Summer lovin'

A moment on St. Mark's Place via Derek Berg

Steiner East Village wooing L train Steinhangers

Developer Douglas Steiner has unveiled an ad campaign at the L train stop on Third Avenue and 14th Street for his residences — aka Steiner East Village ...



The 7-story, 82-unit building at 438 E. 12th St. features homes starting at $1.1 million... with the 4-bedroom penthouse with 1,364 square feet of terraces that's asking $11.25 million. Something nice to think about while pondering which L train shutdown scenario MTA officials will choose...



Meanwhile, forgot to note that the 438-branded astroturf arrived on the corner of Avenue A and 11th Street a few weeks back...

INCOMING

A look downtown earlier this evening via Bobby Williams...

A 'Grey' area

NYC-based punk/blues band Boss Hog have an EP out today — their first new material in 16 years. (Brood X, their fourth full-length album, is due later this year.)

The track here is for the first single, "Wichita Grey."

Eat Prey Love

Christo and Dora's red-tailed hawk family has been quite active in Tompkins Square Park this summer.

After getting the flying down, the three hawk kids are now trying to learn to hunt then prepare their own meals without any parental assistance.

As Goggla notes in her latest hawk dispatch:

Christo had left a rat in a tree just a few feet away and the fledgling began eating it on a branch. They must learn everything, including how to hang onto their food while balancing on a branch. The fledglings haven't quite mastered this and have been dropping their food regularly.

So Christo swooped in and picked up the dropped meal, as these photos from Goggla show...





Per Goggla:

In the end, Christo took the rat to a bigger tree with a wider branch that made it easier for his kid to eat and not drop the food. I admired how Christo performed this task so patiently, keeping a close eye on his kid and making sure it ate enough.

Head on over to her website here for more photos and red-tailed hawk observations.

EV Grieve Etc.: Skateboarders of the East Village; Ludlow Guitars heading to Brooklyn

[Outside St. Dymphna's via Derek Berg]

Ludlow Guitars relocating to Brooklyn after 17 years on the LES (The Lo-Down)

Mayor de Blasio signs into law a City Council bill that places time limits on the public review process associated with creating new New York City landmarks (Curbed)

Last look at Other Music (A.V. Club) while Yoko Ono says goodbye to the store (Rolling Stone)

DA indicts three Lower East Side drug traffickers, including kingpin (Patch)

Documentary in the works on Jerry the Peddler (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Photos: Skateboarders of the East Village (Vogue)

The former horse auction house on East 13th Street (Ephemeral New York)

The ceaselessly experimental cinema of Ken Jacobs (Anthology Film Archives)

Former tenant suing Steve Croman (The Real Deal)

Graphic designer Jose Guizar's take on the windows of NYC (Wired)

What's next for Three Lives Books? (Off the Grid)

Some history of Weegee's New York (BoweryBoogie)

Kellogg's is opening a cereal cafe in Times Square (Gothamist)

...and in case you were headed to the excellent Sunny's Florist on Second Avenue and Sixth Street this weekend for flowers...


[Photo by James Maher]

...Edward and Sunny are on a holiday break...

The late, great Stage slated to become the Kati Roll Company on 2nd Avenue

The owners of the Kati Roll Company have designs on opening their fourth Manhattan location at 128 Second Ave., former home of the Stage, according to preliminary paperwork filed ahead of this month's CB3-SLA committee meeting.

The restaurant serves the namesake Kati roll, made by wrapping warm paratha, a type of Indian flat bread, around a variety of meats, vegetables and cheese. The Kati Roll Company currently has locations on MacDougal Street and in Midtown East and Midtown West. (There's also a branch in London.)

According to the CB3 website, the owners will be seeking a beer-wine license for the Second Avenue space between St. Mark's Place and Seventh Street.

The Stage, the 35-year-old lunch counter, closed March 30, 2015. Stage owner Roman Diakun had been involved in an ongoing legal/eviction battle with landlord Icon Realty. You can read that background here.

The July CB3-SLA committee meeting is July 11 at 6:30 p.m., in the Thelma Burdick Community Room - 10 Stanton St. at the Bowery.

Checking out the penthouse at THREE99 — 'unlike any apartment ever in the East Village'

[Rendering of 399 E. 8th St.]

At the beginning of June, we wrote about sales at the new 9-story residential building at 399 E. Eighth St. near Avenue D (awkwardly called THREE99OnEIGHTH).

As noted, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit starts at $685,000 ... a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit asks $960,000... the top home here is the three-bedroom, three-bathroom penthouse at $4.9 million.

And that penthouse arrived on the market this week. Here is the description via Streeteasy:

Enter into your new home through the elevator opening right into your living room. Featuring a light ash finish floors throughout, this Penthouse at THREE99 is all you can ask for. Floor to ceiling window in your living room over looks one of two private terrace. The unobstructed views of the downtown skyline are enough to fill any NYC eye candy appetite.

The open kitchen features smooth and sexy stone counter tops with a classic subway tile back splash. Filled with a Viking Range and vented microwave, is just the beginning of what this exquisite kitchen has to offer. A SubZero fridge freezer combo nicely complements the 100 bottle ZubZero wine rack. Off the kitchen you have two split bedrooms, one featuring a private bath and entry to the South facing terrace work perfect as a guest bedroom. The King sized Master Suite features a North facing terrace with midtown views of the Empire State and Chrysler building. The Glass walled bath is nothing like you have seen before. Featuring hand picked Italian Carrarra marble walls and floors, you are able to relax in your whirlpool/Jacuzzi soaking tub after a long day or just to unwind with a glass of wine.

This Penthouse is unlike any apartment ever in the East Village. Having access to all of the amenities of the building including, Gym, Billiards lounge, Pet Spa, Roof Deck, Bike Storage, Cold Storage, Package receiving room, and a Honeywell Virtual Doorman which is monitored by a live agent who can do everything from guide deliveries to the locked cold storage and package receiving room.

And some photos via broker Citi Habitats (the copy didn't mention the cool Con Ed power plant views):











There's an open house by appointment only on Sunday afternoon.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Meanwhile, before we christen Avenue D the next Greenpoint...

Stalled development site on Eighth Street and Avenue D asking $5.2 million

Films in Tompkins return this summer with 'Do the Right Thing,' 'True Romance'

The Films in Tompkins series starts next Thursday with a free screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (this was on the slate in 2013, but rain canceled the screening) ... and concluding on Aug. 11 with the Leo-Claire version of "Romeo and Juliet."

Live music will precede each film as in previous years.

You can head to the Films in Tompkins Facebook page for more details.

Tompkins Square Park will also host two great French films on July 22 and July 29 as part of the Films on the Green series.

$1 dish sale continues at former King Bee space on 9th Street

As we noted earlier this week, a new restaurant called Thursday Kitchen is opening at 424 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue... at the time, the proprietors were selling of some dishes left behind by the former occupant, King Bee.

Anyway! In case you are interested, there are more $1 dishes outside for sale. (This photo is from right before 5 p.m. via EVG $1 Dish Correspondent Steven.)

Report: Pushcart Coffee co-owner elected CB3 chair

Jamie Rogers, the co-owner of Pushcart Coffee, which has locations in Chelsea and Gramercy Park (and formerly in the East Village), was elected to lead CB3 during Tuesday evening's full board meeting.

The Lo-Down has the details:

Rogers succeeds Gigi Li as board chairperson. She wasn’t able to run for a fifth one-year term due to CB3’s term limits.

Rogers defeated Enrique Cruz 34-11 after both candidates delivered brief statements and answered questions submitted by members of the all-volunteer board. Alysha Lewis-Coleman was elected first vice chair, defeating Chinatown activist Karlin Chan 42-5. Herman Hewitt was elected second vice chair, while Meghan Joye (secretary), Christian De Leon (assistant secretary) and David Crane (treasurer) also won positions as executive officers.

It was a reportedly contentious meeting prior to the election. Housing advocates arrived to protest "the board’s handling of a community-based Chinatown rezoning initiative," per The Lo-Down. As DNAinfo reported, CB3 officials "called in police officers to keep the peace."

The Sock Man is returning to St. Mark's Place

We started hearing rumors a few weeks back that the Sock Man was going to take over the vacant retail space (above) at 99 1/2 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Last night, the Sock Man made it official on Facebook...


Owner Marty Rosen had been peddling socks, tights, lingerie and other accessories at 27 St. Mark's Place since 1983. However, as we first reported in January, after a hefty (3X) rent increase via new landlord Raphael Toledano, Rosen decided to close the shop between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Per the Facebook post, Rosen hopes to be back in business by Aug. 1.

The Sock Man will now be neighbors with another longtime local business — East Village Books.

No. 99 1/2 was previously home to the Kings Court Real Estate Management office.

H/T Steven and M.A.!

A visit to former East Village mainstay Love Saves the Day in New Hope, Pa.

Photos and text by Shawn Chittle

Tucked neatly away along the Delaware River not far from where Washington made his famous crossing lies a lovely little town called New Hope, Pa. I took a two-hour car ride (it goes by fast) here and found an old friend: Love Saves The Day, the former vintage store on Second Avenue and Seventh Street made famous, in part, by its appearance in the 1985 film “Desperately Seeking Susan.”

I introduced myself to the the manager, Stasia Kauriga. “We love our East Village fans,” she told me.


[From left: Stasia Kauriga, manager; Adam, music associate; Jill Edge, asst. manager]

She told me about the day when her phone wouldn’t stop ringing with people worried about the store after the deadly Second Avenue explosion in March 2015, which destroyed three buildings including the original Love Saves the Day location at No. 119.

“I had to tell them we actually weren’t at that location anymore.” she said.

The East Village Love Saves the Day closed on Jan. 18, 2009, after 43 years in business. Word was their rent tripled.

However, Love Saves the Day already had a presence in New Hope. "We just moved the Second Avenue inventory here when we couldn’t maintain that location,” Kauriga said.

That news was a surprise to me. I had always thought that the store closing in 2009 was for a move to New Hope. But the New Hope storefront has been around a long time, and it looks at home on the town's Main Street.

As I look around the store, it looks all so familiar, but so much larger.





Then I spot something familiar in the corner: the original Love Saves the Day awning from Second Avenue. It’s peeking out from behind a corner, looking worn and forgotten, but a welcome sight nonetheless.



All my "Star Wars" toys from the 1970s are here, along with Beatles records and collectables, everything KISS, Pee Wee Herman, lunch boxes, and kitsch galore. Frankly, the prices are affordable and I left with a few treasures.



The sense of humor and adventure, all the charm and pure East Village that was the store on Second Avenue is here in abundance, and I do mean abundant. The store has both an upstairs and downstairs.





Love Saves The Day is located at 1 S Main St, New Hope, Pa., and is open Mon-Fri: 11 am - 6 pm, Sat 11 am - 7 pm and Sun 11 am - 6 pm.

-----


[119 2nd Ave. from early 2009]

B4 has closed on East 4th Street

After nearly a three-year run at 235 E Fourth St. near Avenue B, B4 has closed... there is an eviction note via the Marshal posted on the front door...



B4 served "New American comfort food" ... It was a nice-looking restaurant, though it was never able to attract much of a crowd (it was often uncomfortably empty when we passed by in recent months) ... and B4 could seemingly never attract any of that brunch crew who flocks to Third and B every weekend.

B4 was the first restaurant from chef Shawn Jones, who runs a catering and events firm.

No. 235 has been a challenging spot in recent years for restaurants — Piccola Positano, Tonda and E.U. have all come and gone.