Farmwich pops up with speciality sandwiches at Ben's Deli on Avenue B

Farmwich, serving sandwiches "sourced entirely from local regenerative agriculture farms," is now open through Feb. 4 at Ben's Deli, 32 Avenue B between Second Street and Third Street.

As EVG contributor Stacie Joy reports, Farmwich will offer one speciality sandwich a day during their limited hours of noon to 2:30 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday. All sandwiches are $9, which includes tax and tip.

And some Farmwich details via their website:

All our food is “vegan, organic, local, and fair trade” but we don’t call it that. Rather than focus on the imitation or absence of animal products, we celebrate the rich flavors of seasonal vegetables grown in polyculture soils. The season writes our menu anew each day. It is possible that we never serve the same sandwich twice.

We source almost all our produce from Lani’s Farm (Bordentown, NJ), extra-virgin sunflower oil from Hudson Valley Cold-Pressed Oils (Poughkeepsie, NY), sourdough bread from Hawthorne Valley Farm & Bakery (which grows and mills almost all its own grain on-site; Ghent, NY), heirloom beans from GrowNYC (mostly Caledonia, NY), pumpkin seeds from Stony Brook Wholehearted Foods (Geneva, NY), and fruits from Wilkow Orchards (Highland, NY).

With the exception of a few dry spices from the East Village’s Dual Specialties, we buy all ingredients directly from our farmers without a middleman or distributor.

They also offer a sample menu from a recent preview dinner:

#1: Sunchokes crisped in sunflower flour, mache greens, gremolata, pickled root vegetables (carrot, parsnip, rutabaga, beet)

#2: Honeynut squash, squash seed and Lani’s miso puree, pickled cabbage, mixed baby greens (mustards, kales, sorrel, tatsoi, arugula)

#3: Japanese sweet potato mash, caramelized shallot jam, sautéed broccoli rabe, Tokyo bekana, radish, cumin-coriander vinaigrette

Here are a few scenes from opening day yesterday ...





... and here's the opening day sandwich — "A Massion in Addis," Berbere sautéed red kale, sweet potato pomme frites, garlic sunflower aioli and root pickles root pickles...

Union Square Duane Reade available for sublease

An EVG tipster shared the marketing materials with info on subleasing the Duane Reade on Union Square.

There aren't many details about leasing the 12,790 square-foot-space. The rental rate is negotiable. The possession date is this month. Find a PDF with the flyer here.

Several Duane Reades have been closing around the city, including three on the Upper West Side and one on Canal and Broadway.

Parent company Walgreens has an expanded location right there at 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, and there's a Duane Reade on 14th Street and Third Avenue and 10th Street and Third Avenue.

The Union Square Duane Reade opened in the summer of 2010 in the former Virgin Megastore.

Monday's opening shot

At the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection, 59 E. Second St., on this Juneteenth holiday.

Cloud99 Vapes space for rent, business set to close

A for rent sign hangs in the front window of Cloud99 Vapes at 50 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street. The shop will be closing in the months ahead, a victim of the public health crisis involving vaping products.

According to published reports, vaping-related injuries and deaths are continuing to mount, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting 1,080 lung injuries in 48 states and the Virgin Islands and more than 20 confirmed deaths from 15 states. (A Bronx teenager was the first person to die of a vaping-related illness in New York, officials said Tuesday.)

On Sept. 17, New York passed an emergency ban on flavored vaping products. However, the ban was halted on Oct. 3, when an appeals court issued a temporary restraining order. The next hearing is set for Oct. 18.

Still, the damage has been done. As MSN recently reported, business at Cloud99 is down 70 percent.

Pete Foran, a co-owner, is a retired NYPC officer. Per MSN:

Electronic cigarettes had become a galloping trend, and a vape store seemed like a lucrative second act.

Sure enough: Offering dozens of flavored vaping products, the Second Avenue shop was a hit. Foran and his partners opened two more locations in Nanuet and Suffern. Revenue hit $2 million.

And now...

Foran and his partners are stuck with $300,000 of inventory, 95 percent of which is flavored. The manufacturers won't take the product back, and Foran isn't even sure how to dispose of highly concentrated nicotine, each bottle of "vape juice" the equivalent of packs if not cartons of cigarettes. "You can't just throw it in a landfill," he said. "It's poison."

In Foran's view, officials didn't approach the outbreak rationally. "They should have handled it like a homicide investigation," tracing the potentially illness-causing cartridges to their sources, he said. "What's coming out is that it's black-market products that are causing these things."

NBC News did conduct an investigation late last month:

NBC News commissioned one of the nation's leading cannabis testing facilities to test a sampling of THC cartridges — 18 in all — obtained from legal dispensaries and unlicensed dealers.

The findings were deeply troubling.

Of the three purchased from legal dispensaries in California, the CannaSafe testing company found no heavy metals, pesticides or residual solvents like Vitamin E.

But 13 out of the other 15 samples from black market THC cartridges were found to contain Vitamin E.

CannaSafe also tested 10 of the unregulated cartridges for pesticides. All 10 tested positive.

Still, a new poll conducted by Siena College finds 61 percent of New Yorkers support the ban, and 78 percent believe that vaping is a serious public health problem.

Cloud99 Vapes opened in 2015 (at the site of the former Yoo's Convenience Store). And it won't be the only local vape-related shop impacted by the current crisis.

Desperately Seeking 1985 New York City

There's a free screening tonight of 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan at McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint. It's a silly movie (stolen ancient Egyptian earrings! amnesia! mistaken identities!) that I enjoy watching every summer. (In fact, I just watched it Sunday night.) As Brian J. Dillard writes in his review at allmovie.com, "A classic Hollywood screwball comedy transposed to modern-day Manhattan, Desperately Seeking Susan offered mid-'80s moviegoers a mall-friendly version of hip New York style, much like Madonna did throughout her early musical career." Hmm, that's about right. I like it for a lot of reasons, such as seeing youngish John Turturro, Steven Wright and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, in small roles. And director Susan Seidelman rounded out the film with several downtown musicians/performers -- Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, Richard Hell, John Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Ann Magnuson. And, of course, you get to see some mid-1980s New York, including several scenes in the East Village. (Nice, too, that many of these places are still around some 23 years later, including Gem Spa, Trash & Vaudeville, B & H Dairy and Love Saves the Day.)

Wacky Neighbor had a post on Susan's production design in September 2004. As he notes, the players behind the look of the film were Woody Allen regulars at the time.

Meanwhile, here are a few screenshots from Desperately Seeking Susan.

On St. Mark's.

On Second Avenue.

In front of Love Saves the Day.

Ohhh! Don't mess with the guy with the bucket of the Colonel hanging around Second Avenue and 7th Street!

Scary clubgoers! Do all New Yorkers look like this?!

Outside the Magic Club. (In the film, the club is said to be on Broadway. According to Wikipedia, some of the interiors and exteriors were filmed in Harlem.)

Now, some Desperately Seeking Susan trivia from Wikipedia, which means it may or may not be right:
* The filmakers had initially wanted Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn to play the roles of Roberta and Susan. But the director decided to cast newcomers Rosanna Arquette and Madonna instead. 

* Bruce Willis was up for the role of Dez. Melanie Griffith was up for the part of Susan as well.
* Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin to the part of Susan. Barkin was the producers first choice for the part, but the director claimed Barkin had a lack of substance.
* The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the film when it is still covered in scaffolding during its two year renovation.
* The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
* The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
* The movie was originally filmed in the summer of 1984, early in Madonna's rise to popularity, and was intended to be an R-rated feature. However, following the success of the singer's 1984-85 hits "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl," the film was trimmed in content by Orion Pictures in order to receive a PG-13 rating in order for Madonna's teenage fanbase to be able to see it
* The interior / exterior shots of The Magic Club were filmed in Harlem.
* Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her a start in the music business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
In case why you were wondering why some SATC fans are now into Richard Hell

East Village Cathedral stars alongside Angelina Jolie in 'Salt'

Waaaaay back in May 2009, Angelina Jolie, the former semi-crusty of Tompkins Square Park, came to the East Village while filming "Salt," the mineral-turn-CIA thriller....



The crew filmed on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue inside the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection. In honor of the movie opening today... let's take a look at the role the Cathedral played in the film...



First! Woo! Angelina over here! Here she is on Second Street!



With the ball-in-chain in tow on the Cathedral steps...



Anyway, according to the website, the crew used the Cathedral to replicate the interior of the Makariev Monastery in Russia when it was an orphanage in 1970s Soviet Russia. You see, Angelina plays a spy who may or may not be Russian...so this might be some flashback scene or something...






No idea whether these scenes made it into the movie... Perhaps I'll by a pirated DVD from that guy on the corner for $5 to see.

Also, curious about what kind of location fee the Cathedral received...

Updated: A Scouting Life shares a "Salt" review with us... "It took years, but 'The Last Boy Scout' finally has competition for the most ludicrous action film ever made."

Ouch! That's seriously bad.

And I asked if the Cathedral made the cut. Yes, but!: "They did shoot the orphanage but the scenes there were all pretty soft focus and dreamlike so you didn't see much of it."



Previously on EV Grieve:
Why the paparazzi will be in the East Village tomorrow (OMG! Angelina!)

I hope that "Salt" is a more exciting movie than these photos

About Angelina Jolie's "semi-crusty phase" in Tompkins Square Park

Concert to benefit Haiti this Saturday at the Second Street Cathedral

Father Calin passed along the following information to us...

As part of an ongoing effort to help the suffering and the homeless of Haiti, the Second Street Cathedral will host a Benefit Concert on Saturday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds from the concert will go to aid Haiti’s people in their hour of need. A Vespers service with special petitions for the Haitian people and the relief workers will precede the concert.

This event features the world premier of a new Passion Cantata incorporating hymns of the Crucifixion from Good Friday. The music is based on ancient Russian and Georgian chant, sung a cappella in English. The Cantata was written by composer Robert Sirico specifically for this occasion. The concert will be directed by Juilliard-trained musician Nicholas Reeves, and performed by a select chamber choir formed for this concert.

Second Street Cathedral has a history of supporting the community through music. After 9/11, the parish raised over $20,000 for local firefighters through a similar concert and campaign.

To ensure this event is just as successful, we are reaching out to everyone in our community and neighbors of all faiths to come hear the prayers for Haiti. Concertgoers will be asked for a $20 donation, 100% of which will go to the people of Haiti.

WHAT: Passion Cantata: Concert to Benefit the People of Haiti
WHEN: Saturday, March 20 2010 (5:30 Vespers service; 7:30 Concert)
WHERE: Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection
59 East Second Street (between First & Second Avenues)

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Expect more empty storefronts in Manhattan (New York Times)

Bartender wanted ad of the day: "Styled like a hipster Bennigan’s, this Billyburg rock club lets the good times roll." (Hunter-Gatherer)

Upright Citizen's Brigade prepping move to the old Pioneer Theater (Eater)

Biker Bill's first cell phone (Neither More Nor Less)

Jeremiah's favorite film from 2008 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Morning at the Subway Inn (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

New city landmarks (City Room)

Virgin closing Times Square location (Idolator via Curbed)

38-hour work weeks at the Hotel Chelsea (Living with Legends)

Allen Street tea shop inches closer toward opening -- now featuring a bright red awning visible from space (BoweryBoogie)

Why aren't there more neighborhood blogs in Manhattan? (Washington Square Park)

The cornerstones of New York (Lost City)

Not everyone wants landmark protection for the East Village

[Photo last week by Bobby Williams]

As you know, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) unanimously voted to create the East 10th Street Historic District* on Tuesday. (Perhaps we should include that name with an asterisk because of Ben Shaoul's last-second approval for a rooftop addition at 315 E. 10th St.)

Preservationists are now hoping that the LPC will give another swath of the East Village landmark status as well... an area that takes in some 330 buildings:

The LPC has not placed this item on their calendar just yet.

Today, in an article titled Preservation Push in Bohemian Home Stirs Fear of Hardship, The New York Times reports on the opposition to the landmark protection. Per the article by Joseph Berger:

Almost a dozen houses of worship, including the late-19th-century Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection and a crumbling century-old synagogue, argue that they are dependent on donations and that including them in a landmark district would make simple projects like repairing a window or fixing a roof more expensive and bureaucratically time-consuming.

Even worse, it would make their buildings and the valuable property on which they sit much less attractive since developers would be restricted in what they could do.

Now what?

"Salt" substitute

The Divine Liturgy this morning at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection on Second Street was held in the basement this morning...




...as the church is prepped for a scene tomorrow in the Angelina Jolie thriller "Salt." (And now you know why the headline to this post is so corny.)




Wardrobe and hair and makeup will also be taking place tomorrow in the basement hall.

Local Faith Communities of the East Village present their annual 'Spiritual Sounds' on Sunday

Via the EVG inbox...

The 10th annual "Spiritual Sounds" will be presented on Sunday, Jan. 27, 5-7 p.m. at Town & Village Synagogue, 334 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

This group of neighborhood faith leaders (priests, imams, ministers, rabbis, cantors and monks) all serving within a few blocks of each other first gathered to stand up to hate, intolerance, and prejudice, then, growing naturally to know one another personally, enjoy each other’s company, build the trust needed, help and support each other, remain a shining example of NYC’s community of diversity who celebrate together the depth and richness of our many traditions.

The event is free, open to all. No tickets are required.

The faith organizations:
Medina Masjid Mosque
The Second Avenue Church
The Bhakti Center
The Light of Guidance Sufi Center
The Catholic Worker
The Shul of New York
Town & Village Synagogue
Sixth Street Community Synagogue
Middle Collegiate Church
Most Holy Redeemer-Nativity Catholic Church
The Nechung Foundation
Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection
St. Mary’s American Orthodox Church
St. Mark’s Church-in-the Bowery

Protest against 'Paradise: Faith' at the Village East; 'a terrible pornographic attack on Jesus’ crucifix'

A group of protestors are outside the Village East City Cinemas on Second Avenue at East 12th Street this afternoon, per this photo via @RTSNYC.

The film in question is "Paradise: Faith," from Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl. Here's the Rotten Tomatoes recap:

In "PARADISE: Faith" Ulrich Seidl explores what it means to bear the cross. For Anna Maria, an X-ray technician, paradise lies with Jesus. She devotes her vacation to missionary work, so that Austria may be brought back to the path of virtue. On her daily pilgrimage through Vienna, she goes from door to door, carrying a foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary. One day, after years of absence, her husband, an Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair, comes home. Hymns and prayers are now joined by fighting. "PARADISE: Faith" recounts the stations of the cross of a marriage and the longing for love.

(Read the review in the Times here.)

According to Wikipedia, "the film has been named as a favourite of director John Waters, who presented the film as his annual pick within the Maryland Film Festival 2013."

There was a similar protest of the film in Hollywood this past week. According to a blog by the executive director of America Needs Fatima:

The movie Paradise: Faith, by Ulrich Seidl, is a terrible pornographic attack on Jesus’ crucifix.

EXTREME CAUTION

The NY Times (8/22/13) reports: Speaking of the main character in the film, “…Later in the movie, she m*****bates with the same crucifix.” [redaction ours: Ed.] Other press reports contribute… A woman…“m*****bates using a crucifix.” “it is right to show her m********ing using a cross, as she is making love to Jesus,” responds the director Ulrich Seidl when asked about it.

The protest consisted in praying the fifteen decades of the rosary, some other prayers (especially the St. Michael prayer) and the Litany of Our Lady. Our people spread out single to double file to cover the entire front of the cinema.

We were very happy and consoled to be able to offer this public act of reparation against such a terrible pornographic attack on the Holy Crucifix of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, there haven't been any protests over "We're the Millers," also playing at Village East City Cinemas, for being billed as a "comedy."


[EVG reader John]