Brooklyn Piggies now open on Avenue A

Smorgasburg vendors Brooklyn Piggies, which only peddles hand-rolled pigs in a blanket, opened its first permanent (brick-and-mortar?) storefront yesterday ... at 195 Avenue A near East 12th Street. (Someone at Oprah likes them.)

Their hours:

Tue - Wed: 11 am to 11 pm
Thu - Sat: 11 am to 4 am (They have a late-night to-go window)
Sun: 11 am to 9 pm

Per the Times:

The company makes about 10,000 pigs a week to sell online and frozen, and for Madison Square Garden’s skyboxes. They are available in original, spicy or chicken. Coming soon: a vegetarian style and potato puffs: about $20 for a box of 14.

Biscuits on one side of Avenue A ... and pigs in a blanket on the other. Who will win this single-food late-night throwdown?

RIP Mike Bakaty

[Photo by James Maher]

Mike Bakaty, owner of the city's longest-running tattoo parlor, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer. He was 77.

Bakaty opened Fineline Tattoos on First Avenue near East Second Street in 1997 after the city lifted the 30-plus year ban on tattooing. He started his business during the tattoo prohibition from his Bowery loft in 1976.

We featured Bakaty in Out and About in the East Village last Feb. 13.

I grew up in Miami. I moved to Houston and Bowery in 1970 to try it out for a year or two. I was 34 when I got here and I’m 39 now. I was the same handsome, charming young man that I am now.

Fame and fortune brought me here, like everybody else. Why the hell else? If I wanted fun in the sun, I’d have stayed in Miami.

Dave on 7th first told us the news.

"Mike was a total original. He was no doubt one of only a handful of people who were able to break into and keep alive the art of tattooing in New York — if not the country — during its long prohibition. He was a fine artist as well as a tattoo artist.

"He will be sorely missed by everyone who has had the privilege and pleasure to know him."

Here's a video interview with Bakaty (and his son Mehai) from January 2009...

2 new floors, gut renovation in store for empty tenement that last housed a Hanksy art show

324 E. Fourth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D is one of the last unique-looking buildings left in the area... not for long, though. There are plans on file with the city to gut-renovate the empty tenement and add two floors. Under this proposal, the number of apartments would increase from four to 11.

We're unsure how long the building has been vacant. At least one person had keys. The street artist Hanksy hosted a kinda secret show here called "Surplus Candy" on Jan. 10...









Hanksy also hosted another event here here in December. Hanksy probably has time to do a few more here before the permits are OK'd and the renovations begin.

The renovated building may match up nicely with the neutered 326-328 E. Fourth St. ... the former artists' collective and burial society called the Uranian Phalanstery and First New York Gnostic Lyceum Temple that Icon Realty turned into expensive dorms.

9 photos showing the East Village of the 1970s

Earlier this month, our blogging friend Alex at Flaming Pablum alerted us to the Museum of the City of New York's website ... where they just unveiled more than 1,000 digitized photos by Edmund V. Gillon, who chronicled NYC in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some two weeks later, we finally looked at every single photo. We pulled a few from this neighborhood with their accompanying captions for you... (But you should really go here and see them all for yourself.)


[East 8th Street and Avenue B, 1975]


[Christodora House, 1978]


[Second Avenue looking at East 12th Street, 1975]


[Cylindrical fire escape on the façade of 62 East 4th Street, 1977]


[Phebe's on the Bowery 1975]


[107-113 East 14th Street, 1976]


[Fresh Jersey Eggs, Open Thursday Only at 72 East 7th Street, 1978]


[Varieties Theatre, 110-112 Third Avenue, 1979. Demolished in 2005.]


[Broadway and 14th 1977]

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A word about the new collection from the Museum's website:

These photographs by Edmund V. Gillon (1929-2008) are a recent addition to the Museum's Photography collection. Gillon is best known for more than a dozen books on New York City for the Dover Publishing Company. The bulk of the collection is architectural in nature, portraying the city’s historic districts, landmarks, architectural ornamentation, and civic sculpture. His photographs bring to life not only the countless readily apparent changes that have taken place in the city’s urban landscape over the past several decades, but also the many subtle changes that transformed neighborhoods such as SoHo, Tribeca, and Dumbo as they transitioned, building by building, from gritty wastelands into the vibrant urban oases they have become.

Things we were unaware of: Village Farm Grocery now delivers kegs

The other morning we walked by Village Farm Grocery on Second Avenue and East Ninth Street ... and noticed a lot of kegs out front... Forgot to follow-up on that one (after all, it was like -2 degrees out).

Anyway! We saw on Facebook yesterday that the market is now delivering kegs... right to your apartment, dorm room, etc. Here's a list of what they have on tap, so to speak.

Perhaps some other corner markets have the same service? Dunno! Why would anyone want so much beer delivered to his or her home? [Don't really answer that.]

[Updated] A rough month for East Village restaurants

January is winding to a close... and the list of restaurants that closed this month is fairly lengthy ...

• Sapporo East
• Shima
• Wacky Wok
• Coyi Cafe
• 7A
• Viva Herbal Pizzeria
• Maria's Cafe
• Picnic
• Arcane

...and high-end ventures on the Bowery weren't immune from closures either... Peels is done... (Pulino's closed Dec. 29 ... Keith McNally is turning it into a French restaurant called Cherche Midi.)

Also, certainly worth noting nearby ... we had the sudden closures of Milady's on Prince Street and Gray's Papaya on Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue ...

Any closures in the neighborhood from this month that I'm missing? Which of these hurts the most for you?

'Charlie Victor Romeo,' from Ludlow Street to the big screen

"Charlie Victor Romeo" was originally a play produced at Collective Unconscious on Ludlow Street in 1999 ... it moved on in 2004 to PS 122.

The play, a dramatization based on the transcripts of actual black box recordings from six airline emergencies, was filmed (in 3-D!) for a movie version in 2012. After making the festival rounds, "Charlie Victor Romeo" is currently in a two-week run over at the Film Forum through Feb. 11.

Here's a review of it from the Times ... and here's the official "Charlie" website.

Details emerge about what's next for former the 7A, Odessa Cafe & Bar spaces

[The former 7A on Tuesday via Bobby Williams]

The paperwork on file ahead of next month's CB3/SLA meeting provides some information about what's to come to 7A, which closed after Sunday, and the Odessa Cafe & Bar.

7A
The applicant's name (PDF!) for the space is New 7A Cafe LLC. The name of the managing partner on the application is Paul Salmon. He is a co-founder of Joe's Pub (along with Kevin Abbott, Serge Becker and Josh Pickard) and Miss Lily's, the Jamaican bar and restaurant on West Houston.

The rumor out there was that Becker and Pickard were opening some kind of Southern-themed restaurant here.

The Odessa Cafe & Bar
The applicant's name for the space at 117 Avenue A is simply Avenue A Project LLC. However, an email address associated with the applicant (PDF!) is for DeRossi Global, the company behind Death and Co., Amor Y Amargo, Mayahuel, the Bourgeois Pig, Gin Palace and Proletariat.

There's no other information on the application about what's to come. Based on the other DeRossi establishments, you could go with "high-end cocktails" and likely be close to being right.

The Odessa Cafe & Bar closed last Aug. 31. The Odessa dates here to 1965.

Ben Shaoul looks to make a whole lot of money converting nursing home into high-end housing

[EVG file photo]

In a discussion on "The Stoler Report" last summer, developer Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group, mentioned that he was looking to sell his current "conversion of a nursing home" in a year or two.

Apparently the time is here. The Post reports that Bloom 62 on Avenue B and East Fifth Street — the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation — "is being shown to investors and expected to sell for roughly $70 million."

In December 2011, Shaoul and company purchased Cabrini for $25.5 million from a family trust made up of the estates of Jacob W. Friedman and Sol Henkind. Cabrini closed for good on June 30, 2012.

The 240-bed Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation — sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — provided health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The center opened in 1993 and served 240 patients and employed nearly 300 employees.

At Bloom 62, four-bedroom apartments for upwards of $7,600 ... in the upscale dorm building whose amenities include roof deck with showers, Weber grills and a yoga room.

The Post also mentions that "one retail unit in the process of being leased." The rumor is a 7-Eleven. The corner space will be home to the New Amsterdam School, according to signs along Avenue B.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos

Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely

More details on Cabrini's closing announcement

Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare

Applicants for 7A, Odessa Cafe & Bar highlight February CB3/SLA docket

[The former 7A on Tuesday via Bobby Williams]

The February CB3/SLA licensing committee meeting will be split over two nights. Items of interest this month include the mystery applicants for two former Avenue A mainstays — 7A and Odessa Cafe & Bar.

Here are some of the highlights from each night.

Monday, Feb. 10 at 6:30 p.m. Community Board 3 Office, 59 E. 4th St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery. (btwn 2nd Ave & Bowery)

Renewal with Complaint
• Mama Bar LLC, 34 Ave B (op)

Applications within Saturated Areas
• ABC Beer Co (Alphabet City Beer Co LLC), 96 Ave C (wb/extend license to backyard)


[EVG file photo]

• Avenue A Project LLC, 117 Ave A (op) (Odessa)

We're curious to see what is taking the space that belonged to the Odessa Cafe & Bar, which closed for business last Aug. 31. Previous plans for the space fell through.

• Klong (Auanthai Inc), 7 St Marks Pl (op)

Sidewalk Cafe Application
• Mama Bar LLC, 32 Ave B

New Liquor License Applications
• To be Determined, 600 E 14th St (op) (Alphabet Cafe)

• Eric Thant Corporation, 57 1st Ave (wb) (Pudgie's)

Oh! A taker for the former Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's action-packed combo!

• To be Determined, 325 Bowery (op) (Peels)

Eater reported that Andrew Carmellini and business partners Luke Ostrom and Josh Pickard are opening a "casual pasta shop" called Bar Primi at the now-shuttered Peels.

Corporate Change (not heard at committee)
• Euzkadi Restaurant (PYB Inc), 108 E 4th St (wb)

• New 7A Cafe LLC, 109 Ave A (op)

The 24-hour restaurant closed for business after Sunday. The rumor is that bold-face namers Serge Becker and Josh Pickard are opening some kind of Southern-themed restaurant here.

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Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. -- University Settlement at Houston Street Center - 273 Bowery

New Liquor License Applications
• To be Determined, 117 2nd Ave (wb) (Picnic)

A taker for the very short-lived Picnic on Second Avenue and East Seventh Street.

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b=beer only | wb=wine & beer only | op=liquor, wine, & beer | alt=alterations

Capturing 'Cool'

[From August 2013 via EVG reader Marc]

Yesterday's item about the apparent arrest of graffiti writer SMELL reminded me of this post, which I never finished ... I had been documenting some of the Cool tags around the neighborhood... it's the work of "Drew," whose "Ross is Not Cool" tag on David Schwimmer's new East Sixth Street estate in August generated coverage everywhere from the supermarket tabloids to Vanity Fair.

Here are but a few Cool tags from recent months... Anyway, these tags — scourge of the city or a welcome part of the urban landscape?

Reader mailbag: Any suggestions for a low-key place to watch the Super Bowl?

Another straightforward question. So maybe your apartment? Haha. Kidding! Well, the Big Game is coming up Sunday as you may have heard. (Make the hype stop! Please!)

So! Anyone with a suggestion for someplace low-key in the East Village to watch the game? (Please no blatant shilling or answers like "football sucks. Read a book.") As for us, we'll be watching it at the International!

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We often get reader queries ... asking for help with, say, donating clothes or books ... or finding an East Village-based caterer... If you have a question for the masses, then try the EV Grieve email...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader mailbag: Places to eat that have that old East Village vibe (45 comments)

Reader mailbag: What do I do about my new neighbors who smoke pot all the time? (52 comments)

Reader mailbag: Where is a good place to get a cup of coffee in the East Village before 6 a.m.? (25 comments)

Reader report: Beware now turning right on East 14th Street and Fourth Avenue

A note from an EVG reader...

It appears the City made it illegal to turn right on 14th Street and 4th Avenue/Union Square East (the corner in near Beth Israel). The NYPD has a cop stationed ticketing everyone dropping off patients — everyone from Access-A-Ride, to cabs, to residents like myself who are clueless about the updated traffic measure. 

The cop didn't leave us with a warning, instead gifted us a $135 ticket.

I'm writing you to hopefully warn other folks to they don't have to help this guy make his quota.

The reader later took a walk to see if there were any signs noting this new traffic rule...

There is a No Left Turn sign, which the reader notes is sort of obvious since traffic goes north along 4th Avenue/Union Square East. Otherwise, there aren't any other signs indicating No Right Turns between 7 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Waiting for the dough

Photo today in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams