Friday, April 25, 2014

Surprise! Surprise! closes Sunday: 'So sorry we have to go'


[Photo by Cheryl Pyle via Facebook]

The end is nearly here for Surprise! Surprise! The housewares store that has anchored the northeast corner of Third Avenue and East 12th Street for more than 25 years has been rent hiked out of here, as we first reported in February.

The store closes after Sunday...



Everything is 50 percent off... with the promise of deeper discounts this weekend...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Surprise! Surprise! will close at the end of April (42 comments)

A quick look inside the former 7A



There has been activity of late at the former 7A space on Avenue A and East Seventh Street … where workers are renovating the interior for a new restaurant-bar-cafe … various EVG tipsters told us that the place will be the second outpost of restauranteur Paul Salmon's Miss Lily's along with a Melvin's Juice Box.

A rep told Eater last month that the new place will "pay homage to the cafe history of 7A," but it will also have "elements of Melvin's Juice Box and Miss Lily's."



EVG regular Dave on 7th sent along the above photo showing how the interior is shaping up.

7A closed after nearly 30 years on Jan. 26.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Some part of 7A will stay in the new 7A's name

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

[Updated] Reader report: 7A will close at the end of the month

Renovations underway at former 7A space

[Updated] Rumors: 7A space will become a 2nd outpost of Miss Lily's and Melvin's Juice Box

The Wechsler's space is for rent on First Avenue



There will soon be some high-profile vacancies on the east side of First Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... with the upcoming closures of South Brooklyn Pizza (now closed) and Kim's ...

Now a tipster tells us that the Wechsler's Currywurst & Bratwurst space at 120 First Ave. is for sale ...

Description
MOTIVATED SELLER!
FULLY TURNKEY 30 SEAT RESTAURANT iN PRIME EAST VILLAGE
120 First Avenue (7th Street & St. Marks)
Ground Floor: approx. 850 Sq Ft with a full basement.
Rent: $9,004.07 per month
Key Money:Upon Request Lease:
Approximately 6 years remaining on the Lease.
Vented Full Kitchen, Walk in box, storage and office. Current business operates with a Wine & Beer License and has 30 seats. Backyard not currently being used but is part of the Tenant's Lease.

Here is a PDF of the listing here via Bond.

Wechsler's opened in April 2009.

The Sunburnt Cow closes for good after this weekend



As previously noted, The Sunburnt Cow closes this weekend after 11 years at 137 Avenue C near East Ninth Street.

Owner Heathe St Clair recently posted this message to the Sunburnt Cow Facebook page:

It is very sad for me to say The Cow is closing!
It took 2 years and 5 attempts in different locations around NYC to open. The weekend after we did finally open was the blackout of 2003. We made the best of it with candles an outside BBQ, local musicians played and of course we had ice cold beer. Looking back we really couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the neighborhood.

The Cow has been a gigantic part of my life and a dream come true. She has taught me so may things, introduced me to more people than I can remember. She's been integral in so many coming together and finding love, some lasting, some fleeting but love none the less.

She played music that made you dance in a time the law said "NO" Somehow we got away with it when so many got caught. We brunched better than any and probably still do! I remember back then so many of my restaurant friends asking me how I thought I was going to make money from the "Endless Brunch". Now it seems every restaurant in NYC is offering bottomless brunch. I have to shout out Stingy Lulu's who I stole the idea from.

And there will be various DJs and what not this weekend…



The city approved a gut renovation and additional floor for the building here at No. 137 last month. (Good luck tossing another floor atop here. Several readers have noted that the building leans a bit… )

Previously on EV Grieve:
Renovations in store for 137 Avenue C, home to the Sunburnt Cow

The Sunburnt Cow closes for good at the end of this month

Today in TV shoots around the neighborhood

First up! "Unforgettable," a CBS crime drama about something or another, filming on East Seventh Street and probably elsewhere…



Then! A new series called "Flesh and Bone" is filming where it says on the flyer …



And the plot painfully mirrors EVG's early days:

Claire, a talented but emotionally troubled dancer, joins a company in New York City, and soon finds herself immersed in the tough and often cutthroat world of professional ballet.

Except for the parts involving "Claire" and "talented" and "emotionally" and "dancer" and "professional" and "ballet."

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Cooped up


[Photo by Dave on 7th]

We've been meaning to note that the statue of Peter Cooper in Cooper Square was boarded up this past week for the Astor Place reconstruction project … So, noted!

BoweryBoogie noted this today as well … and BB also has a shot of the statue circa 1900.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

An updated look at the all-new Astor Place

New 7-floor buildings for East 14th Street include 150 residential units

[EVG file photo via Google]

Developers pre-filed plans yesterday for the two new retail-residential buildings that will take up a good chunk of East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

As previously reported, Gary Barnett of Extell Development purchased eight parcels — consisting of 222 Avenue A and 504 - 530 E. 14th St. (excluding No. 520) — in a 99-year lease worth $35.14 million. The renderings that accompanied the retail listings for the space look like …


[500 E. 14th St.]

... and this...


[524 E. 14th St.]

We have not seen the final renderings just yet. Paperwork on file with the DOB lists Richard J. Metsky of Beyer Blinder Belle as the architect of record. (The firm's many high-profile projects include the restoration of the Beacon Theater, City Hall and the Chrysler Building, among others.)

Now here are details via the DOB about No. 500:

• 7 stories with 106 dwelling units. In total, the proposed building is 138,388 square feet — 100,349 for residential; 20,039 for retail.

And here are details about No. 538:

• 7 stories with 44 dwelling units. In total, the proposed building is 50,509 square feet — 40,397 for residential; 10,112 for retail.

So that's 150 residential units total in nearly 189,000 square feet of space. For comparison's sake … Douglas Steiner's new residential building waiting for city approval at the former Mary Help of Christians lot boasts 158 apartments in 118,321 square feet. The Steiner project will also contain 22 affordable units.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The disappearing storefronts of East 14th Street

[Updated with correction] 8-lot parcel of East 14th Street primed for new development

East 14th Street corridor now nearly business-free ahead of new development

Here is the future of East 14th Street and Avenue A: 7 stories of residential and retail

City OKs permits to demolish the empty storefronts along this section of East 14th Street

Here is the next new section of East 14th Street

Sidewalk bridge arrives for start of demolition on East 14th Street; last chance for Blarney Cove sign

Miracle on St. Mark's! Sidewalk bridge comes down 6-plus years later!



What a scene late yesterday afternoon on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue … where workers quickly removed the 6-plus-year-old sidewalk bridge from the south side of the street.

According to the DOB, the city issued the permit for the sidewalk bridge in February 2008. As far as anyone can recall, no work had ever been done on the buildings at 32 or 34 St. Mark's Place.



Among other things, the removal of the sidewalk bridge gives "The Doorshitter" of St. Mark's Place less cover … if he ever decided to return…

Oh, and THAT'S what the front of 2 Bros. looks like…

Previously on EV Grieve:
St. Mark's sidewalk shed celebrates fourth anniversary

Happy 5th Birthday to the sidewalk shed of St. Mark's Place!

Virage is now Bar Virage, which reopened last night



The retooled Virage reopened last night at Second Avenue and East Seventh Street. As you can see the place is now called Bar Virage… to match the name, the space now has a more bar-centric feel — the 20-plus-seat bar is now in the middle of the former dining room …


[Photo from late yesterday afternoon]

And there are changes on Virage's menu as well. While several of the restaurant's Middle-Eastern options (hummus, chicken kebab, etc.) remain, there are expanded offerings … such as lamb sliders with goat cheese, arugula and tomato served alongside fries ($14) and Medi tacos with homemade laffa bread and featuring chicken shawarma, shrimp or skirt steak ($12). The new menus are not online just yet.

The 14-year-old Virage closed for renovations on March 24, as we first reported.

City Council approves smaller sidewalk cafe for The Fourth on 4th Avenue

As previously reported, several nearby residents had concerns about a proposal for a sidewalk cafe with 13 tables and 26 chairs at The Fourth, the ground-floor restaurant located in the Hyatt Union Square.

Community Board 2 issued a denial for the cafe back on March 20, even after reps for The Fourth agreed to 12 tables and 24 seats. Residents wanted the number of tables here reduced to six (with 12 seats) to better fit the space on Fourth Avenue at East 13th Street.

Flashback to our post:

With this application, they are claiming that their diners will sit shoulder to shoulder while pinned against the wall to be in compliance. Even if diners were willing to sit that way (at a very expensive restaurant), would the restaurant then turn away anyone with above average or particularly large shoulders? Of course they would not and it would not even be legal to do so. Even in the best case scenario, it is clear that this cafe, as proposed, will not comply with city regulations. There is simply not enough room for 2 persons to sit side by side on this sidewalk and be in compliance with the law. What they have proposed is impossible.

City Council weighed in on this yesterday ... and the residents were able to get the smaller 12-seat cafe, per their wishes.

"I'm still skeptical as to how they might implement it to be greedy with space," said one resident, who noted that District 2 Councilmember Rosie Mendez was "a helpful mechanism to effect this change."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Concern over a proposed sidewalk cafe for The Fourth on 4th Avenue (20 comments)

No hotel but 6 condos for dormant NoHo building



There's new condo life for that concrete and cinderblock tower on Great Jones and Lafayette. Once conceived as a hotel back in the heady years of 2007-2009, the building has sat dormant for years … while changing ownership and what not.

The Commercial Observer had an update yesterday on 22 Bond Street aka 25 Great Jones Street, noting that developers are transitioning the unfinished building into six condo units.

Here's a look at a rendering…



Find more history of this project at Curbed.

Speaking of history, here's what Great Jones and Lafayette looked like in 1935


Previously on EV Grieve:
Your chance to buy a boutique hotel on Great Jones

At Biomed Drugs & Surgical Supply Co., closing soon on 3rd Avenue

As Biomed Drugs & Surgical Supply Co. continues its going-out-of-business sale at 50 Third Ave. near East 10th Street, Jeremiah Moss pays a visit to the store.

Biomed was one of a dying breed of surgical supply shops, the place to go if you needed a bedpan or a sling or some rubber catheter tubing, a knee brace, a sitz bath, crutches, or a wheelchair.

They still have an impressive selection of podiatry products, including bunion regulators and hammer toe cushions.

High rents did the store in, the cashier told Jeremiah. And what might be next? The cashier figures "a chain, a restaurant or a bar — they're the only ones that can afford the rent."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Biomed Drugs & Surgical Supply Co. closing on 3rd Avenue

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Bar Veloce hostage crisis from 2002 is dramatized for TV tonight


[June 2002 via the New York Post]

In June 2002, an unemployed Brooklyn barber named Steven Johnson armed with three pistols, a 30-inch sword and kerosene held 40 patrons hostage at Bar Veloce on Second Avenue. (Read the account of this at the Times right here.) Three people were shot in total.

And this ugly rampage gets a documentary-style re-creation on the Investigation Discovery network tonight at 10. (Channel 23 on Time Warner cable.) Here's the description for this episode of "House of Horrors: Kidnapped" titled "A Madman Walks Into a Bar" —

When a crazed gunman storms into an East Village bar, Ann-Margret Gidley and her friends scramble for a way to escape. Trapped in a back room with no way out, Ann-Margret must summon a strength she didn’t know she had to take down the shooter.



In March 2013, a judge sentenced Johnson to 240 years in prison. In closing, Johnson reportedly told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel FitzGerald, "I'd just like to say, fuck you and suck my dick."

Tonight's sunset



Photo by Bobby Williams