EV Grieve

Monday, November 29, 2010

Restaurant with the name of a TV pilot coming to Avenue C

We've been wondering what was coming to the former (brief) home of Mr. C's on Avenue C near Seventh Street... Poor Mr. C's flamed out in a hurry.... Anyway! So, the new place coming in looks a little on the, oh, I dunno, industrial-beachy side?

The folks at New York magazine (via Grub Street) have the First Look at Edi & the Wolf, an Austrian Wine Tavern. Owners, Eduard (Edi) Frauneder and Wolfgang (the Wolf) Ban, "also operate the excellent midtown restaurant Seasonal," Grub Street reports.

Tonight on CBS, ... Edi & the Wolf, two wise-guy detectives flout the rules to lock up the street's worst vermin!

Looks and sounds interesting (the restuarant, not the made-up TV show) ....Not sure what all the rope is for... A dommes and submissives bar section?

[Roxanne Behr/New York Magazine]

Cheeky karma

First Avenue near 13th Street.

Breaking! People are eating outside at DBGB

Hope they have some mittens! Chilly out there! Thanks to a special correspondent for the photo...

Noted

The Bus Lane/Bike Lane Cycling Crew was out this morning.... not all that noteworthy...

...except that when the cyclists got to the light at 14th Street and First Avenue.... the lead cyclist went through the red light... and waited for his/her colleagues on the other side of the street...

An epic story on the life and death of Superdive

Sarah Laskow files a detailed piece at Capital titled "Fast times on Avenue A: The life and death of Superdive."

A few excerpts!

LONGTIME VILLAGERS OFTEN TALK ABOUT the change in their neighborhood as synonymous with the rise of bars and restaurants that create street traffic and noise unlike that in any other neighborhood. Words and phrases like rowdy, circus atmosphere, zoo are used to describe the street scene at night. When bar owners and nightlife operators argue that the East Village has always been a nightlife destination, they respond: Yes, but. Something’s different now.

Academics have a word for what the neighborhood has become: a nightscape. Bars and restaurants were once peripheral to the main drag's primary economic drivers: supermarkets, coffeehouses, boutique shops, record stores. But in post-industrial cities, nightlife has grown into an industry in its own right. As in any industry, shop owners tend to cluster. A century ago, that meant the creation of a Garment District. Now it means the creation of a Party District.

And!

Superdive was self-conscious, though. It promised not just beer or a dance floor, but an experience directly targeted at a crowd the East Village had perhaps hoped it hadn't overtly been catering to: Not some group of characters out of an old Lou Reed song, so much as the group of characters you'd find on Bourbon Street, or worse, North Avenue in White Plains. There was some irony in the marketing of Superdive, but not much.

“Superdive made a lot of us into activists,” Dale Goodson, 58, said recently.

Read the whole shebang here.

Firefighters and a smell of smoke on East 10th Street

A reader noted the smell of smoke and a few fire trucks this morning on 10th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... anyone have more details? Not sure of the extent of what happened...

[Updated: The Local East Village has a report, including that "A small fire on East 10th Street this morning was sparked by an extension cord that melted after being wrapped around a radiator in a fifth floor apartment." There were no injuries. DNAinfo also has an item on the fore here.]

A new era for Polonia

Last week, Eater reported that First Avenue Polish diner mainstay Polonia was under new ownership.... 22 year-old Paul Jurczyk bought the restaurant from his parents, who started and operated Polonia the past 24 years... Jurczyk has hired a chef, the 26-year-old Olaf Wozny, who previously worked at Il Bucco.

As Jurczyk said, Polonia was serving food that "was frozen and microwaved, there was a wine list that consisted of 'Red' or 'White' which was poured from a gallon or a box, the lights were super bright all day and all evening, and the radio was playing z100 or 103.5 fm."

So some changes were in order... he and Wozny are planning to revamp the restaurant... which they've slowly been doing (you may have noticed the addition of a happy hour and WiFi in previous months...)

I asked Jurczyk a few questions via Facebook...

Are you concerned with what some old-timers might think about the changes? Do you think they'll return?

There are customers that have been coming to Polonia since the day that it opened. When I first started making changes about a year and a half ago, I had to start small: slightly changing the decor, the music selection and re-organizing the menu so that it was more comprehensible and visually appealing. Up to that point the 'old-timers' didn't have much to protest about. However, when I hired Olaf Wozny as my head chef, I began to hear complaints.

Olaf understood that changing a diner to a restaurant isn't an easy task and has to be done slowly as to not warrant too much attention in the beginning. Olaf slowly started changing the recipes, using better, higher-quality ingredients which are more expensive than the ingredients previously used — we had no choice but to slightly raise the prices. That is when the older customers started to complain. They appreciated the quality but weren't willing to pay for it. Even now I have some of the older customers complaining about our coffee which is a high-quality coffee, that we have priced at $1.50; the deli on the corner near us charges the same price for coffee of a much lesser quality.

Another issue is that most of the main entrees take about 15 minutes on average to prepare. Most of the older clientele can't seem to understand this, even though in the menu it says that our dishes may take about that long to make because they are made per order and asks the customer to please be patient. Even tonight I had a table of three walk out half way through their meal. They were served water, bread, wine and soups all within 10 to 15 minutes. After waiting just over 20 minutes (since they sat down) they decided that their three combination platters were taking too long so they paid for what they already had and walked out.

Many of the older customers left for a few months but returned. The prices in the East Village aren't cheap — no matter the quality of the food or the ambiance. I'm sure that after realizing that we are still better priced than most spots in our area, and have better prices and better quality food than any other Polish/Ukranian restaurant or diner in the area, including Veselka, they will be sure to come back — even though I have to say that my staff and myself are hoping that the old customers which really enjoy to nag and complain will find somewhere more suitable to their liking. Besides, we are starting to attract a younger, career-oriented crowd.

Why do you think changes were necessary?

These changes are necessary for two reasons. The East Village is quickly becoming a more sophisticated area filled with people who are willing to spend a little extra money to eat good food, have a nice glass of wine and truly enjoy themselves. Personally I don't believe that diners have the right ambiance for the new clientele that is surfacing in our area.

Secondly, it is very important to my chef and myself that we produce and sell a product which we are happy with and are proud of. Olaf will not be happy preparing food which was cooked 12 hours ago and is now being heated up in the microwave and I likewise will not be happy serving people that type of food or serving them any food at a location which I do not feel gives off the vibe that I would like it to. My restaurant represents me — it allows both Olaf and myself to express ourselves. I am looking forward to having everything exactly the way I want it and to see people really enjoying themselves at Polonia Eatery. We have already made a great deal of progress and I believe things will continue moving in the direction I hoped they would.

Avenue A finally getting some more retail

Work continues at 41 Avenue A on the corner of East Third Street.... where the Coffee Pot once lived...

As DNAinfo noted in September, a pharmacy is taking over this space... this rather empty stretch of A — on the west side of the Avenue between Third and Second — may soon get some company. According to the website of the landlord, the New York City Housing Authority, there are applications in place for 35 Avenue A and 37 Avenue A.

37 Avenue A was once the Two Boots Restaurant. 35 Avenue A was last the Sons & Daughters high-end kids shop.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Of the 147 storefronts on Avenue A, 70 of them are bars, restaurants or vacant

Whatever happened to the Two Boots Restaurant? Plus: NYCHA puts up two prime storefronts on Avenue A for rent

Sons & Daughters closing on Avenue A; new tenant for A and Third Street?

Meanwhile, 24 Avenue A remains empty

Well, while on the topic of Avenue A retail... I recently noticed new(ish?) plans in the window of the former Graceland space at Second Street... (And it seems longer than six months that Graceland has been gone...)

Anyway the space can be chopped up into one, two or three storefronts... (Here's the listing.)

The one storefront might be best suited for the threatened 7-Eleven. And what do you think life would be like here had the CB3 approved Frank's plan for fast-food Italian (Raguboy) back in June?

Meanwhile, the FDR cheap pizza place behind the space on Second Street is ready for action... as you can see from the canopy, you can get 99-cent pizza, Indian snacks, tea...

Previously on EV Grieve:
"All uses considered" at former Graceland

More here.

Grade inflation at Ray's?

Thanks to an EV Grieve reader for this photo outside Ray's... a little marker mischief provides a boost to the Health Department's A, B or C ratings...

DBGB's decorative planters finally receive a warm welcome to the neighborhood

A tin ceiling and Vermont veal meatballs for Goat Town

The Times had an update last week on Goat Town, the new restaurant taking over the former Seymour Burton-Butcher Bay space (Le Tableau closed in December 2007) on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B:

The restaurant will hew to the current shoestring restaurant formula of repurposed materials, including a weathered copper bar and a tin ceiling, and ingredients that are often local, perhaps even grown in the restaurant’s own garden, and pickled on the premises. The menu is fairly straightforward American, with a raw bar, and dishes like Vermont veal meatballs, seared Block Island swordfish, and braised Flying Pigs Farm pork shoulder.

Nicholas Morgenstern, late of General Greene in Fort Greene, and Joel Hough, a former chef de cuisine at Cookshop, are behind this venture.

I caught a look inside the other day...

Goat Town opens Thursday.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Yes, yes, yes — Christmas is coming, we get it

We'll always have the MTA

From today's Post:

An MTA bus bully slapped a $100 summons on a Manhattan woman deemed too slow to show her ticket for the new express M15 Select Bus -- a service that has increasingly become a cash cow for the money-strapped agency.

Since 2008, NYC Transit cops have handed out more than $1 million in summonses on the two Select Bus lines, the M15 and the Bx12, whose riders buy tickets from a sidewalk machine rather than pay on board.

The machines are supposed to speed the passengers' trips, but some straphangers gripe that the speediest thing about the Select Bus service is how quickly officers ticket customers.

Celebrate the Bowery on Tuesday evening

From the EV Grieve inbox...

BOWERY HISTORY: A CELEBRATION
A lively evening of talk and entertainment honoring the cradle of American popular culture. Birthplace of tap dance, vaudeville, and punk rock, the Bowery is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. Hosted by Bowery Alliance of Neighbors & Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

Tuesday, November 30, 2010
@ Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street (Btwn. Rivington & Delancey)
SUBWAYS: F to 2nd Ave., 6 to Spring, B/D to Grand, J to Bowery

6 - Happy Hour (Cash Bar), featuring vintage Bowery cocktails
7 - Showtime

HOSTED BY:
Kent Barwick,
President Emeritus, Municipal Art Society

PERFORMERS:
Poor Baby Bree, Chanteuse (w/Frankllin Bruno, piano)
Bob Holman, Poet, Bowery Poetry Club

SPEAKERS:
City Council Member Margaret Chin
Kerri Culhane, Architectural Historian
Peter Quinn, Novelist, BANISHED CHILDREN OF EVE
Eric Ferrara, L.E.S. History Project, author of upcoming book on the Bowery
Anthony Tung, Author, PRESERVING THE WORLD'S GREAT CITIES
Trav S.D., Vaudeville Historian and impresario

FILM:
THIS IS THE BOWERY (rare film from the 1940s); fascinating footage of
the Bowery Mission, street life, etc. In many ways anticipates Lionel
Rogosin's classic 1956 documentary ON THE BOWERY.

TICKETS:
$20 - General Admission
$15 - Student/Seniors
$50 - Sponsors (Priority Seating)

Via here or 866-811-4111