Monday, March 26, 2012

Coen Brothers are back; plus a prop remains

Oh, the Coen Brothers and friends are back nearby to film "Inside Llewyn Davis" ... today along Bleecker Street ...


And we meant to note this after the first visit from the Coens, when they filmed on East Ninth Street on Feb. 17 ... here's how the block looked to help recreated the Greenwich Village of the 1960s...

[Bobby Williams]

Apparently the folks at Enchantments decided to keep the prop awning...


Guest bartenders for Sidewalk starting tomorrow night


Via the EV Grieve in box...
Some of New York’s most well-known and innovative cocktail specialists are temporarily stepping away from their spices and strainers to serve up shots and drafts as guest bartenders at the East Village’s Sidewalk Cafe, at 94 Avenue A (at East 6th Street). Starting March 28, such master mixologists as Scott James Teague (veteran of Pegu Club); Michael Klein and Nick Brown (PDT); and Frank Cisneros (Dram, Bourgeois Pig, Cienfuegos) and Jane Danger, formerly of PDT; are taking a break from the stylish concoctions they create elsewhere to lend their hand serving more typical bar fare — beer, shots, and a handful of popular mixed drinks, at Sidewalk Cafe. Guest bartenders will be on hand at Sidewalk the second and fourth Wednesday of each month from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Trash talk


Bobby Williams spotted these bags on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...

Week in Grieview

[East 13th Street yesterday morning]

Former P.S. 64 on the market... again (Thursday)

The end of the line for the World Famous Pee Phone? (Monday)

Tenants joining forces at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St. (Tuesday)

City fixes Avenue C Sinkhole, Jr. (Thursday)

The bloodcurdling late-night screams continue (Wednesday)

DOH temporarily shutters Japadog (Monday)

Work permits on file for the Mystery Lot (Thursday)

Nino's for sale (Friday)

Spring began (Tuesday)

Redeveloped funeral home looking for a few live tenants (Thursday)

Another makeshift shelter arrives alongside the Liz Christy Garden (Tuesday)

And there was a lot of debate about saving Kate's Joint ... Three posts and 74 comments. Read them all here.

Marking the 101st anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

[Via]

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in the city's history ... causing the death of 146 garment workers (mostly young women) who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths.


Matt LES_Miserable photographed Steven Greenhouse here on East 11th Street outside Veniero's ... Greenhouse, a longtime business writer for the Times, is one of the volunteers who takes part in the chalking project each year... writing the name and age of the victims in front of the buildings where they lived — mostly in the Lower East Side and Little Italy.




Marjorie Ingall has more on the Triangle activities here. Here's a piece Greenhouse wrote on the tragedy for the Times last year. And here's the site of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition with a list of activities taking place...

Noted



Spotted on East Second near Avenue D.

Hoodie mass this morning at Middle Collegiate Church

There's a mass this morning at Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue between Seventh Street and Sixth Street in honor of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen a neighborhood watch volunteer shot and killed last month.


Senior Minister Jacqui Lewis discussed the service in a blog post. "It can feel overwhelming, addressing racism, but we have to do it. Come to our multiracial/multicultural community, Middle Church, on Sunday; wear your hoodie and plan to pray for healing." (Esther Zuckerman at Runnin' Scared first reported this yesterday.)

Meanwhile, the news trucks are lined up for reports on the service.


Also, as you may have seen, someone placed wanted posters around the neighborhood for George Zimmerman, the Florida community watch captain who shot the unarmed 17-year-old Martin. Florida authorities have not charged Zimmerman in the shooting. At the time of the shooting, Martin was wearing a hooded jacket.

TODAY is the last day for Blockbuster on East Houston

Blockbuster extended the closing date for its East Houston Street/Red Square location from last Sunday to today...


We only mention this in case that you were looking to buy a used safe.


Previously.

One more reason why we need bank branches every few feet

As you may be able to tell (ha!), the Chase branch on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place is closed this weekend... (wonder how many people missed the 75 yards of caution tape and tried to walk in anyway...)


So you have to walk up two blocks to the next Chase...

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Salvation Army in Tompkins Square Park today

Thanks to our friend BaHa for these photos today...




The Patricia Field boutique is for rent

If you happen to walk by the Patricia Field store on 302 Bowery, then you'll spot the new "commercial space for rent" sign hanging above the doorway...



We understand that the designer/stylist is expanding her showroom space at 306 Bowery... work permits point to this taking place...

What comes next could be interesting ... someone posted a message on Bobby Flay's Facebook page reading, "We are the owners of 302 Bowery in NYC. We have over 4800 square feet available as a potential restaurant space - ground floor and basement. If you know of ..." It cuts off, and the message has been removed from the Facebook page...

City trashes some of Manny the Peddler's goods


Matt LES_Miserable tells us this morning that sanitation workers discarded a covered stash of Manny the Peddler's items along here on Avenue A at his usual spot... Matt stopped the workers from trashing the second covered table(s)... Per Matt: "He always has the coolest stuff. It would be a real shame for him to miss out on flogging curiosities on such a nice day."

Manny, who turned 71 in January, has been selling odds-and-ends down on Avenue A near Second Street for 32 years...

Noted

Just noting that the 13th Street side of the Verizon building is now graffiti free.


The back-and-forth between graffiti/tags/whatever vs. brown wall has been going on a good two years...

Noted


Last night on Avenue C at East Ninth Street.

Mast at dawn


Early morning photo on Avenue A by EV Grieve contributor jdx.

Friday, March 23, 2012

To have and to 'Stranglehold'



The U.K. Subs with "Stranglehold" circa 1979.

Feeding time for bendy thing at 11-17 Second Avenue

So that bendy thing (OK, concrete pump) has been at work at 11-17 Second Avenue...

[Bobby Williams]

And this photo via @bndo today shows the concrete armada invading trucks lining up to feed it...

Going through the roof at East Village Farms

A reader notes a little activity at the now-shuttered East Village Farms on Avenue today... a few people were at the scene along with a box truck... The roll-up door on the south side of the former grocery was open ... Looks like the roof is coming down... or came down...




And is this the owner, Mr. Park?


The city disapproved the first round of plans to renovate the space, including adding a "dwelling unit" and roof garden on upper floors.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

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

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Houston and the Bowery on Wednesday, photo by Bobby Williams]

New Congressional boundaries for the East Village, LES (The Lo-Down)

A call to scale back the NYU expansion plan (The Villager)

Fine Fare moving its recycling center from Fourth Street to Avenue C (DNAinfo)

A quiet afternoon at Milano's (The Gog Log)

Watch a video about the classic Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop on Fifth Avenue (Eater)

RIP Bowery, the store cat at MooShoes on Orchard Street (BoweryBoogie)

Phil Mushnick on the closing of Bill's Gay Ninties after tomorrow night: "For the regulars, semi-regulars and irregulars, Bill’s lately has been like walking into a crime against nature in progress." (New York Post ... Marty had the scoop on the closure at Tripping With Marty)

And via a reader on Twitter... noted... anyway, we're waiting for the Ranch shampoo..

Nino's Pizza is for sale


We came across this listing for Nino's Pizza, a favorite hub on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place ... According to the listing, "owner retiring and looking for a quick sale." No mention of key money, though the rent is $13,200 a month...


It's certainly possible that another pizzeria will take over the space, maybe even keeping the year-round Christmas decorations and the fountain drinks...


Or, possibly, given the way things seem to go around here, the space becomes [insert absurd foodie concept here]

Meanwhile, Sal's remains closed down the Avenue.

Rats all, folks? Ratstravaganza reportedly under control in Tompkins Square Park

[Bobby Williams, from last fall]

According to this week's issue of The Villager, there's a noticeable decrease in the number of rats in Tompkins Square Park. Chad Marlow, the founder of Tompkins Square Park and Playgrounds Parents Association (TSP3A), which launched in response to the rat overpopulation last summer, "declared victory in the anti-rat campaign — though, he acknowledged, it’s a war that never ends."

Per Parks spokesperson Philip Abramson: "We have been utilizing an Integrated Pest Management approach at Tompkins Square Park which has proved to be successful. We have reduced the number of rat burrows from 120 to 38 as of today. We are continuing to take action to reduce them even further. We will continue working to help alleviate the rat conditions at this park, and encourage New Yorkers to help out by not littering."

The article also notes that, "as the rat story exploded, East Village blog posters debated about whether rat control equals gentrification — some charged that only yuppies would support a rat-free park."

Marlow's response: "I think that’s an offensive position. I think all neighborhoods in this city should be free of vermin. I think the issue should be how to keep affordable housing and get rid of the rats — not, 'We need to keep the rats because they’re necessary to keep affordable housing.'"

You can read the whole article here.

Also, The Villager deserves credit for helping with the problem — they were the first to report on this back on July 21. Other local outlets, including NY1, hilariously tried to take credit.

Anyway, now that the rats are under control, what are Park officials going to do about the lobsters?

20 months later, A Building finally free of sidewalk shed, construction netting

Over on East 13th Street, the pool-topped A Building is visible again... On Aug. 31, 2010, workers put up a sidewalk shed here between Avenue A and First Avenue ... On Sept. 12, 2011, workers put up the construction netting...

So, roughly 20 months later, the crews have cleared up all signs of the repair work...



According to a DOB permit, workers were completing "balcony repairs."

You can read about the background on the "massive headaches" at the A Building in The Real Deal.

People apparently love the condo with the giant metal slide, according to article about how much people love the condo with the giant metal slide

[Jeff Bachner, The Daily News]

Hey! Speaking of The A-Building on East 13th Street ... The Daily News checks in with the condo that's equipped with the giant metal slide. (We first wrote about it on March 17, 2011, here.)

The place has been for sale... and the News has some funnish anecdotes... Like!

• "There’s a media/game room with a wet bar and a $35,000 custom pool table, which could be negotiated into the sale of the apartment."

• "One man in his 70s who lives in Miami sent his broker to look at the apartment, wondering if the slide hole was big enough to fit his large dogs down it."

• "A broker in her 70s went down the slide four or five times when she came to look at the apartment."

• The owner, professional poker player Phil Galfond, who moved to Canada after some pesky Justice Department crackdowns, used his rooftop space as a putting green.

• "Because of the East Village location, a common rooftop with a sundeck, pool, cabanas and barbecue area, the building had a reputation of being a party hot spot when it opened in 2008. Now it’s a bit tamer" the real-estate brokers say.

The place is going for $3.99 million, by the way. Oh, and only one person reportedly asked about removing the slide.

Now, questions:

• Do you need work permits to add a giant metal slide in your condo?
• Do you need approval from anyone on the condo side of the ownership?
Is the A Building "a bit tamer"? We have no idea! (Please let us know via email.)

It has been nearly three years since the Daily News ran the piece on "amenity-rich" properties, starring the A-Building. The story included this amazing photo.


And this passage about the A Building weekends:

Come Friday night, residents start the party. Without a formal invite, everyone seems to converge on the landscaped roof, this time to watch the sunset and admire the skyline, with the Empire State Building twinkling in the distance.

In the background, the Beach Boys play. Hula-Hoops twirl, beach balls bounce and the crowd convenes around the black marble bar for building-wide drinking games. "Flip Cup is a drinking relay race," explains Evy Rodrigues, 32, a regular.

The roof's perfectly manicured lawn becomes a happy hour ballfield where losing Flip Cup teams have to play Dizzy Bat — they chug beer from a plastic baseball bat and run circles around it while their friends cry, "Watch out for the wall!"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Just your everyday penthouse combo connected by a stainless steel slide

This is what 619 E. Sixth St. looked like on March 22, 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...

Japadog remains closed after Monday's DOH inspection


On Monday, the DOH temporarily closed Japadog on St. Mark's Place. We were waiting for the inspection report to show up on the DOH website. It finally arrived yesterday.

DOH inspectors handed out 57 violation points... the usual stuff that everyone gets points off for... evidence of things or actual things, such as mice...


The restaurant, which opened in January, was still closed as of last night.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

[Updated] Overturned car shuts down part of Williamsburg Bridge

In case you are wondering why all the news copters are hovering over the Lower East Side at the moment...


According to multiple reports, there's an overturned car on the outbound lanes of the Williamsburg Bridge ... the Bridge is partially closed at the moment...

[Photo via @agreatbigcity]

Updated:

The Lo-Down has more photos and info here.