Friday, November 30, 2012

Ludlow Hotel is starting to look like a hotel

A few things here on Ludlow Street ... where work continues at the longtime-coming Ludlow Hotel, subtly nestled next to the Ludlow...

[Last week, probably]

First, a reader sent us this close-up shot of the hotel... so we're posting it. Look, bricks! Windows!


...and secondly... the Ludlow Hotel is on this month's CB3/SLA committee agenda for a liquor license ...

In October 2011, Curbed reported that BD Hotels — the team involved with the Maritime, Chambers, Greenwich, Jane and Bowery hotels — bought the stalled site for $25 million.

For more on the background here, you can check out BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down.

Previously on EV Grieve:
People behind fabulous hotels opening another likely fabulous hotel on Ludlow Street

Actual work being done at the long-stalled Hotel Ludlow site

Stogo says goodbye

Several readers sent along the goodbye note posted on the door at Stogo, the vegan ice cream shop that closed this past Sunday on East 10th Street ... these photos are from EVG regular samo...



H/t @Mylestanzer

Fall Friday Flashback — Now and then: 10th Street and Avenue A

On Fridays this fall, and probably winter and spring and... we'll post one of the 12,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one, from Dec. 30, 2009...
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At Flickr, rollingrck has a great set of old East Village postcards, including this undated shot of 10th Street and Avenue A...


I tried to line it up to compare to today's corner...

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Might as well jump...


A brief moment in time earlier today in Tompkins Square Park... disembarking from the rather fragile elm... Photo by Bobby Williams.

Headline h/t.

Noted


Just passing along some toilet-tank decorating ideas... via EVG reader Mike on Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street...

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[East Seventh Street... photo by Bobby Williams]

The LES photos of Rebecca Lepkoff, 96 (The Villager)

Stanton Street Synagogue raising funds for Sandy-related damages (BoweryBoogie)

Blondie's Clem Burke on the good ol' days (The Age)

Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan likes Northern Spy (Eater National)

Original Nathan's Famous won't reopen until the spring (Brooklyn Paper)

Life after Pathmark on the LES (The Lo-Down)

Spotting an old sign in Harlem (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

The last wooden escalators in NYC? (Ephemeral New York)

...and EVG reader c ring passes along these photos from Facebook... showing the Bánh mì Zòn owners cooking for Daryl Hall...


... and, sorry — I keeping doing this. Taking photos of the sunrise...Like this one this morning on First Avenue and East Seventh Street...






Report: Barnes & Noble closing Greenwich Village location

In his column at The Villager this week, Scoopy notes that the Barnes & Noble on Sixth Avenue at Eighth Street is closing for good on Dec. 31.

Meanwhile, entertainment columnist Roger Friedman had this to say about the closure:

In the mid 1980s, Barnes & Noble swallowed up Marboro Books, Bookmasters and B Dalton, among other booksellers. They killed off small booksellers all over the country, eventually destroying business for many beloved New York landmarks like Colosseum, Books & Co., Gotham, Doubleday, and many others. St. Marks Bookstore, in its reduced form, is rumored to be downsizing and moving again.

B&N wanted to rule the world. They took over the B Dalton store at what used to be the gateway of Greenwich Village, but also added a behemoth store at 21st and Sixth (now gone), Lincoln Center (now gone), and downsized the famous main store at Fifth Avenue and 18th st. On upper Fifth Avenue, they ravaged Scribner Books, the best bookstore in New York, which became Rizzoli and is now a Benetton or some clothier.

[Image via Showbiz 411]

Mobil station on Avenue C provides screen for 'Hurricane Exxon' film


Per Nick Pinto at Runnin' Scared:

The Exxon Mobil station on 2nd Street and Avenue C became an impromptu movie theater last night, as a coalition of climate-change activists projected a short film about Hurricane Sandy recovery onto the wall above it.

Said Josh Fox, one of the filmmakers: ""We're dealing with a hurricane that was supercharged by climate change. Really, we should be calling it Hurricane Exxon."

The New York Times had more on the screening here.

[Photo by Jenna Pope via Facebook]

Unfortunately, we didn't find out about the screening until it was too late... But! The 24-minute film is on vimeo...


OCCUPY SANDY from JFOX on Vimeo.

Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ now in the works for the former Lucky Cheng's space

Leading up to this month's CB3/SLA meeting on Nov. 19, public documents showed that the owners of the new Acme (and Indochine, among others) were proposing to take over the former Lucky Cheng's space on First Avenue. (You can read more on the concept here.)

However, for whatever reasons, those plans never materialized and the group did not appear at the meeting.

Meanwhile, yesterday, CB3 released the SLA committee docket for December, which includes this item:

Pride and Joy (Pride and Joy BBQ LLC), 24 1st Ave (op)

Turns out that this will be the first NYC outpost for renowed BBQ chef Myron Mixon, who, among other things, serves as a judge on TLC's Destination America's "BBQ Pitmasters." (Per his bio, he is known as "the winningest man in barbecue," and authored a best-seller titled "Smokin' with Myron Mixon.")

A Pride & Joy opened earlier this month in North Miami. Per Eater Miami:

Mixon will be using his custom-made smokers and his own line of sauces and spices to serve up some the darn best ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and wings you've ever had.

I asked Lucky Cheng's owner Hayne Suthon (who also resides in the building here on First Avenue) about her new tenant.

"I am beyond excited to have this group comprised of a stellar team covering all bases of food, design construction and operations," she said in an email. "I have found them to be nothing short of super down to earth, sharp, creative and talented."

In addition to the restaurant, the Pride & Joy team apparently has some ideas for other uses of the space.

"As a resident of 1st Avenue and 2nd St since 1986, observing the good and bad trends over the past 26 years, they have been very receptive to my ideas as to what is needed in the neighborhood," Suthon said. "Aside from all of that, I CANNOT wait for them to open; I'm obsessed with good barbecue. I've already had a dream about dining there."

[Pride & Joy photo via Eater Miami]

[Updated] La Vie closed for now on East First Street

An East First Street tipster told us last Tuesday that the State Liquor Authority had, that day, revoked La Vie's liquor license on East First Street. (The license had apparently expired in February 2011, but La Vie had been operating under the NY State Administrative Procedures Act, aka SAPA).


However, since last Tuesday, the club had remained open.

BoweryBoogie's tipsters passed along word of this too... and last night, BoweryBoogie reports that a "due to an emergency La Vie will be closed" sign appeared on the club's front door.

[Via an EVG reader]

Per BB: "La Vie can still apply to have its license reinstated at a future SLA hearing, when the board will also take complaints into consideration."

In January 2011, the CB3/SLA denied a liquor license renewal for La Vie. Several angry and frustrated First Street residents were in attendance to address the ongoing issues with La Vie (and its predecessors), and the fact that they have been operating as a club under the guise of a restaurant.

[Via Facebook]

The session ended on an ugly note, when one of La Vie's partners inexplicably called CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer a racist. You can read our account of that meeting here. DNAinfo's coverage of the meeting is here.

Digging in for a new Karl Fischer-designed rental on East Third Street

Every so often we'll post an update on an incoming development...


Here's a look at the progress at 316-318 E. Third St., where a Karl Fischer-designed, 33-unit apartment building is in the works...


...workers finished demolishing the house back in March. The home was last owned by Barden Prisant, a former member of Community Board 3, who now lives in Brooklyn. According to an article on living in Prospect Park South in the Times dated Oct. 6, 2011, Prisant and his wife "decided to sell their house in the East Village because a tall building was to go up next to their beloved backyard." (The in-progress Alphabet Plaza.)

Preservation groups to try to protect the circa-1835 house here, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected a hearing. Construction on the new rental is expected to be completed by the end of November 2013.

Previously on EV Grieve:


Another parcel of East Village land ready for development

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

Lovely townhouse with bucolic gardens on East Third Street ready for "creative expansion"

Is a Koffeecake Corner coming to East 13th Street and Fourth Avenue?

We noted yesterday that Brothers Deli on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street is closing at the end of the week... now an EVG tipster hears that the corner space is earmarked for another NYC branch of Koffeecake Corner, a bakery-coffee shop with locations in Chelsea and the UES.

Per our tipster: "Seems like lousy timing to me with Think Coffee down the block and The Bean a block away."

Anyone been to a Koffeecake Corner?