32,000.

Anyway, the school opened back in September ... yesterday afternoon, Business Insider dropped a feature about the school. Abby Rogers reported how the older kids are learning about chocolate. They have a tasting day. The students will also visit a local chocolate maker and learn about chocolate-related issues, such as fair trade.

"That's what really sets us apart from everybody else," Headmaster John Taylor said when discussing the school's unique take on learning.

As Business Insider noted, students in kindergarten through fifth grade pay $31,900 in tuition annually. There's also a $50 application fee and a one-time $2,000 "new student" fee.

Anyway, in case you want a look inside the school, there's a slideshow here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Blimey!: World Class Learning Academy takes over La Salle Academy space on Second Street

In and around Tompkins Square Park today

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Cops looking for the two men who robbed the Metro PCS store on East 14th Street

[Via NYPD]

The local TV stations this morning had the news about two armed men who robbed the Metro PCS store on East 14th Street at First Avenue (just to the west of the Vitamin Shoppe) last Friday.

The NYPD is searching for the two men, who made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

NYI has the surveillance video here.

And the boilerplate: Anyone with information about the case is being asked to contact Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-577-TIPS, by texting TIP577 to CRIMES, or by going to NYPDCrimeStoppers.com.

Report: City to slash funding for after-school programs because the East Village has become too wealthy

Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo has a disturbing report today.

Basically:

"The city is slashing funding to free after-school programs in the East Village because the neighborhood has grown too wealthy to receive the services."

A few quotes:

"There may be increasing affluence in the East Village, but there are also huge pockets of poverty," said Robin Bernstein, president and CEO of the Educational Alliance, which runs an after-school program at P.S. 64 at Avenue B and East Sixth Street.

And.

"It's really an all-out assault on working families and the working poor," said David Garza, executive director of Henry Street Settlement

[Updated] A call for Patti Smith to cancel her upcoming performance at the Hotel Chelsea

Patti Smith, of course, was one of the many famous residents at Stanley Bard's Hotel Chelsea through the years, living with Robert Mapplethorpe in the early 1970s, and returning later in the 1990s as well.

The Hotel Chelsea blog today posted — with "great sadness" — the above invitation ... Per the post:

Patti must not know that the person sponsoring her upcoming event, Joseph Chetrit, is the same developer who took Stanley Bard’s beloved Chelsea Hotel away from him and his family. And surely she is unaware that this is the same Joseph Chetrit whose demolition crews recently gutted over a hundred historic Chelsea Hotel rooms.

The blog notes that Chetrit is currently trying to evict some 30 Hotel residents.

The Hotel Chelsea Blog is calling on her to cancel the event.

Read the whole post here.

UPDATED:

So many developments on this. She did perform for the new developers taking over the Hotel on Wednesday night, but canceled the show for residents on Thursday night.

Read updates at:

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

Living With Legends

Gothamist

Per Gothamist:

Despite her insistence that she is not being remunerated for her involvement, we’re hard pressed to understand Smith’s motives. The resident we spoke to, who also happens to live on the same floor as Patti Smith’s old room (204, if you’re wondering), offered a theory: "Her room has remained completely intact, as a shrine to her career, while all the other rooms have been demolished."

Crime scene at First Avenue Finest Deli

EV Grieve reader Joe passes along these photos from outside the deli on First Avenue at East 10th Street this morning ... Police on the scene declined to discuss what happened. Joe said that there were "a bunch of cops inside."

Another parcel of East Village land ready for development

There's no stopping the rampant development here... Now, 321 E. Third St., just west of Avenue D, just hit the market. The lot is $6 million. Bring your own condo.

Here are the details via the Streeteasy listing:

For Sale or Joint Venture — Development Opportunity
Joint Venture — Develop A Multi-Family Building
23,080 Max Usable Floor Area

5,770 Sq Ft Lot
Lot Size 60’ x 96.17’
Zoned R8-b
FAR 4
Only $259x Foot

Phase Once Complete
(Soil Test & Survey)

Neighbors include:
Eickholt Gallery, Positively 3rd Street, Clinton St Baking Co, Dessert Truck

And here's what the lot looks like in the summer... A few trees will need to be removed ...

Looks as if people used the space as a community garden of sorts. There are picnic tables on the property.

Regardless, this should be a nice area of development hell in the future. A Karl Fischer-designed, 33-unit apartment building is coming directly across the street.

And, maybe one day on the corner of Houston and Avenue D — this.



So what becomes of the little neighborhood shops right here? The ones that sell mops and gently used coats and copies of The Fantasticks' book? These businesses are the direct neighbors...

That one guy in the Black Keys lives in the East Village, apparently

Several readers have now commented on the latest issue of Rolling Stone, which features the Black Keys on the cover.

The article begins like this:

Patrick Carney is pretty sure he knows what's ailing his chosen genre these days. "Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world," he says, blowing cigarette smoke out the window of his rented East Village loft a few days ­before the band heads to L.A.

Later!

He and his fiancee, Emily, moved from a Lower East Side walk-up to a house with a pool in Nashville in 2010, but they got restless there, so they rented this pied-à-terre, a fully furnished loft in a building with neighbors including Fabrizio Moretti, Bret Easton Ellis and, apparently, Tom Cruise (who may or may not live on the same floor).

One reader ask if we knew what building this was.

Sadly, we actually do know where Tom Cruise lives...



... a not-so-secret American Felt Building on East 13th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. (Difficult to miss the SUVs, photographers, catatonic wife, etc., when he's around...)

Anyway, now you know where to go to have Carney sign your limited edition 12-inch of "Lonely Boy."

'Yes, I'll have the Plymouth Gin with St. Germain Elderflower and Smoking Plutonium'

Somehow, drinking gets more gimmicky. As you you may have seen at Zagat yesterday, the former Milk Bar space attached to Momofuku Ssäm Bar on 13th Street at Second Avenue "will transform to a technology-heavy cocktail lounge."

Sooooooo, what does this involve? "[A] menu of 22 creations, made with the likes of liquid nitrogen and high-tech toys (a rotovap and centrifuge among them)," Zagat reported.

This is what Second Avenue and Houston looked like on Jan. 7, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

The remains of Furry Land are now in a dumpster on Avenue A

When we reported that the Marshal has seized Furry Land Pet Supplies on Avenue A the other day, several people hoped that this might just be a temporary setback for the store.

Apparently not. EV Grieve reader dwg pointed out yesterday afternoon that workers were clearing out the store and tossing things into the above dumpster.

Flavor of the west side of San Antonio coming to East Fifth Street, at least on Mondays

From the EV Grieve inbox ... an email/release from Julie E. Farias, the executive chef at Goat Town on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B ...

I am quite excited to let you know that I am having M&I Mexican Mondays at Goat Town.

The M&I Mexican Monday menu will begin on the 16th of January and will be served in addition to our regular menu every Monday.

It is inspired by my Aunt Irma and Uncle Martin who have owned M&I Meat Market in the west side of San Antonio for over 20 years, along with my family’s history of owning grocery stores and meat markets since the 30’s, and all the foods I grew up with as a result of that experience.

After a trip back home to Texas, I realized that I would be proud to pay respect to my heritage, family history and the neighborhood I grew up in by creating a genuine Texas Mexican menu. The items on this menu are both common and unique in that they are specifically focused on the food I grew up with in the west side of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.

It would be impossible to bring every single detail of this specific experience to Goat Town but I am proud to serve the best and most authentic representation of Texas Mexican food from the west side of San Antonio.

And the menu...

[Release edited for length]

Live check-in from the CB3/SLA meeting: No beer and wine for BAD Burger

Several people attending tonight's CB3/SLA meeting sent along an update ... BAD Burger (Breakfast All Day), the 24-diner that opened in November at 171 Avenue A, was on the agenda for a beer and wine license. The restaurant's opening announcement noted that the restaurant would "eventually serve Craft Beer and a Sommelier-honed Wine List."

Owner Keith Masco, according to those in attendance, was looking for the OK to serve beer-wine until 4 a.m. seven days a week, including in BAD's backyard. For their part, committee members offered the alcohol until midnight, though not in the backyard.

Masco then reportedly said, "Just deny it, just deny it," and walked out of the meeting.

There's plenty of history between Masco and the CB3. You can read that here. In an email to us in October 2010, Masco called CB3 members "communists."

[Updated] Fix up your shitty apartment the 1950s way

Gothamist dug up a treasure on YouTube this evening... an unintentionally hilarious video from some time in the 1950s that follows a fictional couple (Jack and Jill!) as they try to make their "unpromising space" into a home on the Lower East Side...



Difficult to cite our favorite moment (so many!)

We did enjoy this woman's fleeting appearance...

And just look at just how small this apartment is! Just slightly larger than, say, a suite at the Pierre. Oh, those poor kids from the 1950s!

What do you think a space this size would run on the LES today? Actually, the landlord would have already chopped up any rental left in a building this old into about six different apartments...

UPDATED:
Thanks to Esquared for pointing out that BoweryBoogie had already posted this gem last summer. Right here.

The King (Gyro) is dead

EV Grieve reader Creature sends along these photos showing that King Gyro on First Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street has closed...

They opened last April, and seemed to offer an awful lot of options.

Per Robert Sietsema at Fork in the Road last spring:

A gyro rotates in the depths of the kitchen, a couple of guys stand around behind the counter, desultorily stirring the curries, which make up a small proportion of the full menu. There are Middle Eastern specialties, too, and an array of kebabs, fish platters, bagels, breakfasts (including the weird-sounding beef cutlets with egg), pastries, samosas, meat patties, soups, lassis, Greek salads, and South Asian tandoori breads that get as arcane as gobi (cauliflower) paratha, plus fruit juices and smoothies. The king is spreading himself rather thin, don't you think?

Apparently.

RIP Andrew Kowalczyk: The last East Village landlord of his kind?

This past weekend, we learned that Andrew Kowalczyk died. He was 53. Police found his body in his first-floor apartment of the building he owned at 197 E. Seventh St. One source said police believe that he may have fallen and hit his head. Police discovered his body last Wednesday. We understand that he bought the building in 1990 for $300,000.

The landlord who actually lives in and serves as the super of his own building seems like a rarity these days.

One of Kowalczyk's longtime tenant's wrote the following In Memoriam...

I am writing today to let you know about the passing of an era. The passing of a native East Village landlord. The kind they don’t make anymore. His name was Andrew Kowalczyk and he owned the walk-up with the blue fire escape on East 7th Street where I have lived for two decades.

You have probably seen the stoop in the documentary about 7th Street, "The Godfather II" or about a zillion Law and Orders. It was Andrew’s stoop and everyone on the block sat on it, because he never minded.

Andrew passed away [last] week in his apartment in his building on East 7th Street that has been a safe port in the storm for so many of us over the years. Andrew hung out at Doc Holliday's and probably a couple of other local places I don’t know about.

Andrew wasn’t a rich guy. He could have hiked the rents every time an apartment changed hands but he didn’t. He rented to us when no one else would because we were bartenders. We made all cash and ... had no credit rating. A friend recommended us and that was good enough for him. “I just want local people we know,” he would say whenever an apartment came up and we would get another friend in there.

He worked brutal hours translating updates into Ukrainian and Russian at the UN in times of crisis, and there was always a crisis somewhere in the world. The job was hard on him, he used to tell me on the stoop late at night after I got out of work. “So much suffering,” he told me once.

Here are a couple examples of Andrew's big heart and sense of decency:

• When we first moved in, there was an elderly woman who would leave her meals-on-wheels in front of her door because she thought they were trying to poison her. Andrew explained to us that he had promised her son, who had died of AIDS, that he would never kick the mother out. He then arranged for Social Services to clean her place and get her a home-care worker. She’s still there, by the way, and still has her home-care workers.

• After some local break-ins, he showed up with the locksmiths to install window gates on the top-floor apartments. We were young and stupid and didn’t want them to block our great views, but he insisted he wanted us (we were all young women on the top floor) to be safe. They were the expensive, nice-looking kind — and he paid for everything.

• In 2000 ... when I finally found another bar job, I was way behind on my rent. “Just pay me until you catch up,” he said. I slipped envelopes of cash under his door with a handwritten tally of the balance until the strike ended and I finally caught up. No receipts, just a trust system.

I remember one late night, as I got home from work, Andrew was on the stoop and was visibly upset. A friend of his, Allan Dell, the owner of Hogs & Heifers, had just died suddenly. Andrew told me there wouldn’t be another man like him and that we lost a great guy. Right back atcha Andrew.

RIP Andrew Kowalczyk.

-----

This morning, his family will greet friends at Duchynski-Cherko Funeral Home in Yonkers from 9:30-10:30 followed by Divine Liturgy at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church at 11 a.m. Interment will then follow at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

As the resident said, "if you want to leave a candle or note on the stoop, I think his family would get them and Andrew would have liked that."

Unfortunately, none of us could track done a photo of Andrew. Please let us know if you have one that you will share...

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

[Yesterday morning on Avenue A]

On Friday, our friend Doug Quint at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop stopped by the Village Farms on Avenue A ... workers there told him that the grocery is closing Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, in far more disturbing developments, a tipster passed along the following this past weekend. A Village Farms employee told the tipster that the landlord is "wrecking the building.' Not a good sign."

Indeed. Not surprising, though if this is true.

Still, as of now, there still aren't any permits on file with the DOB.

Finally, last night, we received the following message:

This is a message written on behalf of the current business tenants, Monica and her husband, written by their daughter: "We are so thankful to have gotten to know many of you and to have been a part of this neighborhood. We are sorry for not always doing a great job and being responsible for any bad shopping experiences some of you may have had. We are indebted to our loyal customers and their friendships. The new location is a friend's store, who we will be working alongside. As we are in the process of scouting a store ourselves, we hope to maybe meet in the future if we come back to Avenue A. God Bless, everyone! As the store closes, we will be having a special clearance sale sometime in the last week of January. Hope to see many of you there! With Love, the Songs"

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

St. Brigid's copper tone

Dave on 7th provides us with an update on St. Brigid's on Avenue B at Eighth Street ... where workers are now polishing off renovations on the south slope of the roof...

And here's a shot of the church's backside, now mostly free of scaffolding...

h/t to @dens for first letting us know about the progress at the back of the church...

120 St. Mark's Place still doesn't have a Certificate of Occupancy

We haven't paid a visit to 120 St. Mark's Place, the former artists collective known as The Cave, since last April. (Among other people, it was the home of the Mosaic Man.) Developer Ben Shaoul took over the property in 2006.

Bob Arihood documented what took place here through the years. (This link will take you to the history.)

In a post dated Aug. 6, 2010, we noted that the address didn't have a Certificate of Occupancy — not even a temporary certificate of occupancy. The most recent Certificate of Occupancy, a temporary order, expired in November 2008, according to the DOB website.

This past weekend, a reader told us about the following documents that the City taped to the front door at 120 St. Mark's Place.

According to the City, the building still doesn't have a Certificate of Occupancy three-plus years later.

The "remedy" per the paperwork: "obtain a valid Certificate of Occupancy." Perhaps this will be the year for that to happen.

For more background:
St. Marks Squatters Getting the Boot (Curbed)

Rent Wars: Boy Emperor Gets In On East Village Harassment (Curbed)

Boy Developer Ben Shaoul Wants to Live Forever (The Observer)

Cave collective collects buyouts as Buildings tries to stop cave-in (The Villager)

Stop-work still in effect at former artists’ squat (The Villager)