Friday, November 6, 2015
Stage 'Driver'
Perfect Pussy (along with Wild Moth) will be playing Nov. 16 at Elvis Guesthouse on Avenue A.
For a sample of them live… here's "Driver" via footage from a show in September 2014.
EV Grieve Etc.: Sheldon Silver on trial; the Beastie Boys on 'Soul Train'
[2nd Avenue & East 6th Street assist via Derek Berg]
Sheldon Silver on trial (The Lo-Down … The New York Times)
Checking out the menu items at Arepa Factory on Avenue A (Gothamist)
The $12.5 million penthouse at 10 Bond sells after 2 weeks (Curbed)
Hunting and eating (well, swallowing) rats with Christo in Tompkins Square Park (Gog in NYC)
Sally Davies on photographing the East Village (The Phoblographer)
"3 by Tom DiCillo" next week at the Anthology Film Archives ... includes 20th-anniversary screening of "Living in Oblivion." DiCillo and Steve Buscemi will be doing a Q-and-A on Nov. 11 (Anthology Film Archives)
Family heirs battle over movie chain, which could prompt a sale or break-up. The company owns several theaters in New York City, including the Angelika and Village East Cinema on Second Avenue and East 12th Street (The Deal ... H/T The Real Deal)
Squeezing the juice out of Organic Avenue (The New York Times)
The Beastie Boys on "Soul Train" in 1990 (Dangerous Minds)
The Ludlow House grows (BoweryBoogie)
Positive thoughts for Dr. Know of Bad Brains (Flaming Pablum)
Four female probationary firefighters will graduate from the FDNY Fire Academy, bringing the number of women firefighters to a total of 49 — a landmark high in the FDNY’s 150-year history (The Village Voice)
In defense of gentrification (The Atlantic)
An East 10th Street townhouse inspired by India (Ephemeral New York)
Artie's hardware store on West 14th Street has closed (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
Details of the murder case of a well-known dentist on Bond Street in 1857 (Off the Grid)
21 great NYC diners (Eater)
The retail space at Ben Shaoul's 100 Avenue A is available for $24.5 million; plus, naked model marketing clarification!
[Photo Tuesday by Peter Brownscombe]
The retail space at developer Ben Shaoul's in-progress new building is now on the market.
Cushman & Wakefield has the listing:
A retail interest at the base of a newly developed eight-story, luxury condo building designed by Issac & Stern located on the east side of Avenue A between East 6th and East 7th Streets. The retail is long term leased to Blink Fitness for 15 years with two (2) five (5) year options. Blink Fitness has over 38 locations in the NYC Metro area and is an affiliate of Equinox Holdings, who’s long term debt is rated B2 by Moody’s. The retail unit will consist of 6,717 SF of ground floor space with 11’ 8” ceilings and a 5,177 SF lower level with 9’ 2” ceiling heights.
Additionally, the space will feature a glass facade and over 76’ of frontage on Avenue A. It is located just south of Tompkins Square Park and within walking distance to the F, 6, N, R and L train stops. This is a rare opportunity to acquire a long term leased, low maintenance asset in the heart of one of the fastest growing neighborhoods of Manhattan.
Price: $24.5 million.
The listing also includes some new renderings of the building, which looks even bigger than the recently disclosed 8 stories…
In other 100 Avenue A news, broker Ryan Serhant, star of "Million Dollar Listing New York," offered some clarification (sort of!) via Instagram about the naked women (and one man?) …
…that are at the center of the building's marketing campaign that we wrote about last Friday…
Per Curbed, who noted the Instagram on Wednesday:
What does a naked, painted woman have to do with multimillion dollar condos? How does this, the image or the condo, speak for "everyone who has been bullied, talked about, made fun of, and pointed at," as Serhant's text suggests? Reminder: this is a development bringing expensive apartments to a neighborhood its developer has had a hand (an arm, really) in bringing into its current state.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Trying to figure out what is going on at 98-100 Avenue A
Last holiday for P.C. Richard on East 14th Street
The city has plans for 124 E. 14th St. at Irving Place that don't include TVs and home appliances.
As Crain's first reported, the city's Economic Development Corp. is now accepting proposals to redevelop the city-owned site that P.C. Richard (and Son!) has leased the past 19 years.
To Crain's!
The EDC is encouraging developers to pitch projects that include new office space for booming industries in the neighborhood, such as technology and creative businesses. According to the city's guidelines, the development could provide fledgling companies with the space to get started and also a location for young but established firms to transition from incubator and co-working spaces that have sprouted around the city into their own digs.
Oh, incubators! (Doesn't P.C. Richard already sell those?)
And!
"The current site of the PC Richard store will serve as a new tech hub in Union Square, capitalizing on the academic and transit advantages offered by the neighborhood and its proximity to the Flatiron district," said Maria Torres-Springer, president of the EDC, in a statement.
The lease for P.C. Richards is up in February. Expect some bigger than the normally big sales!
Maybe this will be priced to move...
The Fantastic Tea Shop is for sale (and for rent)
An EVG reader noted the arrival of a for rent sign in the window at the Fantastic Tea Shop at 128 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue…
There is also a smaller sign in the window, noting that the business is for sale. (Call Anita: 917-291-4811.) So maybe you could buy the business and renegotiate the lease with the landlord (no mention of rent in the listing) … or move it elsewhere.
The cafe opened here back in January.
The Village Veterinarian is moving on East 11th Street
Just noting the recent arrival of the coming soon signage at 318 E. 11th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue... announcing the new (larger) home for The Village Veterinarian, who is currently down the street closer to First Avenue.
The sign points to an opening in early 2016.
The previous tenant here, Soon Beauty Lab (who consolidated their operations), closed back in January.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Repost: The Ninth Street Bread N Cake Bakery was great until they applied for a liquor license
Digging into the archives here with this post from Nov. 5, 2010...
-----
Thanks to Goggla's comment the other day, we've all been spending far too much time looking at photos from the New York Public Library archives ... EV Grieve reader Pinhead came across this shot..
It's taken from the old Cooper Union building, looking at Stuyvesant Street to the east toward St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, 1856.
As Pinhead says: "Be sure to zoom the amazing detail, like the Ninth Street Bread N Cake Bakery at 172 E 9th (an address that doesn't exist anymore because of the NYU dorm)."
RIP Hank Penza
[Photo by Goggla]
Word is circulating that Hank Penza, who owned the Mars Bar, died on Oct. 29.
There isn't much information about his passing at the moment. A member of the Facebook group "Mars Bar was a riot in the Nineties" confirmed his death with a Penza family member. He was believed to be 81 or 82.
His bar ownership began in 1957 on the Bowery Among them: Hank’s Crystal Palace, Willie’s, the Penthouse and Bowery East.
Penza opened the Mars Bar in 1982 (or 1984 depending on the source) on Second Avenue and East First Street, where it continued until its demise in July 2011.
In 2005, the Observer published a colorful feature on Penza. To some excerpts:
His father came to New York from Italy as a boy and worked on the Brooklyn Bridge before serving in World War I. He was, said Mr. Penza, a “great provider” and a “stark-raving-mad right-winger” who hated Franklin Roosevelt and the smell of perfume.
Young Hank started working early. He and his pals in Corona, Queens, would go “junking”: loading up a horse and wagon with milk bottles and stuff to sell.
Soon he was helping out at crap games, doing what were called “mopey pinches”: Whenever the bookmakers got busted, they’d pay Hank $50 to go to court, and he’d be back on the street in hours.
And!
At 19, he got a $200-a-week job at the “21” Club. He wore a tux, took reservations and ran errands. If a man dining with his wife needed to make contact with his mistress at the Stork Club, he’d deliver the message.
He joined a crew called the 40 Thieves and started making money by “cleaning up” bars (i.e., getting rid of undesirables). Once they spent two weeks getting rid of some ruffians from a bar by sending them to another one across the street. A month later, they paid the ruffians $3 each to return to the first bar so the 40 Thieves could get the job back.
But he said he declined offers to join the Mafia.
“Nobody can make me, man,” he said. “I’m a made man. My name is Penza-we’re made, period. We don’t need that shit. That’s all movie stuff.”
His reputation grew. Two British guys gave him $1,500 to clean up their bar on lower Fifth Avenue, which had been overrun by pimps.
In 1957, he bought a bar at 12 Bowery and renamed it Henry’s.
After the Mars Bar closed, rumors circulated that Penza would open a new bar nearby. Thiose plans never materialized, though he was reportedly a partner in the business that eventually opened in the Jupiter 21 building on Second Avenue and East First Street.
Back to the Observer profile…
Still, he said, even now, New York is the only place to be. “I love it,” he said. “It’s the greatest place in the fucking world. There’s no place like this, man, and I’ve been all over the world. I love this city because they make me somebody. When I go somewhere else, they don’t treat me as well as they do. Here, they treat me with elegance. In Florida, I’m a little fucking scumbag.”
[Photo by Goggla]
Updated 11/10
The New York Times published a feature obit today.
Per the article:
In addition to his son William, he is survived by another son, Mark; a daughter, Kim; and three grandchildren.
William and Mark Penza own Billymark’s West, a bar of the Mars Bar stripe, on Ninth Avenue at 29th Street.
Lit Lounge is back for a return engagement in front of CB3's SLA committee
[EVG photo from September]
A familiar name is on CB3's SLA committee docket this month.
Lit Lounge actually appears twice on the agenda… for an alteration and corporate change…
According to the paperwork (PDF!) filed online ahead of the Nov. 16 meeting, Lit is reducing its size from two floors to one, cutting the occupancy of the bar at 93 Second Ave. between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street to 157 in the process.
Meanwhile! As DNAinfo reported, as of Sept. 29, Cock owner Allan Mannarelli is now the majority owner/managing member of Lit. Hence the corporate change… (and if anyone can explain the 40 percent…)
In August, the SLA committee voted against Mannarelli's application to move the Cock from its current Second Avenue home several blocks north to the Lit space.
Per DNAinfo:
Mannarelli said the owners were considering a move to split the space and possibly add a new bar on the ground floor. “LIT [is] still alive,” he added, although plans to move Lit Lounge to Brooklyn were not completely off the table.
And so the maneuvering continues.
Lit first closed at the end of July after 13 years. There was talk of a relocation to Brooklyn, but those plans haven't been realized. Lit did briefly reopen on the weekend in late September.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Confirmed: Lit Lounge is closing on 2nd Avenue
New, confusing signs up at the former Lit Lounge space
Le Petit Parisien opens today on East 7th Street
[Photo from Oct. 29 by Derek Berg]
A follow-up to our post from Friday about Le Petit Parisien … the French-style sandwich shop is scheduled to open for business today at 32 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.
You can find their menu here. The sandwiches start at $9. And if you are so inclined, there's one called the Louis XIV — with foie gras and fig confit — going for $25.
For now, the listed hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. (They may want to consider staying open a little later for the coming-home-from-day-job crowd…)
You can find more info at the Le Petit website here.
Photos via Le Petit Parisien
All uses considered for former coffee shop on East 5th Street
Been meaning to note the recent arrival of the for rent sign at 543 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Per Winick Realty, all uses will be considered for the 300-square-foot space. The rent is available upon request.
Kamakura Coffee Shop, a place that I happened to really like, closed here in September 2014 after a year in business. As I understand it, Tom the owner had to return to his native Japan to attend to some family matters.
For a like-minded business... Matcha Cafe Wabi opened last December a block away at 233 E. Fourth St. near Avenue B.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Workers removing the scaffolding and sidewalk bridge from PS122
[Photo by Kate Puls]
The northeast corner of First Avenue and Ninth Street has been under a sidewalk bridge since the extensive, multi-year gut renovation started a few years back at the 122 Community Center ... however, in a noticeable sign of progress, workers have started to remove the scaffolding (and, perhaps soon, the sidewalk bridge) this afternoon, says EVG reader Kate Puls...
PS122, one of the organizations here, is expected to have its grand reopening next summer.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)