Updated: Skylight falls from St. Brigid's; Virgin Mary destroyed

There was some drama on East Eighth Street at Avenue B early this morning after one of the skylights from the Church of Saint Brigid – Saint Emeric came crashing down from the roof... @MediaJorge shared these two photos showing the FDNY on the scene...



As far as we know there weren't any injuries... we'll update when we get more information on what happened...

The combined parish reopened on Jan. 27, 2013.

Updated 10:18 a.m.

EVG reader Peter from 8th St. shared these photos from this morning...





The plastic encasement that houses the statue of the Virgin Mary was also damaged...



... as well as the Virgin Mary...

People are still living in the Whitehouse Hotel, 1 of the last remaining flophouses on the Bowery

[Photo from Dec. 27]

As we first reported on Sept. 2, The Whitehouse Hotel, the hostel/flophouse combo at 338-340 Bowery, was no longer accepting reservations.

A few days later, the Hotel's Facebook page noted: "We regret to inform everyone that Whitehouse Hotel's building has been sold and our doors have been closed as of September 4th 2014." (Don't tell this to the Whitehouse website, which still has that clip arty group of people looking happy to make a reservation here.)

In the past four months, there hasn't been much activity at the building. (However, someone remained sitting behind the check-in desk in the lobby.) Plans were filed in April to "convert 4-story lodging house into a 9-story hotel," according to DOB records. The city disapproved the plans again on Sept. 5, records show.

In 2011, the hostel spruced itself up to appeal to the thrill-seeking backpacking set. (For $45, guests could stay in a tiny room where the walls don't go up to the ceiling.)

Meanwhile, the four-story building erected in 1916 between Great Jones and Bond still served as a permanent home to a handful of low-income residents.

Apparently a few of them are still living in the building, based on this sign that appeared a few days ago on the front door...



Any construction will likely have to wait until the remaining residents have left...

Previously on EV Grieve:
More tenant meetings for White House residents; plus the bed bugs will be exterminated

Another round of plans to convert the Whitehouse Hostel on the Bowery into a 9-floor hotel

The Whitehouse Hostel on the Bowery is 'temporarily closing down'

The Whitehouse Hostel has closed for good on the Bowery

Ella Lounge has apparently closed for good on Avenue A

[Image via]

Ella Lounge, the duplex bar/lounge named for Ella Fitzgerald at 9 Avenue A, has apparently closed.

BoweryBoogie reported yesterday that Ella's last night was Jan. 3. While there isn't any mention of a closure on Ella's social media properties or website, the phone has been disconnected.

The retro space (previously Julep, Velvet and what else?) with live music and various acts opened in September 2008 with a news release that noted:

"Ella is our spin on Hollywood glamour and the roaring 20's. We want to capture the energy and flair of the time by bringing it back with our music, design and staff..."

And!

The 1700 square foot top floor of the space will have a combined feeling of the décor of Hampshire House, The Carlyle and Hollywood's Lake Arrowhead Springs Hotel as well.

Within a year, that old Hollywood glamour had apparently faded with hosted events such as...



We never made it to Ella. We were admittedly turned off from the get-go by ownership (The Gallery Bar) referring to this part of the neighborhood as the LEV — as in "Lower East Village." Then there was the requisite Thrillist writeup, which played up Ella's exclusivity: "reservations are referral only, and the door policy is doorman's discretion — so there's a decent chance you'll be stranded outside."

Thanks, but we'll stick to The Library next door.

The former Back Forty space is for lease

[Image via]

It was a bit of a surprise when seemingly popular Back Forty rather abruptly shut down after service on Dec. 21.

Chef and owner Peter Hoffman told Eater that "a difficult landscape and lease uncertainty" led to the decision to close the 7-year-old restaurant at 190 Avenue B near East 12th Street.

A tipster sent us the listing for the space that is now for lease...



Not a whole lot of information here, such as the asking rent for the 1,600-square-foot restaurant. The listing does note $250,000 in key money.

Oyster City to replace Sliders on East 11th Street

Several readers have noted that Sliders, a self-described "modern-rustic themed sports restaurant," quietly closed in the middle of December at 647 E. 11th St. just west of Avenue C. Sliders opened for drinks in December 2013.

A new suitor is already lined up: An applicant going by Oyster City LLC. The name on the paperwork is Reed Adelson, an assistant general manager at Locanda Verde in Tribeca.

According to paperwork (PDF!) on the CB3 website, the restaurant will have 10 tables with a total of 38 seats as well as a 10-seat bar. The proposed hours are 5:30 p.m. to midnight, with a weekend brunch service from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. There's no other information at the moment regarding the menu or official name of the space.

Oyster City was originally on the December CB3/SLA committee meeting agenda seeking a full liquor license.


[Reader submitted photo from last month]

However, the applicant ended up withdrawing. Oyster City is on the January docket for a beer-wine license only. The applicant will not be appearing before the committee during Monday night's meeting.

Candy the Gem Spa kitten is 4 months old today!

EVG Facebook friend Blazes passes along the news from our favorite corner store on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

There is also a Candy the Gem Spa Kitten Facebook page if you are interested in adorable photos and videos of Candy.

Cleaning up the fake movie snow from Tompkins Square Park

A crew (not with the city) was out cleaning up the fake snow from Tompkins Square Park this morning... leftovers from last night's shoot in and around the Park for Untitled Christmas Eve project, a comedy starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie.



Come back again some day... maybe for Untitled Christmas Eve project 2...?!?!



Photos by Derek Berg

Previously on EV Grieve:
Christmas returning to the East Village this week with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (again) for Seth Rogen comedy filming tonight

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Zachary Mack
Occupation: Co-owner, Alphabet City (ABC) Beer Co.
Location: Avenue C between 6th and 7th.
Time: 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 16

I grew up in Massachusetts, north of Boston in a town called Swampscott. I left Boston for college when I went to McGill in Montreal. I came here when I was still in high school to visit friends and a lot of them would take us here. I had no desire to come to NYC until I came to this neighborhood. It got to the point where I started to spend my summers here instead of going back to Boston. Then when I graduated New York felt like the only logical place to move.

So the first thing I did when I graduated in 2007 was jump on a train from Boston and move here with $150 to my name. It sounds like a cliché but it was true — I had $148.70 in my bank account. My friend let me stay with her until I could find a job and an apartment. I gave myself two weeks and I found both. My first apartment was above In Vino and I’ve living in the neighborhood since then.

My first job here was for a food website called Eats that was trying to compete with Yelp. They let me do food writing for them and some sales. It was a catch-all job. The site eventually ended up becoming Delivery.com, but back then it wasn’t going anywhere. I moved here right before [the recession]. I had to pay my own way, so it was tough. The first few months were tough trying to make it without the pay that I thought I would have after college

My roommate at the time had just started the paperwork to purchase In Vino, an Italian restaurant and wine bar on East Fourth between A and B. I told him that I needed to make some extra money. I began working there right as the [Wall Street] collapse was happening.

Around 2010, when things started to look up a little bit, I ended up taking an internship, which led into a full-time job at Gawker Media. The job was a writing internship for Gawker TV, condensing what had happened on shows the night before and running recaps. That was big at the time — 2010 was the year when they went from being obscure to becoming more mainstream. The friends I made working there are the best friends I have now.

That turned into a job with the Webby Awards, which is kind of the Oscars for the Internet. For a couple of years I was working 70 to 80 hour weeks and still not making any money. Then I realized that I was maybe going down the wrong path. I had moved to New York wanting to work in media but it was killing me.

So the opportunity came. David Hitchner, my close friend who owned In Vino, called me one weekend and he said, ‘Do you want to open up a beer store/bar in the East Village?’ I said absolutely. It took about a year to plan everything and get money together. I was still working the day job while this was going on.

We opened in May 2012. I realized that I had made the right decision the first week that we were open. I like working in this neighborhood so much. I felt like I had been disconnected from the neighborhood when I was working in the office and this brought me back into interacting with people instead of staring at a screen all day.

The first few months were incredible. We were going along great, and then five and a half months later, Sandy happened. We got flooded — so much damage. In a weird way it was the worst thing that could have possibly happened but also one of the best things because we learned a lot from it. This neighborhood just totally stepped up and everybody helped each other so much. There was a lot of camaraderie on the street.

It didn’t seem like we would survive for a time and it was stressful but we got through it. Our basement flooded to the ceiling like a swimming pool, so we had to replace everything down there, from electrical systems to the hot water heater to our walk-in fridge with the draft lines. It took us at least four months to feel any semblance of normalcy.

We open up at noon every day. That’s one of the things that I enjoy most. A lot of the people who come in for daytime hours with laptops to do work, have a coffee or a beer with a sandwich and use the free WiFi. People come in here for all kinds of things. Not even just to have beers, to hang out. Some of our best regulars never come in after 6 p.m. Most people don’t have the luxury of having huge living rooms in the city, so what David and I wanted to go for was something that felt like an extension of your living room. There’s no pretense here. It’s just come and hang out.

I moved for the first time since I came here a couple months ago and I realized that I’m married to the neighborhood. I love the sense of community here and I think that’s why I’ve stuck around the city. I think we’re lucky to live in the middle of a neighborhood like this because we’re supportive of one another. We not only have people who have been here for 30-plus years, but also people who have been here for three who seem invested in the vibe that we create. I feel very lucky to be here.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Local elected officials urge Mayor de Blasio to help return the former PS 64 to the community

[City Hall photos by Peter Brownscombe]

A group of residents, community leaders and local elected officials delivered more than 1,000 holiday cards to City Hall yesterday afternoon urging Mayor de Blasio to help return the former PS 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street to the neighborhood.

The group delivered the greeting cards along with gold-wrapped chocolate coins, frankincense and myrrh on Three Kings Day to help draw attention to the ongoing battle for the landmarked building between Avenue B and Avenue C.



Developer Gregg Singer, who bought the building from the city in 1998, has to date unsuccessfully been able to convert the long-emtpy space into a dorm. There is currently a Stop Work Order on the site that the city issued in September.

Here's a collection of quotes about the building from local elected officials via Councilwoman's Rosie Mendez's office:

Mendez: "The Former PS 64 CHARAS/El Bohio was a school building and a cultural community center that cultivated the hopes and dreams of so many people in our community. Community activists laid the seeds and the foundation that created our community gardens and our urban homesteading buildings while sitting in a room at CHARAS. This holiday season my community and I want nothing more than to get our building back."

Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer: "Not too long ago, the CHARAS community center was an anchor that enriched this neighborhood, and with Mayor de Blasio's help it can be again. The Giuliani administration was wrong to shutter this community center and hand this historic space over to developers. The chance Mayor de Blasio has right now is one we rarely get: an opportunity to reclaim a lost jewel and make this neighborhood whole again."

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez: "CHARAS was a cherished public space and I will continue to support my community in its efforts to reclaim the building for the
community!"

State Senator Brad Hoylman: "We have reached a critical point in the decades-long fight to reclaim the PS 64/CHARAS building for community use. However, we are still at risk of losing this valuable asset to unwanted and unnecessary development. I look forward to working with all stakeholders to help ensure that CHARAS truly benefits the neighborhood, instead of private interests."

As for the Mayor, he happened to arrive halfway through the event, but walked right by and into City Hall without acknowledging the group.



Per previous reports, both The Joffrey Ballet School and Cooper Union have signed on to place its students at what will be called University House.



On Monday, Singer told DNAinfo's Lisha Arino that "the city issued the order because it wanted to clarify the language in the leases" he signed with the schools. He said that he is "working with the city to change the wording and hopes to restart construction by the end of next month."

Singer also said that he wasn't opposed to the idea of a community center in part of the space, though he hadn't seen any proposals for a community center. One local leader disputed this, telling DNAinfo that Singer "has never reached out to us in good intention and good faith."

On the aquatic paradise that is East 5th Street

[Back in October]

Back in October, EVG regular Jose Garcia told us about the arrival of a jet ski on East Fifth Street near Avenue C... which became a seemingly permanent fixture on the street.

In recent days Jose tells us that the jet ski got some company.



Per Jose:

"And [the owners] seriously and tenderly move them both as a group effort to accommodate alternate side of the street parking ... all I think about is what a marvelous time they are anticipating on the water once the weather turns. I find it fascinating and adorable."

An East 9th Street loft remains for sale, though now it's 'virtually staged'

Back in the summer, we looked at 735 E. Ninth St., a nice 3,300-square-foot loft space between Avenue C and Avenue D.

There's a new broker now for the space... as well as some new photos on Streeteasy ... and not just any photos:

This apartment has been virtually staged with a 3D animated video to show what this historic quintessential loft gem can be turned into. This the best deal in town! This unique downtown artist loft in an historic East Village building is finally available!

Oh! You don't always get to see a virtually staged loft around here...









Thoughts on what this can be turned into?

The price remains the same at $3.3 million.

A quick look at Tompkins Square Park before filming starts on the Seth Rogen xmas movie

Crews were putting the finishing touches on the Untitled Christmas Eve project starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie.

The comedy is about an annual reunion of three childhood best friends on Christmas Eve.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Christmas returning to the East Village this week with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (again) for Seth Rogen comedy filming tonight

A smoking snow pigeon

Spotted on Avenue A this afternoon by Grant Shaffer...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (again) for Seth Rogen comedy filming tonight

In today's light snow, crews have arrived with snow-making equipment ahead of tonight's shoot for an Untitled Christmas Eve project starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie.





The comedy "is about an annual reunion of three childhood best friends on Christmas Eve." Which explains the Christmas stuff ... as these photos via EVG contributor Derek Berg show...





Crews will be filming overnight at 650 E. Sixth St., 108 Avenue B (Vazac's/7B) and Tompkins Square Park, according to the handy fliers on East Seventh Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Christmas returning to the East Village this week with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt