Topless Diner Week in Review [NSFW]

Here's a little background about how a photo taken at an East Village restaurant apparently became "the topless shot heard 'round the world."

On Monday morning, Verso owner Labinot Baraliu told us about a woman who removed her top after walking into the Italian bistro on Avenue C and East Eighth Street the previous evening.

The folks at Verso asked the woman to put her shirt back on ... and after a brief protest, she and her dining companion, who was photographing the entire episode, left. For his part, Baraliu thought it was a funny little story that locals might like.

Probably so. Eater linked to the story on Monday morning. On Tuesday, Gothamist and Jezebel both linked to the post.

On Wednesday morning, we heard from a responsible party — East Village-based photographer Allen Henson. He recently moved here from Los Angeles. He had been out with model Cheyenne Lutek. He offered this background. "It was an impromptu photoshoot. We did two that night," he said. "The first establishment loved it and interacted, the other, well — we weren't there long."

Meanwhile on Wednesday, news of the topless diner had made it into the Daily News, MSN and The UK Daily Mail. The item was also seemingly syndicated to various FM radio station websites across the country... such as 94.5 "the Buzz — Houston's New Rock Alternative" and Dave and Chuck the Freak at 101 WRIF in Detroit. (Please keep in mind that we weren't sending this around to anyone to feature.)

Then a story on what happened appeared in The Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan. Someone told us that it was the paper's most-viewed article for the day.

On Thursday, the Daily News had a feature titled "EXCLUSIVE: Sexy Cheyenne Lutek goes topless at East Village restaurants."


[Allen Henson via the Daily News]

Then the UK Daily Mail picked up the story again with this breathless headline: 'I'm not ashamed of my body': Model who was kicked out of New York restaurant for exposing her breasts speaks out

There was, apparently, even more coverage. Per the Daily Mail:

It's the topless shot heard 'round the world. A picture of a comely blonde who took off her shirt at a trendy New York restaurant has become an internet sensation - picked up by publications from Italy to Russia to China.

Closer to home, the Daily News really liked this story, as it was the basis for a political cartoon on Friday.


[Via Crazy Eddie]

By last night, Lutek was posing with the NYPD on Avenue C.


[Allen Henson via Twitter]

In the end, that post from Monday became the second most-viewed in EVG history, far behind another post about a topless woman. All this maybe provides some insights about how the media works. Or maybe what's wrong with the media. (Or humanity?) And it's probably too late to put up a paywall ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Female diner decides to go topless last night at Verso

The start of a summer day at Tompkins Square Park

Here is Portal 2

Last night, Portal 2 — the third in the 13 Portals interactive street art experience — was unveiled... and it's on East Sixth Street next to Sidewalk... (Find more info at the 13 Portals website.)

Meanwhile, GammaBlog has photos and a video of last evening's Portal party. Find all that here.

Sunday morning Citi Bike docking station observation

Around 8:45... no available bikes on East Third Street at First Avenue (above) and all but one bike ready for action on East Second Street at Avenue B...

Hoodie mass this morning at Middle Collegiate Church

At the Middle Collegiate Church at 122 Second Ave. this morning:

In response to the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, on Sunday, July 14 at 11:15 am at Middle Collegiate Church, our multiracial congregation, will wear hoodies in memory of Trayvon Martin and those who like him who have been killed. Congregants will be invited to wear their hoodies as the church prays for the healing of our nation.

Senior minister, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis said, "I am devastated by this verdict. In our confusion and in our grief it is time to gather in God’s house to pray and support each other. As generations before us, we must gather to be rooted in our faith and work toward peace and healing for our country."

WABC was on the scene earlier...





Previously.

The New York City Marble Cemetery is open until 5 today on East 2nd Street

From the EVG inbox...

The New York City Marble Cemetery invites you to visit on our Neighborhood Open Day on SUNDAY JULY 14th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Come and enjoy our peaceful green space

*Upcoming Dates*

Summer Neighborhood Open Days
Saturday, August 10th, 2013,
Sunday, September 15th, 2013,
11 am to 5 pm

East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Peaceful Rally for Trayvon Martin this afternoon in Union Square

From @kevin_powell: PEACEFUL RALLY FOR TRAYVON SUNDAY in New York. 2pm. Union Square, Manhattan. 14th/Broadway. Bring signs, your voices.

— VibeMagazine (@VibeMagazine) July 14, 2013

And last night, nearly 50 people gathered for a demonstration in Union Square after hearing the news that George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the February 2012 deadly shooting of Trayvon Martin. According to the Daily News, the NYPD cleared Union Square around 2 a.m. (the group reportedly arrived around midnight).

Today in Tompkins Square Park

Hildegard Ford, AKA the Four-Leaf Clover Lady of the East Village, offering some free advice...



Dance practice...



Free Palestine...



UFOs...





Free punk concert...





Photos by Bobby Williams...

Tonight: Unveiling ceremony for the 13 Portals

[File photo of Portal 0 on East 3rd Street via jdx]

Tonight is the official unveiling ceremony for the 13 Portals ... which are, via its website:

13 Portals is an interactive street art experience to be discovered in abandoned doorways on the sidewalks of New York City’s East Village this Summer, 2013. New York based artist, Nicolina & Brazilian artist Pérola M. Bonfanti seek to unite street art, technology and alchemy in these hand painted portals.

The project welcomes and invites open participation by all. Its objective is to “pass" through the series of 13 portals beginning by scanning a unique QR code on each piece. Once the code is scanned the participant will be prompted to answer a question, or complete a task, each with escalating difficulty or complexity. Once each task is accomplished, the subsequent portal’s location is revealed, and the participant directed to it. Each portal must be visited and cracked in order, before the participant can pass through the 13th, and final portal. Once all 13 portals have been completed, the shroud of mystery behind the works will be lifted, and the 13 portals’ esoteric secrets unlocked.

Portals 0 and 1 were revealed back in December ... Portal 0 is on East Third Street near Second Avenue while Portal 1 is on East Seventh Street and Avenue C... Every week, a new portal will be unveiled this summer...

Portal 2 will be unveiled tonight at 8:13 at a yet-to-be-announced location... Then at 9, there's an after party with bands and what not at ABC Sanctuary, 638 E. 6th St. between Avenue B and Avenue C...

Check out the Facebook event page with more info. Read more about Nicolina here.

Please don't steal tree pit plants

Bobby Williams spotted this Urban Etiquette Sign on East 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Well! Just when you thought it was going to be another boring Saturday in dreary old Manhattan... it's time for The East Village Visiting Neighbors Festival on Fourth Avenue, starting at East 14th Street ...



Vendors were just setting up when we passed through on our inspection... you will find the usual farm-to-table calzones... and handcrafted hair scrunchies...





Previously on EV Grieve:
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

For Love

Far from the best of The Damned, but a fine cover from 1987 of Love's "Alone Again Or". And some video.

Tacos Morelos sign going up now on East 9th Street

Tacos Moreles, which currently has the delicious food cart over on Avenue A and East Second Street, is opening a restaurant at the former Empanadas Bar on East Ninth Street, as we first noted on June 24.

Anyway, the folks at WINESHOP sent along the photo of workers putting up the sign this afternoon ... and given the "bar" on the sign, it looks as if they will be serving beer like the Empanadas Bar ...

We hear that they will be looking to open in the next week, 10 days...

3 ConEd barricades and 1 trash can later, city fills Second Avenue sinkhole

[Earlier]

Looking good here now in the middle of Second Avenue and East Seventh Street...



... where a sinkhole was threatening the integrity of [___________].

The Citi Bike stationary workout is for real

Lame parodies aside, people are apparently using Citi Bikes for a stationary workout... Jose Garcia saw this woman going through a vigorous session the other day on East 10th Street outside Tompkins Square Park...

Per Jose: "She was taking breaks, had a towel to wipe her brow and a bottle of liquid to hydrate. She was enjoying herself."

And no membership or credit card necessary.

St. Mark's Place Fight Night

Updated: The video of the street fight is no longer on Vimeo, though it is now on YouTube.

Updated 7/14. Apparently the video has been removed from YouTube. On Friday night, someone using a gmail account with "gibberish" as the name told us to remove this post or face "legal action."

Last night via Jordy (of the Temple of Ramentology and Cult of Joe and the doorshitter...) Per the Vimeo description:

"It all started when a drunk Asian kid was pissing on the stairs of Search & Destroy. The skate kids walk by and make a comment about him pissing. The Asian kid stops mid flow then steps up to the black skater kids and says 'I'm Asian motherfucker!' Right after that I started filming the Asian kid and his drunk ass friends get the crap kicked out of them."

Nearly 4 years later, sidewalk bridge removed from 338 Bowery

Wow. Something seems awfully strange walking on the west side of the Bowery between Bond and Great Jones... Sunlight! On the sidewalk! (Is that a song? — "Sunlight on the Sidewalk.")

The sidewalk bridge first arrived outside the Whitehouse at 338 Bowery in September 2009 for, according to permits, "emergency repairs." Nearly four years later, those emergency repairs must have finally been completed!

The sidewalk bridge even predates the Subway that opened in the former Downtown Music space next door ... the thing even prevented the Subwayers from finishing the paint job outside...



Perhaps it was the Subway manager who complained in December 2009 that he/she could not put up a business sign because of the sidewalk shed...

Not that the sidewalk bridge prevented Subway from advertising out front...




As for the Whitehouse Hotel, the hostel/flophouse combo that was barely hanging on and retaining some of the Bowery edge of yore, it appears safe... developer Sam Chang wanted to build a nine-story hotel on the carcass ... but those plans never materialized ... and the Whitehouse hung on, and after $100,000 of glammed up improvements and renovations, reopened as the Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel and Hostel of New York in January 2011.

And now they have their sidewalk and sunshine (and rain) back.

BeatSploitation! at the C.O.W., a new Lower East Side performance space

Dame CuchiFrita

Photos and text by Stacie Joy

The C.O.W. (Celebration of Whimsy), formerly The Living Theater at 21A Clinton St. between Houston and Stanton, kicked off its opening Tuesday night with the sold-out show BeatSploitation!, an evening of poetry, dance, nudity and absurdity reminiscent of a ’50s beatnik café.

Performers included burlesque legends Dirty Martini, Tigger! and Julie Atlas Muz, sideshow poet Mat “SealBoy” Fraser, Slipper Room’s co-owner James Habacker (as Walt Whitman), producers Dame CuchiFrita and Edie NightCrawler, host Matthew Mohr (as Serge Le Gainswhack) and dancers BB Heart, Grandma Fun, the Taint Sisters, Darrin Wright and Luke Miller.

The C.O.W.’s space is intimate, blessedly air conditioned, and set up to accommodate the production’s theater-in-the-round style. Aside from a few technical issues with sound, the production was flawless and the audience seemed to enjoy themselves.

I spoke to co-creator and curator Dame CuchiFrita for details about her show:

“Edie NightCrawler and I teamed up to make our dream show, not only to showcase our individual work (choreography and burlesque, respectively) but also neoburlesque legends and pioneers that have paved the way and whose work we admire.

With the commercialization of performance art (especially in the last 5-6 years), the sadly disappearing venue situation in NYC, and the theatre aspects of vaudeville becoming more scarce, I feel there needs to be opportunity to create a fresh approach for newer audiences while staying true to the original neoburlesque intent and in order to keep the old faithfuls coming back.

Judging from the audience response, it seems there is a hunger for these types of shows. And this wouldn't be possible without Stephen Michael Rondel giving us a chance to use The C.O.W. as venue. He has done a tremendous job in putting a new face on an old East Village venue and is looking forward to have burlesque as well as other performances in that space.”

Angela DiCarlo


Dirty Martini


Tigger!


Mat “Sealboy” Fraser


BB Heart


Matthew Mohr

Tompkins Square Bagels owner explores opening a fish market on First Avenue

[Photo by Blue Glass]

After learning that the former Something Sweet space on First Avenue is for rent, Tompkins Square Bagels owner Christopher Pugliese has expressed interest in opening a fish market here at the corner of East 11th Street.

"I wish I had some fancy elaborate business plan to lay out, but basically I just want to sell fish on First Avenue," he said.

But this isn't exactly some whim. Pugliese has been thinking about such an idea for awhile. He explored a fish/cheese/meat market concept for the former Diablo Royale Este next door to his shop on Avenue A... though that plan didn't work with the landlord, who wants to keep a liquor license on the premises. (Pugliese said any market concept would remain alcohol free.)

"I think it would be great because right now people have to walk all the way to Whole Foods to get a halfway decent piece of fish," he said. "When they do this, they probably buy other goods there too instead of spending money at Commodities, Russo's or Veniero's. Best case scenario, this corner of First Avenue turns into a kind of food shopping hub."

Previous ideas for a fishmonger in the neighborhood were fairly well-received.

However, Pugliese has been met with some resistance.

"Some of my friends I've told think it's nuts to try this and even the landlord of the space made it a point to tell me, 'Listen kid, nobody in the East Village cooks,'" Pugliese said. "I think they're wrong. I think this is yet another hole in the neighborhood that needs to be filled."

And this hasn't been the first time people weren't into his ideas.

"I may not get this space. I had the idea for [Tompkins Square Bagels] for many years before I actually got it opened. I had to see a lot of landlords. If a fish market doesn't happen here, then I'll just keep trying."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tompkins Square Bagels turns 1

The Bowery will likely no longer be home to the Ugliest Hotel in the World

[EVG file photo]

The Salvation Army's East Village Residence closed here at the Bowery and East Third Street in August 2008. (Find some history of the space here.)

In January 2011, Lois Weiss at the Post reported that the France-based Louzon Group had bought the building for $7.6 million and were planning on opening a new hotel here.

And not just any fucking hotel. Remember?

Ready? Brace.

[Via the Observer]

(And yes — that's a Jumbotron up there.)

Anyway, never heard anything else on this project ... no work permits were filed, etc.

Here's why. The Lo-Down reported yesterday that "Glauco Lolli-Ghetti, the principal at Urban Muse, a privately held real estate firm that 'acquires, develops, repositions, operates and brands' both commercial and residential real estate," bought the space in a $16.3 $19 million deal.

What do they have planned? No idea yet. But whatever — don't show them that hotel rendering!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reactions to new Bowery hotel: 'It would be cheaper and more useful just to blow up the building and leave a 30-foot crater'

Why do the French hate us?

Whatever happened to that really ugly hotel planned for the Bowery?

S'MAC has closed its kiosk in First Park

[January 2012]

S'MAC opened a satellite location in the First Avenue/Houston kiosk back in January 2012.

However, as of July 5, S'MAC has vacated the premises. Here's their official word:

Dear Customers and Neighbors,

The First Park location of S’MAC is now closed. We are sad to see it go and enjoyed our time there but we can still satisfy your mac & cheese cravings at our two other locations that are going strong!

East Village
345 East 12th Street (btw 1st and 2nd Ave)

Murray Hill
157 East 33rd Street (btw 3rd Ave and Lexington)

Thanks so much for your patronage over the past 1.5 years!

The S'MAC Team

S'MAC took over for Veselka at the First Avenue/Houston kiosk.

Meanwhile, a reader has already noted the following in the Park:

With S'Mac closed, the part of First Park that housed it — along with all the benches where regular people hung out — is now chained shut. I hope this isn't going to last until a new business takes over — it's a PARK & should be a public space!

Noted

And there's a WienerMobile sighting on East Third Street... apparently part of a cross-country road rally to determine a Wienermobile Run Champion. Or something that I read on Facebook. Photo by @KatieTilson

Which reminds me. A hot dog walks into a bar. The bartender stops him as he's walking in. The hot dog asks why. The bartender says we don't serve food here.

Threat of rain KOs tonight's free screening of 'Easy Rider' in Tompkins Square Park

Of course! Because it's a Thursday night!

Per the Films in Tompkins Facebook page:

UPDATE: Tonight's screening of EASY RIDER has been canceled due to bad weather. Films In Tompkins will resume as scheduled next Thursday with DRIVE.

Four out of five screenings now this summer have been cancelled due to rain.



Since it's not going to rain, you can go see "Ferris Bueller's Day off" at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Taqueria Diana now open for dinner

Oh! It opened Monday for service. Anyone try it yet? On Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place (in the former Cheep's Pita Creations).

Fork in the Road recently had more details on the place.

Report: 'Jodie Lane Place' sign is gone; City says it will be replaced

[EVG file photo]

The street sign noting "Jodie Lane Place" on the northwest corner of East 11th Street and First Avenue is missing, The Villager reports today.

Per the report:

Scott Gastel, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, told The Villager he didn’t believe there was any connection between the installation of the new-style cantilever signs and the disappearance of the Jodie Lane Place co-naming sign and the other traditional-style street signs that had been attached to that pole. It looks like the signs were removed with a hacksaw — a thin, jagged strip of green from the removed signs can still be seen.

On Monday, in an e-mail, Gastel assured The Villager that a sign honoring Lane, plus the other removed signs, will be put back up on the pole.

Lane was a 30-year-old doctoral candidate at the Teacher’s College at Columbia University. During the late afternoon of Jan. 16, 2004, Lane, who lived on East 12th Street with her boyfriend, was walking her dogs. She was electrocuted on a snow-covered Con Edison junction box on the southwest corner of 11th Street at First Avenue.

The street was named in her honor in the spring of 2005.

Read more about the Jodie S. Lane Public Safety Foundation here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
In Memoriam: Roger M. Lane

Noted

Spotted last night on Second Avenue and East Second Street. Do you have what it takes?

Photo by Paul Kostabi via Facebook.