Newsflash: New bars and restaurants revitalizing the 'far' East Village

The Post helpfully notes notes that the "once gritty far" East Village is getting "revitalized" by a lot of new bars and restaurants...

The 10-eatery chariticle lists several over-hyped places such as Goat Town, Edi & the Wolf, the Cienfuegos complex, Bedlam and Octavia's Porch... as well as places that may not be as well-known on the greater NYC radar, such as Percy's Tavern on Avenue A and 13th Street and Revision Lounge, Johnny's B's spot at the former Musical Box on Avenue B.

You can read the article here.

95 Avenue A now free of construction netting and sidewalk bridge

Workers today removed the rest of the construction and sidewalk bridge that has encased 95 Avenue A for several months.

Apparently the structural repairs (sinking building???) here at East Sixth have been made.

During the rehab, Gin Palace, one of the three bars (along with Cienfuegos and Amor y Amargo) that make up the retail component of the building, closed for service last November.

As the Times reported last week, work gutted the Gin Palace interior. So co-owner Ravi Derossi is taking the opportunity to re-imagine the space, opening a "tiki-influenced" bar later next month called Mother of Pearl.

Mother of Pearl and Honey Bee's close to make way for a larger Amor y Amargo on Avenue A

Changes are afoot at 95 Avenue A, East Village restaurateur Ravi DeRossi's complex of eating and dining establishments in the corner space on Sixth Street.

No. 95 housed three businesses: Honey Bee's, Amor y Amargo and Mother of Pearl. However, according to materials on file with Community Board 3, the spaces will be converted to accommodate a larger Amor y Amargo.

DeRossi is on CB3's SLA virtual docket tonight for the following changes at No. 95:

• Honey Bee's, Amor y Amargo and Mother of Pearl Room (Cien Fuegos LLC), 95 Ave A (op/alt/change method of operation: change current concepts of Honeybee's, a vegan Texas barbeque whiskey bar, and Mother of Pearl, a vegan tiki bar, to Amor y Amargo, a bitters bar).

A rep for Derossi Global confirmed the restructuring, and confirmed that Mother of Pearl and Honey Bee's have closed.



The expanded Amor y Amargo operation will now also include a full food menu.

Amor y Amargo debuted in 2011 with just a handful of seats, and quickly became celebrated as the country's first bitters-based bar.

Mother of Pearl opened here in July 2015, replacing another DeRossi venture, Gin Palace. Honey Bee's opened in May 2019 in the space that was Cienfuegos for 10 years.

DeRossi is known for switching up concepts in his restaurants either after a successful run or more quickly if the space doesn't pan out. In this case, the DeRossi rep said that the restructuring was "in response to COVID-19 and the new world we’re entering."

And 95 Avenue A is not the only DeRossi restaurant on tonight's CB3 agenda: He's changing the menu at Night Music:

• Night Music (Derossi Asia LLC), 111 E 7th St (b/alt/change method of operation: from a vegan Indian restaurant to a vegan Mexican restaurant)

Night Music, on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, opened last September.

At the beginning of the pandemic in NYC, Mother of Pearl distributed free school lunches during the week. DeRossi also distributed free vegan meals from Avant Garden on Seventh Street.

Ravi DeRossi's Coup opens tonight; profits go to organizations threatened by Trump White House

[Photo from the other day]

Ravi DeRossi debuts his latest bar tonight on Astor Place.

Coup joins his local bar-restaurant empire that includes Death & Company, Mother of Pearl, Avant Garden and Cienfuegos.

The idea for Coup came about in the wake of Election 2016.

Per The New York Times:

“For the few weeks after the election, I couldn’t get out of bed,” he said. “It was all I could do to read the news.”

So, to snap himself out of it, he did what he does best: open a bar.

And...

“One-hundred percent of the profits are going to organizations that are either being defunded by the current administration or need money to fight the current administration, like Planned Parenthood and the A.C.L.U.,” he said.

Gothamist has more on how all this will work:

The space features two bars, one of which will host a rotating lineup of the city's best bar talent, who will choose a cause of their choice to which that evening's bar sales will be donated. The list of signed on talent is impressive, including Best American Bartender of the Year for 2015 Ivy Mix of Leyenda, Jim Meehan of PDT, Joaquin Simo from Pouring Ribbons and Alton "Good Eats" Brown himself. Each will create specialty cocktails for their shifts.

At the other bar, guests are given a wooden token with each beverage purchased, which they'll drop into jars bearing the names of different charitable organizations. The donation groups will rotate on a day-to-day basis. The dollar amount from the tokens in each jar will be calculated, the total of which will be donated to said charity by Coup.

Cocktails and glasses of wine are $20 each; beer and cocktails are $15. Coup is also gratuity free. You can find the drink menu at the Coup website here.

The space at 64 Cooper Square was previously home to DeRossi's Bergen Hill.

Report: Ravi DeRossi bringing Fire & Water to 7th Street

[EVG file photo]

East Village-based restaurateur Ravi DeRossi is adding to his vegan empire later this year with the opening of Fire & Water at 111 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue — next door to his tapas cafe Ladybird.

Eater reported yesterday that DeRossi will "veganize two cuisines at once — sushi and dim sum" with Fire & Water.

A Japanese sushi counter with 16 seats and minimalist design will occupy one part of the space, offering a vegan omakase menu and a sake list. The price for the omakase has not been set yet.

On the other side of a dividing glass wall, there will be Chinese dim sum cart service in a 36-seat, flashier space with neon lights and red decor. Vegan small plates are on the menu in the dim sum portion. There will also be beer, wine, and no-abv cocktails.

DeRossi's executive chef, Tony Mongeluzzi, who oversees the kitchens at Ladybird, Mother of Pearl, Cienfuegos and Avant Garden, will reportedly have similar duties at Fire & Water.

The new home for Fire & Water was previously a showroom for furniture designer Todd Hase. That venture lasted one year. Village Style Vintage Shop, the previous tenant here, moved out to Brooklyn in October 2016.

Avant Garden signage now up on East 7th Street

The sign has arrived at 130 E. Seventh St. … where Team Ravi DeRossi (Death & Co., Cienfuegos, Proletariat, etc.) is opening an upscale vegan restaurant here just west of Avenue A.

DeRossi told Eater more about the project last month:

DeRossi says that this is something he's been wanting to do for 10 or 20 years, but finding a good vegan chef has always been the "biggest obstacle." Now, however, he's found that chef in Andrew D'Ambrosi, who currently runs the kitchen at DeRossi's Carroll Gardens seafood restaurant, Bergen Hill.

The way he tells it, D'Ambrosi put a hen of the woods mushroom dish on the menu that DeRossi, who "always hated mushrooms," loved. That dish turned out to be vegan, and so from there DeRossi had the chef begin experimenting with other vegan dishes, offering them as specials at Bergen Hill. Two years later, they've pulled together a list of about 20 that will make up Avant Garden's vegan menu. Those include things like charred onion with chimichurri and seasoned breadcrumbs, and roasted carrots with orange, honey, pumpkin seeds and quinoa, as well as that hen of the woods dish.

In addition to Avant Garden, DeRossi is launching a nonprofit, BEAST (Benefits to End Animal Suffering Today), which will host regular fundraisers for animal rights organizations, per Eater.

No word on an official opening date just yet.

As we first reported on May 5, Avant Garden takes over the storefront from Gingersnap's Organic, who decamped to the West Village in January.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Veggie friendly Avant Garden in the works for former Gingersnap's space on East 7th Street

Will you belly up for some bitters?

As we reported last week, Amor Y Amargo — "a bitters tasting room" — is opening in the Cienfuegos complex on Sixth Street at Avenue A.

Grub Street reports that the place opens tonight. And they have details on menu items and what not. Here's more from Grub Street:

The drinkery will be New York's first bar focused on bitters, and you can expect bitters-laced cocktails, tasting flights ... plus Mayur Subbarao's housemade sweet vermouth on draft. To complement all this: a special menu of Spanish-leaning bites from chef Luiz Gonzalez, including tortilla espanola and fried garbanzos with morcilla.

[Photo via EV Grieve reader Creature]