EV Grieve

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

PS 122 without the construction netting

With all the hoopla last week about the new-look PS 122 and its steel tower planned for the First Avenue arts mainstay ... I forgot to mention that the construction netting has come off...

...showing off the refurbished building...

Headbanger: Get your Wendy O. Williams throbblehead

We get news releases!

Aggronautix is releasing their very first female throbblehead, Wendy O. Williams 1982, in the limited capacity of 2,000 numbered units.

The figure captures Wendy's incredible 1982 look, stands at 7 inches tall, and is made of a lightweight polyresin. Displayed in a tri-windowed box, here she is accurately sculpted right down to the platinum blonde mohawk, spiked arm bands, and tattered threads.

All Aggronautix figures are now available for purchase on www.aggronautix.com

A little pink and green with your rum punch

Over at Off the Presses, Robert Simonson has more information about the new rum bar opening on Sixth Street and Avenue A...

But first, let's look at the colorful photos of the renovated space that are courtesy of Urban Daddy:

Urban Daddy, as only they can do, described the place this way:

Upon arrival, you'll find you've shifted back in time and a few degrees closer to the equator — the long room is decked in light green and antique pink, none of the chairs match, there are candle stains on the walls, and all the tables show faint reminders of drinks past.

It's a place that makes the most sense on breezy, sunny afternoons where you'll sit in front of open second-floor windows, sip exotic rum cocktails (like the El Cobre), nosh on Cuban small plates and listen to vintage Cuban tunes while making eyes with raven-haired neighborhood rum enthusiasts.

As Simonson reports, the bar, called Cocteleria!, had a soft opening last night with a Friday night official opening set. (This is all courtesy of cocktail mogul Ravi DeRossi of Death & Co.) Carteles, the Cuban sandwich shop section of the two-floor complex, opened earlier this year with a Sixth Street entrance.

The rum punch bar is open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Per OTP: "All the punches can be ordered in a variety of sizes — single serving, two servings, and for large groups. You don't have to order a bowl. All the drinks start at $13, with prices go up in increments depending on the number of people who order. $100 buys punch for 'the whole family,'" as manager Miguel Calvo told OTP.

Off The Presses is here. Urban Daddy's story is here. And hat tip to Eater for the whole shebang.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More on 95 Avenue A: Private chef's lounge and a rum punch bar

Coming soon: Work starts on Cienfuegos at long-dormant (and soon-to-be-expanded) 95 Avenue A

Monday, April 26, 2010

Updated: Man shot and killed on Avenue D

A 33-year-old man was shot in the face and killed today just after noon on Avenue D at East Third Street, according to WPIX. Police have not made any arrests and are still looking for the gunman.

Here's an updated report from WPIX...which reminds me why I never watch local network TV news...is this reporter for real?

Updated: The Daily News this morning has more on the fatal shooting:

A 33-year-old father with a violent past was shot in the face and killed in the East Village on Monday, police said.

Bahiem Covington was brazenly gunned down in broad daylight on Avenue D and E. Fourth St. just moments after crossing guard Carla Ortega left for a bathroom break, cops said.

"He was a sweet guy . . . a peacemaker," said a woman who identified herself as Covington's sister. "He wasn't into violence."

The woman, who didn't want her name used, said Covington had two children.

"He was a caring father," she added. "My brother's dead. This has to stop."

Witnesses told cops they saw four men running from the scene. No one has been arrested, but sources said investigators were analyzing surveillance video from a nearby deli.

It was unclear why Covington, who has prior arrests for assault and criminal possession of a weapon, was targeted.

With Graceland's closure comes a loss of community

As mentioned last night, Graceland closed for good on Avenue A and Second Street ...

EV Grieve reader and food blogger BaHa wrote a short tribute to the space at Daily News:

Twenty-five years ago, there wasn’t much shining on Avenue A past midnight: In 1985, the hottest businesses in the area pushed heroin, not cupcakes. Graceland was transformative. Not only was it a place to get cilantro and light bulbs at four in the morning, it was part of the community. Halloween candy was handed out; if a regular didn’t show up for a while, they were asked about...

Rumor has it that another grocery may come in its place. Better than a bank, I guess, but you can get find food on pretty much any block in the neighborhood now, from vegan to gluten-free. What you can find less and less, however, is something far more important: a sense of community.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Graceland is closing in the next 10 days

Nicky's staying in the East Village; Graceland moving out?

Graceland addresses its customers

Eatery odd-n-ends: Bar/hair salon showing progress; food trucks rolling in; Shiki Kitchen staying Japanese

Spice Cove on East Sixth Street is still offering its Obama lunch special from last week...

Work continues at the old Plan B space on 10th Street... which is becoming a bar/hair salon. An old-timey sign is now up...

Rebecca Marx had a rather hilarious item on this back in January at Fork in the Road:

At last night's Community Board 3 meeting, the owner of Plan B appeared to apply for a license transfer for -- wait for it -- the tavern and salon he's planning to open in the Plan B space on East 10th Street. "We're re-tooling the concept," he explained. No, really?

The new place will be called the Blind Barber, and will continue to serve food from Gnocco, the Italian restaurant next door that supplied Plan B with its bar bites. And while one might reasonably worry that the old 'waiter, there's a hair in my soup' chestnut could assume terrifyingly realistic proportions in such an establishment, rest assured that although the restaurant and salon will be under the same roof, they will be two separate entities.

Food trucks are out in full force on Second Avenue with the Tribeca Film Festival playing stuff at the Village East Cinema...

The restaurant going into the former Shiki Kitchen space on First Avenue near St. Mark's Place has a name...

Hala Pita on Ninth Street near Avenue A closed after a little more than a year in business ...

On Saturday morning, students were filming in front of Bar on A at 11th Street... and the name was changed for the film to Circus... I wish I had stuck around ... looked interesting...including some kind of live animal, a guy in his underwear on a leash and the leading lady not wearing much...

There has been a lot of work going on in the former Surf City Smoothie Shop on St. Mark's...

Until now... seeing as the crew doesn't have those pesky work permits from the city...

The new deli at the former knitting shop on 14th Street near Second Avenue is now open...

And here's the deal at the new smoothie/juice place on First Street near First Avenue... It's called The Juice Press. Among other healthy things, the window promises weight control and juice cleansing... (Fork in the Road also noted this last week.)

Bonjoo, the Korean restaurant on First Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street, was seized by the city a few months back... and the space was recently put up for rent...

Price for Novogratz-designed penthouse keeps falling; and see-through balcony arrives

Back in February, we wondered what those thingamajigs things were above the garage at 238 E. Fourth St., the fancy new six-level home...

Well! Now we all know... they hold up the see-through balcony...

Meanwhile, the magazine-ready two-floor (plus deck!) penthouse that Bob and Cortney Novogratz designed here will now cost you less... the PH was listed by Corcoran in March at $3.75 million... Last Thursday, the PH was reduced by $200,000 ... Here's the pricing history via Streeteasy:

03/10/2010 Listed by Corcoran at $3,750,000.
04/08/2010 Price decreased by 9 percent to $3,400,000.
04/21/2010 Price decreased by 6 percent to $3,195,000.

So the price has fallen 15 percent in less than two months... Perhaps that Novogratz name had prompted some inflated pricing at the outset... Naaaah.

B&H hangs its new sign: What do you think?

The new B&H sign is up now on Second Avenue...

Before!

[Photo above via the Voice]

What do you think of the new sign? Essentially the same...except for that really green green. Makes me a little seasick.

Previously on EV Grieve:
B&H gets its canopy but loses a sign

Here's Penny-farthing on Third Avenue, not a sports bar

Over on 13th Street and Third Avenue, work continues at the former Cafe DeVille space... EV Grieve reader Margaret passed along this shot from the weekend...

Grub Street had many more details on what will be going in here... the space, which the Phebe's folks took over, will be called Penny-farthing (a type of bicycle also known as a high wheeler). Brass Monkey designer Ben Kay is doing this space... Per Grub Street:

A year ago, it was said the space would get a sports bar, but Kay says that Penny-farthing ... will have no more than a few television sets for World Cup games and the like. Kay is giving that bi-level venue a “very industrial but comfortable atmosphere”— upstairs there’ll be a 45-foot-long bar made of “ancient-looking” wood, banquette seating, and high-top tables, as well as antique wheels, pulleys, and prints to fit the bar’s name ... Downstairs there’ll be a lounge boasting exposed stone and another bar. A full kitchen will turn out “American-English-Irish” bar food “in the same vein as Phoebe’s” (think shepherd’s pie). The owners are hoping to open in the second week of May.

I got a look myself at all this on Saturday...

Previously on EV Grieve:
At the former Cafe DeVille, the black plastic goes up, the dead potted plants go out

Butter Lane Cupcakes is expanding

On Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... Butter Lane is taking over the vacant space next door... I asked Maria Baugh, one of the owners, for the details...

"We just took the space last week. We plan to use it for classes and events -- birthday parties, kids birthday parties, wedding showers, etc. Classes are very popular so we're expanding those. And we get a lot of requests to do parties -- now we finally have space."