Amor Bakery will not reopen on Avenue B

[Derrick Loris]

Back on April 22, a small fire broke out at 224 Avenue B at the Amor Bakery... the FDNY quickly put out the blaze... neighbors reported minimal damage... Still, it was apparently enough to permanently shutter Amor ... the bakery never did reopen here near East 14th Street ... and workers have recently cleared out the interior ...



The space is available, though not officially on the market with a "for lease" sign just yet.

Among other things, the neighborhood bakery was known for creating a variety of "specialty" cakes fit for any occasion that called for abs and boobs...




[Cake photos by Robert Sietsema via Fork in the Road]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: Fire reported at 224 Avenue B

Another mysterious bike rack removal at Astor Place

EVG reader 8E points out the arrival of "no bike parking" tags this week near the Alamo on Astor Place... the signs note that the city has scheduled to remove the bike racks tomorrow...





Similar signs also appeared in July 2012... and that turned out to just be a temporary removal ahead of a Summer Streets activity here. Nothing else so sinister. (Of course, some people find Summer Streets sinister.)

So. What now? Is the city finally ready to break ground on the new pedestrian space here?

Luxury home at 238 E. 4th St. continues to sort of confuse

The luxury home at 238 E. Fourth St. (just west of Avenue B) has been on and off the market the past year or so ... When we last checked in on the property in the spring, the 6,500 square-foot condo with an "Open Eat-In Boffi Stainless Steel Chef's Kitchen with a Wolf Stove" was asking a now-reduced price of $6.995 million.

But! Those first four floors were also available to rent for $27,500 (a month).

Apparently someone took up the realtors on that generous offer. The listing reappeared on Streeteasy this week... According to the listing at Meisel — "For Investors: Unit is leased until 2015. Purchaser can buy with tenants in place."

So there you go. Buy it now... let someone else keep the Wolf Stove warm for you for the next 15 months or so.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is this home fit for James Bond?

[238 E. 4th St. in November 2008]

Just in case a precast concrete plank gets loose

[From July by Ron Z]

The big crane returns to East 11th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B today to work on The Mary Spink Apartments. And, once again, residents next door have to be out of their homes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ...



Also, watch out for the Hole. (You were warned!)

The Mary Spink Apartments will one day be home to eight stories — 46 units — of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Village residents.

Spink, a respected community activist, CB3 member and executive director of Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, died in January 2012 at age 64.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 11th Street lot prepped for the Mary Spink Apartments

Empty East 11th Street lot will yield to 8 stories of affordable housing (49 comments)

Big crane work at the incoming Mary Spink Apartments on East 11th Street

Your guide to construction hell on East 11th Street

Chess set

A makeshift shelter at the Tompkins Square Park chess tables this afternoon during the showers...





Photos by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[St. Mark's Place]

Rent hike will likely KO Army Navy store on East Houston (BoweryBoogie)

Meatpacking District now and thens (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Lost Talking Heads video project from 1975 (Dangerous Minds)

Interview with with Thomas Degeest of Wafels & Dinges on Avenue B (East Village Vibe)

LES cell phone bandit (The Lo-Down)

The New York Public Library will keep the stacks (Curbed)

Finding a really big fish by the Brooklyn Bridge (Gothamist)

... and checking in on one of the newer Twitter accounts...

The photography of Michael Sean Edwards at 9th Street Espresso (on 10th Street)

[Leshko's on Avenue A at Seventh Street circa 1979]

Through the years, we posted some of the 1970s-1980s photography of Michael Sean Edwards (like here ... and here) ... as well as some of his more recent work ...

[Outside Life Cafe, 2011]

Michael now has a few of his large prints up at 9th Street Espresso (on East 10th Street near Avenue B)...



9th Street will feature his work through Sept. 27...



Find more of Michael's photos here.

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Angel “Petroleum” Luis Roman
Occupation: Security, Construction.
Location: East Ninth Street and 1st Avenue
Time: 4:10 pm on Monday, Aug. 26

I’ve been here since 1952. I was 12 years old when I came to the neighborhood from Puerto Rico with just my mother. It was a big change. Rent used to be $17 a month.

I graduated from Seward Park High School in 1958. I retired last year from security. I used to work in construction for awhile. I worked as a security guard and I worked in the stock market from 1986 till 1994. I used to be what you call a messenger.

One of the oldest places around here is Katz's Delicatessen. I worked for them for awhile. I used to wash dishes for them — making a living, you know. I also occasionally work at Moishe’s for the Jewish holidays sometimes. Sometimes they need me to work for one week. I like working with people.

I saw this neighborhood grow up. It was a poor neighborhood. Years ago people used to play dominoes in the streets, getting fresh with the ladies, throwing beer bottles on the street. Now you don’t see that. To tell you the truth, there were a lot of gangs, a lot of racketeering, but it was better than it was now — 100% percent better. Give me the old neighborhood and I would take it anytime. I liked the Dominican places, the Puerto Rican places, but I don’t eat in restaurants so I’d go there to drink my beer and that’s it.

For fun, I’ll have a few drinks with my friends — enjoy myself. You can ask anybody around here, you know Petroleum? They will know me. They call me that because I can outdrink them. I also used to go to the skating rink. I used to be a good ice skater. I’d go up to 57th Street.

The old people that used to live here, the Puerto Rican, the Jewish, whatever it is, they moved to New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Miami. A lot of people moved to Florida. I like to live right here. I’ll tell you one thing, I love New York, but I don’t recommend nobody to come here. It’s tough. The good thing about New York is that it is one of the safest places to live now. You go to Puerto Rico, Miami — it’s much more dangerous. Here I am not afraid. New York is one of the safest places.

I have my wife and my daughters. They are doing good. One is 41 and one is 37. They’re doing better than I did. They have houses with pools in New Jersey.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Noted

A scene from yesterday morning over on East Sixth Street, where David Schwimmer is apparently moving into a newly created mansion ... someone left the above message on the plywood for the actor who played Ross Geller on "Friends" ... Marc, who lives across the street, snapped the photo and noted that workers later painted over the Rossffiti.

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

Here is David Schwimmer's East Village home

Mary Help of Rubble

[Greg Masters]

Demolition complete at the Mary Help of Christians lot on Avenue A between East 12th Street and East 11th Street.

Next: Luxury residences and months of noisy construction.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory

Preservationists call for archeological review of former cemetery at Mary Help of Christians site

Scaffolding arrives for demolition of Mary Help of Christians

The 'senseless shocking self-destruction' of Mary Help of Christians

Google dragged into dog pee-tree spat on East Fourth Street

[Bobby Williams]

As the sign here near Avenue B notes, "Dog pee is not good for trees (google it)."

We did!



Maybe we will Bing it too...

Thank you and good night

Photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Memorial at 81 E. 7th St. for Richard L. Roach, who died Aug. 10. Photo by Bobby Williams]

Love for the laundromat (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Queer bookstore making short move on the LES (The Lo-Down)

The otherworldly creatures of the 9th Street garden (Gog in NYC)

Zucco’s Le French Diner for sale on Orchard (BoweryBoogie)

An interview with Stiv Bators from 1988 (Dangerous Minds)

Help for grandparents raising kids in Smith Houses (DNAinfo)

New Citi Bike apps (Gothamist)

8th Street in 1986 (Flaming Pablum)

An anniversary for Electric Lady Studios (Off the Grid)

Bowery Mission revamping its HQ (Curbed)

Scenes of 19th-century Manhattan (Ephemeral New York)

... and a group show debuting tonight at the Great Jones Space ...

A new reminder not to feed the pigeons in Tompkins Square Park

On Sunday, a Park worker put up new "Do Not Feed the Pigeons" signs. (Not directed toward anyone in particular) ... Why? Because if you feed a pigeon, you breed a rat...



And maybe there are a few more rats in Tompkins Square Park here toward the end of the summer? (Difficult to say!) These are a few shots of the critters last week via Bobby Williams... (Not quite the Summer of the Ratstravaganza ...)







In any event, the new signs haven't been too effective — someone dumped piles of bread right by one sign along Avenue A yesterday morning...

Tonight marks the last of the sidewalk rosary vigils outside Mary Help of Christians

Back on June 21, the scaffolding and sidewalk bridge arrived on East 12th Street ahead of the demolition of Mary Help of Christians... despite this, former church regulars continued to hold their daily sidewalk prayer service ... like last night... (something that the group has been doing since the end of 2007)...







Neighbor Anton van Dalen, who took these photos, notes that the remaining faithful will hold their last sidewalk rosary vigil tonight at 7.

He shares the following:

Lately many of us have watched in horror as one of our neighborhood's churches is being violently torn down.

Especially difficult for some of our neighbors whose stations of life were honored and celebrated where now is only debris.

The Mary Help of Christians Church had been a steady presence for generations in our ever changing neighborhood.

Generations of immigrants formed communities there to help each other find a path into the American dream.

For more then a year now I have watched them quietly gather and pray outside exposed to every kind of weather.

They are the very last few of an once huge vibrant mostly Italian, Irish and then Puerto Rican community.

So [tonight] they will gather for the last time in front of what was their church and recite the rosary once more.

I will be there, as I hope many of our neighbors, to pay respect to the dignity of their expression of community and its history.

-----

Bob Arihood captured the parishioners on film several times for Neither More Nor Less...



Find these photos here... and here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory

Preservationists call for archeological review of former cemetery at Mary Help of Christians site

Scaffolding arrives for demolition of Mary Help of Christians

The 'senseless shocking self-destruction' of Mary Help of Christians

The Jefferson shows off its open glass

A quick monthly check-in over at The Jefferson on East 13th Street... where there's a lot more brick and glass exposed..





Per Streeteasy, eight of the units are now in contract ... including a two-bedroom penthouse with roof terrace ($2.85 million asking price). Remaining homes range in price from $1.9 million to $2.2 million here at the former Mystery Lot.

Previously.

Velvet Cigar Lounge loses lease, hopes to relocate on East 7th Street

[Bobby Williams]

The Velvet Cigar Lounge at 80 E. Seventh St. lost its lease after seven years on the block. The shop closed here on Aug. 11.


[BW]

They hope to relocate to 13 E. Seventh St., next to McSorley's, and are wrapping up a crowdsourcing campaign to help make the move happen.



Part of this space was home to D.L. Cerney for many years. The boutique closed last fall after 28 years on the block, per Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.

Report: JoeDoe to reopen as Joe & MissesDoe

Over on East First Street, JoeDoe has closed... and will return as a new restaurant called Joe & MissesDoe.

Time Out has more details:

Owner Joe Dobias and his wife, Jill Schulster, will transform the old JoeDoe space—which will relocate in the spring—into a nostalgic blue-plate-special spot, offering comfort-food gone quirky: French-dip dumplings with roast beef and mozzarella, tacos with duck confit and radish, and chili topped with Fritos and jalapeños.

H/T Eater

[Image via the JoeDoe website]

Lyric Diner returning to former Lyric Diner space

The latest in the Lyric Diner saga.

First, a quick recap!

Taverna, the Greek restaurant that took over the Lyric Diner space on Third Avenue at 22nd Street, closed a few weeks ago after just six months in business. The same owners closed Lyric Diner last August.

However, as a reader notes in the above photo, the Lyric is returning.

pcvstBee first reported this development on Saturday. No word just yet on an opening date.

And it's probably a good thing that Taverna kept up some Lyric Diner signage upon opening...