With a new menu, Little Tong dropping the Noodle Shop on 1st Avenue

[Photo Monday by Steven]

After a little more than two years on First Avenue at 11th Street, the well-regarded Little Tong Noodle Shop is undergoing a concept shift highlighted by a new menu and name, now officially going as Little Tong.

For the past two years, chef-owner Simone Tong specialized in mixian — a long, round rice noodle from China's Yunnan province.

And now, via the EVG inbox...

With the new menu (as of May 9) and concept, Chef Tong hopes to bring together traditional flavors with modern techniques and local ingredients to create dishes that continue to usher in the new era of regional Chinese cuisine in New York City ...

The new menu [has] a greater emphasis on shared plates and composed dishes showcasing market ingredients. Highlights from the first iteration of the menu include:

• Stir-Fried Fiddlehead Ferns and Guoba with pickled ramps, dan dan pork and crispy rice

• Macao Night Market Clams with Canto sausage, enoki, zucchini, and mala douban (fermented chili-bean sauce)

• Tieban Miyazaki A5 Wagyu with Yunnan salsa verde, alderwood sabayon and crispy herbs

• Tea-Smoked Duck Breast with XO fried rice, salted duck yolk and apricot sauce

As part of this evolution, the restaurant will drop "Noodle Shop" from its name (the Midtown East outpost, which opened last summer, will remain known as Little Tong Noodle Shop), but a handful of fan-favorite mixian dishes – including the Grandma Chicken and Chef’s Beef Shank versions – will remain on the menu.

Tong will also open Silver Apricot, an upscale Chinese-inspired restaurant in the West Village, later this summer.

Previously on EVG:
Little Tong Noodle Shop taking the former Schnitz space on 1st Avenue

Keeping the awning record alive

Work on the Queen Vic, an English-style pub/eatery, continues here at Second Avenue and Fourth Street ...



Looks like we're in for another awning after 2x4, Ambiance, Evolution...

'End of Days' are here for Max Fish

[You never know when a cliched photo of the Max Fish toilet will come in handy]

Max Fish closes for good on the Lower East Side on Aug. 1, according to Gallerist.

And the Ludlow Street fixture, which is moving to Williamsburg, signed off with their final exhibition — titled "End of Days," which Ava Rollins and Yolande Whitcomb curated. (The show, featuring work by Craig Wetherby, Ricky Powell and FAILE, is only up through tonight.)

X Games at ESPN paid tribute to the Max Fish on Monday... noting how the bar was big with the skate crowd through the years...

Max Fish will all be leaving a neighborhood that now resembles the chaos of New Orleans' Bourbon Street on the weekends more than the downtown cool with which it once was associated.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

About Max Fish in Asbury Park

The Post has a feature today on the Asbury Park branch of Max Fish... which includes this "tale of the tape" ...



The article quotes Deb O'Nair, one-time keyboardist for the Fuzztones who now spends time in Asbury Park.

"The days I was hanging out in [Manhattan’s] Max Fish, it was all artists and musicians. Now that neighborhood feels like a big NYU dormitory."

Meanwhile, Max Fish owner Uli Rimkus doesn't have much to say on the future of the original bar on Ludlow Street.

"Right now, I'm surviving day by day," she says. But at least she isn't worried that her new neighbors will call in complaints to 311 this summer. Pointing toward the ocean, she says, "They're fish."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

At the rally to save 326 and 328 E. Fourth St.

Today at noon, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC), Councilmember Rosie Mendez, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, the Historic Districts Council, and the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy held a rally and press conference ... You can check out more photos at the GVSHP Flickr page...

Per the GVSHP:

These houses were the first and only structures ever built on these sites and retain a remarkable level of original architectural detail. Having evolved from shipbuilding merchant’s homes to multi-family tenements to a synagogue to the home of an anarchist utopian arts collective, 326 & 328 East 4th Street capture New York and especially the East Village’s evolution over more than a century and a half. With all-too-few buildings in the East Village enjoying much-needed landmark protections, we must save 326 & 328 East 4th Street before it is too late!

You can read more about the ongoing conservation battle here.

And, um, any word on this from the Landmarks Preservation Commission?

The incoming Trader Joe's on 14th Street at Avenue A is now hiring

A sign is up inside the Trader Joe's on Union Square announcing that the new location at 432 E. 14th St. at Avenue A is now hiring. (Thank you to Erika for pointing this out!)

This is the next step in the long evolution (May 2017!) of the new EV TJ's...



Still looks as if there's a way to go before this TJ's is ready. Here's a look inside the space on Friday... there's some TJ-esque paneling up, but otherwise, it's still pretty boxy-y inside...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Trader Joe's finally confirms that a Trader Joe's is opening on 14th Street at Avenue A

All about EVE, the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office-replacing rentals on 14th Street

Claim: A Trader Joe's won't be coming to new development at 14th and A after all

Trader Joe's: No current plans for grocery at 432-438 E. 14th St.

Looks like there's a Trader Joe's coming to 432-438 E. 14th St. after all

Jehangir Mehta's private dining spot looks like an ice cream shop

[October 2012]

As we first reported in September 2012, Graffiti chef Jehangir Mehta was taking over the former bridal shop next door to his well-regarded restaurant on East 10th Street. The concept: Graffiti Me, featuring one 14-seat table for customizable private dining.

And that was the last we heard of all that.

Until one recent day when we walked by… and saw that the orange had been painted over…



The colors kinda makes it look like, oh, an ice cream shop?



Then we walked by again… and saw that it really looks like an ice cream shop now…



Well, we're guessing that this is the evolution of Graffiti Me… now called Me and You.



Kate Gunning, one of the initiators of the project, told this last week to The Boulevardiers:

When you dine at Me and You, you dine in Chef Mehta’s private kitchen, and the whole evening is really about the experience as well as the food. Chef will present each course, telling stories about the ingredients, and on occasion, their connection to a memory from his childhood in India.

Chef’s kitchen is in a secret location in the East Village, because we want it to be special, and only seen by those who dine with him, almost like you’re entering the kitchen in his home. The space is really intimate, with 1 big communal table, and an open kitchen so you can really be with the Chef for the whole evening.

The first of these intimate dinners is tonight.

More about the return of Bereket to the Lower East Side

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Yesterday we had the scoop about the opening of Ankara Turkish Restaurant on Houston and Orchard ... from the owner of longtime LES favorite Bereket Turkish Kebab House.

After 19 years in service, Bereket was forced to close in June 2014 to make way for the new luxury condo via Ben Shaoul on the block. The property housed a single row of storefronts, including Bereket, Ray's Pizza and Lobster Joint — all demolished. (As Shaoul told the Times back in 2017, the small businesses that closed were "part of evolution ... You call it gentrification, I call it 'cleaning it up.'") 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy returned to the quick-serve restaurant, which debuted last week...

... and met with Ramazan Turgut, who owned Bereket and now Ankara Turkish Restaurant, which has two outposts in Brooklyn...

... and manager Aydın Günaydın...

Ramazan said that he always wanted to return to this neighborhood and that it wasn't his choice to leave. In the interim, he opened the two restaurants in Brooklyn under the Ankara name. When Bereket closed, he said he didn’t want to open a Brooklyn restaurant with the same name because it was special, and the name belonged to this area. 

He signed a lease when this space at 183 Houston St. (the former Dr Smood) became available directly across the street from the previous outpost. 

Since there are two other Ankara Turkish Restaurants, he decided to keep the name for continuity. Still, he wants people to know it's still Bereket (hence the "Bereket is Back" banners on the storefront). 

The menu items remain unchanged — including the famed vegetarian red lentil soup...

... and the variety of gyros (the chicken gyro option is new)...

There are also a variety of Turkish beverages (no alcohol!) ...

Ramazan said several former customers have come in and confessed how much they missed Bereket. One customer even started crying, which prompted tears from the staff too. 

During this soft-opening mode, the hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with plans to expand to 4 a.m. soon.

Queen Vic opens today (and without an awning!)

After the quick succession of 2x4, Ambiance, Evolution...it looks as if the awning streak comes to end here at Second Avenue and Fourth Street... oh, and the Brit-style pub/eatery opens today....



And here's the menu ... or at least the parts of it that I photographed... There's an English menu with Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips, Toad-in-a-Hole... and "an American Grille Menu" featuring deep-fried hot dogs and Buffalo wings... There's also an Afternoon High Tea...





Pints seem pricy... $8.50 for a Bass or Guinness?

New 3rd Street condoplex off the Bowery is called 3E3; first unit hits the market

The first unit at the condoplex at 3 E. Third St. has arrived on the market.

Given the address here, the building just east of the Bowery is dubbed 3E3.

There's also a teaser site up now with more info on the development...





Per the 3E3 website...

Welcome to 3E3, a bold take on modern luxury in the city's most avant-garde neighborhood. Inspired by the rich evolution of the Bowery, 3E3 embraces contrast to deliver a vibrant yet sophisticated living experience in the heart of Downtown. Leave boring at the door. You've now arrived at 3E3.

And about the residences?

This boutique building consists of five industrial-inspired luxury residences featuring a restrained color and materials palette where subtlety and detail matter. Inspired by the Bowery's past, with attention on New York City's future, 3E3 is a stunning amalgamation of old and new, raw and refined, bold and nuanced. Industrial materials and sleek design choices create a contemporary aesthetic that's true to modern life. 3E3's stakes out a prominent position overlooking Bowery, with a fully glazed façade that bathes residences with southern light.

And about the past and present of this neighborhood?

The Bowery has seen it all, from the rich history of the Five Points to rock and art royalty. Ever evolving it remains the heartbeat of NYC cool. 3E3 sits at this phenomenal nexus of bustling Downtown chic, where the East Village, Bowery, NoHo, SoHo, Nolita and Lower East Side collide. From your early-morning fitness routine to a late-night underground concert, the city's premier cutting-edge boutiques, cultural destinations, dining and nightlife venues await, just steps from your front door.

The one unit on the market is asking $3.75 million. Compass has the listing.

Alex Barrett’s Barrett Design and Development paid $11.5 million in 2016 for the property, a building that served as short-term rentals for students and interns.


[3 E. 3rd St. in April 2015]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Development site available on East 3rd Street at the Bowery

Demolition watch: 3 E. 3rd St.

Boca Chica apparently won't be reopening on First Avenue; and the return of Golden Cadillac

[Via Facebook]

In late February, Boca Chica, the inexpensive Latin American restaurant on First Avenue at First Street, closed its doors, though perhaps only temporarily. As first reported by Serena Solomon at DNAinfo, two partners abruptly exited the business, and the remaining owner was "frantically searching for new partners." The remaining partner was hopeful to continue operations.

Apparently that won't happen here. Paperwork on file (PDF) ahead of Monday's CB3/SLA meeting show that a bar-restaurant called Golden Cadillac is in the works for the space.



There's extensive background about the proprietors at the CB3 website. Francis Derby, who was part of the opening team of wd~50 under Chef Wylie Dufresne and a one-time sous chef at Momofuku Ssam Bar, is listed as the executive chef.

Giuseppe Gonzalez, a veteran of Dutch Kills and PKNY/Painkiller, is listed as "head barman." James Tune, general manager of Pegu in Soho, is listed as the general manager.

The paperwork includes a sample menu...



... and renderings...



This isn't the first time that we've heard about Golden Cadillac. Time Out reported in November 2011 that the new venture from the above-mentioned folks was opening on East 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. But that never materialized, for whatever reasons.

At that time, Gonzalez described the look this way: "Remember that bar called Volpe's in 'Mean Streets'? That's the way Golden Cadillac's going to look — an old Italian social club, but with tons of Art Deco details."

Boca Chica opened in March 1989. As predicted, the high-scale evolution of this corridor continues.

Previously.

Report: Max Fish closing at the end of July ahead of move to Williamsburg

As you probably know, high rents are sending Max Fish packing to Williamsburg later this year. We were told earlier that Max Fish is eyeing an August closing date on Ludlow Street.

The Lo-Down gets the word straight from owner Ulli Rimkus that the bar will close here at the end of July. Rimkus also divulged a few other details, like "she really wants to create something new — not necessarily a replica of the LES classic."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

An enchanted yarn garden on St. Mark's Place

At Avenue A... yarn garden courtesy of @madebylondon ...

Photo by Derek Berg

Previously on EV Grieve:
An evolution in yarn at La Plaza Cultural

Reader report: SOS Chefs reopening on Avenue B

There has been some activity of late at 104 Avenue B near East Seventh St., where SOS Chefs closed in June 2011. The high-end specialty shop, which opened in 1996, sold an array of obscure spices, dried fruit and exotic oils that won them a loyal following that reportedly included Momofuku’s David Chang and Prune’s Gabrielle Hamilton.

When the store closed, a sign appeared that read in part: "We are going to take some time to discover new things, and to see what the next steps may be in the evolution of SOS Chefs."

Apparently owner Atef Boulaabi has had time for that discovery... according to an EVG reader who lives on the block, the store will reopen on Oct. 1. No word yet if the store cat will return.

Previously on EV Grieve:
SOS Chefs, high-end supplier to A-list restaurateurs, is closing on Avenue B

Eric Drooker at MoRUS tonight

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) presents:
Eric Drooker Slide Lecture
Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 8 pm
free
MoRUS's Storefront in C-Squat
155 Avenue C

Avenue B native Eric Drooker will give a slide lecture exploring his early years as a street artist in NYC and will trace the evolution of his graphic novels into animated films — and from his cover paintings of "The New Yorker," to his slow infiltration of the mainstream. The artist will talk about growing up on the Lower East Side and how the changing landscape has shaped his vision.

He'll screen animation he designed for the movie, "Howl," reminisce about his friendship with Allen Ginsberg and discuss the process of adapting the Beat poem into the recent "Howl: A Graphic Novel." He will accompany his lecture on various musical instruments.

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is a living archive of urban activism opening in C-Squat's storefront on November 17th. The museum chronicles the East Village community's history and grassroots activism. It celebrates local activists who transformed abandoned buildings and vacant lots into vibrant community spaces and community gardens.

The end of Evolution (or whatever the place was called)

Went by the bar on the corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street -- the one that had so many names I'm not even really sure what it's called -- for the flamethrowing contest* last night... and it was...



...closed. 4-ever. Apparently they did spend all their money on new awnings.



I will be hosting a screening of "Cocktail" later today* outside the bar with Hunter-Gatherer and Jeremiah Moss.

* not true

Max Fish closes tonight

Contrary to previous published reports, Max Fish closes after tonight on Ludlow Street.

There's a feature on the bar closing in The Wall Street Journal today... (Subscription required)

Said owner Ulli Rimkus:

"I wish it could be around forever," she said, dumping the walkway trash into a garbage can. "I wish I could pass it on to a daughter, have it around for 80 years. But if you don't own the building, what can you do?"

And!

"In 1989, our neighbors were all artists and musicians—it was perfect," Ms. Rimkus said, now sitting at the curvy bar, the Velvet Underground blasting over the stereo. "It changed when we started to see all our neighbors disappearing."

The bar, which opened in 1989, will have a new location in Williamsburg this fall.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

EVG Etc.: East River Park stormproofing reactions; 14th Street trapeze hoop dreams

[A note at Ben Shaoul's new condoplex next to Katz's]

As we've been reporting, City Council held an oversight hearing on the secretly revised East River Park stormproofing plan on Wednesday afternoon. Gothamist and Curbed had reporters at the well-attended hearing. Find their recaps at these links:

• LES & East Village Residents Feel 'Duped' By City's Surprise Plan To Bury East River Park (Gothamist)

• Revamped East Side flood protection plan debated at packed City Council hearing (Curbed)

A visit to the East 14th Street home of aerialist Phoenix Feeley, who is subletting her place that is outfitted with a trapeze hoop. However: "The hoop will stay in a locked closet, for use by any tenants with the proper training and insurance." (The New Yorker)

The MTA postpones its fare-hike vote — until next month (amNY)

Inside the fight over the Elizabeth Street Garden (Curbed)

What's happening in the ongoing e-bike/e-scooter debate among city bigs (Daily News)

A new development with "micro units" coming to Essex Street (City Realty)

Yep: New York’s nightlife industry outpaces rest of local economy (Curbed)

Staffers at the New Museum on the Bowery vote to unionize (Hyperallergic)

East Village-based singer-songwriter Riley Pinkerton plays the Mercury Lounge Feb. 6 (Official site)

An appreciation of the late Saul Leiter, artist, photographer and longtime East Village resident (Off the Grid)

Give 'em the hook originated on stage at this Bowery theater in the 1890s (Ephemeral New York)

"Burning," the critically acclaimed South Korean thriller from Lee Chang-dong, got snubbed in the best foreign-language film category in the Oscar race. Anyway, it's still enjoying a run at the Quad on 13th Street (Official site)

A rando ICYMI: That video of Beto O'Rourke on rhythm guitar in a onesie and sheep mask playing (with a band) "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Mother Jones)

... and if you happen to have a subscription to The Economist, then you can read a feature on Alex Harsley, the photographer who runs the great 4th Street Photo Gallery on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery. The piece is titled "Alex Harsley is an unsung doyen of New York photography."

The city has been Mr Harsley’s home since 1948, when, aged ten, he moved there from South Carolina. He took his first photograph ten years later, and became the first black photographer to work for the city’s district attorney’s office. His scintillating pictures freeze moments in New York’s evolution from the 1950s to the present.

You can also head into the EVG archives for this two-part interview with Alex from January 2014.


[Photo for EVG by James Maher]

Documenting 166 Avenue A through the years

I always enjoy receiving correspondence from Anton van Dalen, the artist who has lived on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street for decades. Here's the latest dispatch:

Sending you photos of our home at 166 Avenue A, of its over the years evolving facade appearance. The photos cover a span of now almost 50 years of my observing and documenting our neighborhood.

Came to this address in 1971. Before we lived at 123 Rivington St. near the corner of Essex Street.

Initially I just watched and listened to the street life, its sidewalk theater with joyous salsa music. It was not the New World that I had imagined as child growing up in Holland — no streets here paved with gold. Rather streets paved by the colors of many cultures. 

On first arrival our new home looked abandoned, hardened by history, burned out house next door. And by contrast, a storefront church on the other side, often crowded with multigenerational Puerto Rican families. 

Today our Puerto Rican community is marginal, as neighborhood's demographics radically changed. As my below succession of photos illustrate, the creeping ongoing gentrification of our neighborhood.

I consider myself a documentarian of the East Village, yet I am a participant and spectator to its evolution. Began documenting my street surroundings in 1975, urged on by wanting to note and remember these lives. Came to realize I had to embrace wholeheartedly, with pencil in hand, my streets with its raw emotions. 

Also the everywhere discarded bloody heroin needles on sidewalks stunned and urged on my thinking. The drug dealers, the junkies, the police, the firefighters, were then the unquestioned royalty of our neighborhood. 

Then came hopeful efforts by gardeners in garbage-strewn abandoned lots, squatters, community organizers. They were able to redirect our devastated neighborhood toward again being a community for many. 

So my documenting became more and more informed by the stories of my neighbors' acts of activism. And a commitment on my part to be true to those lives, of their raw heartfelt emotions, birthed on the street. 

Their truth telling kept my work honest, brought authenticity to my documentation, so critically important. That my work needed to join the raw birth, speak for, this sad beauty born on our streets, and not to forget.

Postscript:

One of Anton's drawings, titled "Street Woman on Car" (1977) and posted at the top, has been acquired by the Whitney. That drawing is included in a show there now titled "Around Day's End: Downtown New York, 1970-1986." This exhibit closes on Nov. 1.

Anton is pictured below with the exhibit's curators, Laura Phipps (left) and Christie Mitchell (photo by Grace Keir).

And details on the drawing: "Street Woman on Car" (1977). Graphite pencil on paper, sheet: 22 3/4 × 29in. (57.8 × 73.7 cm). Purchased with funds from the Drawing Committee 2016/7. © Anton van Dalen

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Anton van Dalen, drawing in isolation