EV Grieve

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Eighth Subway sandwich shop opens in the East Village

In case that you couldn't ~~smell~~ tell ... the Subway opened here at 108 First Ave. today ...

This makes No. 8 here.

$500,000 cars aren't immune from parking tickets on Avenue A

And we're back with our Maybach 62S here on Avenue A ... now with a ticket.

Matt LES_Miserable, who took this photo, also spoke with the owner... and said that he was actually a very nice guy.

Headline of the day (so far)

Via DNAinfo:

Two People Overcome by Mysterious Smell in East Village Staples

No explanations just yet about what happened here on Broadway and East Ninth Street this morning. Do you have any theories?

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Flowers for Peter Cooper, photo by Dave on 7th]

City to unveil Delancey Street safety plan tonight (DNAinfo)

Best player on the Knicks sleeps in his brother's LES living room (The New York Times)

New York becoming less affordable, duh (Runnin' Scared)

Sale of Bialystoker Nursing Home coming soon? (The Lo-Down)

A look inside the new Empellon Cocina on First Avenue (Eater)

Remembering WQEW (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Olek returning to the Lower East Side (BoweryBoogie)

Inside the Amtrak Tunnels on the West Side (Gothamist)

Red Lobster opening up next to the Apollo in Harlem (New York Post)

And Matt LES_Miserable notes the asbestos rat outside the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary on 14th Street and Second Avenue this morning...

When Rocky's phone service went out

Here's a newish neighborhood blog to tell you about — Occupy East Fourth Street. Here's their tagline: "We are 2 Tenant Associations, joined together to defend ourselves against a Corporate Real Estate Investment Hydra, that seeks to expell us from our homes in order to maximize their profits."

So it's very specific to a certain corridor of the neighborhood... but it provides a snapshot of what's going on in the East Village at large.

Here's a post from Monday ... the kind of story that needs to be told...

The Death Letter
Rocky is a retired senior citizen who lives in 120 East 4th Street. He is a very pleasant, kind, salt-of-the-earth type of a man, and a wonderful neighbor. On December 9, 2011, an apartment on the ground floor of 120 East 4th Street was being gutted. Rocky, who has a land-line phone and no cell phone or computer, lost his phone service, along with a few other tenants in the building ...

The risers to his part of the building were cut and removed without explanation. The risers are the metal protective cases that house and protect the phone lines throughout the building. There was a question as to whether it was a Federal offense of just a stupid mistake. Verizon, when contacted, said it was the responsibility of the owner to maintain the risers. It's unclear whether Verizon, or Magnum Real Estate Group took responsibility. It was not until January 5, 2012, that Verizon installed a wire from the roof to the basement to restore service. ...

Five days after it was installed, Rocky received a letter in the mail from a nursing [home] in one of the outer boroughs where his beloved sister Esme resided. Rocky called Esme frequently and visited often. The letter stated that Esme suddenly became very ill and passed away on January 1st. The nursing home had tried repeatedly to call Rocky without success. They resorted to sending him a letter.

In addition to not receiving the news of his sister's illness and death when he should have, Rocky had to make all the wake and funeral arrangements from a pay phone on the corner. The phone service to his apartment was not restored until January 25, 2012.

Find, and bookmark, the site here.

That's it for East Village Farms

The folks at East Village Farms on Avenue A stayed open two days past their original Feb. 5 closing date... and by last night, the store was fairly miserable... workers had pulled most everything off the shelves...

They were just selling off the rest of the beer and soda, really... and anything else that you might want to buy — those lousy deli umbrellas, some dinted cans of Libby's products... the fellow working said they were closing after last night... (though I wouldn't be surprised to find them open today...)

Meanwhile, evilsugar25 passed along this photo of Jimmy from behind the deli counter on his last day on Sunday...

He wasn't sure what he was going to do for work. Take a few days off then start looking for another job...

Finally, the flowers will be on sale outside through Feb. 14...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

How long before this pigeon decomposes?

And here we have a dead pigeon lying on an air conditioner behind a building somewhere on East Sixth Street.

Suz on Sixth, who took the photo, notes the pigeon has been there for months. There have been those across-the-air-shaft conversations with the tenant about disposing the bird. But, it remains.

"On our end, we're just curious how long it'll take to fully decompose; an urban memento mori, if you will," Suz on Sixth said. "It's only yet down to about a third of its original size."

Not just the Holiday: Pirate Brands founder bought all of 75 St. Mark's Place

Last Wednesday, we first reported that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. (We're still waiting to hear back from him.) He will go before the CB3/SLA committee on Monday.

Yesterday, the Observer noted that Ehrlich bought the whole building at 75 St. Mark's Place where the Holiday lived.

Per the Observer:

According to Corcoran broker Dan Brady, who held the listing with his colleague Nick Arnold, Mr. Ehrlich will not be moving in. Instead, he plans to keep the space as is: four floor-through apartments with a commercial unit on the ground floor. Will there be a Pirate Shop occupying the hallowed, beer-baptized grounds of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge? A Pirate Bar? A bar with pirate booty snacks? Whatever it is, it probably won’t hold a candle to the timeless bacchanal that was the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

CB3 aims to make daytime drinking more sociable, sort of

On Monday night, CB3's SLA Policy Taskforce met... and they came out of the meeting with a plan to consider easing up on restricting new liquor licenses ...

But with a catch. Bars-cafes-restaurants that only served beer-wine and closed by midnight would have a better chance of gaining approval under the proposed plan.

The new policy would be more welcoming of daytime establishments — those closing by about midnight and serving only beer and wine — in keeping with CB3's efforts to increase foot traffic during the day and avoid new late-night establishments.

This report comes via Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo.

Nothing's definite, of course. Next steps. A meeting! March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at a to-be-determined location. CB3 members are encouraging public participation. CB3 won't vote on the proposed policy change until after the public hearing in March, Shapiro reported. (Read the whole article here.)

Any early thoughts on the potential policy?

Present your vision about bicycling in the East Village

This is what 533 E. 12th St. looked like on Jan. 29, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Going southbound

For no reason, really ... just a late-afternoon look down Suffolk from Houston... by Bobby Williams.

A forest grows on Avenue A

East Village-based artist Scooter LaForge has been painting a scene outside Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A near East 10th Street... which includes a red-tailed hawk... (and a cat)

Photos by Stacie Joy.

52 years ago today: First mention of the 'East Village' in The New York Times

Some time ago, our old friend Pinhead sent along a clip from The New York Times ... As far as his research could tell, the first time that The New York Times mentioned the East Village in print was on Feb. 7, 1960 — 52 years ago today.

The article was titled "'Village' Spills Across 3D Ave." And it appeared on Page 1. As the article notes, the destruction of the Third Avenue El in 1956 "helped stir up a minor social and realty revolution on the Lower East Side."

And, here we go...

Uh-oh...

And here come the rental agents... in the eighth paragraph of the article, "East Village" makes its appearance...

The article makes a lot of interesting observations... such as the growth of "high-rent apartment houses" that popped up along Fourth Avenue, replacing some second-hand book shops in the process.

You can access (buy) the article at the Times here.

Future trivia: Feb. 5, 2012, was the first day that the Times mentioned "NoEVil."

316 E. Third St. ready for demolition

Workers arrived yesterday morning to erect the scaffolding and netting for the doomed 316 E. Third St. near Avenue D...

And a little later in the day...

The circa-1835 house will be cleared out to make way for a Karl Fischer-designed, 33-unit apartment building. (The garden and trees to the east of the house will also be dug up to become part of the new structure.)

The city issued the demo permit for the address on Jan. 26. Surprised that it took this long to start the demolition.

Previously on EV Grieve:
33-unit, Karl Fischer-designed building rising at former home of Community Board 3 member

Landmarks Preservation Commission rejects hearing for 316 E. Third St., paving way for 7-floor condo

Former Obscura Antiques and Oddities space now for rent

As we first reported last Wednesday, Obscura Antiques and Oddities has closed its store on East 10th Street... and will soon move to a nearby new home.

The store is now for rent...

Per the listing at Walker Malloy, the 350-square-foot space is going for $3,800. (Hey Bleecker Bob's — this fits in with your parameters.)

Here are a few photos of the Obscura stuff in storage via the store's Facebook page...

Given the popularity of the store (and their reality series), a lot of people are curious about the store's new home. Here's a Facebook message from them:

[W]hen we do reopen...its in a space about twice the size of our former store...and the place used to be a Funeral Home...so its win/win for all. We will post all of our info soon...such as where the new shop will be. Its actually very close to our former shop....maybe 3 or 4 blocks away....

Several readers figure the store will be at 207 Avenue A... which was the Sparacio & DeMarco Funeral Home until 1995... the space had been for rent... and there is now brown paper over the windows...

And now, video of Speedo-clad revelers celebrating the Giants Super Bowl victory on Third Avenue

Remember on Sunday night, when we posted something about some New York Giants fans/NYU students in Speedos celebrating the Super Bowl victory on Third Avenue and 11th Street?

Yeah, anyway. There's video.

When 5 Napkin Burger opens, how will we get our Jeff Boss for president news?

We got a tweet the other day from the folks at 5 Napkin Burger, calling themselves "very soon-to-be neighbors."

So very soon, the plywood will come down here on Third Avenue and 14th Street...

...and when that happens, the campaign team for Jeff Boss will need to find a new wall...

Bye Bye CBGB

[Bruno Hadjadj via Clic Gallery]

From the EV Grieve inbox ... you know there are rumors that some new-era CBGB will resurface fairly soon... a reader passed along this information about the original CBGB via a news release from the Clic Gallery...

BYE BYE CBGB is a final goodbye to one of the last relics of New York punk rock and 1970s/1980s underground culture. CBGBs is a place that continues to thrive on in the collective unconscious; a historic landmark that belongs just as much to teenagers buying their first Ramones album as it does to those who attended the first Ramones gigs in 1974. It was in this dingy little rock den on Bowery and Bleecker that the seeds of punk rock germinated before transforming worldwide counterculture forever.

On October 14th, 2006 people came from all other the world to say “Bye Bye” to CBGBs before the club shut its doors for good. Indoors, there were 48-hours of star-studded performances, but it was the emotionally-charged going-ons right outside the club’s doors that captivated multimedia artist Bruno Hadjadj. Using sketches, photography, and videos, he immortalized the anonymous throngs who queued up outside to pay their final respects. For two days people dedicated poems, artworks, mementos, and performances to the legacy of the greatest rock club of all time. Hadjadj’s resultant body of work not only tells the tale of an era coming to an end, but also pays testament to the incredible endurance of CBGBs influence.

“Bye Bye CBGB” is comprised of black and white prints and silver prints mounted on light boxes with the flickering electric lights animating the figures. The accompanying sketches are rendered with a mix of ink and pencils.

February 2 - February 28, 2012
Clic Gallery NYC
255 Centre Street

Monday, February 6, 2012

Tough day for an already-dead rat in Tompkins Square Park

Bobby Williams, who took the photos, notes that the rat was already dead when our friend ate him...

Today in $500,000 cars parked on Avenue A

Well, it could be in the $400,000 range depending on the features of this Maybach 62S. We popped the hood to check out the Mercedes-sourced 5.5-litre twin-turbo V12 engine that accelerates from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) in about 4.8 seconds.

Actually, we didn't do that. We plucked that info straight from Wikipedia.

Photo by Matt LES_Miserable.

[UPDATED] DOH temporarily shutters that expensive club place that you'd likely never go to on East Houston

Earlier today, Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo reported that the DOH temporarily closed Open House, the newish club on East Houston just east of Avenue A. On Friday, the inspectors found 38 violation points, including "Live roaches present in facility's food and/or non-food areas."

The previous week, inspectors issued 52 points for violations including mice, roaches, contaminated food and issues with the bathroom and plumbing, DNAinfo pointed out.

Meanwhile, as Eater noted today, Stay Open just got some exposure via a feature in the Styles section of last Thursday's Times... the day before the DOH visit.

That article noted that people were grumbling about a two-hour wait to get in on a recent Friday. A few other excerpts from the Times:

Young women shed their furs and puffy coats to reveal sparkly dresses and tight miniskirts; their male counterparts sport button-downs and fleece. “It’s not a very cool crowd, but it would be a safe place to bring my brothers,” one patron said.

Ouch.

And!

Bottle service is encouraged, with flavored vodkas starting at $250 and a magnum of Dom Pérignon capping things off at $1,200.

UPDATED 2-7
Per Eater, Open House is back open.

Noted

This afternoon, Gothamist has an item plucked from the Times real-estate section this weekend... In a letter to the paper, Frank M. on East 28th Street makes his case for a new name for Kips Bay.

Being both underrated and generally affordable ... Kips Bay is a superbly innocuous neighborhood close to -- well -- almost all of the hip neighborhoods that are both overrated and expensive. ... We are trying to get Kips Bay renamed "NoEVil" (North of the East Village) to capture its cachet -- but without having to pay for it.

UPDATED:

Our apologies... we didn't see that Alex had this item this morning at Flaming Pablum! With a Television reference!

Noted

First Avenue at 11th Street.

Graffiti-free Verizon building lasts less than one week

Last Tuesday, evilnyc passed along photos of Graffiti Free NYC cleaning up the East 13th Street side of the Verizon building at Second Avenue...

evilnyc just sent this shot of that wall today...

[Updated] Mainstream media confirm that David Schwimmer owns destroyed 331 E. Sixth St.

[Matt LES_Miserable]

The New York Post checks in today with a story on 331 E. Sixth St., the formerly historic townhouse that we've been writing about hereabouts for the past six months.

The Post gets "sources" to confirm the David Schwimmer connection.

Schwimmer bought the home through a limited-liability company, 331 East 6th Street Townhouse LLC. Although his name is not attached to the deal, sources briefed on the purchase confirmed that Schwimmer is the owner.

In addition, Schwimmer, the LLC manager Gary Kress and 331 East 6th Street Townhouse LLC all share the same Santa Monica, Calif., address.

Schwimmer, Kress and the project’s architect all didn’t return calls for comment. But future neighbors were willing to sound off.

Indeed!

“All the new people are yuppie transients. If I see David Schwimmer on the street, I’ll be sure to give him my two cents!” said Charlett Hobart, a retired independent contractor who has lived on the block for the past 37 years.

“People who have been living here a long time don’t like new people coming in” and tearing down old buildings, she explained.

Updated:

One nugget from the Post story that we didn't mention first time around...

Schwimmer, 45, snapped up the property for $4.1 million in 2010 — and the city Landmarks Preservation Commission send him notices on March 31 and May 27 of last year that it could get landmark status by the end of 2012, said commission spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon.

But by September 2011, the building was gone, just four months after the city’s latest letter was sent to Schwimmer’s representatives.

So, just to spell this out, Schwimmer or his people knew that the building was under landmark consideration, yet they hurried and destroyed it anyway.

Let's go back and look at the questions that we asked on Sept. 8:

We're wondering why:
• With all the available upscale townhouses on the market in the city, why did he buy this historic building only to tear it down?
• Didn't his people think tearing down this historic townhouse would raise the ire — and suspicion — of neighbors?
• What was so special about this particular location? Proximity to Indian food?
• How often will a busy person like Schwimmer actually even stay here?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse

RIP Bob Spedalere

A few friends of the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place passed along word that Bob Spedalere, a longtime bartender there, died last Thursday. He was 65.

We don't have a lot of details, though we understand that he had been in the hospital. There is a wake today at Provenzano Lanza, 43 Second Ave., from 2-5 p.m. and 7- 9 p.m.

It's likely that you saw Bob with his beloved dog Zach walking around St. Mark's Place ... or maybe even in the Grassroots. (Zack died several years ago.)

Been a difficult time for Grassroots regulars. John Leeper, another longtime bartender there, died last November.

[Photos via Facebook]

RIP Connie Bush

There's a memorial for Connie Bush outside 220 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. Bush, the director of the Cornelia Connelly Center, died last Monday after a battle with breast cancer. She was 57.

She co-founded the school for girls from low-income families back in 1993.

Per her obituary:

Connie played with the Bronx Symphony Orchestra and traveled to Europe each winter to play violin with the Manhattan String Quartet. She spent weeks each summer cooking meals for 82 girls and counselors at the Camp Holy Child in Lake Placid, NY; and frequently sped back to Northeast Pennsylvania after working a seventy hour week to prepare a gourmet dinner complete with Martha Stewart accompaniments for her family.

You can read more about her life and work here.