Three Seat Espresso will close by the end of 2019 on Avenue A; founder blames Starbucks

After three years at 137 Avenue A, Three Seat Espresso is planning its departure by the end of 2019 here between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.


[Photo by Steven]

The owners made the announcement on Instagram yesterday:

Three Seat Espresso will be closing for good. Not immediately but before years' end. Halloween marks our 3rd and last birthday. We have tried to serve the community as best we can, however, ultimately we can no longer do so.

Thanks to everyone who has supported and continued to support us — staff, investors, customers, friends, family, vendors and partners.

Please stop in when you can, as the staff and I would love a chance to say our goodbyes before throwing you back into the coffee abyss!

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Updated 12:30
Aaron, the founder, added more background about the closure this morning in an Instagram post:

Three Seat wasn’t perfect. Nothing ever is. A lot of shit went down in those four walls. Starting as a cafe and barber concept, along with the barber aspect came physical fights between barbers in front of cafe customers, theft, police involvement, plus more. Barbers and barber shops are a culture unto themselves. I could write a book on this!

At the same time, the cafe was pretty busy and it made sense to expand into the barber shop area, removing the barber service.

It didn’t work. Over the last year, the cafe has only become quieter and quieter, significantly reducing sales — our Achilles heel. The Shitbucks effect has hit hard and they have only become busier and embraced by the community. They opened approx 50 feet from me. I have people say to me every day 'I just don’t get it, why would people go there?' Fact it is, it doesn’t matter. People do and increasingly so. There is nothing I can do about it, having tried so many things already. The mega-billion-dollar-shit-in-a-cup-boheimouth has worn my business down and now out. This is a case of where having the best coffee, the best aesthetic, the best service, the best music etc. doesn’t matter.

But, what an experience it has been! Working with staff and investors who have become dear friends, customer who have become mates and wonderful cafe and hospitality partners. When thriving, Three Seat was a wonderful part of the East Village community.

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Per EVG reader Nick, who shared news of the closure: "I enjoyed going there of the past few years — they were always very nice and friendly, and the coffee was good. Curious to see what will be next."

Another reader who chimed in about the pending closing wondered what impact Starbucks, which arrived a few storefronts away in August 2017, may have had.

After two-plus years of life as a coffee shop-barber combo, Three Seats expanded the cafe in place of the barber last November.

The previous tenant here, the always-busy Top A Nails, moved next door to No. 139 in May 2016.

The East Village — 'this place is still the best home for a lot of people'

[Photo by Gregoire Alessandrini]

By Jennifer Blowdryer

Of course the very bloodiest single-minded crimes in Manhattan are real-estate battles.

There was that locksmith of a landlord who allegedly made an entire likable middle-age couple go missing. More locally we have Danny Rakowitz, the so-called Tompkins Square Park Cannibal, and his temporary flatmate Monica, who thought she’d get his apartment and ended up in the stew instead. I always felt that the apartment was the key factor in that murder — anybody who was acquainted with Danny should have known better than to cohabit with him for even a moment.

Marla Hanson got her face slashed by landlord-hired goons and got famous the wrong way, enabling her to hook up with a tabloid-hungry author Jay McInerny for a minute. Gary Indiana’s great book, "Depraved Indifference," is a lightning-rod masterpiece about the mother and son who did away with a needy woman who, to be fair to their aspirational level, did in fact own an entire townhouse.

Most real-estate crimes here in the East Village are of the pettiest Dickensian kind – somebody’s got themselves an apartment, all the way indoors, in a building with or without a lobby, or even just a room in an apartment. Their quarters are often piled high with animal hair, collectibles, and palpable loneliness. Once an anchor tenant gives up or loses a domicile, they got nowhere, really, to go. Ever. Because as much as every jackass likes to mention that the East Village has changed, like they just noticed it, the way straight men don’t notice they’re older til they hit the wrong side of 50, this place is still the best home for a lot of people.

I suppose that on the yuppie/crazy/Puerto Rican/Dominican range of remaining East Village tenants, I’d have to be realtor-perceived as one of the crazies. You’ve got to stick with your own kind, even if it takes a microcosm of rezoning, so I sometimes put other crazies up in my small flat. Barflies, charmers, the well-spoken and unmatriculable, they need to be here, even if it means they're on the floor by my bed, under a table, or, worst-case scenario, sucking up my expensive cable TV watching endless episodes of "Wicked Tuna."

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My favorite guests of necessity were originally here in the 1980s, the 1990s, or the aughts, bein’ beautiful, working on the buildings, spackling, plumbing, and being difficult, going to Mars Bar every damn day, gossiping thoroughly about each other in a Yenta way that is more informational than dunning. Because to have a habit, a craft that’s useless in a technocracy, to slide into permanent befuddlement due to the alcohol-poisoned blood that washes over ones brain every 2 minutes or so, to inhabit a permanent state of virulent misinformation due to that cross bred and sprayed substance which weed’s become. Worse yet, future tenants are likely to suffer from the after shocks of some Dick Cheney version of a military invasion. Bad things just happen to a guy who thinks too much and plans too little.

When brutal things happen to a woman she gets a lot less social slack – the world can collectively shun a crone shuddering on a ledge, no longer mom, booty call, or interested listener, unable and unwilling to hear how the world done a man wrong for even a millisecond.

Homelessness is so rampant but dunning that toting around a very large bag on city streets is a social death knell. The art of the bag stash is an artful slight of hand you'd better master if you're in the position of no position. If you’re trying to get a footing in somebody’s apartment then you’d better not be too obvious – put your stenchy belongs under the couch, just behind a chair, in a corner of a closet you hope the host doesn’t use much. One so understands.

I mean hell, I’m not much of a joiner, and groups of, say, 7 folk or more tend to turn on me in a subtle display of hive mind that I often suspect would translate into a public square beat down in another century or town. If it wasn’t NYC and the last great vestige of street life it retains, I’d be a stray cat, a low-down talent snob, an impossible to please slow to anger woman with snarly hair who picks friends like illogical magnets, an artist that needs to be broken.

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[Photo by Gregoire Alessandrini]

In the East Village I fit right in. I can walk to Ray's, talk to Kim and the ad-hoc salon he hosts behind the counter, get myself a peanut butter ice cream and some Belgian fries. If the sun is out even a little bit I could walk across the street to Tompkins Park, swing by Crusty Row and say hello to G-Sus or the late LES Jewels, or the Circle part of the Park to find Eak, after craning my neck to see if Jay is in the chess area to the right side, dominating at a chess table, sober but happy to be only a few feet from the boisterous day imbibers at the 7th Street entrance.

If there’s a conga beat that’s going on more toward Avenue B there are definitely congo players and maybe some of that hard to master off-beat Latin singing, so I walk down more toward the Avenue B side of the benches and stay close by the music, listening, smiling hard. Every few months my endless pursuit of artistic hobbies means a flyer generating visit to Santos at The Source on 9th Street. He’s a good man with a narrow multi-purpose print shop who crinkles his eyes kindly when I’m there on one of my bad days, stammering out my request for a DVD copy, hunched forward and vague but terribly busy with a million projects no Grant shall ever shine on. Santos makes people happy.

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I spent so many nights in a nearby building with the best cuddler ever that one operator came to call me “The Landlord’s Girlfriend,” a sort of fiendish tag muttered from clenched teeth. I sort of was, especially with my responsibility of pointing out the boiler room. Often there’d be a call that required me to get out of his bed way too early for an East Villager, cram on my shoes, and totter down to the basement to show an indifferent city worker where the boiler was. The employee always had a pleasant world weary shrug of an attitude. They'd look at the boiler, check the clipboard, and we'd all keep moving on with our day.

I had to point out the boiler because somebody with a beef called the Housing Department about rats or noise or God knows what, and the city worker with the clipboard was just a guy with a job, and he had to check something off on a form. This was the easiest out for he and I. It wasn’t like they thought there wouldn’t be a boiler room there if they caught us unawares. It was that the accumulated animosity resulted in a promiscuous use of snitching and cross snitching to 311, 911, and any other have-to-respond social services that exist. It was a stunning and extended use of city bureaucracy and we all had to play our parts, just about every other day, there was no way to stop any of it once it got rolling, Common Sense is such a myth.

Construction and history wise it’s an alright building, and it had itself a nice little courtyard that the couple on the first floor ably ran as their own, which tends to happen with ground-floor courtyards. The East Village version of the real-estate death battle writ small was sometimes more interactive than calls to the Housing Department. Like when the special-needs guy from the second floor clocked the courtyard tenant who’d invited him in for a celebratory glass of birthday scotch. Don’t get too friendly with your neighbors, was the lesson.

On another floor an ex-con moved in with the 90-year-old mother of his dead former cellie and knocked her around. He was fond of trying to engage GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side), an exhausted tenant’s rights non-profit, when his tyranny of one became threatened.

Another standing tenant was a not-too-bright nutter who grew up in the building, drew a knife on his trapped walker-bound father. You could hear the son’s security guard shoes tromping around or spot him booking down the steps, spewing the angry monologues of the self trapped, eyes flashing, face puffed up to a bright and scary red.

The low-down sociopathology of Elder Abuse is pretty common in rent-controlled apartments here and maybe everywhere. Pity the very old, the crippled, and frozen agoraphobic hoarder, because once a predator gets past their dented doors that’s all she wrote. Elder Abuse is both a true evil and banal, a crime perpetrated by the illiterate whose goal to just, you know, stay inside is a tenacious mini genocide of a living soul. Most crime, after all, is just poor people doing heinous shit to each other, no millions involved. Homicide cops don’t think much of us, the uncunning poor.

The other day, as I walked down my hallway steps, a woman, too thin, too hard, too much at work, said “Do you like silver?” and I stopped dead in my tracks. “Yes. Yes I do.” I replied, the only answer, because without leaving my own building I had just met the most classic of peddlers and she is after all alive, and deserves to be here as much as the plants, the bankers, the children, the loafers, and the artists.

The female riff raff of the LES are those plants that are just too green, the ones who sprout through the concrete on a so-called esplanade just off the Con Ed plant on the FDR. These unweeds and the peddling riff raff are suspicious activity, which is the safest way to be around here. It’s fun. In turn we, the effervescent place saving plants, refuse to be suspicious of you, you, and you. That’s how you miss the good stuff. Come on over, you Albanian Supers, you wheezing pugs, you silk screening waitresses with no ability to fulfill an order of any kind. We've all got our nerve!

Jennifer Blowdryer is an East Village resident who's been here since 1985 and was conceived in a dumpy tenement off the Bowery, right on Bleecker. She is the lead singer of Jennifer Blowdryer Punk Soul.

Perspectives on feeding the homeless in the neighborhood

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

This spring, I had the opportunity to document an East Village-restaurateur family's efforts (here and here) to feed the neighborhood's homeless.

The married couple, who own a restaurant that's currently closed during the COVID-19 crisis, have made two deliveries to date of boxed meals that they've prepared — a number that has increased thanks to donations from EVG readers.

On a recent day in May, I met up with them again for what will be the third delivery. We’ve learned a bit from our previous two runs and we have music on hand to make the rhythm of the work flow easier. (I’m partial to The Cramps and the three of us find a lot of in-common musicians to keep us company.)

We soon establish a plan, and map out how we hope the day might go. We’ve done all the shopping and the couple has done some of the meal prep the day before. We have contact info from a local resident in need whom we’d hoped to meet up with on the prior trip, and a special request or two, including dog food, which we didn’t have last time as well as extra sanitary supplies.

The delivery goes well, and after days of shopping and planning and hours of prep, handing out all the meals and kits is over in less than 90 minutes. We manage to meet up with the friend of a reader who made a donation in his honor, got the dog food to the couple and their puppy, and spent only a bit over what we had allotted.









This time, when we’re out making deliveries, I ask if the husband can answer a few of my questions. I’m curious about how he feels about the project and if his thoughts vary from his partner’s.

How has this experience been for you?

We came up with the idea for this project at the very beginning of the statewide PAUSE order. There have always been homeless people in the East Village and Lower East Side, but there has been a level of support for them in people who they can panhandle from.

When the city shut down, that interaction disappeared, and the homeless and their plight became much more visible. As business owners, we tried to help individuals by giving them food from the restaurant, but then they started coming back looking for more, and that was difficult for our staff to navigate.

Whatever efforts the city or other organizations implemented wasn’t noticed by us, so we felt we had to come up with a plan to address the problem on our own.

Having grown up in the EV/LES area in the 1970s and 1980s, hanging out in Tompkins Square Park and on St. Mark’s Place, I have seen homeless people all my life. Throughout the years I have thought of ways to help but I always just end up giving someone the change in my pocket or my leftover dinner from the restaurant where I just ate.

As we live our busy lives, balancing work and raising a family, rushing from one place to the other, sometimes it’s easy to let the homeless blend into the background. If we don’t think about them, they can become fuzzy shadows existing only in our peripheral.

But when we carried out our project, we got a glimpse of who they are. We found people from many different countries, many different ages, many different races, and genders. Putting them in the forefront, we discovered they were all people, who, for whatever reason found themselves in a difficult situation living rough on the streets.

Overall, my experience has been mixed. I am shocked there are so many homeless out there — just in our neighborhood. I am heartbroken to see that some are so young. Most people are receptive, some are hostile, some won’t look at me, some talk to themselves, some are in withdrawal, some ask for drugs, some ask for money, one woman asked for underwear, one man was distressed because he needed to use a bathroom, some are panhandling, some are sitting on the sidewalk in a tent or a cardboard box.

At the end of each day, I am physically and emotionally drained. Sometimes it’s hard to deal with reality, but I guarantee that whatever I’m feeling pales in comparison to how these people live every day. And it always leaves me feeling like there is much more work to do.

The community response from the initial story was overwhelming, with lots of people reaching out to privately donate funds and/or goods for this project. How did that inform your decisions about what to buy, how to shop, what to serve, and how best to deliver food and goods to those in need?

I will be eternally grateful to the folks who had the faith to donate, without an idea of who we were, or what we would do with the money. That we included feminine hygiene products and socks seemed to resonate with your readers, so we expanded in that direction.

Due to the virus, we asked for masks, which we included in each package. We included toothpaste and a toothbrush. So many people asked for a second meal, for a friend or relative or themselves, so we rethought the menu and created packages that could easily be two or three meals and easy to eat. We put everything into one paper shopping bag for efficiency. We were able to really stretch each dollar we received.

Being in the restaurant business, we bought unprepared food in bulk as well as containers at a restaurant supply market, and the rest of the items we bought at Costco and a dollar store.

We filled a paper shopping bag with all of these items, at a cost of about 10 bucks per bag.

In personally delivering these grab-n-go bags to people, you received feedback from the recipients. Anything that you’d care to share?

I discovered that people are much less wary if I approach them wearing an apron. Otherwise, I’m just some random tattooed guy walking up, and people can be understandably defensive. But when we get through that initial wariness and the guard drops, most everyone is receptive, happy that someone would give them something without question.

What stays in your mind from this experience? What might you tell other people who may be interested in helping?

What has really stuck in my mind was the last stop. We found a large community of homeless, 20 or more, and were able to give bags to all of them — except one. We were packing up and closing the car door when a young man walked up and asked for a bag. But we had already given out the last one.

My heart dropped — we searched the car and were able to give him a fruit salad, which was meant for someone else, and the rest of the sandwich I was eating for dinner, but I could tell he was disappointed, looking at everyone else smiling, taking things out of their bags. I was devastated and felt I failed him as I couldn’t look him in his eye to tell him we had no more to give.

So, my takeaway is this: whatever it is that we are able do, there is much more work to do. What we did — two full days of shopping and preparing 72 bags, which filled our car — was handed out in one and a half hours. It was over so quickly! What we did was a drop in the ocean. There is a serious problem out there, which has been exacerbated by this pandemic, and I hope that any new relief package includes help for all these people in need.













Previously on EV Grieve:
• Anonymous East Village restaurant owners continue to feed those in need of a meal

• Anonymous East Village restaurant owners distribute meals to neighbors in need

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: Lucille Krasne
Occupation: Designer, Argentine Tango dance organizer
Location: 10th Street between Avenue A and B.
Time: 4 on Sunday, March 25

I’m from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I always wanted to live in New York and so I ended up making the big move to the East Coast while everyone else was making the move to the West Coast. This is the only place I’ve ever lived in New York and I’ve been here for 43 years. This is it.

I am so proud of Tompkins Square Park, which I consider my front yard. Important things happen here. When I first arrived here, I thought it was heaven, paradise on earth, because in the Park on May Day you had all the young people with big red flags celebrating May Day, Communism, Collectivism, and then you had a group of Ukranians with great big signs saying, “Free the Captive Nations,” free all the people in communist countries.

I’ve also seen it go through terrible times. In 1988, I was so stunned to find the entire place surrounded by helmeted police with nightsticks during the riots. I couldn’t believe what was going on. I remember the screaming when they were throwing out all of the homeless people from the Park. I know there were a lot of dangerous things going on, but it killed me to hear that. I was yelling, “Why are you doing this to those people?”

But it’s been wonderful for me since they closed the Park at night because I can now actually sleep. People used to scream and make noise all night. Noise has been a terrible issue in this neighborhood. For years I wanted to blow my brains out and everybody used to think of ways to try and stop the noise. There were also the car alarms. I’ve had a lot of tubes of lipstick that I’ve written on cars with.

I’ve had a very checkered career. When I moved to LA after college, one of my first oddball jobs was creating a hand-puppet show for the County Parks Department out of a converted park washroom. We eventually took it on the road and showed it to zillions of children and then had big puppet workshops all over the place.

When I moved here, I worked for an arts funding organization. It was the perfect job for me. Having no money, I was able to give away money that was provided by the New York State Council in the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. It was quite a wonderful organization. I was a traveling consultant and I went out to meet with all sorts of groups around the state having to do with issues of arts, saving interesting architecture, poetry groups, dance groups. I advised groups on how to stimulate the community to support them. My role was to instigate them to instigate excitement within the community and bring in more people. I also worked on prison projects and with migrant worker programs.

I also created a jewelry business with my sister for 10 years. We named it Krasne Two. We were designing imaginative accessories and jewelry. We made quite a splash but it is very hard to keep that kind of world going when you are limited financially and don’t have enough backing. It was fun while it lasted. Now I design floor cloths and murals and all kinds of accessories

And then I went into the Argentine Tango business. I fell in love with the Argentine Tango as so many other have. I first fell in love with the music and then I fell in love with the dance. If it grips you it grips you and you’re really caught. I helped start the first New York City tango festival, which was about the wonders of New York and the wonders of Tango. I took the Milanga (Argentine Tango Party) outdoors to Central Park about 15 years ago. I called it the hit and run tango because if the police came you ran. You find a beautiful place, free or pretty free, open to the public, attractive, and everybody dances like crazy and you expand this community, which was teensy weensy. I don’t run it anymore but it’s still going on every Saturday afternoon.

We now run a weekly Milonga at The Ukrainian on 140 Second Ave. on Wednesdays. It’s called “Esmeralda’s E.V. Milonga and Supper Club.” We dance from 6 to 11:30 and if you come between 6 and 7:30 and have dinner with us then you don’t pay the admission. You can listen to the gorgeous Argentine music and watch the fine dancing.

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

Breaking the internet (and Instagram) with cumgirl8

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m L-training it to Brooklyn to catch hypnotic neon punk band cumgirl8’s EP release show at the Knitting Factory. 

Also on the bill this October night, close collaborators GirlDick...

East Village performer and godmother of modern-day shock art Kembra Pfahler ...

... and dancer Bobbie Hondo (on the right) ...

I arrive in time to catch some of the load-in and soundcheck, with Veronica Vilim on guitar and percussive drill, Lida Fox on bass and synth, Chase Noelle with the powerhouse drumming, and featuring Avishag Cohen Rodrigues for additional firepower on guitar. 

There is some last-minute crafting of signage/decor backstage, scribbling out of setlists, adjusting clothing — lots of I.AM.GIA and cumgirl8 fashion designs and accessories styled by Jordane Stawecki — and a quickie trip to nab some preshow food at Caracas Arepa Bar, a former East Village favorite still up and running in Williamsburg.

The show itself is chaotic, loud, pleasurable — cusping off the pandemic, people are eager to celebrate, and the venue is filled with dancing and fans singing along...

After the show, I chat with the three core members about the band’s history, creativity during a pandemic, censorship, and normalizing female sexuality.

What were the common interests that led you to initially form a band beyond just jamming with friends?

Lida Fox: It really began as an outlet to express frustrations we faced in our lives and work and to vent toxicity from relationships. It was basically a healing/empowerment mechanism. We all have backgrounds in dance, art, and performing, so when we get together, it’s basically freeform pent-up energy, sometimes verging on insanity. 

Before we started this, I faced so many blocks in the way I thought I could express myself, but now I feel almost anything is possible. We all have pretty varying tastes in music, art, film, etc., but they complement each other in amazing ways. 

 

Some of the band members live/work in the Lower East Side or East Village. How do local events and shows — such as your fashion week show at Cafe Forgot and performances at the Flower Shop — differ from audiences in Brooklyn like at Baby’s All Right or tonight’s Knitting Factory show?

Veronika Vilim: I haven’t noticed too much difference in audiences, but I would say there is more of a younger crowd at shows in Brooklyn [Williamsburg/Bushwick] than shows in Manhattan. Having the fashion show during the day and it being a fashion show event, more people were interested in fashion. People like my mom and dad, for example, come to the daytime shows (fashion shows and music shows) in Manhattan rather than the show at the Knitting Factory, because it was not only at night but also because it was in Brooklyn.

How have you seen/heard your sound evolve from the early days of the band? 

Chase Noelle: In the early days, we were learning how to communicate with each other. Our first EP is fucking insane, impulsive, id-driven. We got a lot of comparisons to punk bands like the Desperate Bicycles and Flipper. 

We’re influenced by ballet and opera and club music, truly all over the place, and that’s why we sound so weird. Now our sound is more focused — it’s still shameless, but our musicality is showcased now and more directed. We really want to make people dance without feeling self-conscious. Our single “BUGS” is inside of that. We still sound fucking insane, especially live, but there’s a laser focus that cuts through it all. 

And how about your live performances? Do you feel more confident with each show?

Vilim: Yes! I feel like every show we play, we evolve together and become more of a team. We understand how to perform more and really embrace this character/world we have been developing! Watching videos from our live shows from the beginning until now, you can really see a difference in our performance. Also, now with the audience knowing our music more, there’s really a vibe with the crowd and that makes such a difference as well ’cause everyone really vibes together.

What’s your take on NYC right now as being a welcoming environment for a creative spirit? 

Fox:  I think there’s a welcoming creative environment now more than ever. [At least] in the last 12 years I’ve been here. The pandemic sucked, but it made everyone realize what a privilege it is to perform or be in the same room with a group of people dancing/jumping/going crazy together, watching a movie, appreciating art, etc. There’s so much more appreciative energy now, and people don’t hold back; they aren’t as jaded. 

Also, I feel that the creative community has gotten closer, I mean literally smaller, but also tighter and more support amongst the people who are still here. It’s still insanely expensive to try to survive and make art in NYC, though.

You just released your second EP, RIPcumgirl8. That’s an ominous title. Do you have plans to continue with cumgirl8? What else is on the horizon — perhaps another clothing collection? 

Noelle: RIPcumgirl8 is two-fold, but on the surface, it’s an homage to our Instagram that was deleted. We’ve been heavily censored, our YouTube got taken down and — believe it —  even our website started garnishing our sales because they’re...fascists? 

Don’t get me started. But yeah, that’s the first layer. Our identity is entrenched in internet culture, especially chatroom vibes from when we were coming of age. “Cumgirl8” is a screen name. It was really fitting when, after all of this feminist, sex-positive, youth outreach work we did, we ultimately got censored and then deleted. 

The whole point is to push and push and move the needle, so people eventually stop feeling shocked when they see the words “cum” and “girl” together. So it’s par for the course, perhaps. They deleted us right before we hit 10,000 followers, right after we released our first EP. 

Thankfully, we got our old handle back, but we had to start over. There’s a second, dissociative meaning to “RIPcumgirl8” that’s a lot more personal to us, but you can uncover that in the lyrics.   

You can keep up with the band via Instagram. 

And check out the video for the new single “BUGS” right here ...

  

Former East Village boutique Mod World lives on in a new documentary

[Photo from 1997 by EVG reader Dave Buchwald]

You may recall Mod World, the offbeat boutique that had a 12-year-run (1994-2006) at 85 First Ave. near East Fifth St.

The store now lives on in a documentary of the same name. "Mod World" is the work of filmmaker-editor Jeff Turboff, an Upper East Side resident who lived for 11 years in the East Village.

"Mod World" made its debut on March 15 at the Producers Club on West 44th Street. Turboff is now hoping to screen the documentary at various film festivals. He answered a few questions for us via Facebook.

How did the documentary come to be? Did you start collecting footage at the time with a documentary in mind?

The first few years of the 2000s were a busy time for me on the independent filmmaking front. I was part of Quickflicks, a club where each member made a new short film each month. But I had also been on the lookout for something more ambitious than shorts. I was intrigued by the idea of making a documentary about artists, and at one point had started to make a film about Jonny Clockworks, the brilliant puppeteer, in his run-up to the year 2000 Henson Festival, but for various reasons the project was halted mid-production.

When I stumbled onto Mod World, a funky little East Village gift shop and art gallery; irreverent and snarky, but also upbeat and fun, I just thought I'd hang around for a few days, get people talking about their art, and maybe bang out a 5- or 10-minute docu short. But I really liked the people there, I got intrigued, and then I got patient.

What made Mod World a special place in your estimation?

My friend Laurie Turner in Texas, who I've known since I was a 14-year-old kid, owned some retail shops in Houston and then Austin, like Sheer Fantasy and Vertigo. I did a lot of hanging out in her stores, and she had cultivated that same kind of chaotic weird energy that eventually found its way to Mod World.

So when I stepped into Mod World, I think I must've felt a resonance there. Plus, Mod World had all this really cool, totally original, low-brow art. Modified Barbie Dolls, like Pinhead-from-Hellraiser Barbie, Giraffe-necked Barbie, stuff like that, and John Ross's really cool sculptures of cartoon characters in violent or adult situations… Ronald McDahmer, Drugs Bunny… I just thought, "This is so cool, I have to find out more about these people," and then it turned out that they were a really nice bunch. I immediately liked them and was intrigued.

The film's description includes this passage: "Lots of whacky East Village types pop into Mod World to share in the madness; the kind of people middle America might think of, if they were to think of the East Village." Do you think this East Village of just a few years ago still exists with the increased rents/upscale movement?

I think the East Village is changing. It has changed since then. But New York is a fluid place. Stuff comes and goes. Times Square ain't what it used to be. East Village ain't what it used to be. Everything loses its edge and adopts this sheen, slick with money and corporate infiltration, pushing out the cutting edge, until the cutting edge cuts back. I'm not talking about violent revolution, I'm talking about art and music.

Where the cradle for the next phase is, I don't know. It's not the East Village anymore, it won't be, probably, because the raw materials aren't there anymore. The raw materials are creatives with cheap rents. When the rents go up, the lifeblood of a creative community go with it… so "Mod World" the movie is a time capsule, yeah.

The film debuted on March 15. What is next for it?

What's next is, I'm rolling it out to festivals, if they'll have it, and interested in finding out if we can get it picked up for distribution. And if I have to do it D.I.Y.-style, I guess I'll find a way to do that. But I've got some faith that it's going to find legs, because the response so far has been fantastic. People love the characters, the music by Snuka, and John Ross's art, and it's a story that I think almost anyone can relate to, which is getting through hard times in the only way we know how; together, with love and a sense of humor.

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Check out the trailer here...


Modworld movie trailer 01 from Jeff Turboff on Vimeo.

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Postscript

One of the Mod World partners is behind It's A Mod Mod World, a bakery and gift stop retail store in Buffalo...

A visit to Fit Ritual on 6th Street

Text and photos by Stacie Joy 

I’m eyeing the fancy new treadmill at Fit Ritual fitness studio, 543 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, with a mixture of awe and dread. 

Before I can even investigate further, owner and personal trainer Helena Radulovic initiates COVID-safe protocols and checks my temperature and offers hand sanitizer. She then shows me all the bells and whistles on the machine, complete with fans, music, video and a precarious 15-percent incline. 

Clutching my heavy camera, I remind myself that I am here to interview, observe and document, not sweat it out on the equipment. In that light, I am relieved when Helena’s client, health-care marketing exec Ana Zivanovic arrives for her training session. Helena agrees to answer my questions after the hourlong session is over and Ana consents to being photographed as Helena puts her through the paces...

How has the pandemic and New York State’s PAUSE order affected your business?

On March 16, I was working up a sweat with my clients one last time at the fitness studio. COVID-19 lockdown orders were about to take effect on March 20 when Gov. Cuomo issued the executive order directing all nonessential businesses to close, and Fit Ritual— along with all other local gyms — would have to close its doors too. 

I never expected it to be for good and that night I made a decision to fight for its survival. Every piece of me went into that place. It was my dream come true. Fast-forward to a few months back, and I continued to actually pay the full rent through June, and with donations [for virtual classes] my clients were being very generous. I decided not to pay myself to keep things going. 

When I finally approached the landlord and was like, “Hey, I’ve been paying full rent this whole time, I’m really kind of out of money, can you help me out a little bit?” I got the answer, “Yes!” By July 20, all regions of New York, including New York City, had reached the Phase IV of the state’s reopening. But once they started announcing the phases and gyms weren’t ever mentioned, my heart sank. It’s as if the boutique fitness industry was completely overlooked in all of this. I’m choosing to believe this was all done in our best interest, because New York City and New York State did such a great job at mitigating the virus. But an entire sector of the industry to be completely ignored — it’s a huge industry in New York City and in every major city. 

So finally, on Monday, Aug. 24, interim guidance for gyms and fitness centers during the COVID-19 public health emergency was announced. However, the mayor of New York City decided to postpone the effective date until a later date, Sept. 2 — our official reopening day! And we intend to keep on going!

What precautions and procedures are currently in place for those wishing to work out or train at Fit Ritual? 

We strictly follow CDC and local guidelines. Temperature checks, screening for COVID-19 symptoms prior to session, social distancing, and masks are required. We always offer a spare one. There are multiple hand-sanitizing stations at the studio. 

In addition, we keep track of all appointments and contact details through Square, for contact tracing. Appointments are spread out with 30 minutes in between to allow us enough time for thorough sanitizing of all equipment and high-touch areas. 

We also keep the door open whenever possible to allow for circulation of fresh air. All our clients are encouraged to get tested on a regular basis and to cancel the session in case of any symptoms. 

How can people stay physically fit during a global pandemic? What does COVID fitness look like? 

We are not offering massage services and in-home training at the moment due to COVID. When it comes to nutrition counseling, it is offered as part of the personal training package. Zoom functions incredibly well; however, I must mention that since we reopened, clients prefer to come to the studio and train in-person. Weather permitting, outdoor training also gained in popularity. 

We are in contact with our clients via online platforms. We conducted a study recently and discovered that some people continued training hard despite the COVID setbacks. They consider fitness a mental challenge and we call them “Warriors.” Another group includes clients who either got sick or had other financial and emotional challenges during the pandemic. We pay special attention to this group, communicate more often, motivate them and encourage them with more frequent training sessions and offer a discounted plan. 

Exercise is more important now than ever and we try to help out as much as we can. 

Are there any particular challenges to living and working in the East Village? 

I think that my answer to this question is of an essence to my small business as well as any other small business in this beautiful, inspiring neighborhood. 

Being an EV resident since 2007, I thought I knew this neighborhood’s heartbeat but I definitely got the real taste during pandemic. I volunteered at a Sixth Street Community Center soup kitchen for almost four months. 

As a volunteer, you learn to embrace people as they are and understand where they are coming from. Being a volunteer means that you are offering something — something that is not required nor an obligation. This connects you to other human beings as you are working toward a common goal. I also have to say that my clients and I remained very close during the time of pandemic. 

As soon as they heard about the project I got involved with, they all stepped up to help, either financially or by offering to volunteer. That brought us even closer. It is very simple: if you want to conquer EV, you gotta be a tough worker with honest approach and a big big heart for your community. 

With gyms capped at 33-percent capacity and no group fitness classes allowed, many gyms and fitness studios (dance/barre, Pilates, yoga) have closed permanently or are about to fold. How do you see the future of boutique fitness studios and gyms? 

COVID-19 has changed how people exercise, but that doesn’t mean gyms are going away. To reassure uncertain people and ensure continued membership, fitness clubs at all points need to have firm plans for what a reopened gym will look like in terms of social distancing and continue to reinforce those measures as they reopen, which means decreased capacity and increased sanitation measures, among other things.

Members will need to feel assured that all measures available are being taken to keep them safe. On the other side, studios/gyms have experienced a demand shock for online fitness that might not have happened in a non-COVID world. 

Gyms and fitness studios that have a lot of group fitness offerings have tried to give their clients access to some of that knowledge by doing things like live-streaming workouts, posting videos for on-demand consumption, providing motivational coaching online, and even in some cases renting out equipment, as we did during pandemic. 

Online options should be an important back-up plan, and consumers will also look for flexible membership terms. I personally think that a lot of people are likely to return to their gym simply because gyms still offer a lot of things that people are struggling to achieve at home. One of the gym’s big appeals — besides easy access to equipment and workout space is access to the expert knowledge of trainers and the community knowledge, and support of other people working out. 

The bottom line is that, like everything else, the fitness industry has been changed by the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean people are going to stop working out together. Everybody, right now, is just craving that sense of community, and sports really does bring that. 

What’s next for Fit Ritual? 

The pandemic has thrown many of us into a panicked frenzy. While specifics can be tough to establish, simply planning ahead and thinking about the future does add a sense of much-needed normalcy and optimism to our lives. 

Also, reaching out to other personal trainers, nutrition coaches, as well as studio and gym owners has just been so lovely, and I’ve made connections with all of these other healthy lifestyle activists that I never had. The main project I would like to focus on will be kids’ fitness program, I think the studio can provide a safe environment for kids to start their fitness journey. Kids who enjoy sports and exercise tend to stay active throughout their lives. 

And staying fit can improve how kids do at school, build self-esteem, prevent obesity, and decrease the risk of serious illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease later in life.

You can keep up with Fit Ritual on Instagram.

Out and About in the East Village, Part 2

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: Christopher Reisman
Occupation: Police Officer, retired
Location: 9th Precinct, 5th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue
Time: 11 a.m. on Monday, May 5

Read Part 1 here.

In 1975, my partner, Andrew Glover and my boss, Sgt. Fred Reddy were murdered. It was a stupid killing. It was on 5th Street, between Avenue A and B. They were just getting into the car … it was a replacement, because the regular car they had was in the shop. The replacement cars were almost always clunkers. They worked just well enough to roll. So they’re getting into the car and my partner sees a car double parked behind him and a guy is behind the wheel.

There was always pressure to write summons and he was driving the boss, so he said, ‘I’m gonna go back and check this guy’s license.’ To make a long story short, he asks the guy for his driver’s license, and the guy reaches for his driver’s license and shoots my partner in the chest. Then he runs up to the police car. The sergeant was sitting in the passenger seat, but the door was so stiff that you couldn’t open it. You had to turn and kick the door open with both feet. By the time he got the door open the guy was on him and shot him and then he went back and shot my partner.

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The Hells Angels chapter was founded here after I came. There had been a small gang run by a fellow named Sandy Alexander. I think the Angels today are much more circumspect than they were then. There was a fellow they use to call Big Vinny. Vinny was large ... he never wore a shirt. All he wore was the patch with the colors and that was it. Vinny was arrested for allegedly throwing a girl off the roof at a party in 1977.

The District Attorney’s office, in their infinite wisdom, allowed him out on bail, which meant that all the witnesses to this disappeared. But Vinny died about that time anyway from a burst pancreas.

Anyway, most of the people who were victims of the Hells Angels kind of provided themselves. These were exotic characters; they were bikers, outlaws. The clueless would gravitate to them. They would like to hang out with them not realizing that the Angels were a closed group. They were kind of hermetically sealed within themselves. If I was a Hells Angel and I considered you a good friend and another Hells Angel was mad at you and hit you, then I’d hit you too. As far as they were concerned, anybody outside of the club was a civilian.

It was kind of a blue-collar fraternity in a sense, and that’s not being fair to blue-collar people or fraternity people. Quite often drugs were involved. For the most part, they made an effort to avoid us largely because of the organizational structure. It was kind of a standoff. It was considered bad form to get locked up. You were bringing ill repute on the club and they didn’t want further examination.

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Drugs became worse in the 1980s and, not surprisingly, it was when many more white kids came to the neighborhood. The kids from the outer boroughs came in here, often because of music, drugs or a combination of such. The kids were street savvy in the sense that a blue-collar kid knows a lot more than a white collar kid, but they weren’t that down and mean.

Then you had the whole punk rock era, which was great. This was always a very creative area. There were a lot of poets. There were a lot of well-known artists, not necessarily famous, but well-known within their own artistic community. Even if kids were screwed up on drugs, they would get these tremendous creative influxes, but they wouldn’t last long. You would find an abandoned apartment and there would be half a project, and you’d go into another and there would be another half a project, whether they were building something with wood or painting, then for whatever reason they would move on.

The drug organizations became bigger and they got meaner. They became more organized. The neighborhood had already started to be crushed. The housing was diminished by fire and neglect. So we had the guy who might have been selling small bundles of heroin out of his apartment and now he’s moved to Brooklyn and he’s connected with another guy, so instead of selling a small bundle of dope, now he’s got a kilo of dope. He’s got an organization, and the moment you’ve got an organization and the moment you’ve got a lot more money, you in turn are much more vulnerable.

It’s true of all crime. The thing that the criminal needs more than anything else is a police department. This is what the Mafia does. There’s no such thing as a sit down where they plot bank robberies. There’s a guy who controls the area and it’s understood that if you ply your trade in his area you have to pay tribute, and if you pay tribute then nobody else can rob you.

It was the same with narcotics. The very fact that it became a much bigger business and there was much more money at stake, encouraged more sophisticated firearms. I have no way of proving this, but I often wonder if reduced homicides were just due to the drug business becoming more efficient. There is always a certain number of homicides that will never go down. Husbands will always stab wives and vice versus, somebody will just be stupid, and lots will happen in a neighborhood, but homicide is bad for the drug business.

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Two things changed the police department — the video camera and the machine gun. All of a sudden the bad guys had much better weapons than the police department and anything you did on the street was very likely to be recorded. Mostly the weapons were a function of protecting the drug situations, but if you were facing life in prison you would take a chance on killing a cop.

Here’s where I’m going to sound very pompous. If police work were simply a matter of apprehending criminals and throwing brush-back pitches at them — I think there are as many as 29,000 sworn officers in the city — you might need a thousand. The other 28,000 exist to protect me and you and our individual inner jerk. It’s the same as a stoplight. The police exist to stop me from that momentary lapse in judgment. It’s 3 in the morning and nobody is around and I’ll run this light or something. It’s to stop somebody from doing something stupid.

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

Previously on EV Grieve:
Out and About in the East Village, Part 1

Stopping the music

Last July, I posted the intro to the most deliriously awful movie set in New York, 1980's "Can't Stop the Music" starring Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner and the Village People.

Well! I just got a little note from the folks at YouTube about the video...



Harumpf!

Still, there are other copyright enfringement videos that you can enjoy until the YouTune killjoys remove them...

Like the intro to the arthouse hit Weekend at Bernie's!



Or my exclusive video of Olafur Eliasson's waterfalls on the East River...

At CB3/SLA meeting: Le Souk denied; residents speak of "mayhem" and "crazy fistfights"; proponent suggests people would prefer living in Staten Island

As you read this, the CB3/SLA licensing meeting is just wrapping up (that joke never gets old!). An EV Grieve reader was there for part of the meeting and kindly filed this report. For that, we offer many thanks to this dedicated soul.

Things got off to a good start at 6:45 with the announcement that eight agenda items would not be covered, leaving only 27 matters to discuss.

After a brief discussion of budget priorities (largely a formality) the action got underway with Renewals with Complaint History.

First up was St. Dymphna's of 118 St. Marks, looking to renew its full liquor license. The board raised the issue of whether the establishment is allowed to utilize its back yard space, citing a 2007 DOB decision which indicated the back yard could not be used, and the fact that its SLA renewal application did not indicate a back yard space was in use, though it is. The establishment is under new ownership, and the current proprietor indicated he was not familiar with that DOB decision or the previous complaint history. The Board voted to approve the renewal with the stipulation that the back yard space not be used.

Next up was Spur Tree Restaurant of 76 Orchard Street, looking to renew its restaurant wine license. No one was present to represent the applicant, and the board voted to deny the renewal for non appearance.

Le Souk

That took us right to the main event -- Le Souk -- which was called in not to discuss a renewal but to address the complaints that have been lodged against it since reopening. The discussion started with a recap of the December 2008 board decision to not vote on the club's renewal, the club's license being suspended at that time. Six residents were then given an opportunity to speak. Le Souk's opponents described the improvements in quality of life during the time the club was closed.

One resident was quoted via letter as saying "life was so peaceful on Avenue B" during that time. Opponents reported that since the club has reopened, "all sorts of mayhem" has occurred, including "crazy fistfights" and "animal behavior." One resident opined about the nature of Le Souk patrons, stating that they "drive the taxi drivers to the point of insanity," a reference to the honking problem on the corner. It was also noted that the police do not ticket for honking on the corner of 4th and B despite posted warnings, purportedly because they are not able to determine which cars are doing the honking.

Seriously. One resident indicated that "life has been intolerable since Le Souk has reopened" and the letter writer was again quoted, saying "a superclub like Le Souk has no business in the neighborhood." Residents also cited loud music emanating from the club and Web site reviews which tout dancing going on in the club in violation of cabaret laws.

Two Le Souk proponents spoke in favor of the club, one saying that "the community was in shambles while Le Souk was closed," the argument focused on economics and the idea that this is not the time to shutter a club that brings much business to the neighborhood. He also suggested Le Souk is doing a better job now relative to the abysmal job it had done in the past (not the most ringing endorsement) and made a reference to some people maybe preferring to live in Staten Island.

Le Souk's proprietor indicated that traffic is a problem throughout the East Village and not a function of his club, saying in fact that he does not have a traffic or congestion problem in front of his establishment. He was then scolded by the board for failing to organize a meeting with residents to work through issues outside of the CB meeting process, as he had promised to do sometime in March. A member of the Le Souk management team indicated they would make the meeting happen this time. It was noted that Le Souk has 7,000 square feet of space.

By this point the room had become quite hot and a Le Souk proponent had to be directed by the board to stop speaking out of turn, one board member wondering aloud if security needed to be summoned. After much discussion of the language of the motion, the board voted to deny the renewal, when it comes up. In response to a direct question from a resident, asking if Le Souk would begin turning down the volume of its music starting this weekend, Le Souk indicated that it would.

Thailand Cafe

It was now 8:02. Still so early and only 23 agenda items to go. Next up was Thailand Cafe on 2nd Avenue, looking to add some manner of outdoor seating. The board expressed concerns with the already numerous outdoor seating arrangements on that stretch of 2nd Avenue, and whether the clearance depicted in the plans between the outdoor seating and bus shelter in front of the establishment would actually be as large as the plans suggest (15 feet). Residents were organized against the plan, 10 or so standing together to indicate their opposition. One suggested the idea of dining outdoors several feet from a stream of city buses would perhaps not be the best dining experience ever. There were also 23 letters submitted in opposition. The board voted to deny this plan due to bus shelter proximity and existing levels of sidewalk congestion in that area.

At this point one of the board members learned that an attendee was waiting to speak on the matter of Chickpea, agenda item 28, and let him know that the item had been announced among those canceled at the outset. Mercifully this happened two hours into meeting and not 10.

Cien Fueguos

Next up was Cien Fueguos LLC, looking to open a Cuban fine dining establishment at 95 Ave A. The owner and team made a fantastic presentation, top to bottom. They produced 1,000 signatures from East Village residents in support of their plan, 200 of them living in the immediate vicinity. Numerous residents spoke on their behalf including the owner of the building. The presentation included statistics on the prevalence of Cuban restaurants in Manhattan (there are just 43, and only five of those are considered fine dining establishments) which were compared to comparable statistics for Italian restaurants. The owner operates four other establishments in the East Village without incident and the management team's experience running orderly restaurants was touted, as was the fact that the venture will bring 40-50 new jobs to the neighborhood and include a sandwich shop. The board issued a favorable opinion on the application with basic stipulations, some of which the operating plan for the establishment already included.

(Someone said this owner is the guy behind Bourgeois Pig and Death & Co.. I thought Death and Company had some issues in the past, but am not sure. They were pretty clear about the owner running four places and not having problems.)




Caffe Bon Gusto

Next up was Caffe Bon Gusto, for which the sailing was not smooth. The applicant himself did not show up, instead sending two representatives, one of which seemed to be his attorney. The board noted that the application (for a wine license) was more or less identical to the application it rejected in September 2007. And that with only 10 signatures in support of the restaurant -- four of those from residents not in the immediate vicinity -- the applicant has not demonstrated that his establishment will provide a substantial benefit to the community, a requirement to secure a favorable opinion from the board in a resolution area. No residents signed up to speak for the club, but the applicant's attorney noted that no residents turned out to speak against it either.

Postscript

At this point our reader left. It was after 9 p.m.

How do they manage to get through 27 agenda items? I can't fathom it.

More about the closure of Kim's: 'We are NOT closing because record stores are dying'

[Photo from last Monday by Williams Klayer]

As we first reported last Monday, Kim's Video and Music is closing soon at 124 First Ave. The following email went out this past weekend to the Kim's faithful…

If you haven't heard already, earlier this week we announced that Kim's Video & Music, here on 1st Ave, will be closing its doors this July. Business here has been steady and our Record Store Day last Saturday was easily the best yet with new and old customers flooding the store for 200+ exclusive releases. The point is, and you should be aware, that we are NOT closing because record stores are dying, business is bad, it's not like it used to be and oh terrible world. Not at all. The actual reason for our closing is that the lease is up in July and the rent is being raised to an amount we simply can't work with. It's an unfortunate situation and we really, really appreciate all the positive vibes and eulogizing that has been sent our way this week. We are hopeful that a new Kim's can be erected this summer, (likely at a smaller location), and we are in the process of exploring that possibility. Until then, please stop in at 124 1st Ave (between St. Marks/7th) to say hi and take advantage of our closing sale. ALL Music & Video is 30% off.

This will be the last New Music Newsletter until the foreseeable future. Kim's WILL be stocking New Releases as they come out until we close ... Other than that, thank you for your continuing support and business over the years and hopefully we'll see you at a new (and improved) Kim's later this year.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] A really bad sign outside Kim's Video & Music on First Avenue (31 comments)

Source: Kim's staff looking for ways to save their store