Thursday, March 25, 2010

Panty raid


From the Police Blotter in this week's issue of The Villager:

The manager of Victoria’s Secret, 591 Broadway between Prince and Houston Sts., told police that a group of two men and three women entered the place at 5:20 p.m. Mon., March 15, distracted the security guard, and managed to take 96 panty thongs from a shelf, hide them in a big yellow bag and walk out without paying. The total value lost was $4,680, the store reported.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Nevada Smith's shuttered



Uh-oh...the soccer (football, sorry!) mecca on Third Avenue was shuttered by the cops today...Thanks to EV Grieve reader TK for the photo and tip... According to their Twitter account:

Bar will be closed today due to circumstances beyond our control. We apologise

Reports: Union Square's W Hotel filing for bankruptcy


Per Portfolio:

The W Hotel Union Square, housed in an elegant old building on Park Avenue South at the northern edge of lower Manhattan, is populated with an assortment of models, actors, and other big spending types in advertising, finance, etc., etc., etc. The number of $21 cocktails flowing through the bar must be waning, because business is way down and the new owners are filing for bankruptcy protection.


Crain's first reported on the story.

Update: My apologies... The Real Deal had the piece first -- last night, in fact. You can read their article here.

[Image via]

A summer rental on East 12th Street

If you're looking for a summer getaway, then consider this furnished townhouse at 215 E. 12th. St.



According to the listing:

Stately 1850's four-story mansion width (25') townhouse with oversized garden on tree lined street, available fully furnished. This 5,000 square foot home on a beautiful tree lined street is in the heart of the East Village, and offers incredibly high ceilings and grand proportions.

The private gated street level entrance leads to the foyer and an ornate staircase that winds up the four floors, capped by a beautiful skylight.

The dramatic parlour floor features intricate moldings and woodwork, wood herringbone floors, 14 foot ceilings and two working wood burning fireplaces. Huge oversize windows flood the "ballroom" with southern light. The state of the art eat-in windowed kitchen has marble floors, pressed tin ceilings, a professional six burner gas range and Sub-Zero refrigerator.

The third floor is equally dramatic with 12 foot ceilings. The master bedroom with separate dressing area , office and en-suite bath is bathed in light from 3 south facing windows. A children's room with loft has garden views, and there is an art studio with two exposures.







It's all yours from June 15 to Aug. 16. The price: $25,000 per month. Better hurry! The price increased $5k two weeks ago...

Update: Thanks to EV Grieve reader C. Bee in the comments... she remembered that the home was featured in the Times in 2008.... according to the article, Pamela Bell, one of the four original partners in the Kate Spade brand, lives here with her family....

The Charlie Parker Residence getting jazzed up

Heh, heh -- oh, forgive me for that headline...

Anyway, over on Avenue B near 10th Street, workers yesterday began chipping away at the exterior of the onetime residence of Charlie Parker... Not quite sure exactly of the extent of the work just yet...





Have no fear, though... nothing tacky will happen here... As I borrowed from the Web site: The Charlie Parker Residence was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in l994 by the U.S. Department of the Interior. In l999 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Charlie Parker Residence a New York City Landmark.

By the way, apartments in this building hit the market every so often... they run upwards of $4,000 per month.

Street sign shenanigans in the East Village

Some urban pranksters are on the loose... these street signs were spotted yesterday on 10th Street...



...and the fellow from Life was busy taking down the "Welcome to Hell" sign...



...we spotted this one on Sunday on Avenue A near 12th Street...Not sure if it's part of the same group or if it was being sold by one of the street vendors assembled that day... Given the number of golf bags that we see during the duffster season, this one should be made permanent...

Life Cafe back open last night

Speaking of Life, the restaurant was back open last night as the sign promised the previous evening....



Previously on EV Grieve:
Life Cafe closed, though just for one night

Cafe Colonial owner says Pulino's opening helped triple her rent



In our post yesterday on the Cafe Colonial possibly closing, we wondered if the eatery on Houston and Elizabeth would be the first victim of the McNallification of the neighborhood...

Late yesterday afternoon, Daniel Maurer at Grub Street spoke to Cafe Colonial owner Luciane Gilan, who believes her rent tripled thanks in part to new neighbor Keith McNally, and she may just retire when her lease expires May 31.

The landlord now wants $20,000 a month for the 30-seat restaurant that has been there for 15 years.

Here's more from Grub Street's interview:

"I know people who know [the landlord] and they told me what's going on. He said, 'McNally is opening a place and he wants to bring people over and we might get a high-end boutique.'" So does she resent her new neighbor? "I think that he is genuinely a good restaurateur and he does good — the problem is that the landlords think, Oh, because he's a good guy he's going to bring a lot of customers around. So people get greedy and make rents go up. I don't think we, as people who live here, gain anything by having these kinds of things here. Because you know what, who's going to shop in a high-end boutique? I can't and any local people can’t."

An EV Heave update



We haven't heard much lately from our friends over at EV Heave... Rest assured, the Heaver has been busy. Recent updates include:

Ruminating about the Day After (as in St. Patrick's Day)

and most most recently:

All is quiet on the Cooper front

Craigslist headline of the day: "to the two little shit twerp crooks last night at jimmy's no.43"



On Craigslist...

this is your bartender speaking.
i really, truly believe you stole my jacket. because someone did. and you left abruptly before finishing a beer of which you first complained about the price then borrowed money to buy. you also made a quip about not being easily identified at a crime scene.

i don't care about either of you, but please leave my jacket at the bar sometime soon. unless you threw it in a city trash can on the corner once you realized no one would leave anything valuble in an unattended jacket.

who knows, maybe you fucks are wearing my pressed powder & eyeliner. jokes on you tomorrow at school - that shits waterproof and i'm willing to bet college boys don't know how to properly wash their face.

there are two possible endings to this story - i see my jacket again, or you're smart enough not to walk back into the bar and hope i don't recognize your shitty prepubescent patchy facial hair on the street.

kisses!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition



Third Avenue near 12th Street

Mark your calendars for Record Store Day on April 17 (Stupefaction)

A heated thread on the Coney Island USA message board (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A walk on the East River Promenade — at least what's finished of it... (BoweryBoogie)

A serenade by Cowboy Stan outside Ray's (Slum Goddess)

Alex unearths another stash of 1960s NYC photos (Flaming Pablum)

Essex Street fixture M Schames & Son is moving (The Lo-Down)

The history of Keepers Bakery on East 10th Street (Blah Blog Blah)

John C. Reilly's head going up in the Meatpacking District (BoingBoing)

IFC creating TV show based on The Onion (NY Times)

New documentary coming on longtime Times lensman Bill Cunningham (NYTimes)

And a tweet from Alessandra Torresani from the weekend...




And I have no idea what was happening here on Ninth Street and Avenue C the other day. But the first rule in Blog School: You always take a picture of a crane.

Save the date: Learn how NYU will expand by 6 million square feet


Save the Lower East Side! has the date for when NYU will present its
2031 Expansion Plan...April 14. As STLES noted, the NYU campus will expand 6 million gross square feet within the next two decades. Hope you like the color violet. (Curbed has more on NYU's plans here, including the school's desire for taking over Governors Island.)