EV Grieve: Search results for Evolution

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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

A visit to Turntable Lab on 10th Street

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

The older I get the less new music I am exposed to, which is why I am always particularly interested in EV Grieve’s Fridays at Five and curated musical selections. It’s turned me on to local rocker Liza Colby, Princess Nokia’s “Tomboy” and THICK’s “Green Eyes,” among others.

In this A Visit To ... I get the opportunity to explore new-to-me music at Turntable Lab with owner Pete Hahn and his Turntable staff.

[Pete Hahn]

Pete arrives — on skateboard — from his nearby East Village home to meet me at the Lab’s storefront at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, and walks me though the store pointing out both beginner record players (now made with USB port) and advanced DJ setups. I even get a mini lesson on the ones and twos on the in-house DJ booth from sales associate Paul Bennett!

Aside from a tour and DJ lesson, Hahn talked about the evolution of Turntable Lab, which had its humble beginnings as an NYU side hustle, to its first shop on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Turntable is now in its 20th year of business.

Turntable Lab got its start while you were at NYU. What experiences led to this launch?

My decision to go to NYU had a lot to do with the city’s DJ/record shop scene. There were lots of record shops, but if I wanted to get equipment, I had to go to a Canal Street electronics stores. I would walk in knowing the market price of an item, get into an intense haggling session, and still walk away paying above market price.

This gave us the idea to create a website that would sell DJ equipment with more transparency — no “call for price,” which was the norm back then. We started in my apartment on 12th Street with a Macintosh G3, a 56K modem, and a fax machine to take orders.

At what point did you realize that this was going to be a full-time business and not a side hustle?

In the first year of the business I was working during the day for a Soho advertising agency. I specialized in internet boom sites (1999) and was assigned to an early beauty ecommerce site. They were paying the agency hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a site that was barely functional. During a meeting I found out that my archaic hand-coded HTML site was grossing more than the beauty site — that’s when I decided to go full time.

Why did you decide to relocate from Seventh Street in 2016 to the current shop on 10th Street? At the time, did you consider moving to another neighborhood?

After being on Seventh Street for 15-plus years, the store needed a major renovation. It was cramped. The basement always flooded. The fixtures were wearing down. Rather than renovate the old space, we decided to start fresh. We never looked at any other areas — we knew we were staying in the East Village.

On that note: Why have you continued to base the TTL storefront in the East Village?

Personally, I think the East Village is still one of the top three record-shopping neighborhoods in the world. You can walk around, eat delicious things, check out Tompkins, find a stoop sale, people watch, and visit other quality record shops.

The East Village — along with many other neighborhoods — have suffered the loss of record/music shops in recent years. What has helped you survive? Twenty years in any business, especially one related to trends in music and music consumption, is impressive.

I could go deep into this, but here’s a quick version:
1) Don’t get stuck in old ways.
2) Respect each other’s tastes in music.
3) Be kind to customers.
4) Make it interesting for customers to visit often.
5) Keep it organized.
6) Know your margins.

The TTL website is robust. Why is a physical storefront still important to you?

Online commerce is inherently soulless. The store helps us maintain our soul by linking us in a different way to our customers, the DJ community, and the neighborhood. Plus, if you can successfully run a storefront these days, you know you are doing something right (and maybe even universally correct).

The storefront spans many genres of music. In one visit, I can pick up the new Diiv, Bat for Lashes and the re-release Rupa Biswas’ 1982 disco jazz LP. How do you decide what to carry?

There’s three people in the company that buy most of the vinyl; but we also get input from everyone who works here. Nearly everyone in the company is a collector. For example, one person is our go-to for decisions on Japanese vinyl and anime soundtracks. If it’s emo, I’ll ask someone else in the company. Distributors also know that we’re super-selective, so they’ll only recommend the top titles to us. I still have that broke college-kid mentality when I’m picking records: they have to be worth it.

[Lauren Jefferson, sales associate]

Looking back to 1999, did you envision that you might be doing this in 20 years?

Hell no! I still can’t believe it. My business partner and I always joke that we can pass it along to our kids, but I think in our minds, we’re mostly serious about the idea. People have tried to buy the Lab a couple times, but in retrospect, I’m glad those deals never went through.

What’s next for TTL?

We’re very focused on continuing to expand our range of exclusives. We’ve been teaming up with audio-equipment manufacturers, brands and labels to create special items. I’m especially excited about this boxset with Stones Throw Records. It will be available at the end of the year and it features our favorite releases from their catalog in a box we designed. Lastly, we’ll continue to develop our in-house audio furniture line: Line Phono.

---

Turntable Lab is open every day from noon to 8 p.m. You can find them on Instagram here.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

After 20-plus years in the East Village, Obscura Antiques and Oddities is closing

Obscura Antiques and Oddities, a wholly unique and one-of-a-kind shop on Avenue A where you can find an array of curiosities, will by packing up its storefront in the weeks ahead.

"Our lease is up at the end of February and we are a bit burned out," co-owner Mike Zohn recently told me. "The business has changed as has the neighborhood, plus the expense and overhead are high."

Yesterday, EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the shop and talked with Zohn about the decision to close ... and tracked Obscura's East Village evolution.

-----------------

My first experience with Obscura Antiques and Oddities was in the early 1990s, when it was called Wandering Dragon Trading Company, co-owned by Adrian Gilboe, Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson, in a storefront at 263 E. 10th St.

A few years later it moved across the street to 280 E. 10th St. and became Obscura Antiques and Oddities (incorporating the name 18 years ago last month) before finding its most recent home in 2012 a few blocks away at 207 Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street.

It’s been a neighborhood staple for more than a quarter of a century, which is one of the reasons it’s so hard to come to grips with the fact that the shop is shutting its doors. The store will close at the end of this year, with a possibility of limited hours in January to liquidate remaining items before the lease expires in February. Zohn talked with me about the store’s history, why they are closing and what’s next.

The store’s rent, back in the day, was $250 a month, and it was always a party, Zohn says. Cheap rent, parties every night, music, artists, drinking and smoking — a good time. Gilboe eventually moved to Brooklyn and Michelson and Zohn took over the shop, renamed it, and began working in earnest on the business.

[Mike Zohn]

The store and its two owners became the subject of a popular Discovery Channel TV series in 2010 called "Oddities" and possibly a victim of its own success.

Oddity-type shops popped up all over, the business changed, and more folks were buying and selling the merchandise. Overhead grew, taxes and regulations went up, and as Zohn points out, the neighborhood changed. Rents increased exponentially and parking became impossible. (Zohn lives in Easton, Pa., and Michelson in Plainfield, N.J., and both need a vehicle to transport goods and commute.)

Even though the store’s East Village front is closing, the shop will still be in existence online, and Zohn will continue to produce his Oddities Market and plans to look into the possibility of pop-up Oddites shops, maybe even the East Village one day.

I spoke by phone to Michelson — home sick, recovering from a recent work trip — about her plans for the future. She says there are a million things that interest her, but she won’t settle on anything until after the closure of Obscura.

She’s a founding member of Morbid Anatomy Museum and a scholar-in-residence at its library, and says she’s comfortable with the decision to close the shop. Although sad, she says that it’s organically time to go, that the world, the East Village and NYC are different now. Michelson saw Obscura as an outgrowth of the East Village performance and underground art scene and is eager to begin her next chapter of life, something experiential, not commercial.

Neither Michelson nor Zohn feel rushed into making this decision and both seem conformable with timing and the process. Zohn notes that if you have always wanted something special from Obscura, like, say, the two-headed cow or genuine human skull or a Freemasons book written in code, now is the time to come by.

In addition, fixtures from the shop will be available for sale. Shop hours are flexible, most likely every day from 12:30 to 8 p.m.

Look for more photos from inside the shop in an upcoming A Visit To ... feature on EVG.

Monday, November 4, 2019

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

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Report: retail portion of Ben Shaoul's luxury condoplex on Houston and Orchard sells for a whopping $88 million

Developer Ben Shaoul and company have reportedly sold the retail space of its gold-dusted condoplex at 196 Orchard St. — whoa, brace! — for $88.75 million.

That's three retail tenants in total — the Marshalls, the coming-soon CVS and the Equinox on the upper two floors here along Houston between Ludlow and Orchard.

The Real Deal has the story:

The developers behind 196 Orchard Street, Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Management and Michael Miller’s Real Estate Equities Corp., sold the retail portion of the building to the AR Global affiliate New York City REIT, sources told The Real Deal. The sale price is $88.75 million, which makes it the most expensive deal for a retail condo in more than two years.

The price works out to more than $1,475 per square foot.

Back to TRD:

The deal is the most expensive sale of a retail condo since Savanna sold the retail portion of 10 Madison Square west for $97.5 million in the spring of 2017 to TH Real Estate (now Nuveen Real Estate).

This property here previously housed a single row of storefronts, including Ray's Pizza, Bereket and Lobster Joint. 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.'"

Shaoul and REEC bought the air rights from Katz's next door to help make this condoplex a reality.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

A talk about Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers tonight at MoRUS

A last-minute listing via the EVG inbox today...

Ben Morea is going to be onhand tonight at 7 at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) for a discussion and screening of "Armed Love," Sean Stewart's short documentary profile of his time in the Lower East Side in the late 1960s.

In the film, Morea charts the evolution of Up Against the Wall/Motherfucker — the network of action-oriented radicals, freaks and street fighters who emerged out of the group surrounding the journal Black Mask during the late 1960s in New York City.

Find more details at this link.

MoRUS is located at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

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

Monday, May 6, 2019

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.

Monday, March 4, 2019

Introducing Village Preservation

On Friday, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, founded in 1980 and headquartered in the East Village, introduced a new look.

Moving forward, they'll be known as Village Preservation.

Here's more via their Board President Art Levin:

To continue effectively serving our growing scope and mission, and to continue attracting new supporters to help protect the architectural and cultural character of our unique neighborhoods, we are empowering two vital words in our current name to carry our work forward.

Village Preservation is inclusive, forward-looking, and — importantly — much easier to pronounce and remember. This moniker has been designed as part of a new look which embraces our traditional name while at the same time allowing us to more effectively activate our mission.

Please join the Board and staff of GVSHP in embracing this dynamic evolution, built on the shoulders of what we have already established, with eyes looking toward preserving the wonders of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, for all its inhabitants and visitors for years to come.

In case you haven't ~~spent every waking hour on the site~~ seen this yet ... earlier this year, Village Preservation (GVSHP at the time!) debuted a new online tool that allows you to explore the history of every building in the neighborhood. Find East Village Building Blocks at this link.

Friday, January 25, 2019

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]

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Find the history of every neighborhood building with East Village Building Blocks

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has created a new tool ~~to make sure that you never leave the internet~~ to explore the history of every building in the neighborhood.

Here's more about East Village Building Blocks, via a GVSHP email yesterday:

This online resource, which took 10 years to complete, used primary source research on every building in the East Village to determine (when possible) date of construction, original architect, original use, alterations over time, and any significant figures, events, businesses, or institutions connected to the existing building or prior buildings on the site.

Buildings can be searched by address, location, architect, building type or style, or significant figures, cultural groups, or types of activities associated with it. Present day and historic photos are also provided for each building, along with historic documents establishing dates of construction, owners, architects, uses, and alterations. Buildings include scores of houses of worship, theaters, schools, libraries, the country’s first public housing development, and one of the largest collections of intact tenements from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries.

Pack a bag and head into East Village Building Blocks at this link.

The arrival of the new tool coincides with the publication of "A History of the East Village and Its Architecture" by Francis Morrone.

Per GVSHP:

This report by the noted architectural historian documents the East Village’s history from Dutch settlement in the 17th century, to its development in the 19th century as a prosperous merchant burg and then immigrant gateway, to its evolution in the 20th century as an epicenter of abandonment and blight to a mecca for cultural innovation and rebirth, and its struggle in the 21st century to maintain its identity in the face of renewed popularity and success.

Read the report at this link. And you can find more about GVSHP's ongoing preservation efforts here.

Friday, October 5, 2018

On 6th Street, the Ukrainian Museum debuting Andy Warhol exhibit this weekend

Here's part of the announcement via the EVG inbox...

The Ukrainian Museum is delighted to announce that it will open the exhibition "Andy Warhol: Endangered Species" to the public on Sunday, Oct. 7. Commemorating the 90th anniversary of the birth of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), this is the first Warhol exhibition ever organized by a Ukrainian American organization.

"Endangered Species" is on loan from the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyo. James Warhola, an artist, writer, book illustrator and nephew of Andy Warhol, is a special contributor to the displays in the exhibition.

The exhibition includes the 10 silkscreens in the "Andy Warhol: Endangered Species" series from 1983 — Bighorn Ram, Black Rhinoceros, Grevy's Zebra, Orangutan, San Francisco Silverspot, African Elephant, Bald Eagle, Siberian Tiger, Pine Barrens Tree Frog, and Giant Panda — as well as the silkscreen Sea Turtle (1985).

An important component of the show at The Ukrainian Museum will be a section dedicated to Andy Warhol's early years growing up in Pittsburgh. At the vanguard of the Pop Art movement, Warhol is recognized as one of its greatest architects. But the influences from his youth, when he was immersed in the culture of his Carpatho-Rusyn origins, impacted his evolution into a world-renowned artist.

This exhibition not only features the still relevant "Endangered Species" series, but also looks at Warhol's heritage and other inspirations from his early years that spurred him along the path toward becoming one of the most influential American artists. Augmenting the "Endangered Species" exhibition are several early drawings by Warhol, as well as a few personal artifacts and family photo prints.

You can find more details at this link.

The Ukrainian Museum is located at 222 E. Sixth St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square. Museum hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"Andy Warhol: Endangered Species" will be on view through Feb. 17.

Friday, March 3, 2017

Former David Barton space on Astor Place will become an 'elite' New York Sports Club

Back in December, the four David Barton Gym locations in Manhattan, including on Astor Place, shut down without any warning to its members or staff.

That prime Astor Place space won't be staying vacant for too much longer. Yesterday, Town Sports International, the owners of the New York Sports Clubs brand, announced that they had bought the 10,000-square-foot space ... which will become one of New York Sports Clubs' collection of Elite clubs.

Here's more from an announcement that arrived in the EVG inbox:

New York Sports Clubs will pay homage to the rich neighborhood culture originally created by David Barton at 4 Astor Place by retaining many of the club's original finishes and signature touches while bringing in a new fresh new wave of equipment, facilities, amenities and class offerings.

The new location at 4 Astor Place will feature several new programs and will also boast Rogue rigs, Woodway treadmills, lifting platforms and expanded training zones.

New York Sports Clubs Elite membership gyms are the evolution of the Sports Clubs brand. This new tier of membership will offer customers a higher level of service, amenities, programming and partnerships as well as providing access to the nearly 150 clubs within the TSI network.

For more information about the Astor Place location, you can visit the official gym website here.

Last month, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Club Ventures Investments LLC d/b/a David Barton Gyms

David Barton arrived on Astor Place in 2009.