Speaking of beef

A newish sign outside St. Mark's Burger ... "We grind our own beef."



More subtle, of course, than "bop our own bologna."

Agnes and Eva closes on 13th Street

A reader notes that Agnes and Eva's Cafe on 13th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has closed. Per the reader: "it was this nice cafe owned/operated by a mom & daughter, you go downstairs to this lil room blissfully away from the usual manh bustle... free wifi, decent brunch foods, no attitude, jazz music playing on stereo, not crowded... i'm so sad, hard to find a non-crowded cafe in the e. village." The Cafe opened last summer. Had always intended to go there, but never did. Seemed like a homespun haven away from the Momofuku madness across the way...

Photo via Serious Eats.

Paste tags DOB

Michael Huynh's new French Vietnamese place on St. Mark's Place continues to attract some graffiti attention... Earlier...



And now... As the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) notes, Paste of the EE crew is the latest to tag DOB...

Boutiques on Bowery likely not opening yesterday — or ever

I've been watching the goings-on at The Bowery Bazaar/Boutiques on Bowery ... located inside the retail space in 52E4, the 15 stories of condo on the Bowery near Fourth Street. Originally scheduled to open Feb. 1 ... the etched-in-glass Boutiques on Bowery signage went up in the middle of February... It has been a strange saga. One day last week we received a note from one of the designers stating BOB was opening March 1... Then! On Friday, BoweryBoogie noted: "The latest word is that they’ve decided not to reopen as Boutiques on Bowery and to close for good."

I walked by last night... no more naked mannequins...no more etched-in-glass Boutiques on Bowery signage...



Previously on EV Grieve:
What happened to Boutiques on Bowery?

Porchetta outpost taking over the Mingala Burmese space

Earlier today we mentioned that Mingala Burmese Restaurant at 21 East Seventh St. (a few doors east of McSorley's) had closed. Now Eater brings word that the folks behind Porchetta just down the street have applied for a liquor license here.

Tompkins Square Park igloo disappears from market

Previously on EV Grieve:
Price melting on "Soho-style" igloo in Tompkins Square Park

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Before the Meatpacking District fell (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Lights out for Bowery's Lighting District? (BoweryBoogie)

Ray's pink slips (Neither More Nor Less)

The sounds of "After Hours" (Flaming Pablum)

A well-endowded snowman in TSP -- with video! (The Gog Log)

NYC in black-and-white glory (Blah Blog Blah)

Why the FRIGID Fest is now cheesier (Broadway World)

Dude leaves 27 bags of weed on the roof (Stuy Town's Lux Living)

Porchetta sends meat to Marines in Afghanistan (DNAinfo)

"Blank Generation" now on DVD: "A time capsule from pre-Disneynification New York City"

From the inbox...MVD Visual released "Blank Generation" on DVD last week...

Finally on DVD is the classic punk rock movie from 1980 starring Richard Hell, illustrating the end of the first wave of New York City punk rock better than any documentary. Nada (Carole Bouquet), a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy (Richard Hell). Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol (playing himself). Featuring members of the Voidoids and the Ramones.

This long lost film is like a time capsule from pre-Disneynification New York City: sleazy, dirty and most importantly, real. The DVD package includes a lengthy new interview with Hell about the film and more.

Richard Hell states: "This is a priceless package. The real burnt-out New York in January and February 1978, the Voidoids live at CBGB, Ed Lachman's cinematography, Elliot Goldenthal's sound track, Carole Bouquet's face, my lithe figure, Andy Warhol to break your heart, Luc Sante demonically extracting the ugly truths from me re: the horror of it all (bonus feature which is better than the movie itself)...unique."

And here's the trailer...



Updated: A reader pointed out an interview that Hell did with The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog last week... in which Hell trashes the film. Here's an excerpt:

As with many cultural artifacts dating from a fetishized period (in this case the late ’70s New York punk scene), the film is hailed on the cover as "a classic punk rock movie" and "better than any documentary." That's not how its star sees things. "It's just completely incoherent," Richard Hell said of the movie... He talked with Speakeasy about the bewildering experience of making – and re-watching — "Blank Generation."

Why did you participate with the DVD release if you hate the film?

It was going to come out anyway. It was good to have the opportunity to explain the conditions under which it was made. It does have a certain value as this eccentric artifact of this time and place. And it’s the best existing film footage of my band at a time when it was in top condition.

You’ve been in several films since then. What did “Blank Generation” teach you about acting?

Nothing.

Classic! This makes me want to see it even more! I guess this is why the publicist for the DVD said "no one was available" for interviews about the re-release.

P.S.
Not to be confused with Amos Poe's documentary "Blank Generation."

Price melting on "Soho-style" igloo in Tompkins Square Park

On Friday, we wrote about a new listing that popped up on Prudential Douglas Elliman for a "Soho-style" igloo right in the heart of East Greenwich Village in Tompkins Square Park.

On Friday, the 15-square-foot igloo was priced at $1.5 million ($100K per square foot!)



However, today, the price has been chopped down to $500K!

Here's the listing:

This fully original Soho igloo is ready to go at a stunning and spacious 15 square feet!! Located in a new igloo and facing southeast off the Park you will enjoy the setting sun, quiet nights, and all the space!! The ground has been white washed for a tasteful but artful look. There is a flat screen TV nook that has been smartly placed in the living space so the TV will flow seamlessly against the snow. Closets everywhere, bath and a half, open kitchen round out this one-of-a-kind one igloo flex two loft space. The igloo is a condo so subletting and renting are permitted. Pets are welcome!

According to Streeteasy, this property originally went on the market around this time last year, but was quickly pulled several warmer days later...

There was an open igloo this past Friday...



...where potential igloo-buyers discovered that the space may be best suited for those under say, 3 feet tall.




If you're interested, then I urge you to hurry. The temperatures are expected in the mid 40s today...

Cafe Brama closes

An EV Grieve reader passed along work that Cafe Brama on Second Avenue near 10th Street had closed... We walked by several times ourselves during prime business hours...and the gate was always down. And no one is answering their phone.

I was unaware of Cafe Brama's origins...Per their Web site:

We, Kostas & Christos, brothers, were born in Poland as children of political refugees, and we grew up in a strong Greek community proudly promoting our culture. After the fall of the Berlin wall Poland become a place with unlimited possibilities and in 1992 we opened the first Cafe Brama. We named it "Brama" which means "Gate" in Polish since it was founded in Szczecin, Poland in the historical Brama Krolewska (King's Gate). King's Gate was built in the acquisition of Pomerania by Prussia.

In 1996 we moved to Warsaw to open another Cafe Brama there and our success allowed us to expand the business and open six locations in the Polish capital. After fourteen years of success and recognition we decided to open Cafe Brama in New York and we chose the East Village because of its casual and comfortable ambience. We belive that the community will welcome the quality and style of the food that we love.

The former Mingala Burmese Restaurant on the block

The same EV Grieve reader who passed along the Cafe Brama news also noted that Mingala Burmese Restaurant at 21 East Seventh St. (a few doors east of McSorley's) had closed. Indeed. I didn't even notice that the place had shuttered and been put up for sale so quickly... The rent is $9,300, according to the Tower Brokerage listing. There is also a Mingala Burmese on the Upper East Side.

Don't you forget about ...our breakfast bar...

Outside Whole Foods on Houston and the Bowery. Not the best Anthony Michael Hall that I've ever seen...

First sign of spring: Tables outside Zum Schneider

Yesterday afternoon outside Zum Schnieder, Avenue C and Seventh Street.

Home for a hawk

EV Grieve reader Erin notes that one of the hawks frequently seen around the neighborhood (and Tompkins Square Park) has been hanging out in an area behind Sixth and Seventh Streets, between Avenues B and C... (seen above to the right on the fire escape...)

Previously on EV Grieve:
A red-tailed hawk on Seventh Street

The Daily News gets a circulation boost

While walking on Avenue B earlier today near 11th Street, I noticed that a stack of the Daily News had been dropped off in front of an apartment building. Likely more papers than residents here. A random act of Daily News kindness? Or part of some Post-Daily News circulation feud?

Classroom lights

At Cooper Union and St. George's from Sixth Street...

Reminders: Ray's delivery

And the menu...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Ray's new Saturday evening delivery service starts tomorrow

Day of snow

As I was the first to report, it snowed yesterday... and some readers were nice enough to send along some photos to help provide a slice of life in the neighborhood from yesterday...

Minnie Romanovich




Megan Morrissey
@mmorrissey





Ken Mac

The day after

Seventh Street and First Avenue

Everything that you've ever wanted to know about the Rusty Knot Party Bus

In January I wrote a post about the Rusty Knot Party Bus, which picks up Knotgoers in Williamsburg and then on First Avenue and First Street and plies them with alcohol before they go to the nautica-themed faux dive on the West Side Highway for a swingin' Monday night...

I didn't actually get on the bus. But I was curious!

Thankfully, a Times reporter boarded the party bus... and pretty much answered all my questions... To the story!

“This bus is a little bit like going back to the New York of the ’70s or ’80s, when it wasn’t about the money, it was about the spirit,” said Richard Mark Jordan, an actor from Bushwick who was gyrating in the aisle with friends and high-fiving strangers.

His revelry, while enthusiastic, seemed tame when compared with the crazed riders chanting “Party bus! Party bus!” while pounding their palms on the bus’s windows. Two guys in skateboard sneakers leaped onto a vinyl-upholstered seat, jerking their heads to the metal anthem “Hell Bent for Leather,” air guitars apparently cranked up to 11.

A woman in preppyish attire who in another context might be mistaken for a Congressional aide tried to crawl through a roof hatch, but her progress was blocked by a bolted cover. She had to settle for another form of misbehavior — pouring a can of Bud over a male friend’s head. He didn’t seem to mind.

“This is raging!” said Ryan McGaffigan, a 32-year-old sales manager in a wool cap, plaid shirt and ’50s-style glasses. He had just polished off two Buds “shotgun” — puncturing the can and finishing it in one long swig.

How could it be boring? The bus runs on irony as much as diesel. The basic premise is a cultural inversion: Manhattan tastemakers once sneered at the “bridge and tunnel” crowd overrunning their night spots. Now, they haul them in by the busload.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rusty Knot Party Bus makes East Village debut

The Alright stuff

Go fish

Since writing about this three-bedroom condo on 13th Street at Avenue A this week, the price has been slashed by 10 percent from $1.175 million to 1.05 million...



And there's an open house Sunday from noon to 1:30. If you go, please let me know if that fish is still there...

A walk in the park

And if you took some snow photos, feel free to send them along... Was thinking of doing a big neighborhood snow post tomorrow.

grieve98@gmail.com

If not, then you'll get more Lady Gaga-in-hats photos....

Avenue A several hours ago

A little something for our East Village friends stuck in dreary warm locales today.





And we promise no more snow photos today. Unless, of course...

From Donald to now: 511 E. Fifth St., 1B

Last month, we wrote about Donald Baumgartner, a longtime East Village resident who was evicted from his East Fifth Street apartment... Neil Janowitz, one of Donald's former neighbors, had continued to stay in touch with Donald, who's now living at East Haven Nursing Home in the Bronx.

Donald had lived at 511 E. Fifth Street since 1967. As Neil described:

"His place in 511 was a trip. Like a time warp. No one had renovated it in two or three decades, so it had a bathtub in the kitchen, two interior bedrooms with windows that looked out on the living room and lots of built-in cabinets and trunks. The floor was so badly worn that you could see various layers/flooring styles dating back an unknowable amount of time."

A few days after Donald was evicted by the landlord, Neil shot some video of the apartment... and last week Neil went back to see what the apartment looked like now...



(Uh, apparently the video isn't appearing in some browsers. You can go directly to the source here.)

I understand that Donald was paying $700 a month for rent... will be curious what this two-bedroom apartment will go for after the extensive renovations...

Previously:
Donald is well and missing the East Village

New bar slated for 12th Street and Avenue A

In March 2006, the building housing the Raven on the northeast corner of Avenue A at 12th Street was shuttered by a devastating fire... The building has been renovated, and the storefront (pictured below last fall) has been on the market for quite some time ...



On March 15, the Raven appears on the CB3 SLA docket (No. 15 and No. 16 on the agenda) in the Alterations/Transfers/Upgrades category. The docket reads:

El Camion (El Camion III Inc), 194 Ave A (trans/op) (The Raven)

Meanwhile, according to the real-estate listing...

Approx. 1500 sq ft vanilla box with liquor license, large wraparound storefront, basement (with dedicated internal staircase), and possible sidewalk cafe.

Price: $90,000
Rent: $10,500
10-year lease

I'm curious to see how this one plays out... there have already been numerous complaints about the bar scene on the upper stretch of Avenue A... Jill has noted this... and she took this shot in front of Drop Off Service last summer, for an idea of what life is usually like here on the weekends...



Previously on EV Grieve:
CB3 to explore bar-related noise issues on Avenue A?

Observations from last night's noisy bars meeting

A memorial for Taz remains at 12th and A

Whenever the gates are down at the northeast corner of Avenue A and 12th Street...



... you can see that a tribute remains for Eric "Taz" Pagan, the LES resident who was murdered outside Forbidden City last August...

New sidewalk cafe for Table 12

And in keeping with this 12th Street and Avenue A theme... on Feb. 9, the CB3/SLA approved a sidewalk cafe for Table 12 on the southeast corner. The sidewalk cafe must shut down at 10 p.m.... and they can set up again at 8 a.m. The majority of the 28 seats will be on 12th Street.