New projects in the works for the Tink's and B.A.D Burger spaces

CB3 should be releasing the agenda for July's SLA committee meeting some time soon... ahead of that, we have an idea of at least two applicants taking over now-closed spaces in the neighborhood...

Notices are now up at 171 Avenue A, where B.A.D. Burger closed early this year between East 10th Street and East 11th Street...


[Photo via @aleighdear]

There are plans for a Vietnamese restaurant, and it looks as if the applicant is seeking a full liquor license with use of the backyard garden.



B.A.D. Burger was never able to secure a beer-wine license for the space. After CB3 denied his beer-wine request in 2012, B.A.D. Burger owner Keith Masco reportedly called the board "fascist."

--

Meanwhile, there are also notices posted at the recently closed Tink's on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...





More about the applicants as soon as the questionnaires are posted at the CB3 website. Meanwhile, a note for the U.S. Postal Service...

Jurassic Park at La Plaza

[Photo via Bill LoSasso]

A new addition at La Plaza Cultural on Avenue C and East Ninth Street... the yarn dino the work of #LondonKaye...

Citi Bike Pride

Happy Pride NYC! @Citibank and @citibike #ridewithpride

A photo posted by @citibike on Jun 22, 2015 at 7:10am PDT

The LGBT Pride Month bikes debuted this morning at Union Square... and the bikes will remain in the system for two weeks, according to the Citi Bike Instagram account.

Report: Workers claim that 2 Bros. doesn't pay minimum wage, offer overtime

Employees of the 2. Bros. Pizza chainlet have filed a class-action suit, claiming that they worked 60- to 70-hour weeks for less than minimum wage and without overtime.

Per the Daily News, who first reported on the lawsuit:

"They built their dollar pizza empire on the backs of my clients and other workers by grossly underpaying them," said their lawyer, Adam Slater. "It’s just unfair."

Gabriel Bailon, who worked as a piemaker and cashier at the chain’s flagship pizzeria on St. Marks Place and saw 2 Bros. become a citywide staple, said he and other employees were talked into staying with phony promises about raises, but their bosses never came up with the dough.

An attorney representing the owners of 2 Bros., Eli and Oren Halali, as well as their father, Joshua, said they would prevail in court.

"2 Bros. pays its employees in compliance with city, state and federal law and categorically denies the claims made by the plaintiffs," the attorney told the Daily News.

Slater said that the suit represents 12 employees, with more coming forward, and that damages could exceed $10 million.

Pushcart Coffee opening an East Village outpost

The Pushcart Coffee banners have arrived on Third Avenue at East 12th Street in NYU's Third North dorm retail properties … taking over the space last held by Just Sweet ...



This is Pushcart's third NYC location, which will go by Stuyvesant Alley. As the Pushcart website explains:

This shop sits next to a now-forgotten street called Stuyvesant Alley. The Alley was the scene of all the good, bad and ugly of old New York. It was a notorious hang out for ne'er-do-wells like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who lived down the street, it was the scene of a beautiful painting by Armin Landeck and it was a convenient place to store a peddler's pushcart off nearby bustling Third Ave. The Alley disappeared in the mid-20th century and today is replaced by a dormitory of New York University.

As for an opening date, a Pushcart Facebook posts states "very, very soon."

They'll be joining another new neighbor next door ... the 21-year-old Excel Art and Framing Store is moving here, after losing its lease at 38 Third Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street...



Back to coffee — there's plenty of it right around here with the Wayside on East 12th Street just west of Third Avenue ... City of Saints Coffee Roasters on East 10th Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue ... Third Rail Coffee on East 10th Street near Second Avenue ... Think Coffee on Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street… Everyman Espresso on East 13th Street west of Third Avenue…

Not much progress on the all-new Tompkins Square basketball courts

[Photo from May 30]

Workers began tearing up the Tompkins Square Basketball Courts on May 29.

As we previously noted:

...the New York City Parks Department teamed up with YouTube for the renovations, which include an entire resurfacing of the courts with new cement and paint, and installing new basketball hoops. Parks officials said that work will be completed by the time the city schools let out for the summer on June 26. YouTube is funding the renovations, which are estimated at $300,000.

It doesn't appear that the city will hit that kids-outta-school deadline. The courts look essentially the same now as they did on May 29...





At this rate, the courts will be ready by time the students return to school.

The gym equipment is still accessible, though...



Anyway, your new YouTube courts will look like this, via a rendering from YouTube…

Icon Realty adds the for rent signs at the former Cafe Pick Me Up

The for rent signs have arrived at 145 Avenue A, former home of Cafe Pick-Me Up, who was rent hiked out of its 20-year home here at East Ninth Street. (The cafe is now doing business from its sister restaurant Gnocco at 337 E. 10th St. just west of Avenue B.)

As for No. 145, the asking rent is $15,000, according to the listing, which also notes the space is perfect for "restaurant, bar, clothing store, salon, and all general retail uses."

An EVG reader sent along this photo showing what's left of the interior last week...



The owners still have five years left on the lease in the adjacent space at 147 Avenue A. Co-owner Gian Luca Giovanetti told DNAinfo that they were unsure what will become of this storefront.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike forcing Cafe Pick Me Up into its smaller space next door on Avenue A (59 comments)

[Updated] Cafe Pick Me Up expected to close for good after May 31

Café Pick Me Up closes Sunday night ahead of a move to share the Gnocco space on East 10th Street

More about the new Café Pick Me Up-Gnocco combo on East 10th Street

Checking in on the incoming building at 'the four corners of Downtown'

It has almost been four months since we checked in on the progress at 76 E. Houston St., where a 2-story building is in the works for the former Billy's Antiques space.

The northern wall is now quite visible from the street here between the Bowery and Elizabeth…



The brokers are marketing this location as "the four corners of Downtown," with a Summer 2015 completion date. Well, workers are obviously not going to make that deadline.

Eventually the space will look like this…


[Image via Sinvin]

BoweryBoogie reported last fall that work slowed down here due to Certificate of Occupancy issues and a dispute over the property line.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Deal off to bring Crif Dogs to the former Billy's Antiques space

The Houston/Bowery Mural Wall has been boarded up

Full stop work order for 76 E. Houston St., and the return of Billy's Antiques (sort of)

Week in Grieview

[Photo on East 9th Street Friday by Derek Berg]

Get well soon, Ray! (Wednesday)

Rent hike will force Bikes, By George! to close on East Fourth Street (Monday)

Tenants rally for better living conditions at 128 2nd Ave.; file contempt of court motion vs. landlord Icon Realty (Friday)

Tompkins Square Bagels makes it official on Second Avenue (Monday)

Gas leak shutters Dallas BBQ, leaves residents without hot water and cooking gas (Tuesday)

Report of an OD at the First Avenue McDonald's (Thursday)

Report offers recommendations for preserving independent East Village businesses (Tuesday)

Out and About with Ilyse Kazar (Wednesday)

"The great sandwich experiment" has ended at Lord Hamm's (Tuesday)

Keeping The Bowery Mission in mind this summer (Friday)

Live in a cottage above Third Avenue (Tuesday)

The Typewriter Project arrives in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

J. Crew executives post taunting Instagram pics on Third Avenue hours after staff layoffs (Thursday, 46 comments)

Le Jardin Bistro has closed on Avenue C (Friday)

Students with autism create planters for the Dorothy Strelsin Memorial Community Garden on Suffolk Street (Thursday)

Nail salon in the works for former Amor Baker space on Avenue B (Thursday)

The new residential building on East Houston and Suffolk (Tuesday)

Work begins on the incoming Mimi's Hummus on East 14th Street (Thursday)

Taxi Parts Inc. now open on First Avenue (Monday)

A letter from the editor (Sunday, 241 comments)

93 2nd Ave., home of Lit Lounge, is for rent (Friday)

The rent is due at the incoming Turntable Retro Bar & Restaurant on Avenue B (Wednesday)

Bago now serving food to-go on First Avenue (Monday)

Dinosaurs are now extinct on East 12th Street (Wednesday)

Noted

ATM out-of-order signs are getting so informal...



Photos on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue via EVG ATM Correspondent Steven...

The V-Spot is soft opening this weekend on St. Mark's Place

The family-run Park Slope vegan restaurant The V-Spot recently started selling empanadas from their TK outpost at 16 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

And now this weekend they are in a soft-opening phase. Per Facebook: "We will have our delicious Latin, Organic, Vegan comfort food ready to serve you. Right now, we're here personally sampling small bites & vending baked empanadas." Hours today are 1-9 p.m.



And here are lousy photos of the menu that I took...





In other V-SPot news, the family successfully reached its $50,000 Kickstarter goal ... with 295 backers pledging $50,673 to help open the restaurant on St. Mark's Place.

We're running out of different ways to say that the New York City Marble Cemetery is open today

Today at the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... via the EVG inbox...

Come celebrate midsummer today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at our first Neighborhood Open Day of 2015 ... featuring music 12 to 2 p.m. as part of makemusicny's Exquisite Corpses tour.

The Exquisite Corpses will also be in Abe Lebewohl Park outside St Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue and East 10th Street this afternoon from 2-4.

And for your calendars...

Upcoming Neighborhood Open Days at the New York City Marble Cemetery:
Saturday, July 11
Sunday, Aug. 9
Saturday, Sept. 12
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

And!

Fall Open Weekend, with historic displays, photos and artifacts
Saturday and Sunday
Oct. 17-18
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Read more about the cemetery here.

2 hawks fledge as 1

[Photo via TwoHawksNYC]

Hawk watchers were happy today to see two of Christo and Dora's three offspring successfully fledge today... (thankfully none of that drama like last year.)

One of the kids ended up atop 507 East Fifth St., the building that houses Sophie's just east of Avenue A...

The TwoHawksNYC blog has an account with photos of what happened today right here. And Goggla will have photos soon.

The baby hawks have been nesting 12th floors above Avenue A on the Ageloff Towers between East Third Street and East Fourth Street…

Previously on EV Grieve:
Red-tailed hawks nest on the Christodora House

The hawks of Tompkins Square Park have laid an egg at the Christodora House

More eggsciting hawk news from the Christodora House

Breaking (heh) news: The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are officially parents

Hawk (and egg) watch continues on Avenue A, now with the help of a live webcam

Christo and Dora are parents! (Again!)

Look at the 3-week-old hawklets high above Avenue A

Growing up so quickly above Avenue A

Mermaid love on 1st Avenue

Photo between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street today via Derek Berg... post Mermaid Day Parade...