7:10 p.m.

Photo this evening (7:10 p.m.!) by Bobby Williams

RIP Coca Crystal

[Image via Facebook]

The Times today has a feature obituary on Coca Crystal, a major figure in the counterculture of the East Village in the 1960s and 1970, who died on March 1 of respiratory failure. (In 2006, she was diagnosed with lung cancer.) She was 68.

Crystal, born Jacqueline Diamond, started work at The East Village Other in 1969.

Per the Times:

Adopting the pen name Coca Crystal, she wrote about politics, women’s issues and random personal events: a burglary at her apartment that she foiled by serenading her intruder on the guitar; the myriad obscene phone calls that she fielded at the office. The newspaper honored her, in one issue, with her photograph over the title “slumgoddess.”

“She was the epitome of the flower child,” said Lynda Crawford, a colleague at The East Village Other. “She was sexy, she was young, she was very smart — she was cool.”

As the Times notes, her future was in television... cable-access television... for nearly 20 years, with a show that counted David Letterman as fans.

In 1977 she reserved a one-hour slot each Wednesday night at 10:30 on Channel D to present “If I Can’t Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution,” a mix of politics, culture, music, audience call-ins and spontaneous nonsense. She often described the show as a visual version of The East Village Other.

Ms. Crystal, who in addition to her sister is survived by her son, Gustav Che Finkelstein, had an unflappable, slightly spacey demeanor and an incongruous la-di-da accent that added an extra layer of ineffability to an already bizarre persona.

Here's an episode from 1977 featuring Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie...



Her final show aired in June 1995...



This May 2012 feature in The Local has the story of how Crystal cared for Gus, her mentally and physically handicapped nephew whom she adopted, for nearly 40 years.

In recent years, they lived near Woodstock.

She often describes her life as unconventional. “I don’t have a normal sleep schedule, I have a bizarre child, my dog is limping, my cat is in love with the dog. It’s just a little bit off the beaten track here,” she said.

But then again, Ms. Crystal never cared much for the ordinary. “When I’m in the hospital and wondering where I’d rather be, I’m thinking I’d rather be sitting with Gus watching ‘Tom and Jerry.’ That’s the best I can think of.”

H/T Steven

Opening day at Bagel Belly

[Photo from Thursday because someone forgot to take a photo this morning]

As announced, Bagel Belly opened for bagelness business this morning at 6 at 114 Third Ave between East 13th Street and East 14th Street.

Decent-size crowd inside given the earlyish hour (8:30 a.m.). A Bagel Belly worker was standing outside handing out menus and telling people bagels were 50-percent off the first week.

Anyway! Inside...









...haven't seen one of these in awhile (since that time at a Holiday Inn Express)...



The menu is quite extensive... they offer eight salad wraps, 13 tossed salad varieties, eight kinds of panini, eight daily soups, plus burgers, sandwiches ...


[Click to go big]


[Ditto]

As for the basics, a bagel with butter is $1.50; $2.75 with plain cream cheese... and you can see the varieties available...



And as you might expect, there was a little confusion given that they were just 2.5 hours into their opening. For instance, people tried to order from the cashiers when you need place your order with one of the workers behind the counter ... (seems kinda obvious to me)... and there was a whispered conversation about what to charge me for avocado (yeah, yeah).

I liked my plain bagel. Probably not as much as ones that I've had at Tompkins Square Bagels or Ess-A-Bagel. But solid. (This is why I never write about food. I can't think of anything to say aside from solid.)

Given the proximity to, say, Con Ed office workers, Mount Sinai Beth Israel staffers, NYU students, Union Square straphangers... Bagel Belly should do a good business.

Oh, and they will toast your bagel.

Bagel Belly has a website here.

Pigeons still won't use the paper plates that are provided

This morning's bread dump along Avenue A in Tompkins Square Park... previously

The Crocodile Lounge is still open

Because a few people have asked now... the bar at 325 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue with the free pizza is still open. The awning disappeared about, oh, 10 days or so ago. Giving the place that We're Closed look.

Perhaps a new or refurbished one is one the way...


[Malcolm Brown/NYCGo]

Almost everybody is working for the weekend

Tacocat's third studio record, Lost Time, is out today... here's a track from that called "I Hate the Weekend." (Also, "X-Files" fans may like their tribute song to Scully.)

And the Seattle-based Tacocat will be at the Mercury Lounge on April 12.

EV Grieve Etc.: Self-serve craft beer on Clinton Street; WFMU at the movies

[Photo on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg]

Hello Jean-Georges: "Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel at 215 Chrystie St. will also be a luxe nightlife playground, boasting at least eight separate dining & entertaining spaces" (The Lo-Down)

An in-depth look at Blackstone's Stuy Town-Peter Cooper deal (Gothamist)

A sneak preview of the upcoming exhibit at the Queens Museum called "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" (NY1)

Never-ending East Houston construction continues to damper local business (DNAinfo)

Self-serve craft beer shop Paloma Rocket opens soon at 7 Clinton St. (BoweryBoogie)

A look at the now-completed condo-plex at 372 Lafayette (NY Yimby ... previously on EVG)

"Sex and Broadcasting: A Film About WFMU" now playing (IFC Center)

The producers of "Barney’s Wall" (about the late East Village resident and Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset and the mural in his home office) need financial help finishing their documentary (East Hampton Star ... previously on EVG)

The average price of a Manhattan apartment surpassed $2 million (Curbed)

The documentary "Notfilm" (about Samuel Beckett's cinematic collaboration with Buster Keaton) makes its NYC premiere (Anthology Film Archives)

Rodenticide likely culprit for a red-tailed hawk's death in Chinatown (Laura Goggin Photography)

About the new zine Time Warp (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

...and everyone wants to get into the act...


[DB]

The scoop on the former Sock Man space on St. Mark's Place

The for rent sign is down at 27 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Workers at the scene told EVG correspondent Steven that an independent ice cream shop will be opening in the space later this spring. That's all we know about it at the moment.

Until Jan. 16, the storefront was home for 30-plus years to The Sock Man.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Sock Man is closing on St. Mark's Place

The Sock Man says thank you; store closes on Saturday

Closing portraits at The Sock Man

Pizzeria proposed for the corner of Avenue C and East 8th Street

[EVG file photo]

In recent years, not even proposed restaurants have been able to make the space on the northwest corner of Avenue C and Eighth Street work.

This month, the proprietors behind the cocktail bar Mother's Ruin in Nolita will appear before CB3's SLA committee for a full liquor license for a proposed pizzeria.

According to public documents on the CB3 website, the space will feature 22 tables with 56 seats and a bar for 13. (The configuration also shows five sidewalk tables. The previous restaurant tenants here also had sidewalk cafes.) The proposed hours are noon to 2 a.m. (until 10 p.m. for the outdoor seating).

The documents include a sample menu...


[Click to go big]

In January, an applicant appeared before CB3 for a sushi restaurant. CB3's SLA committee would only approve a beer-wine license with a midnight closing time. The applicant was seeking full liquor with a 2 a.m. close. In addition, according to CB3 meeting notes, "this applicant has no experience operating or managing a licensed or similar business and has no developed plan or team to operate this business." So apparently the applicant decided to move on.

As previously noted, this corner space has been home to Lumé, the "Epicurean drinkery," ... Life - Kitchen and Bar … which had taken over for Verso. Other restaurants here in the past seven years include Caffe Pepe Rosso and Caffe Cotto.

The SLA meeting is April 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 8th Street and Avenue C, home to 5 restaurants in recent years, is now on the market

The big ol' Bagel Belly opens tomorrow (Saturday!)

The Grand Opening Signage went up yesterday.... Bagel Belly makes its debut starting tomorrow at 6 a.m. here at 114 Third Ave between East 13th Street and East 14th Street.



And the signage points to 50-percent off ... something. (Bagels and all sandwiches?) Tomorrow through April 9.

You may find our 349 Bagel Belly posts here.

The Ess-A-Bagel signage has arrived, but the opening date has been postponed

The sign is up now (as of last week) at Ess-A-Bagel, 324-326 First Ave. at East 19th Street in the Shoppes of Stuy Town.

However, the original February opening date never obviously happened. According to the new issue of Town & Village (story not online yet), David Wilpon, one of the owners, said that there have been some unnamed obstacles that have pushed back the timing. He's now looking at a May opening.

Meanwhile, renovations of the space continue. "We are plodding along," he said.

Updated 5 p.m.

The story is now online here

H/T Edmund John Dunn

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Report: Landlord forcing Ess-a-Bagel from its longtime home (46 comments)

1 week left for Ess-A-Bagel at its current 1st Avenue location

[Updated] Ess-A-Bagel has closed for now on 1st Avenue

[Updated] Ess-A-Bagel announces its new location on 1st Avenue

Do you have what it takes to take this free Team Hot Wheels backpack?

Spotted on East Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue earlier today... with a sign "This backpack comes with immense responsibility."

Possibly the work of the East Fifth Street Tree Committee?

Photo by Derek Berg

Who wants an egg cream?

Morning milk delivery today at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A...Photo by Peter Brownscombe

Spring

[St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery by Allen Semanco]


[Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]


[TSP via DB]


[Over Avenue A via Grant Shaffer]


[Christo rooftop sunbathing on Avenue B by Bobby Williams]

Report: Settlement reached with family of man stabbed to death at Barrier Free Living

The operators of Barrier Free Living at 270 E. Second St. agreed to settle with the family of Ronal Garcia, who was fatally stabbed by another resident inside the facility between Avenue C and Avenue D in December 2009, the Daily News reports.

The $1.2 million settlement came toward the end of a month-long trial. The family of Garcia, who was 24, sued Barrier Free Living, arguing the city-contracted nonprofit for people with disabilities failed to protect the victim. Felipe Rivera-Cruz, who, like Garcia, uses a wheelchair, is currently serving a 25-years-to-life prison sentence.

Before the fatal encounter, the two men got into a fistfight after Garcia made a comment about Rivera-Cruz’s manhood, authorities said. They knocked each other out of their wheelchairs and on the floor during the melee before staff broke it up. The men were then separated and cops were called.

At the trial, Barrier Free Living officials claimed they lost incident reports filled out by staff during the attack. And they couldn’t find the portion of a video showing Rivera-Cruz ride past the security guard on the main floor.

Image via Google Street View

There's a Vietnamese restaurant proposed for the former Luca Bar on St. Mark's Place

[EVG photo from Tuesday]

The former Luca Bar space at 119 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue looks to have another suitor.

A comprehensive questionnaire (a 30-page PDF) is on file for public inspection at the CB3 website ahead of the April SLA committee meeting.

According to the paperwork, the proposed Vietnamese restaurant (no name yet) would have 15 tables seating 42 as well as a bar with 12 seats. In addition, the proposed hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday-Wednesday; until 2 a.m. Thursday-Sunday. The applicants are applying for a full liquor license.

While the three principals have never been licensed before, they have had experience managing-operating restaurants, per the documents. Two of the proprietors have worked for Stephen Starr's Starr Restaurants, whose NYC establishments include Upland, El Vez, The Clocktower, Morimoto and Buddakan.

Here's a sample menu that accompanied the CB3 materials...


[Click to go big]

Previously, the owners of Sweethaus Cupcake Cafe — with locations in Charlottesville, Va., and Williamsburg (Brooklyn, not Virginia) — were looking to open a cafe at No. 119. However, those plans never materialized.

Luca Bar closed in April 2015.

The CB3 SLA committee meeting is April 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Report: Landlord Jared Kushner 'treats both rent-stabilized and market-rate tenants badly'

[Reader photo at 118 E. 4th St. from March 6]

Gothamist checks in with a long look on life in a property owned by Jared Kushner/Westminster Management. And there haven't been any shortage of tenant horror stories since Kushner started buying up properties here in 2013, as we've noted at EVG through the years. (According to the Cooper Square Committee, Kushner is the neighborhood's second-largest landlord after Steve Croman.)

As we noted earlier this month, tenants at 118 E. Fourth St. went to Manhattan Housing Court on March 3 as part of ongoing litigation against Kushner. Tenants there had been without gas for cooking since October. There are other issues too, such as collapsed ceilings, overflowing trash and sporadic heat. (Tenants got the gas restored afterwards.)

In defense of Kushner/Westminster, a spokesperson responds: "Unfortunately, like many other old buildings in New York City, repair issues arise periodically and we inherited problems when we purchased this building. We are grateful that our residents have voiced their concerns. We value their tenancy and we are committed to a mutually beneficial long term building management-tenant relationship."

Brandon Kielbasa at the Cooper Square Committee tells Gothamist that Kushner "treats both rent-stabilized and market-rate tenants badly, and seems to feel that he can get away with not maintaining buildings because the housing market is so tight he can keep them full anyway."

And one outcome of all this in Kushner-owned properties, per Gothamist:

The economic differences between the old and new residents paying three times as much have also created a culture clash. Some longtime East Villagers, nurses and artists and filmmakers loyal to the neighborhood, resent the transient, party-animal culture of affluent students and out-of-towners in their first New York apartment who will be gone when their lease expires.

“We used to have a community in this building,” laments one man. Before ... Kushner, says Kim Stetz, “we didn’t have SantaCon in our building. We didn’t have raging parties with people throwing up out their windows.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Inside a classic East Village tenement before the whole building is renovated

Jared Kushner not done buying every walk-up in the East Village

Tenants claim: Kushner and Westminster want to destroy this building's beautiful garden

Reports outline how Kushner Companies is aggressively trying to empty 170-174 E. 2nd St.

Local politicos join residents of 2 Jared Kushner-owned buildings to speak out about poor living conditions, alleged harassment

Jared Kushner's residents at 118 E. 4th St. would like gas for cooking and some heat

Another local Equinox is on the way

[196 Orchard photoshopping]

The Equinox that will be part of Ben Shaoul's incoming development on East Houston and Orchard will have some company in the area.

Per a media announcement via the EVG inbox yesterday...

Equinox continues to make history in Manhattan with three new locations on Bond Street, Gramercy and East 92nd Street. The opening of locations in Dumbo and Williamsburg celebrates Brooklyn’s growing popularity as the new epicenter for culture, business and lifestyle.

The closest of these to this neighborhood is at 670 Broadway (entrance on Bond), which opens this fall. Here's more from the Equinox Bond Street website:

Perched on the corner of a trendsetting lower Manhattan intersection, Equinox Bond Street is an icon in the making. With quintessential New York attitude, the club infuses historic urban architecture with a boundary-pushing downtown vibe.

Housed in a former manufacturing building, Equinox Bond Street creates a true fitness temple with a soaring 18-foot ceiling, exposed brick, arches, and Corinthian columns. The club’s awe-inspiring span showcases four heroically-scaled studios, one of our most expansive fitness floors ever, a spacious home for our luxury amenities, and energizing street views alive with the pulse from Noho’s streets.

Evening rush

Waiting for the F at Second Avenue via Derek Berg

Updated: There's a reward for this external hard drive

An EVG reader shared this... A memory drive lost in the vicinity of East Second Street and First Avenue today around 4 p.m.



Updated 4-3

Apparently it has been found and returned to the owner...

Brown and out on East 13th Street

An EVG reader, with perhaps a hint of disappoint in his email, noted that we hadn't, uh, noted the ongoing graffiti v. brown-paint battle along Verizon's wall on East 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue in a really long time.

Sure enough, it has been nearly 15 months.

OK! So the wall still attracts various tags...



... and images...



...and whatever this was...

Still living the dream on the Lower East Side

The Times checks in with a piece for the paper's real estate section titled The Lower East Side, Where Gritty Meets Trendy.

Aside from details on the schools and the commute, the Times provides some average pricing for rentals and condos.

Despite the higher prices for everything, people still come here to live the dream. (Oh, that's what dreams are made of.)

“This used to be a place for a new beginning, people living the dream in a tenement apartment,” said Ariel Tirosh, an associate broker with Douglas Elliman who is the sales agent for several luxury condos, including 100 Norfolk and 179 Ludlow. “Now they live the dream in a new condo.”

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: Jon R. Jewett
Occupation: Photographer and Writer
Location: 7th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A
Time: 5:30 pm on Monday, March 28

I’m coming from the East Village Cheese shop. It’s heaven. And they have the discount section. Tonight I don’t feel like cooking, so I have some cheese, some pâté, a good loaf of bread, and fruit… and certainly a vodka rocks before hand.

I grew up in Maine, between Camden and Bar Harbor — one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. It’s stunning. I go up there for the summers. All my summer friends lived here in New York. I have been coming to New York forever and ever, and there was a time about 20 years ago that I decided that the Maine winters were too much. I got out. That’s what brought me here. Certainly the friends, and what New York has to offer drew me here. I like the arts and good food and I had a way to move here, and so I did.

When I first came, I lived over on Midtown West — Hell's Kitchen. And I then became a personal assistant to a writer and critic friend of mine, who was getting older and I worked for her for 10 years.

New York is the best place in the world to live alone. It really is. I miss the bookstores all over the place. That was a big draw. If you take pictures, there’s always something to go out for a walk for. Every walk is different, because you’re looking at it through the lens.

Cheaper rent brought me to this neighborhood, even though rents are getting high here. I came here about three years ago in February. Something about the East Village that I adore is the light and the lack of density. You don’t really have a tourist attraction down here, so we don’t get that. I work at the community garden, 6BC. I volunteer there. That gives me a private park directly across the street. It’s the best. I go there and knit and read. I use it a lot. It’s a good group of people. It’s where I’ve met a lot of my friends. I walk to Chinatown to shop for food. It’s about half the price and it’s fun, but you have to have a certain edge to do it.

I like shops like [East Village Cheese]. I try to do business with stores that only have one cash register. I want it to be sort of a mom and pop, where they may live upstairs or something like that, because you make friends with the people in the store.

I go in spurts ... I do a million and one things, and then for a month I just lay low. I call it, home enough so I can’t wait to go out, and out enough so I can’t wait to stay home. That’s the balance I like to keep. There are the galleries, museums. Sometimes I can never plan and all of a sudden it’s just time to go to the Met for a day. You can be spontaneous here. I keep a to-do list.

There’s the European influence. I shop for food every night. I do the errands and at the end of the errands pick up three or four newspapers, some food, and then I have these very pleasant evenings at home. I’m strange. I’m a little homebody in New York, but I think there are more of those that we think. Home life in New York can be so pleasant.

And Maine is such a tight in together state. All of my Maine friends, who are all over the country, we keep the fire going, like all winter, thinking about what’s coming up in the summer. I have to give Maine a lot of credit. I go there for about three or four months in the summertime to work, and then I come back to process my work here. I think that makes me overlook a lot of the negatives of city living.

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

Report: East Village restaurateurs creating limited-edition bagels for Black Seed

Black Seed at 176 First Ave. is working with chefs from Hearth, Porchetta, GG’s, Babu Ji and Bowery Meat Co., for a limited-edition series of bagels, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Dianna Daoheung, Black Seed’s executive chef, said many of them got involved after stopping by to pick up orders. The East Village is "not like Nolita or SoHo, where it’s a super-touristy spot,” she said. “It’s definitely a community neighborhood."

Starting today here between East 10th Street and East 11th Street, you can try a bagel (through April 12) created by Sara Jenkins, who operates Porchetta and Porsena on East Seventh Street. Her creation is "a bagel with labne, a kind of strained yogurt, plus pickled turnip, shaved cucumber and radish and mint ($8.50)."

And from April 13 to 26, Bobby Hellen, executive chef at GG’s on East Fifth Street, is adapting his pizza in honor of the 1986 World Series-winning Mets: "a sopressata everything bagel that features the spicy salami with mozzarella, fennel agrodolce, pickled peppers and arugula ($11.75)."

Also! From April 27 to May 10, Hearth's Marco Canora will create a duck prosciutto, taleggio cheese and maitake mushroom bagel sandwich. Jessi Singh, chef and co-owner of Babu Ji has a toasted-fennel and burnt-garlic bagel with masala radish, raita and Indian-style scrambled eggs, with green chili, ginger, turmeric and scallion available May 11 to 24.

To date, no one has asked me to create a BP bagel in honor of the soon-to-close gas station on Lafayette and East Houston...



-----

Also on the bagel front... we hear that Bagel Belly opens this week at 114 Third Ave. near East 14th Street... there's a rack of fruit in the front window...

Construction watch: Thirteen East + West

[No. 442]

The former garages on East 13th Street (No. 436 and 442) between Avenue A and First Avenue are gone...


[No. 436]

... and workers are clearing out the rubble ...



... to make way for the incoming condos dubbed Thirteen East + West...


[Rendering via Instagram]

As we pointed out in previous posts, each building has 6 floor-through homes, all with private outdoor space. Pricing will start at $2.3 million; $3.4 million for the penthouses via broker Ryan Serhant. The penthouses at each building will have their own private garages and roof decks.

Meanwhile, neighbors are making the best of any leftover/broken construction equipment (soon to be wading pool?) on the scene...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Tracking the coming changes to East 13th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue

A look at the new luxury condos coming soon to East 13th Street

Temporary art and future condos on East 13th Street

Demo time for East 13th Street garages that will yield to luxury condos

A look at the residences coming to Thirteen East + West on East 13th Street

Checking in on Trash & Vaudeville

Trash & Vaudeville has been up and running in its new home at 96 E. Seventh St. (Day 10!) ... and in a post on Racked today, owner Ray Goodman talks about the store's 40-plus-year history, starting in 1975 at 4 St. Mark's Place... his merchandising philosophy and longtime collaboration with T&V manager Jimmy Webb.

An excerpt from Goodman:

We're always looking to find new things — We have our core theme, but we build around it. We keep layering on it and layering on it. We have our basics, and our basics are black skinny jeans and black motorcycle jackets. We're always going to have Beatle boots, and we're always going to have creepers. I know I'm going to sell more black leather and black suede Beatle boots then I'm going to sell green python Beatle boots, but I still need green python Beatle boots because they're so damn cool.

Previously

Thumbnail image by Jono Bernstein/Racked