EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Shopping on Broadway via Bobby Williams]

Boutique priced out of the LES finds cheaper digs on Madison Avenue (DNAinfo)

Amy talks about her brief marriage to LES Jewels (The Villager)

Video recap of Portals 10-12 (GammaBlog)

Are these the 10 best restaurants on the LES? (Fork in the Road)

Aren't there enough Chinatown bus services? (The Lo-Down)

Yay? Bloomberg threatens to stop holding news conferences (The Wall Street Journal)

Remembering the Ludlow Street Cafe (Flaming Pablum)

History of The Village Voice (Off the Grid)

Manganaro's Hero Boy is saying put (The Commercial Observer)

RIP the original Blarney Stone (Grade "A" Fancy)

An open letter to The DL from LES Dwellers (BoweryBoogie)

Appreciating the Mayfair Barber Shop (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Williams Burroughs sings! (Dangerous Minds)

... and a reader notes that workers are hoisting some solar panels or something to buildings atop East 12th Street between A and B this morning... You always take pictures of cranes...


[Source: men installing solar panels with crane]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Weekend Stompers yesterday on Second Avenue]

The Lower East Side mistaken identity murder (Gothamist)

A new security system at 120 E. Fourth St. (Occupy East Fourth Street)

Velvet Underground & Nico turns 45 today (Westword)

'STAMPEDED' on East Second Street (The Lo-Down)

Q-and-A with a counter man at First & First Finest Deli (Racked)

More nightlife for Ludlow below Delancey (Crain's New York)

About the art fair at the Comfort Inn on Ludlow (ArtInfo)

Downtown diner Roxy Luncheonette in danger of closing (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Remembering Jack Kerouac on his birthday (Off the Grid)

Real-time NYC map app (Runnin' Scared)

Calvin Klein ad attracts anti-bulge notes on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

History of the Blarney Stone bars (Ephemeral New York)

Old-timer Blarney Stone becoming a gastropub with 35 plasma TVs in the Financial District

Every so often we wander away from the neighborhood...

We've written before about our fondness for The Blarney Stone on Fulton Street near Nassau in the Financial District ... a fine place for some beers and affordable quality food from the steam table by the front door. And they open at 8 a.m. A good crowd. Office workers. Construction workers. Horse players. A few people working on a scheme.

[Photo by IrishNYC via Flickr]

The place closed for good in March 2010.

Now, a reader sends along the following item from UrbanDaddy with news of what this space is becoming...

Welcome to The Fulton, a 4,300-square-foot gastropub where the menu looks like it’s from a steakhouse and the flat-screens are invisible (except when they’re not), opening Saturday in FiDi.

This place feels like a long-lost executive’s lounge from the 1920s. There are diamond-tufted leather banquettes everywhere. Herringbone wood walls. Hanger steak frites. Old framed photos of Fulton Street (circa horse-and-buggy era). And a slew of cracking antique mirrors... that happen to conceal 35 state-of-the-art invisible plasmas.

So when a game isn’t on, and the TVs are off, every set will be hidden behind two-way glass. Perfect for when you want to quietly sip on a Ginger Inn (that’s vodka with guava, lime, raspberry and ginger) while splitting short ribs and cheddar grits with that comely market analyst.

Like the sound of the "old framed photos of Fulton Street." A little history for the lifeless.

Neon still burns brightly at the Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone, an EV Grieve favorite down on Fulton Street, closed nearly one year ago... And the neon still has it going back on the former bar's Ann Street entrance...

"For lease" signs still adorn the front gate.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A fond farewell to the Blarney Stone

Hickey's is gone

For some reason, I found myself near Herald Square Friday evening. Enough to make anyone want to drink. Hickey's! Of course!



So I made my way over to 33rd Street near Seventh Avenue ... to the well-worn 40-year-old bar that I'll drink in any chance that I have...



Ahhhhh!. I have no idea when this happened. Another one lost. Of course, this closure has been rumored for years.

A few doors to the east, that suburbany-looking place called Stoudt NYC was MOBBED. So I went into the OK-at-the-right-time Blarney Stone next door. This was NOT the right time: Pre-Knicks game crowd. So I found a slot near the front door. An array of half-finished drinks sat there on a table next to me. A woman wondered in. I'm pretty sure she was carrying a glass of red wine in with her. She put down her wine. She started wolfing down the different drinks. Two half-empty bottles of Magners. And something that might have been a screwdriver. She asked if that was my bottle of beer. Yes it was. She nodded, picked up her wine and walked back out the door.

I felt a little better about Hickey's for a moment.

Read more about Hickey's at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York .... At A Guy Walks into 365 Bars, our friend Marty Wombacher wrote: "Hickey's is one of the last great dive bars in Manhattan. Stop by for a drink or four and let's keep this joint in existence!" You can read his recap here.

[Top photo via Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

New million dollar lofts in FiDi go from sliding rules to sliding doors

Just in case you thought there wasn't enough high-end condos in the Financial District. Debuted now on Fulton Street, a few doors west of our old friend the Blarney Stone...

Anyway, meet the Compass Lofts... oh, and excuse me, it's The Compass Lofts at 42 Ann Street. Even thought I'm standing on Fulton Street. Ann runs parallel to Fulton. And probably doesn't have as much of a stigma as Fulton Street, the home of, well, nothing.



Anyway, as the sign says, the lofts, which hit the market last week, start at $2.4 million... and they provide a nice view of the Beekman ...



Here's some of the listing:

The Compass Lofts is a landmarked boutique residential loft building in the heart of FiDi offering seven extraordinary homes that perfectly fuse 19th century distinction with 21st century luxury. Every aspect of the architectural restoration epitomizes the developer’s reverence for the building’s role in history as a symbol of precision and design integrity.

The Compass Lofts offers a choice of six gracious full-floor lofts and one newly added rooftop penthouse duplex. All offer grand living spaces that boast oversized windows, fireplaces and high vaulted-barrel ceilings that set the stage for dramatic entertaining. The loft layout bedroom area and spa-like baths provide for a quiet retreat. The open custom kitchen includes RAK Ceramics marbleized polished porcelain counters with premium Liebherr and Viking energy-efficient kitchen appliances. The penthouse duplex is flanked by spacious north- and south-facing terraces plus a private rooftop deck.

And a little history on the building:

It was built in 1892 and landmarked 113 years later. Now the former factory at 127 Fulton Street is on the brink of becoming one of the finest, best-restored residential buildings in the Financial District. The 10-story Keuffel & Esser building was named for the family-run company that built it. Famous among engineers who relied on its products, “K&E” was the brand of the early 20th century for all sorts of drafting materials and instruments — T squares, compasses, measuring tapes, leveling rods, surveying equipment, and even furniture. It was the first American company to manufacture slide rules, and its success helped make Lower Manhattan a commercial capital in the days when industry rivaled finance downtown

Here's more on the history of the company. And if you want to know more about the Compass Lofts, there's an open house on Sunday...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

L.E.S. Jewels will be sentenced on June 1 (The Villager, third item)

Goodbye to the OTB on Delancey? (BoweryBoogie)

Looking at Ray's new ice cream machine (Neither More Nor Less)

Update on the Lora Deli wall (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A lonely wall on St. Mark's Place (The Gog Log)

An amazing photo from Hell's Kitchen circa 1989 (Flickr via NYC Taxi Photo)

Astor Place Mud Truck hit by DOH (Eater)

A random fiber interlude....




Go see the group exhibit Structured (details via Nathan Kensinger Photography)

Pizza bloggers have their say on Pulino's (Grub Street)

The East Village Idiot signs off (East Village Idiot)

And three great posts this week at Blah Blog Blah:

Where Beth Israel is

The history of trolley cars on Avenue A

A post on diarrhea and a real-estate broker

And Eater reported this earlier... and I just saw the sign for myself... my beloved Blarney Stone on Fulton Street is really gone...



Which means these signs must be updated...

A fond farewell to the Blarney Stone

Sigh. It looks as if EV Grieve favorite the Blarney Stone on Fulton Street is done. As Eater reported, the bar has been closed by a court order. It was one of the few places that opened at 8 a.m. around there...

Perhaps it will all be worked out... and, one day soon, I'll be able to see the row of ketchup bottles that you're not supposed to take...



I leave with this memory from a few weeks ago...



He put about $50 in the jukebox and danced and danced and danced. And this isn't really the kind of bar that people dance in, mind you. The fellow then went outside and smoked a funny smelling cigarette and yelled something about Sinatra.

Always had an interesting crowd here

And I still think switching signs did this place in....

Good news: The Blarney Stone has reopened

Yesterday, in fact, after being closed for nearly three weeks...



...with a few modifications...



On Fulton Street in the Financial District.

Previously.

Very bad things: Blarney Stone still closed on Fulton Street

No sign of any activity. If my math is correct, they've been closed now for 18 days.

Previously.

The Blarney Stone is still closed

Perhaps they'll reopen in time to capitalize on the Yankees World Series victory parade Friday morning.

Previously.

The Blarney Stone is closed (again)

Uh-oh. Thanks to a tipster who points out that FiDi fave the Blarney Stone on Fulton Street has been closed now for five days. As you may recall, the bar was mysteriously closed for seven days or so this past February.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Blarney Stone is back in business

More signs of the recession: At the Blarney Stone

On Fulton Street in the Financial District.

Revisiting Fulton Street...and say hello to Fultonhaus!

Fulton Street, down in the Financial District, is as dreary as ever. The street is still torn up. And there's that large, unnecessary money pit in the Earth on Fulton and Broadway where the Fulton Street Transit Center will open in 4783. (At the east end of the street at Water and the South Street Seaport, the storefront that housed the Staples remains vacant.) Still, though, despite all this...the street is functional enough for the working folks in the neighborhood. You have your Radio Shack, your Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, CVS, etc. Your basic chain hell with a few mom-and-pop shops in the mix. (With some affordable work space on the upper levels.)



Despite the economy, more change is inevitable along this corridor. For instance, on the north side of the street, between Nassau and Williams Street, there are four properties for rent. (Here's info on 119 Fulton St.)






As humdrum as the street level looks, big things have happened up above...check out the upper left-hand side of this photo...



That's the 14-story loft residence (a SHVO exclusive!) known as Fultonhaus at 199 Fulton St., just a few doors east of the Crisis Intervention Program at the Coalition for the Homeless. Dunno what the occupancy rate is at Fultonhaus. For what it's worth, there is some furniture out on a few of the terraces, though not too many brave souls are taking advantage of the Fultonhaus rooftop right now. [Update: Thanks to the commenter for setting me straight: The roof deck is part of District next door to Fultonhaus.]



Oh, one thing worth mentioning on the Fultonhaus site...the "nightlife" section...not exactly an area renowned for it. Anyway, the wonderfully seedy Pussycat Lounge gets namechecked!


No love, though, for the Blarney Stone? Which is right next to the Fultonhaus. And they're having a nice sandwich/side order combo deal. Just don't ask for separate containers, OK?

The Blarney Stone is back in business

A lovely sight. No word yet on why they were closed on Fulton Street for seven-plus days...

(Jumping ahead to) Day 7: The Blarney Stone is still closed

The fellows at the shoe repair shop next door are equally mystified as to why the Blarney Stone isn't open...and they said it closed last Friday, not Monday as I previously thought. Commenter Stewie at Eater mentioned yesterday that several businesses along this stretch of Fulton Street have had problems with water pipes of late. True...a very likely cause for a closing. However, looking in the BS's back entrance on Ann Street, nothing looks out of place. No signs of construction...or work of any kind. One minor thing: The five pieces of tape on the front gate -- from which a sign had been telling us what was what? -- are now gone...

Day 4: The Blarney Stone is still closed

Day 3: The Blarney Stone is still closed

Update on the Blarney Stone: Still closed

Following up on my earlier post on the Blarney Stone on Fulton Street. Uh-oh — it's still closed as of around noon today. Not a good sign. This is a good lunch space...and a better drinking spot. OK, and a good lunch spot to drink in. Anyway, it's one of the few bars remaining in the Financial District worth frequenting...



Looks as if a sign was taped up on the gate....But five measly pieces of tape in this wind? The sign is likely in Brooklyn Heights by now. I walked around to the back entrance on Ann Street and looked inside. Nothing amiss. Everything seems to be where it usually is. The phone just rings...no outgoing message.



So I'm sure this is just a temporary thing...Right?

Still, given the changes sweeping down Fulton Street, nothing would surprise me...

Why was the venerable Blarney Stone on Fulton Street closed last night?

They're an 8 a.m.-4 a.m. place.



No sign on the door...and no one answered their phone. This on the heels of getting a sterile new sign.