Tuesday, February 5, 2013

[Updated] A quick look at the long short-stack line on East 14th Street


It's National Pancake Day. (Thanks to everyone who sent me a card!) And IHOP is giving away short stacks (of pancakes) to anyone who wants to wait in line today. Per the news release: "Proceeds the restaurant chain hopes to raise $3 million as the first national fundraising campaign to kick off the 2013 fundraising year for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals."

Photo by Dave on 7th (who's now standing on 14th).

Oh, and a longer view...


Updated 6ish

The line is growing...


EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Outside EVG favorite A-1 Records on East Sixth Street]

Jurors reject insanity defense for man who terrorized Bar Veloce in 2002 (The New York Post)

A discussion on the "Radical History in the East Village" (Off the Grid)

Pop-up queer bookstore extending its stay on Orchard Street (The Lo-Down)

New kosher deli restaurant in the works for the Lower East Side (The Jewish Press)

NYU freshman no longer allowed to select their own roommates (NYU Local)

About fancy coffee (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Someone robbed Ludlow Guitars (BoweryBoogie)

Old timer Bridge Cafe at the Seaport launching a Sandy-related fundraising campaign (Eater)

Stone Street Properties LLC named in lawsuit for eviction of UES tenant with cancer (DNAinfo)

...and filming "Orange is the New Black" last night on Second Avenue and East Third Street...


Photo by Adrianna Grezak. Find more of her work here.

The hunt for new Red Room space

Last week, W.M. Akers at Astor Place Riot first reported that the Red Room, the 32-seat performance space on East Fourth Street, will close this spring.

He followed up yesterday with a Q-and-A with Heidi Grumelot, head of artistic development at Horse Trade Theater, which operates out of the Red Room and the Kraine and Under St. Marks theaters. The Red Room will close after March 31. The landlord has unspecified plans for the space.

On the possibility of moving the Red Room elsewhere:

We're looking. We're just looking. We've gone to see a few spaces already. Nothing's developed yet. We're definitely serious about where we can continue to afford to do this work. If anybody has space — and I know how silly it sounds to ask that in New York — we're on the hunt right now.

But will they stay in the East Village? "We've talked about different opportunities uptown or in Brooklyn, but when you think about it, this is where we've always been."

Meanwhile, the Red Room is closing out March with the Blaze of Glory festival... Find the March schedule of events at the Red Room here.

Is the under-renovation 205 Avenue A already too tall?


205 Avenue A is now all snug behind scaffolding and construction netting ... and work continues on adding a two-floor extension to the existing four-floor building via developer Terrence Lowenberg and architect Ramy Issac, aka "the controversial penthouse king of the East Village."


With all the construction gear, it is difficult to tell what is happening from out front on Avenue A. However, there's a clearer view from behind No. 205, where EVG regular Greg Masters notes that the back building is already at seven stories (the street-level story is hidden in the photo below).



And there's a palette of cinder blocks in the backyard, which portends the addition of another story. Still, as it stands now, the building is seven stories — one more than the DOB permitted. Certainly not the first time a renovated building has suddenly become taller without the OK from the city...

Previously on EV Grieve:
205 Avenue A primed for 2 new floors

Actress Jennifer Esposito's Jennifer's Way Bakery opening soon on East 10th Street


Workers are putting the finishing touches on Jennifer's Way Bakery on East 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. (It's right next door to Quintessence.)

This will be the first store for Jennifer Esposito, the Brooklyn-born actress who was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2009. (Her acting credits include "Summer of Sam" and "Crash.")

She has said that she was booted from CBS' "Blue Bloods" because of a misunderstanding of her limitations due to her celiac disease diagnosis. She has been selling her gluten-free products online.

Here's more about the store in a blog post from Jan. 21:

I’m happy to say Jennifer’s Way Bakery is ALMOST here. A gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, soy free, peanut free, allergy friendly, organic bakery that will be a SAFE ZONE and the CELIAC STANDARD for gluten free baked goods. I’m going to also make it a center for information about this disease, and a place to find understanding and support. To say its been a TON of work would be an understatement.

Besides hand-picking every last detail, even sanding the refurbished wood in the store myself, I have spent days upon days researching the SAFEST, cleanest, purest, organic, non GMO, local ingredients I could find. I WILL NOT bake with anything less. DO you want to know why? Because as a celiac, a severe allergy ridden one, I have learned that whole, clean, HEALTHY foods is what my body needs to function. So I’ve used my own savings to make this dream spot happen not only for me but for so many like me.

[Via Jennifer's Way]

Noted

Per a commenter last night on More about last week's 17-building deal:

So much for the new management. Residents of 167 and 165 Avenue A came home from work tonight only to find the electronic key system not working so they were locked out of their buildings. Tenants were standing in front in the freezing cold. No one answers the phone at the management office and calls to the super yielded "there is nothing I can do - I will call the management office to send someone tomorrow." Residents took matters into their own hands and someone was able to get inside the building [through] the roof and let other residents in.

Look at Subway's big new sign on First Avenue

[Via an EVG reader]

An EVG reader notes the recent arrival of a large banner hanging above the Subway on First Avenue near East Sixth Street... "there's a new sign, in addition to the perpetual 'Grand Opening' sign ... they are now 'Open Late' for all the drunks coming out of bars I guess," per the reader. (And this location hasn't always packed 'em in ... as seen here ... and here ... and here...)

We noticed the banner ourselves for the first time this past weekend. Hard to miss...


This Subway opened last Feb. 8. And what are the term limits for a Grand Opening anyway?

After a 9-year eviction battle, marshal seizes the Village Scandal on East 7th Street

Village Scandal, the vintage hat shop, is in its 18th year at 19 E. Seventh St. However, for the last nine years, owner Wendy Barrett has been embroiled in an ongoing eviction battle with her landlord. It's a long, complicated story. We covered it here.


Yesterday afternoon, a tipster noted that a marshal seized the store. More details as they become available.

Storefront renovation for 117 Second Ave.; last call for Song 7.2?


We've noted the renovations going on at 117 Second Ave. at East Seventh Street. (Right here, if you'd like). But we've never noted the status of the ground-floor tenant, Song 7.2, the Korean joint. (And why did we never mention Song 7.2? Well, in part ... to be honest, we've never met another living soul who has been inside this place.)

Anyway! As you can see, they closed just after the New Year, with a return date of Jan. 19...

As of yesterday, Song 7.2 was still closed...


...and the interior looked mostly demolished...


So. No idea when or if Song 7.2 will return. (The phone number is still temporarily disconnected.) Song 7.2 opened in the spring of 2008, just five days after the unintentionally hilarious American Grill/Go-Go Curry closed... all in the space that once housed Kiev.

As for the rest of 117, the address is on next Thursday's CB3 Landmarks Subcommittee. (117 Second Ave. is part of the new East Village/Lower East Side Historic District.) Per that docket:

• Cert of Appropriateness: 117 2nd Ave, new storefront
• Cert of Appropriateness: 117 2nd Ave, 2nd floor façade renovation (Here's a PDF of all the plans.)


Workers are replacing the floor-to-ceiling aluminum/windows combo so that the second floor looks like the top-two floors...

[2007, via Curbed]

Prepping 9th Street lot for the residential after life


Last Friday, the last vehicle had to be out of the parking lot at 327 E. Ninth St. ... to make way for a six-story, two-unit residential building.

And yesterday, we spotted a few workers on the scene, digging and so on. Apparently the developers aren't wasting anytime on this project.

Previously.

Short stack alert!: Expect some lines at IHOP today

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Batter up, breakfast lovers! IHOP®, one of America’s most popular family-friendly restaurants, known for “everything you love about breakfast,” will once again invite guests to enjoy free pancakes during National Pancake Day on February 5, 2013, while celebrating Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ 30th Anniversary. On this day, the restaurant chain hopes to raise $3 million as the first national fundraising campaign to kick off the 2013 fundraising year for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

During National Pancake Day, the company’s largest philanthropic event of the year, more than 1,500 IHOP restaurants across the country will invite guests to enjoy a complimentary stack of IHOP’s signature delicious buttermilk pancakes ... Guests will be encouraged to make a voluntary contribution to the local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital or other local charities. One hundred percent of the donations will help local charities provide vital equipment, life-saving procedures and critical care for sick and injured children.

The East 14th Street location has the offer going from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Flashback to last year....



H/t to Crazy Eddie for the heads up on this...

Monday, February 4, 2013

Tough day for critters in Tompkins Square Park


First, there was the squirrel who either wanted to play. Or just be a pain in the ass.


The squirrel had to make a quick getaway. The hawk was in no mood.


But a rat wasn't so fortunate.



And, for the rest of the afternoon, the critters kept a low-profile...



Photos by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition


Looking at "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

New venture for Marshall Stack owner (BoweryBoogie)

More adventures with the hawk in Tompkins Square Park (The Gog Log)

Robert Sietsema tries the mini hots at the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 (Fork in the Road)

Neon New York with James and Karla Murray (Daily Beast)

Revisiting the Coney Island classic "Little Fugitive" (Amusing the Zillion)

More about last week's 17-building deal


On Friday afternoon, The Real Deal first reported that developer (and New York Observer publisher) Jared Kushner closed on a portfolio of 17 walk-up apartment buildings in the East Village for some $130 million.

There were slightly different accounts of the addresses in the article in The Real Deal and the Post.

The Real Deal:

201 East 2nd Street, 23 Avenue A, 129 First Avenue, 143 First Avenue, 338-340 East 11th Street, 165-167 Avenue A, 500 East 11th Street, 504 East 12th Street, 191-193 Avenue A, 435 East 12th Street, 516 East 13th Street, 211 Avenue A and 49 and 1/2 First Avenue.


The Post:

165-167 Ave. A, 129 1st Ave., 143 1st Ave., 191-193 Ave. A, 201 East 2nd, 211 Ave. A, 23 Ave. A, 338-340 E. 11th St., 435 E. 12th St., 500 E. 11th St., 504-508 E. 12th St. and 516-518 E. 13th St.

Can any residents of 49 1/2 confirm that their building was part of the sale?

In any event, Kushner's affiliate, Westminster Management, has taken over the, uh, management of the buildings.

Per the Westminster website:

Westminster Management, a division of Kushner Companies, is a diversified real estate organization headquartered in New York City with regional offices in New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio. Our company is responsible for the ownership, management, development and redevelopment of countless properties. Our national reach consists of more than 15,000 multifamily apartments and we plan to continue to make acquisitions as the market presents opportunities.

One resident sent along this note that was slipped under his or her door on Friday...


And said another building resident:

The first communication from them is promising. PVE wouldn't even give out an address, so now we have a landlord with a name, address and an Internet portal, which is 3 more things than we had before.

Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate (Westbrook Partners, Meadow Partners, PVE Associates and Fortune East LLC, et al) reportedly previously managed the the properties.

One possibly interesting development: The deal included 500 E. 11th Street, site of the incoming 7-Eleven... the one that apparently no one wants... and whose opposition has received global news coverage...

Have other tips or photos about the situation here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email