A sign for Nobody Is Perfect on 4th Street

It has been a busy week of restaurant-related news ... and so I didn't get a chance to note the recent arrival of the Nobody Is Perfect signage at 235 E. Fourth St.

This will be the second new restaurant on this block between Avenue A and Avenue B via Mario Carta, the proprietor of Pardon My French at 103 Avenue B. Chouchou, serving Moroccan cuisine, opened earlier this month. (David Pegoli is the chef for the restaurants.)

Haven't heard about an opening date just yet for Nobody Is Perfect, which will offer a variety of tapas, or a closing time, which was a point of contention for neighbors who spoke out against the license application during the CB3-SLA committee meeting last September. (DNAinfo has a recap here.)

Nobody Is Perfect will be the fifth restaurant to try this address in the past 10 years. B4 closed last June after nearly three years in business ... and previously Piccola Positano, Tonda and E.U. have all come and gone.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Team behind Avenue B's Pardon My French eyeing 2 spaces on 4th Street

Marking the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in the city's history ... causing the death of 146 garment workers (mostly young women) who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Many of the victims lived on the Lower East Side.

Today also marks the 13th anniversary of Street Pictures organizing volunteers to "inscribe in chalk the names and ages of the Triangle dead in front of their former homes."

The Triangle Waist Company was located on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place just east of Washington Square Park.

Find more information at The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.


[Photo from 2016 by Christine Champagne]

Sculptures making their point at Cooper Union

Workers continue to erect representations of John Hejduk's pair of architectural structures based in Prague, "the House of the Suicide" and "the House of the Mother of the Suicide." (Read more about these here.)



Hejduk, a Cooper Union graduate, was the founding dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union.

This is part of a month-long exhibit that starts next Wednesday.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Celebrating the work of John Hejduk at Cooper Union

Come Together with Other Music (and others) this Sunday at MoMA PS1

Other Music is back ... at least for one day. Here's part of an email we received the other day...

It’s been too long since we last hung out together in a record-filled room talking about music, but we'll have that chance at an exciting event happening here on Sunday, March 26! Other Music has been collaborating with our friends at MoMA PS1, organizing a record fair and festival in the Long Island City museum that will be celebrating vinyl culture and the interconnecting music communities of NYC and beyond.

It’s been quite an undertaking, but we've put together a huge record market featuring over 60 of our favorite labels from around the world selling music, merchandise and much more. Add to this so many other inspirational people, with live performances inside MoMA PS1's VW Dome, thought-provoking panels and workshops, film, and plenty of other surprises.

Find all the details at the MoMa site here. Tickets are $15 for the day, which includes the panels, performances and film, the NYC premiere of "A Life in Waves," which follows the life and innovations of composer and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani.

Other Music closed last June on Fourth Street after 20 years in business. Other Music's owners cited rising rents and the changing face of the music industry as reasons behind the closure. The storefront remains on the market.

Is this studio the East Village at its best?

Just a quick look at a new listing for a studio on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

It's a short, simple description:

East Village At Its Best* This Apartment is located between Ave A & B. Its a perfect size to divide into a separate bedroom and living room. It also features exposed brick, hardwood floors, high ceilings and other cute detail.

And here we are...



Not sure how this qualifies the neighborhood at its best ... You can find more photos at the listing. And the best has an asking rent of $2,000 monthly. The unit is available starting May 1.

A look at Wall 88's menu

As noted on Tuesday, Lions BeerStore has closed on the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Sixth Street.

Its replacement, Wall 88 Restaurant, is already open for business. Vinny & O shared this photo showing the menu... featuring a variety of pub-type fare...


[Click on image for a better view]

... including starters, salads, burgers. The entrees look reasonably priced (depending on the portions, etc.), with plates starting at $12 (for the "house special" pasta or fish & chips). The priciest item is $26 (beer can chicken!), and that serves two people.

Lions BeerStore — part retail shop, part restaurant — opened in November 2015. Apparently the Lions BeerStore owners are partners in the new venture, though someone else is involved in the day-to-day operations.

A new all-you-can-eat sushi option on 2nd Avenue

The signage is up for Oishi Village Sushi at 199 Second Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street...

The owner of this all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant also operates Oishi Bay Sushi Restaurant on 29th Street at Second Avenue. (If anyone has eaten there, then feel free to chime in here in the comments about the food.)

According to Oishi Village Sushi's application for a beer-wine license (they were OK'd last August), they plan to be open from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, and 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays.

The previous tenant here was Tease, the hair salon that moved around the corner to 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

It was windy today

Hold on, hold on tight pic.twitter.com/q68SinvJlb

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) March 22, 2017

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing 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: Jennifer Brodsky
Occupation: Founder, perNYC
Location: 13th Street and Avenue B
Date: 8 pm on Monday, March 20

I moved to the neighborhood a few years ago. I lived on the Upper East Side for a bit. I lived by Union Square and in Bushwick too. I feel like what differentiates those neighborhoods to me are the stoops. By Union Square, there are no stoops. On the Upper East Side, there are stoops, but they don’t have the same feel. No one sits out there. It’s a lot of glitz and glamour. No one has the time of day for anyone.

In Bushwick, there weren’t really stoops, but you had these front porches. The area that I lived in had families who would barbecue and have a bunch of lawn chairs just sitting out there for them. Here you have the best kind of stoops. People are outside not just with family, but also alone, with friends and with strangers. It's where some of my favorite encounters happen. Like outside Raul's Candy Store, while he and his friends play dominos in the summer. We catch up and talk about how everyone is doing.

I love the architecture here. My building was built in 1910. I recently went to the map shop on Fourth Street [between 2nd Avenue and the Bowery]. I asked the lady if she had a map with what my block looked like. She pulled out one from 1876 and it was still divvied out the same way that it is now. With my apartment building, there is a tenement house in the front, but then you go through and there is a courtyard and a back building.

Other neighborhoods have square buildings. Here you have triangles, hexagons and circles. I keep an open mind, because you never know what you can find. For instance, what lies beneath the many layers of paint on my door — for now, I've found it’s a free upper-body workout to pull open that door.

Recently, on St. Patrick’s Day, I headed over to Casey Rubber Stamps, which is a great East Village staple. It’s a really small store full of rubber stamps. There’s something so fun about them. I remember when I babysat for a kid when I was younger — this little boy went crazy happy with his new stamp collection that he stamped all over the walls. So when I walked into the store, I had this flashback of that scene of stamps all over the wall.

I founded, host and produce a podcast called perNYC. Each podcast episode explores a unique NYC creation, such as a NYC event, music, production, business, store, restaurant, photography, videography, movement, merchandise, fitness, art, establishment, and more, as per the creator.

You get to hear first-hand all the details around each creation. You could think that it takes a certain type of personality, a certain type of person, or certain traits to be a creator, especially in New York, where there is so much going on and someone is trying to pound you down, while someone else is trying to keep you up. But everyone is so different.

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

Che Cafe bringing empanada pockets to 7th Street

[EVG photo from last fall]

Che Cafe expects to open on April 1 at 86 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

This venture comes via Mark Merker, who started Harry's and Benny's Burritos in 1987.

Now my interests are focusing on street foods. Every culture in the world has a similar item that is closely related to the Empanada. I came up with Chechenitas (empanada pouch). A small, easy to eat on the go item.

I love the many different tastes from all cultures around and thought to borrow from each the essence of flavor that I love. Only issue I had with them is that there wasn't enough food inside the bread. I felt it overpowered the ingredients.

Che Cafe launched last summer, and was a regular at the LIC Flea & Food (and later last year at the Rockaway Brewery).

A post shared by Che Cafe (@che_cafe_nyc) on Aug 29, 2016 at 9:43am PDT

The Che Cafe website notes an April 1 opening... for "an evening of a free tasting."

The small space was home until last fall to Abraço, who moved across Seventh Street.

Thanks to Vinny & O for the tip!

Mimi's Hummus closes on 14th Street

The outpost of Mimi's Hummus at 245 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue shut down on Monday.

A sign posted to the front door thanks patrons for their support...



Mimi's opened here in October 2015. The original Mimi's in Ditmas Park remains open ... as does the location in the Urbanspace Vanderbilt near Grand Central.

The quick-serve restaurant serves "some of the city's best hummus and shakshuka" (per Eater). Not sure why they couldn't make it in this spot.

The small space was previously home for eight months to the $1 pizza/BBQ combo of Wicked Wolfe BBQ.

H/T EVG reader Jimmy

Pizza-master Gino Sorbillo marks his arrival on the Bowery

As noted back in January, a pizzeria is coming to 334 Bowery between Bond and Great Jones... and the signage for Sorbillo arrived on Monday...



Acclaimed pizza-master and globe-trotting food personality Gino Sorbillo is the Sorbillo behind this venture. His shop, La Pizzeria Sorbillo, is considered by some to be best and most famous pizza hub in Naples, according to this feature on Vice.

You can see his Neapolitan pizzas via Instagram...

A post shared by Gino Sorbillo (@sorbillo) on Mar 2, 2017 at 9:12am PST

This has been a tough spot for restaurants. Perhaps Sorbillo can reverse the streak of quick openings and closings.

PYT — "Home of America's Craaaziest Burgers" — imploded here after just three months in business in early 2016.

The space was home to Forcella Bowery for nearly three years until November 2014 … only to be replaced in December 2014 by the tapas-friendly Espoleta, which closed six months later to make way for Gia Trattoria. They quickly closed. Then PYT arrived in October 2015.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A step back in time on the Bowery