This afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

A man slumps over in the Park and hits his head. EMTs take him off...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Noted

Via EV Grieve reader MP.

Bishops & Barons takes over the Hype Lounge space on East 14th Street

A few weeks ago, Page Six noted that people behind ventures such as Macao Trading Co., Employees Only and The Gates were taking over the former Hype Lounge on East 14th Street aka IHOP Way...

Yesterday...

And today...

According to a description on Yelp, Bishops & Barons is "a restaurant and cocktail lounge that celebrates the days of showgirls, movie star gangsters and supper clubs."

Renovations, penthouse in the works for 243 E. Second St.

Major changes are apparently in the works for 243-245 E. Second St. between Avenue B and Avenue C... We started watching the space in January 2011. Despite the lack of work permits, workers gutted and boarded up 245. In addition, workers painted over the "Milky Way Dragon" mural on the ground level.

Before!




After.

That month, the estate of Bertha Zawin sold 243 to Triost Properties for $1.4 million, according to city property records. Today, a listing for 243 appeared on Streeteasy with an asking price of $4.6 million.

The listing at Marcus & Millichap doesn't appear to be online just yet. The Streeteasy listing simply says:

Marcus & Millichap is pleased to offer 243 East 2nd Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. The property sits on a 25 foot by 66 foot lot and is built 25 feet by 54 feet deep. The property has an approximate gross square footage on 7,060 and is zoned R8A.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, the DOB signed off on plans to renovate the building. Per the DOB:

CONVERT EXISTING STORES ON FIRST FLOOR TO RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS, RENOVATE RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS ON THE 2ND THRU 5TH FLOORS, ADD NEW PENTHOUSE FLOOR. OBTAIN A NEW C OF O.

The DOB also just approved plans to also "upgrade" the apartments at 245.

Have any more information about the situation here with current tenants? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Previously on EV Grieve:
On Second Street, the 'Milky Way Dragon' disappear

The Bean sprouts artwork on First Avenue

Work continues at the incoming Bean location at 147 Ave. at East Ninth Street ... in the last few days, Walker Fee, who is part of artist Nicolina's team, has been creating the artwork here... adds a nice splash of color to a cellblocky-looking building...

Photos by William Klayer

Weekend recap: Downtown Auto & Tire has left the Bowery

From yesterday:

This probably isn't much of a shocker... we've been watching the doomed corner of the Bowery and Great Jones the past few years... waiting for the day that Downtown Auto & Tire packed up and left ... there's no place for a auto repair shop on the new luxurious Bowery

As for what's possibly coming next ... one commenter said, "Rumor has it the garage is going to be used as a private garage by a guy who is a car buff."

That's possible in the short-term ... there are also retail rumors, one friend of EV Grieve said that Eddie Bauer passed on the space, and that Quicksilver was now kicking the tires on the corner, so to speak...

Two years ago, 348 Bowery (Downtown Auto), 350 (former Gallery 151) and 352 were on the market... 352 is now home to the furniture brand Environment. At this point, we're not sure if the new tenant would take 348 and 350... or just the corner lot... We're working on tracking down more details...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Please meet the next corner of the Bowery primed for something luxurious

The last days of the Downtown Auto and Tire?

The Bowery to get a South Beach diet

Making Faces at the Downtown Tire & Auto Center

Demolition under way inside the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel

Work is under way inside 154 Second Ave., the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street. Plans call for several new floors here for "luxury rental apartments" ... as well as nearly 4,600 square feet of ground-floor space "perfect for: retail store, restaurant," per the listing.

Here's a look at the interior demolition late last week via EV Grieve reader Terry Howell...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former funeral home looks to double in size with help from 'the controversial penthouse king of the East Village'

Redeveloped funeral home looking for a few live retail tenants

5C Cultural Center and Cafe closed for 'spring cleaning;' more landlord woes?

The 5C Cultural Center and Cafe on Avenue C and East Fifth Street has been closed the past six weeks or so... There weren't any signs up with an explanation for the closure and brown paper over the windows... a few weeks ago, 5C founder Trudy Silver told us they were closed for spring cleaning...

There's a sign up now ...

Meanwhile, 5C has been involved in an ongoing eviction battle with the landlord... Time Out covered the eviction battle here ... Co-owner Bruce Morris wrote about their ongoing landlord troubles in The Shadow here.

Here's an update on the 5C website:

From Bruce, Trudy, Silvia, Elaine, and Ian
Board of Directors – 5C Cultural Center and Managers of 5C Cafe

We apologize for not getting back to you sooner.
Here’s an update on 5C's sixteen-year legal battle:
On November 17, 2011, following four days of testimony a jury recognized that we have been wronged and awarded us $707,000.

Of course, what we really wanted was to get back our sixteen years in the form of an extended lease.

Then on March 8, 2012 Judge Eileen Rakower ordered a new trial saying that the jury’s verdict "is contrary to the weight of the evidence." In other words, the jury that included a brain surgeon did not know what they were doing!

Yet we are positive and have reached out to the landlord for a new lease as settlement to avoid a re-trial.

On the brighter side:
We are spring cleaning and sprucing up 5C
Better lighting, wifi, more seating…
Re-open soon with same loving service and more inspiring performances!

The Lakeside Lounge closes after tonight

As you probably know, the Lakeside Lounge closes up after tonight on Avenue B near East 10th Street. (A few people on Twitter seemed surprised by this news this past weekend.) The first report of the closure came a few weeks ago via a post at New York Music Daily.

And thanks to WNYC for including a "blow-torch" quote from me in a post on the Lakeside closing. (Quote: "I don't want an $18 cocktail made with a blow-torch.")

[Photo by Maggie Owens]

A call to 'fuck this wall up'

Spotted on the plywood outside the incoming 12-story apartment building where 9-17 Second Ave. used to be...

Welcome to Burger Town?

Came across this article at Bloomberg Businessweek ... it's about Hilary Mason, a chief scientist at Bitly, the link-shortening service ... and a side project of hers called "menu hacking."

Anyway, this jumped out at me:

The 33-year-old wrote a program to crawl the Web and download menus from New York eating places. It took her down a rabbit hole of restaurant exploration. She didn't figure out the perfectly average spot, but she learned that there are 173 different burgers to order in the West Village — but 363 in the East Village, and at lower prices.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Does the East Village have enough places now to order hamburgers?

[Image via]

Gates of fury

This Bruce Lee mural went up yesterday on East Seventh Street at Avenue C. Does anyone happen to know who the artist is?