March 23

Spotted by EV Grieve reader David Goodwin, a Third Street resident, last night on Second Avenue next to Heart of India.

Despite the lack of a newspaper cover for authentication purposes, the International Coalition of Tree Tossing in the Spring (ICTTS) will allow this tree to enter this year's competition. Why? According to one ICTTS official: "Anyone who stopped in last night's weather to take a photo deserves to be in the running to become America's next last Christmas tree thrown away for the year."

East 10th Street, 5 a.m. March 24

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Kind of looked like spring today, except for the snow and ice

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

One more like last Friday please

More on the East Fifth Street water main break

A follow-up on our previous post... There was a water main break this morning on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

Several residents said they have been without water since 11 a.m. There's no word on when the DEP will restore service... signs on doors to the buildings say it will be off for "approximately 8 hours" ... Uh, so that would make it 7 p.m.

A few places are closed... (including Goat Town) If you have plans along here tonight at a drinking or dining establishment, then you may want to call ahead... There will likely be some delays in opening...

Water main break shutters Goat Town for tonight

Earlier this afternoon, we heard reports of a water main break on East Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... (One resident noted some brown yucky tap water...)

Anyway, here are a few shots of workers at the scene... (photos courtesy of Jaime Darrow)

According to its website and Twitter account, Goat Town is closed tonight because of the break...

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Landmarks Preservation Commission still rejecting 35 Cooper Square (The Lo-Down)

A Q-and-A with LES resident and photo restoration expert Sebastian Wintermute (BoweryBoogie)

In the afternoon sun (Nadie Se Conoce)

NYC gets blowed up again real good by aliens (Curbed)

Standings named the best sports bar in NYC (New York)

Photographer Erica Simone creates series of nude self-portraits, so maybe not SFSW (Animal NY)

The creepiest hospital grounds in Manhattan (Scouting New York)

Remembering the Doll of Times Square (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Some NC-17 signage (Slum Goddess)

And from Page Six ... a place I've been to a few times but only in the winter:

Another piece of old Montauk is up for sale: the Shagwong Restaurant & Bar, on the market for $6.5 million. Owner Jimmy Hewitt is ready to sell the place, built in 1927, which has attracted stars in cluding the Rolling Stones, Elizabeth Taylor, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and photographer and artist Peter Beard, whose work hangs on its walls. The whole building is on the block.

And speaking ELizabeth Taylor, RIP ... will watch "BUtterfield 8" again soon...

Unknown white male

Alan P. Miller, the senior director of the real estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated ... said that although parts of the market remained sluggish, investors were eager to get a piece of the Bowery. “All of the Bowery is gold,” he said. — The New York Times, March 19, 2011

That quote has stuck with me all week. It prompted me to revisit "The Bowery," a chronicle of life along this thoroughfare in the early 1970s by Michael D. Zettler. The book, now out of print, was published in 1975. When I read the book, I think "yellow," not gold.

The book ends with police discovering a man lying face up on the Bowery at Houston. (You'd have a good view of him from the outdoor seats at Pulino's.)



"Is he all right officer?"

"He's better off than the rest of 'em ... Sure is yellow, ain't he?"

"Yeah ... is he dead?"

"Stiff."

"Where does he go from here?"

"Why? You want him? The wagon'll be along in a moment they take 'em up to the morgue at Bellvue ... The kids who're going to be doctors get to cut 'em up ... there probably ain't much left to look at inside of him though."





He's eventually taken to Potter's Field on Hart Island, where he's buried in an unmarked grave with the rest of the John Does.



[Thanks to our friend Bryan at This Ain't the Summer of Love for bringing this book to our attention.]

Fish Bar Film Nights

In recent months, Fish Bar on East Fifth Street has been playing some fine motion pictures Wednesdays during the Fish Bar Film Night.

Bartender Becca Brennan Chiappone selects the films. "I try to pick ones that are going to appeal to a big audience, but not a douchey audience," she said via email. "The NYU crowd will always come and go, but I want to keep the regulars happy. They've been coming to the bar for years now and they're all fascinating and intelligent people, so I try to show films that reflect the personality of the bar and the East Village."

In recent months, she has shown "Blue Velvet," "The Road Warrior" and "Lolita."

Tonight! It's "The Hunger," starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon's nipples.

A little taste.



The Fish Bar is at 237 E. Fifth St., west of Second Avenue. The movies start at 8:30 p.m. There's a Fish Bar Film Night Facebook page here.

Whatever was in the Avenue A Sushi place is now closed

Avenue A Sushi between Seventh Street and Sixth Street closed last year around this time... After several weeks, the renovated space reopened in April... as either Avenue A Sushi or G2 Kurosawa — never did figure that out...

Anyway! A reader had noted that the place looked closed of late... I was waiting for confirmation from management when this sign appeared yesterday...

And who knew they were called Avenue A Bistro Bar now? The original Avenue A Sushi opened here in 1983.

P.S.

A scene outside Avenue A Sushi Bar/G2 from last September:



Bob Arihood, who took this photo, noted that the line went north to Seventh Street, and then west on Seventh Street... When RyanAvenueA asked management what the line was for, they responded later "What line?"

Spying on progress at the former Kurve space just got more difficult

Monday evening!

Last evening!

Where's the fun in that?

Comments, noted

A comment left today on "[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade"

Anonymous said...
I can speak on behalf of the community and we are willing to settle with changing the sign to "slut jam"

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

New charges against officers in East Village rape case (City Room)

NYPD arrests Lou Reed's manager (Runnin' Scared)

This morning in Tompkins Square Park (Nadie Se Conoce)

More of old Times Square (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Signs of progress at new Allen Street hotel (BoweryBoogie)

Ranking the Papaya Dog on 14th Street and First Avenue (Marty After Dark)

As you've probably seen, Duran Duran has a new album out today... #FeelingOld

Residents Jeer NYU's new plans (The Local East Village)

Revisiting Zum Schneider (East Village Eats)

An interview with DeNiro from a few weeks ago in which he discusses Twitter (Parade)

And some scenes from yesterday evening via EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams...

A carbon monoxide scare in an East Ninth Street building...

EMTs transport a regular from Avenue A to the ER...

Another view on why 35 Cooper Square must be saved: For the area's new buildings

Here's the take from Fred A. Bernstein, writing a post for the The Design Observer Group:

[T]here’s a reason to save the building that has nothing to do with its past, and everything to do with the present.

The house is all that stands between two angled, glass-and-steel buildings (one of them, Thom Mayne's academic building for the Cooper Union, a masterpiece of contemporary architecture). Those buildings wouldn't be the same without their modest, gable-roofed companion.

Contemporary buildings feed on historical context. When that context is removed, even the best of the new buildings fall flat.

And!

New buildings depend on context if they're to be become architecture, not just site-specific artworks competing for attention in an architectural petting zoo. Greg Pasquarelli, a principal of SHoP, one of the busiest firms in the city, recently described his firm's idea of contextual design: “Making sure that the building looks nothing like the buildings around it.” He was referring to his penchant for placing new buildings among the old, but what about ensuring that old buildings remain among the new?

When deciding what to preserve, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission should think of some buildings — like the house on Cooper Square — as buffers, essential elements in making sure new buildings live up to their potential (to enliven, not entomb, the city).

Read his full post here.

Another East Village 'redevelopment opportunity'

165 Avenue B is on the market. The building is just north of East 10th Street. A few years back, junk shop Waldorf Hysteria called the retail space home....



Now the groundfloor is rather sterile looking... (Or as l.e.s.ter once commented, "Holding-Cell Chic.")



Anyway, here's the Massey Knakal listing:

Originally built in 1890, the building is approximately 5,703 sq. ft. and is currently configured with 6 apartments. The building has a commercial overlay which would allow the ground floor to be use as retail or commercial. The property also benefits from additional unused air rights and being steps away from Tompkins Square Park.

The building is currently going for $3.95 million. (You can find the 'Mixed-Use Redevelopment Opportunity' PDF here.)

Anyway, just the latest older building with the potential for more floors...

[Waldorf image via]

Will you belly up for some bitters?

As we reported last week, Amor Y Amargo — "a bitters tasting room" — is opening in the Cienfuegos complex on Sixth Street at Avenue A.

Grub Street reports that the place opens tonight. And they have details on menu items and what not. Here's more from Grub Street:

The drinkery will be New York's first bar focused on bitters, and you can expect bitters-laced cocktails, tasting flights ... plus Mayur Subbarao's housemade sweet vermouth on draft. To complement all this: a special menu of Spanish-leaning bites from chef Luiz Gonzalez, including tortilla espanola and fried garbanzos with morcilla.

[Photo via EV Grieve reader Creature]

Today in urban dog etiquette signs

Fourth Street near Avenue B...

Eighth Street near Avenue C...

Former Kurve space kleaned out

The city issued the permits last week for workers to renovate the former Kurve/Rhong-Tiam space on Second Avenue at Fifth Street. And workers quickly cleaned out the former thai eatery, which you can see for yourself now that they removed the paper on the windows...



Now!

The new operators of the space were on the agenda for this month's CB3/SLA meeting listed only (and mysteriously!) as "corp to be formed." However, they were a late scratch from the docket.

Nike knows I'm miserable now

Marina Galperina at Animal New York points us to the latest faux ad from KATSU... here on Avenue A near 12th Street, Morrissey is making for an unlikely Nike spokesperson...

[Animal New York]

jdx has a set of KATSU ads from the Bowery here.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

$2,000 rent-deregulation limit up in the air (The Wall Street Journal)

Rent regulations good for New Yorkers? (Save the Lower East Side!)

Loved ones create a Facebook page in memory of Grace Farrell (Facebook)

Jury selection for 9th Precinct rape trial starts today (The Daily News)

A benefit For hate-crime victim Barie Shortell this Wednesday (New York Shitty)

Revisiting the Show Follies Center in Times Square (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

When Carnegie Hall was almost torn down (Ephemeral New York)

LES still a Poop De Ville weekend nights (BoweryBoogie)

East Village scenes from St. Patrick's Day (Nadie Se Conoce)

St. Patrick's Day barfers revelers kept the Cooper Union streak alive (EV Heave)

Reviewing the Fourth Avenue Salvation Army (Thrift Store Confidential)

HBO debuts "Triangle: Remember the Fire" tonight (HBO)

Trailer