A few details about Bar Primi, coming to the former Peels space on the Bowery

Peels closed for good on the Bowery on Jan. 22.

A "casual pasta shop" called Bar Primi is on the way in the space at East Second Street from restaurateurs Andrew Carmellini, Josh Pickard and Luke Ostrom, as Eater first reported.

The group goes before CB3's SLA licensing committee on Monday night for a new liquor license for the address. The paperwork (PDF!) that the applicants filed at the CB3 website ahead of that meeting provide a few scant details on what to expect… The proposed hours are 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. seven days a week. The paperwork shows 22 total tables, seating 94 people as well as two bars good for 41 seats. (They also plan to have an outdoor cafe, just like Peels.)

Hmm, what else… Bar Primi will employ between 50-60 people… and "management will be charged with the responsibility of operating a restaurant that does not disturb its neighbors."

Eater noted that if all goes well for the trio, then Bar Primi will open this summer.

William S. Burroughs was born 100 years ago today

[Burroughs in 1965 via the Evening Standard/Getty Images]

In honor of this… let's revisit an EVG post from January 2010 … where we looked at 222 Bowery (aka The Bunker), where the writer lived off and on starting in 1974 … the post was about Brooklyn-based photographer Peter Ross and his collection "of weird, touching, and often unexpected" photos of the possessions found inside the bunker … including items such as blow darts and nunchucks that once belonged to Burroughs.

At this time in 2010, the building's owner, John Giorno, had left Burroughs' apartment intact. In 1998, Giorno succeeded in getting landmark designation for the 1885 brick loft building, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, if you're in the mood, then here's a video short with Burroughs titled "The Bunker" …



Per YouTube:

Set in William S. Burrough's New York City apartment, the Bunker, this experimental film mixes images and audio of the nuclear holocaust from Hiroshima, Burroughs, and real confessions.

In February 1984, Burroughs celebrated his 70th birthday at the Limelight… where some up and comer sat next to him…


[Photo via Dangerous Minds]

Find the Official Burroughs 100 website here.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Tompkins Square Park via Grant Shaffer]

East Village artist Martin Wong's collection of graffiti art now at the Museum of the City of New York (The Associated Press via Newsday)

Remembering Rene Ricard (Hotel Chelsea Blog)

Roy Colmer, who photographed more than 3,000 New York doors in the mid-1970s, has died (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Q-and-A with Cari Luna, author of "The Revolution of Every Day" (Brooklyn Based)

Barramundi will close to reinvent itself on Ludlow Street (BoweryBoogie)

'inoteca closes on Rivington Street this weekend (Eater)

Water main break on the LES this morning (The Lo-Down)

Thanks to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for this post on EVG (Off the Grid)

...and, given our well-known affinity for intricate, handcrafted balloon dresses... EVG reader Gregory Patrick shares this photo from Professor Thom's on Second Avenue... where there was a Valentine's Day-related photo shoot for Dragon Fly Productions the other day ...

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: Tom Clark
Occupation: Musician, Tom Clark and the High Action Boys
Location: Avenue D, between 6th and 7th
Time: 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb 4.

I’m from a place called DeKalb, Illinois, about an hour west of Chicago. I grew up down the block from Cindy Crawford. In my mind, I like to remember DeKalb as this very Norman Rockwell place. The flying logo with the corn is the famous logo for DeKalb. At one time it was the second most recognizable logo next to Coca-Cola.

Luckily there was a university there. There were farms. When you were 13 you were allowed to do farm labor and I worked in cornfields for seven years, 10 hours a day, seven days a week. You can’t take a day off cause the corn doesn’t take a day off — that’s what they’d tell you. And then when I was 16, I got a job working in a grocery store. So in the summers I was working about 95 hours a week, 7 days a week in the cornfields and at night at the grocery store.

I start doing gigs, doing shows when I was about 14. I got into music real early. I went to Northern Illinois University for like 2 years. I was in college and working to pay for it, doing my own stuff and I joined a punk band there called Blatant Dissent. But I was just kind of lost about what to do in life. I was about 19 and I wrote a letter to Marshall Crenshaw, the songwriter and singer. I had never written a fan letter or anything in my life and he actually wrote me back. I still have the letter saying ‘Go for it.’

Nobody in my family had ever gone anywhere. I grew up with four brothers who all still live within 20 minutes of my mom, which is great. They were all jocks. I had to wait till they left the house before I could play music because it was for pussies. If Marshall Crenshaw hadn’t told me to go for it, I’d probably still be managing the grocery store now, which wouldn’t be the worst thing. He told me to go for it in New York and I still blame him to this day. But I did it.

I had never seen an ocean in my life; I had never been anywhere; I had been on a plane like once. When I moved here, I said I was going to give myself three years tops. I was 20 and I look back about it now, moving here when this was a totally different place. Crack was king then. I didn’t even drink when I was in DeKalb or in high school. I was never a partier. Friday nights I would be home listening to Beatles bootlegs with my friends and practicing. But I learned how to drink when I moved here, unfortunately.

I moved here in ’86 with some guys from my hometown. Two of them didn’t last very long, but one of them is still here. I didn’t have a job and we didn’t have a place lined up. I stood in front of the Astor Place barber shop when they had three floors. I stood there for nine and a half hours out front with my guitar singing and the owner, Enrico Vezza, the guy that started the place back in the ‘50s, kept coming out and giving me money. I made like $48, someone gave me a Budweiser, someone gave me cold French fries, and the pretzel vendor next to me, who I still see around almost 30 years later, gave me a pretzel.

Enrico said, ‘Come back and see me.’ I thought he was going to give me a job sweeping up hair and I would have been fine with that, but instead, for almost two years, I went from chair to chair asking for requests and playing songs — eight hours a day, seven days a week, for $20 a day. I was supposed to get tips but a lot of people went to Astor Place because they didn’t have any fucking money, and a lot of those people did not want to be sung to. And I had to make a dollar or 50 cents. I saw a lot of crazy people. It was an experience because I was pretty fresh-faced. This was all an eye opener.

I had so much drive then because I needed to make money and survive. I gave myself a buck and a half to three bucks a day to eat. There was a deli on Broadway around the corner from Astor Place. This guy who wasn’t supposed to do it, he’d tell me, would sell me half an order of rice and beans for a buck and a half. If I was really feeling rich I would get myself a tall boy for 90 cents.

I played in Washington Square Park but I wasn’t one of those hippie guys. I had my case out there. I needed to make money. I would go early to Washington Square Park, I’d sing for an hour, then I’d go to Astor Place for eight hours, and then eventually, I started playing on Bleecker Street, playing for college kids. It was insane how much I played. Good for my chops but hard on the voice. Boy, you know, it was such a good time back then. I just wanted to play. I would have played anywhere, a funeral, a bris. I would have played anything.

For years, all I did was play bars. I started doing a shitload of gigs and playing on the street all the time. A lot of the gigs I was doing here, you might not have been paid a lot, but you got paid in free booze. This was around ’86. So I learned real fast and real well, to my chagrin sometimes. I’d take the D train to Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx and play in Yonkers and here. It was all Irish bars then.

I wanted to really focus on song writing and playing my own stuff, because when you’re doing those Irish gigs in the Bronx and Yonkers, and whatever I did, you get a little sick of playing "Brown Eyed Girl," though it got me into a lot of dorm rooms. So I jumped into the songwriting thing pretty fast down here. I met this guy Doggy, who’s a legend down here. He was my drummer for a long time. We used to play in the street, on the subways, around Astor Place, by the cube. We were walking around trying to find our first gig here. He played stand-up snare drum with cymbal. I played guitar. I played everything a hundred miles an hour. I can’t even play that fast anymore.

And one day we went into Nightingales on 2nd Avenue and they were having a Hardcore Matinee and by chance the late Tom Price just told us to get up and play. That was our first gig in the East Village and Tom turned out to be this great guy. That’s how I got hooked up down here and then I met the person who was managing Nightingales started managing this place called Chameleons on 6th Street by Sidewalk and we started playing there every Friday night.

I lived in this place in Brooklyn for 21 years, from between ages 21 and 42. That’s a lot of life and a lot of growing up. It was kind of legendary. I had two floors in that place, it was an old pre-civil war bar and I had a full recording studio in the basement. It was right on top of the Manhattan Bridge, right on it. It was me, Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group and Jim Carroll, the poet and rockstar, who lived upstairs. Every band that came through town crashed there. It was really a waystation for so many touring bands.

I used to have these Thanksgiving parties for like 15 years. The last one we had over 250 people. My mom was from a town of 600 people. She had never been on a plane before, but I flew her out for 8 years in a row. The last one we did I cooked like five turkeys and four hams. I used every oven in the building running up and down the stairs. Live music all night long.

Once in awhile you just hit a snare in life and just go into a funk. You never know what causes it and sometimes it’s hard to shake out of it. This piece of shit bought the building after all those years and started kicking everyone out. We were in court for a year and finally we had to go. They tore the place down and the asshole who bought the building ended up going to jail for green card fraud. I worked for so hard for so long on music, busting my ass and then sometimes when you don’t get enough back, or you get the praise and acclaim, but then you don’t get enough other stuff back, things don’t come to fruition, and you get a little frustrated.

Some people work through it, some people can snap out of it, or some people like me think it’s a good idea to sit and drink a case of beer and stare at the wall. Then the next thing you know six or seven years go by and you think, ‘Hmmm, I haven’t been doing the work I used to do.’ I got burned out emotionally. I just got tired of it. It sounds like a cop out, but it’s not. Sometimes you get your ass kicked from all different sides and you decide to just start going through the motions to do whatever gets you through the day.

Now I’ve got a new lease on life where I’m kind of inspired. I’ve got a new album coming out. It's coming full circle. The guy who answered my only fan letter and made me move to New York, Marshall Crenshaw, whose a legend and one of the greatest living songwriters and guitar players in the world, is playing on three of the songs. It’s kind of coming full circle. It’s special to me.

I also host the Treehouse at 2A on Sunday nights. It was something I started two and a half years ago. Over the years I told them they should have live music up there, so finally they let me. It’s every Sunday night and it’s free. I only book people who I trust and like because I don’t have the pressure to put on four bands a night. When someone says, I wrote this song last night, of course it could go either way, but it can be pretty exciting to hear someone doing something for the first time. I take the Treehouse very personally. I want to keep it going because there’s just nothing like it anymore. All those places are gone or closing. I’m trying to keep alive something kinda like I had when I first moved here.

I wasn’t exactly a badass out causing trouble kind of guy, but 29 years later I’m still here. My dad told me, I used to think you were the crazy one, but now I think you’re the smart one. I don’t have a house, I don’t have a bunch of kids, but I’ve at least lived my life.

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

Report: Man accused in East 7th St. rape says that the sex was 'consensual'

The man accused of raping a 22-year-old East Seventh Street resident on Jan. 13 told police that he escorted the woman home, where she invited him upstairs for "consensual" sex, according to court papers released yesterday.

The Post reports that 32-year-old Fermin Flores was at the Second Avenue San Loco when the victim walked in alone to the restaurant.

“The victim ordered a drink but the bartender refused to serve her because she was drunk,” Flores told cops Jan. 14 after he was arrested. “She seemed like she was drunk … by the way she moved and spoke.”

Flores, who works as a cashier at the San Loco in North Williamsburg, said that he asked to walk the woman home. He waited for her outside and stayed a few steps behind her, according to his statement. At her East Seventh Street apartment building, he claims that she invited him upstairs.

Flores, who lives in Washington Heights, also told police that he had six beers that night. The DA has charged him with rape, burglary, criminal sex act and strangulation. He has pleaded not guilty.

[Photo from the outside the alleged crime scene from Jan. 13]

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] NYPD investigating possible sexual assault on East 7th Street

NYPD releases surveillance video of East Seventh Street rape suspect

Survey finds that NYC cyclists are becoming better at abiding by the rules of the road

[Random bike photo by Derek Berg]

NYC cyclists are becoming more considerate and law-abiding, according to research conducted by Peter Tuckel and William Milczarski of Hunter College at the City University of New York.

The study, "Bike Lanes + Bike Share = Bike Safety," looked at the behavior of 4,316 bicyclists at 98 different locations in central and lower Manhattan. (The researchers also compared this survey to a similar one from 2009.)

The new survey results showed that 34 percent of riders were observed going through red lights without pausing or stopping, down about 10 percentage points from 2009. In addition, 4.2 percent of cyclists were seen by the research team riding against traffic … while 3.2 percent were riding against traffic in the bike lane. This combined total of 7.4 percent is down nearly 6 percentage points from 2009. The survey also found that more women are riding bikes than in 2009.

Other survey results include:

• Helmet use rose from 29.9 percent in 2009 to 49.8 percent in 2013.
• Citi Bike riders in general are more compliant with traffic laws and ride in bike lanes at a higher rate than other riders.

As for Citi Bike, the study concludes: "Predictions that the launch of the bike-share program would lead to a spike in the number of cycling-related injuries have not materialized. Citi Bike riders appear to be more cautious and even more compliant with traffic rules than other cyclists."

You can find the whole academic jargony survey below...

Cycling Study January 2014

Other media outlets covered this survey, including Atlantic Cities, Gothamist and Streetsblog.

Classic movie nights continue at Pangea this month

Pangea, the 25-year-old Italian restaurant and bar at 178 Second Ave., will continue to show classic movies on Wednesday nights at 8 this month… Good picks with "Citizen Kane" and Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" … and wow — Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura."

On Avenue A, Piggies in, Spin Hair Salon out

[From Sunday, in case you were wondering about the lack of snow]

As you probably know, Brooklyn Piggies, the hand-rolled pigs-in-a-blanket shop, opened last Thursday at 195 Avenue A. At the same time, though, Spin Hair Salon has left the space next door…




No word just yet if stylist Eddie J. Williams has moved to a new location or closed. (There aren't any signs up indicating either scenario.) He moved here from Stanton Street last January.

Previously, both storefronts housed Furry Land Pet Supply, which closed in January 2012…

[January 2012]

Take a bow, rooftop snowman!

Spotted by Bobby Williams on East 10th Street near Avenue B...

Report: Philip Seymour Hoffman 'scored his smack like a common junkie' in the East Village

The Post is touting this "exclusive" …

Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman scored his smack like a common junkie, schlepping to an East Village apartment to feed his heroin fix, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

A witness has come forward to tell cops that several months ago, he personally eyeballed Hoffman buying the drugs himself, making the transaction at the same apartment where the witness was being supplied.

Based on this tip, the NYPD set up surveillance on the apartment on the unnamed street/Avenue Monday night. Police arrested one man emerging from the apartment, but, as the Post notes, he was not carrying the drugs branded "Ace of Spades," the logo that appeared on the heroin reportedly found in Hoffman's West Village apartment.

CB3 hosting program about loans for small business owners

Tomorrow night, CB3's Economic Development Committee will host a presentation for small business owners who have been unable to secure loans.

Per the agenda item:

Elevating Entrepreneurs: Philanthropic program of UBS Community Affairs & Corporate Responsibility, Americas. The initiative provides 3 components for entrepreneurs and small business owners: access to capital (as realized through lending facilities such as the Tri-State and Chicagoland Business Opportunity Funds); small business mentoring; and networking & education events and activities.

Here's a fact sheet (PDF!) with more information.

The meeting is in the Village View Community Room, 175 E. 4th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. 6:30 pm.

Film crew uses 'D Squat' and phone booths to recreate an 1980s East Village on 6th Street

Filming continues today on East Sixth Street for "Ten Thousand Saints," a straight-edge coming-of-age story set in the 1980s East Village. Crews have fashioned the exterior of 423 E. Sixth St. into "D-Squat" (filling in for C-Squat?)…




There is also a trash fire in a barrel next down in front of the late Walter De Maria's home-studio.

Meanwhile, down toward A, EVG reader Creature pointed out this relic …





There are also some sidewalk sale props in the background…



The items were authentic enough that some people came by and took things from the unattended prop sidewalk sale…



The film is adapted from the Eleanor Henderson novel "Ten Thousand Saints." The husband-wife team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini direct. (They directed the 2003 Harvey Pekar film "American Splendor" with Paul Giamatti.) The cast includes Ethan Hawke as one of the parents.

One reader is enthusiastic about the film adaptation, noting in the comments:

This is a movie about the mid-80s hardcore scene that had shows at CBs and Pyramid and other LES venues. It's not about screwed up people. It is about the straight edge scene (no drugs, drink) and AIDS in 80s. It is based on a fantastic book. It will mark the first time the New York Hardcore scene makes it to Hollywood. Ethan Hawke plays a cool stoner dad who takes care of his son's best friend when the son dies. Win, win, win.

Here's more about the book from NPR.

Excellent Urban Etiquette Sign name checks Russell Brand, 'Till Tuesday

[Click image to enlarge]

Spotted over on East First Street… The note starts off with the suggestion that someone in an adjacent building is playing Russell Brand a little too loudly on the stereo. Not that this is the worst offense.

"[I]t's much, much worse when you're playing saccharine pop ballads at top volume, or perhaps having a sing-along to your favorite Adele song."

There's also a reference to the mysterious Nicolas who splashes around in his hot tub at 3 a.m., and "the filthy tarp he optimistically erected as a sound barrier."

The missive ends with, "So, do us all a favor, and remember, that even downtown, voices carry*. And how."

A 'Til Tuesday reference!

"Voices Carry" is a fine song from 1985 …whose video features one of the greatest Assholes in Music Video History. Let's watch! (And it's fine to get up and sing just like Aimee Mann during the finale at Carnegie Hall!)



Well done, Urban Etiquette Sign. Sarcastic and funny while still making a point… with a little music lesson to boot.

Campaign underway to help Arleen Schloss

Filmmaker Stuart Ginsberg has launched a crowdfunding campaign for artist/curator Arleen Schloss. The 70-year-old Schloss was injured last month in a fall in her Broome Street home

Here is the background via GoFundMe:

Recently, Arleen Schloss suffered a near-fatal brain injury when she slipped and fell at her home in January. Rushed to the hospital, she is currently in rehab and will possibly continue for a few more months.

Her friends are raising money to help Arleen pay her current bills, medical care and any future home care. Arleen also suffers from MS and will need help for both conditions.

Who is Arleen Schloss? Arleen is an experimental artist who helped foster the East Village art scene through her loft called A's as well as through other events and performances.

The New York Times called her work "much superior to most performance art" and White Hot Magazine referred to Arleen as "a national treasure." Arleen traveled the world with her performances, installations, experimental work and video art.

Over 1,000 artists, performers, musicians, writers and poets owe their success to Arleen.

From 1979 to 1995, Schloss opened up her loft at 330 Broome St. in the Lower East Side to a group of then-unknown artists, actors and musicians that included Sonic Youth, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eric Bogosian, Glenn Branca, Phoebe Legere and Alan Suiclde, among many others.

Ginsberg has been working on a documentary about Schloss titled "Wednesdays at A's." Here's the trailer.



Find more info at GoFundMe.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Arleen Schloss and 'Wednesday at A's'

An IBM Watson building update, and its possible future consequences

The Wall Street Journal checks in (registration required) on our friend the IBM Watson building (aka 51 Astor Place).

While developer Edward J. Minskoff didn't fully lease the building by the end of January like he predicted, the place is 70 percent leased, and will likely reach 90 percent in a few weeks if all the negotiations go well with prospective tenants. All this has quieted those real-estate skeptics who thought Minskoff was bananas for building the 400,000-square-foot tower on spec.

"My gut feeling was that when it was finished, the tenants would come," said Mr. Minskoff. "And that's exactly what happened."

And the long-term impact on this neighborhood?

Mr. Minksoff's tower could still face leasing challenges if his deals in the pipeline aren't signed. But if he fills the building at high rents as he predicts, his success could spur other developers to build office properties in the area or to buy older buildings and upgrade them.

"The building and tenant roster have increased the real estate value in the surrounding area." said Paul N. Glickman, vice chairman at Jones Lang LaSalle, the leasing agent for 51 Astor.

The IBM Watson Group is the anchor tenant here with 120,000 square feet.

Noted

From a listing for a one-bedroom apartment at 717 E. Fifth St.:

Fully renovated cozy 1Br just off fashionable Ave. C in the East Village.

Fashionable?

You can see for yourself during an Open House here today at 2.

Sushi Zayy replacing former Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's action-packed combo

Signs are up now on 57 First Ave., home of the former Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's action-packed combo, for Sushi Zayy.

We don't know too much about the new venture here near East Fourth Street. Other than that it will be a sushi restaurant. (Duh.) The applicants are on this month's CB3/SLA licensing committee docket for a beer-wine license.

It fucking snowed again today

As you likely noticed! Still, it was… pretty, right?













And damn…



Photos in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams

Strummer through the snow

The Joe Stummer mural on the side of Niagara on East Seventh Street and Avenue A provides a beacon through the whiteout today in Tompkins Square Park... photo by William Klayer

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[At Key Food, via Michael Sean Edwards]

Remembering Slugger Ann’s Bar & Grill from Second Avenue and East 12th Street (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

When there were lines to enter the Tompkins Square Library branch (Off the Grid)

Photos from the Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown (The Lo-Down)

The East Village building from "Batteries Not Included" (Gothamist)

Upclose and personal with a hawk eating in Tompkins Square Park (Gog in NYC)

About the founder of the the Little Missionary's Day Nursery on St. Mark's Place (Ephemeral New York)

Ray's 81st birthday bash — in VIDEO! (Slum Goddess, a little NSFW)

Gaia Italian Cafe on East Houston closed for a break (BoweryBoogie)

and, meanwhile, via a dear EVG reader, a scene on the N train this morning...

Reader report: Small track fire at the Delancey/Essex Street station this morning

Waiting for the uptown F at at the Delancey/Essex Street station provided some photo ops this morning ... EVG reader David Shankbone shares these photos of a small track fire... no word on what caused it...



Updated 12:59
Gothamist has more on the fire here.

Walter De Maria's 'giant-robot laboratory' going for $25 million; inside is amazing as you'd expect

Famed sculptor Walter De Maria died last July at age 77. De Maria owned one of the most intriguing buildings in the East Village — the mysterious 421 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Avenue A. The building was a Con Ed substation built in 1920. (NYC Songlines described No. 421 as "a giant-robot laboratory.") De Maria bought it in 1980 to use as a home and studio.

We had never seen any photos of the interior … or met anyone who had been inside. Who is up there? What is up there?


[Photo by Goggla]

We were curious what would happen to this after his death. (After all, it was our dream home.)

Well, Robin Finn at the Times has the story: The building and adjacent lot are ready to hit the market for $25 million.

Meanwhile, the Times got a look inside… and it is as amazing as we expected.

In keeping with his Minimalist philosophy, Mr. De Maria left the substation’s industrial origins intact: An impressive grittiness prevails throughout the raw space. Major improvements were confined to the overhead lighting that illuminated his room-size installations.

Even the elevator is a vintage artifact, as is the Viking stove in the bare-bones kitchen where he cooked steak and vegetables. But mostly he worked, dreaming up installations like Bel Air Trilogy, an assemblage of three classic, two-tone (red and white) 1955 Chevrolets, each with a silver stake embedded in its front and rear windshields. A two-story ramp at the back of the property made it possible to take the cars, and other huge objects, up to the second-floor studio.

[Katherine Marks for The New York Times]

There are a lot more photos on the Times website.

The sale will include the lot next door.



Per the Times:

The sale also includes an unimproved lot at 419 East Sixth, a 7,920-square-foot expanse of grass and gravel partially enclosed by a chain-link fence with the potential to be repurposed into gardens, a noncommercial gallery, a garage or townhouses.

The mind reels at what a developer might do to/with this.

P.S.
Can anyone lend us $25 million?

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

RIP Walter De Maria

What is your East Village dream home?

Some part of 7A will stay in the new 7A's name

[Photo by Bride of 7th]

As we first pointed out last Thursday, Paul Salmon's name is on the application that's on file at the CB3 website for the 7A space ahead of this month's SLA committee meeting. Salmon is the one of the restaurateurs behind Miss Lily's, the Jamaican bar and restaurant on West Houston, and Joe's Pub.

There's now more paperwork on the CB3 website (PDF). It's a little tough to make it all out (did they use disappearing ink?) … the paperwork shows that Moshe Hatsav is the name of the partner leaving the corporation… and Paul Salmon is joining the corporation… the form shows that his position is "full time manager, overseeing day to day operations."



The form also asks, "Will the business name be maintained?"

The answer… "As a nod to the venerable history of this establishment, the new owners plan to incorporate some variation of the current trade name, 7A, into the new trade name."



How about — "7A — You No Longer Can Afford Our Food." (Haha. Kidding! Kind of!)

One more observation about the application. CB3 has it listed this way for the meeting:

Corporate Change (not heard at committee)
• New 7A Cafe LLC, 109 Ave A (op)

So, "not heard at committee." As far as we understand how this works, this means that there won't even be a vote by the committee for approval. Seems a little strange that they will completely change the concept (with an all-new staff) … and there's not any discussion on the matter.

7A closed on Jan. 26.

Pan has closed on St. Mark's Place; so long 1 cent beer deal

Pan, the Korean pub and restaurant, has closed at 13 St. Mark's Place. They moved here from Koreatown just last July.

Didn't know much about the place, except that they always seemed to have some sort of drink incentive …



… and this one that started in December…