Steve Cuozzo: 'A new Starbucks will make the thriving East Village an even better place to live'

[Photo by Steven]

As we noted last week, various community groups and local shop owners from the East Village Independent Merchants Association (EVIMA) are planning a rally at the incoming Starbucks on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place on Thursday from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Per the invite: "We don't need more chains in the East Village! We need retail diversity and independently owned local businesses!"

The rally notice caught the eye of New York Post columnist/critic Steve Cuozzo... who filed a piece published this past weekend titled "Why anti-Starbucks hipsters sound a lot like Trump supporters" ...



Some excerpts, including the lead...

East Village apocalypse! Starbucks is at the Tompkins Square Park gates! Sound the dirge for “retail diversity and independently owned local businesses!”

And!

Their tantrum would be funny if it didn’t reflect an obnoxious New York sociopolitical sensibility shared by “progressive” thinkers who quail at actual progress — whether it means reducing crime, investing in decayed neighborhoods or selling coffee that doesn’t taste like grounds at the bottom of a cup.

No neighborhood impulse is more illiberal than to keep out those who don’t conform to voluble locals’ sense of who belongs. We may assume that Starbucks-damning East Villagers did not vote for Donald Trump (whose son-in-law Jared Kushner controls a real-estate company that owns 50-odd Alphabet City buildings). Yet they sound ready to build walls to protect small shops and cafes from outside competition and perhaps to demand the interlopers pay for them.

But if the East Village’s colorful small shops and eateries face a threat, it isn’t Starbucks or drugstore chains. It’s landlords who raise rents to a level the market will bear, a phenomenon that stretches north, west and south of Tompkins Square Park.

And in the end...

A new Starbucks will make the thriving East Village an even better place to live. But it’ll disappoint those who perversely preferred the neighborhood of 30 years ago, when it was better known for crack than for coffee.

[Updated] Old Monk looking ready to open

Old Monk, a new Indian restaurant, is shaping up on the northeast corner of Avenue B and 11th Street... the paper is off the windows, as these photos by EVG reader Cheyenne show...



The sign on the window notes that Old Monk is opening soon ...



And it looks ready to serve diners...



There's a teaser site for Old Monk, though it doesn't have the menu posted just yet. The restaurant's Instagram account describes the Old Monk as serving "contemporary Indian soul food."

Prolific restaurateur Sushil Malhotra, whose ventures include Cafe Spice, is behind the Old Monk along with chef Navjot Arora of Chutney Masala in Westchester.

The address here, 175 Avenue B, has seen a variety of cuisine in recent years, including Babu Ji (2015-17) and Spina (2009-2015).

Updated 7/15

The restaurant is now open...

Quickly reaching the top of 287 E. Houston St.

I can't recall a new development that has gone up as quickly as 287 E. Houston St. ... workers hoisted the flag atop the 11-floor condoplex between Clinton and Suffolk late last week...



A quick recap: The 120-foot-tall luxury building will feature 28 residences. The development will have two to four units on each story, including two duplexes on the first and second floors and a penthouse duplex on the top two floors. The smallest unit (624 square feet) starts at $1.18 million. (More background here.)

It will likely look like the rendering by Labor Day...

Your chance to own part of an East Village bar

You've probably noticed these flyers around the past few days ... asking if you'd like to INVEST IN AN EAST VILLAGE BAR. (I saw the flyers on Third Avenue, Second Avenue and Avenue A...)

The link goes to an IndieGoGo page with details on the crowdfunding campaign.

Be an Influencer
You walk in to the bar, point to your photo on the owners wall, and treat your friends to rounds of drinks. Participate in shaping what the bar serves, the events it plans, the specials it offers. You help make the bar you want to hang out in.

Have Fun
The success of every bar is in the service (which already is stellar) and the patrons, who make the experience that much more enjoyable for each other. You aren't responsible for the management of the place, your job is to show up, be friendly, and have fun.

Keep the East Village Great
We're talking about an established pub in the heart of the East Village, just off Avenue A, that can become the living room for you and your friends. Contribute today, and take advantage of the perks forever. Help keep the East Village locally owned, and avoid the 'Bleeckerization' of this great neighborhood.

Guarantee
If adequate funding levels are not achieved, you will be refunded 100% of your investment, guaranteed.

Depending on your contribution (starting at $50), you'll have your framed photo on the owner's wall and receive various drink specials and a bar T-shirt. For $100, you get to represent the bar before Community Board 3. (Kidding!)

The person behind the campaign is looking to raise $200,000. At last look, they were at $1,800.

At the Weeping Willow Wake

[Photo by Steven]

This afternoon, residents and members of La Plaza Cultural gathered on Ninth Street and Avenue C to bid farewell to the last two willow trees in the community garden.

As previously reported, an inspection showed that the willow nicknamed Cher, located in the corner of the garden by Avenue C, is rotting, and will need to be removed. (The second willow, Krusty, located near the gazebo, is also in poor shape and will likely need to come down as well.)

Rev. Billy, along with members of his choir, presided over the event, titled the Weeping Willow Wake...


[Photo by Steven]


[Photo via @evan_kapitansky]

Reverend Billy and the church of stop shopping at the weeping willow #tree memorial in la Plaza. #weepingwillow #reverendbilly #nyc #park #garden

A post shared by Eden Bee (@edenbrower) on Jul 9, 2017 at 1:39pm PDT

In a statement earlier, La Plaza officials said:

The Parks Department has made a descion that they must come down and will take them down when they have the time. La Plaza Community Garden is saddened by the loss of our great willow trees and is reaching out to the community seeking people's opinion as to where we should go from here.

Here's one opinion...


[Photo by Steven]

The Parks Department has yet to schedule a date for removing the willows, believed to be 41 years old.

-----

Updated 8 p.m.

Here are a few more photos via EVG regular Peter Brownscombe...

Today in apologies

Spotted on Avenue A.

Water Problems
So sorry all, but someone (me) drilled through the cold water pipe that goes to the kitchens!
I will get a plumber in here ASAP, but it will probably not be before Monday.
Kitchen hot water works
All water works in bathrooms

Week in Grieview

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

The former Church of the Nativity one step closer to hitting the sales market on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

A renewed effort to restore and preserve the Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)

Cab strikes and kills 87-year-old man on Cooper Square (Monday)

A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural (Friday)

The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence (Friday)

S'MAC is open in new home on 1st Avenue and 12th Street (Wednesday)

The East Village artists behind the Danceteria time capsule from 1984 that prompted a bomb scare in 2017 (Friday)

Remembering Louise Nevelson at the Nevelson House on 7th Street (Wednesday)

Owners of Babu Ji settle 2nd wage lawsuit (Friday)

Paloma Rocket looking to land in the East Village (Wednesday)

Report: Steve Croman sued to stop his father from managing 3rd Avenue properties (Wednesday)

A few dining details about Joe and Pat's, the Staten Island pizzeria opening on 1st Avenue (Thursday)


[Photo on 10th Street by Derek Berg]

Christo needs a larger bird bath (Tuesday)

Body found in the East River north of the Williamsburg Bridge (Tuesday)

Details on the "New York in the 70s" series starting this week at the Film Forum (Monday)

Reader report: Rooftop fire on 12th Street (Monday)

Why it would be a bad idea to take this discarded carpet on Second Avenue (Sunday)

A look the incoming Starbucks on St. Mark's and Avenue A, site of a rally on July 13 (Wednesday)

Cholo Noir opens on 6th Street (Friday)

The new view of 10th Street from 11th Street (Thursday)

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Follow EVG on Instragram and/or Twitter for more updates

Today in Tompkins Square Park

Photo via Bobby Williams...

Band that played Tompkins Square Park on June 25 looking for some help with park permits

[Image via Facebook]

On June 25, Tycoon Dog, a jam/rock band, played a free show in Tompkins Square Park. The band, which formed in 1996, plays in various parks — Including Tompkins Square in the past — throughout the city during the warmer weather months.

The band's founder, Scott Bailey, sent this email out... so perhaps if you were at that show...

We are asking for your help.

The NYC Parks Dep't has revoked all our 2017 permits. They say that at our June 25 show in Tompkins Square Park, police issued two summonses to us, and that we failed to turn down the band's volume when the police asked us to.

These things didn't happen at the 6/25 Tycoon Dog show in TSP - there were no issues or problems of any kind at that show. We think they may have happened at a big punk show there the previous day, and that there has been some kind of mix-up. However, as of now our permits are revoked and we need your help to try and get them back.

If you were at the 6/25 Tompkins show, especially if you saw the whole show, could you please email me? I am hoping some ... of you can give us a statement saying you were there and that the volume was fine and there were no problems.

Here's Scott's email.

Repairs underway on (in?) Tompkins Square Park sinkhole

Workers are at the Eighth Street/Avenue B entrance to Tompkins Square Park ... starting repairs on the sinkhole that has closed this corridor the past three-four weeks...



A worker told EVG correspondent Steven, who took these photos, that he's clearing out the sinkhole for the plumbers to fix the pipe that broke... and some photos of that broken pipe...



No word on when the plumbers might be here.

Meanwhile, at the Bowery Mural Wall...

Seems to be a daily ritual here on East Houston at the Bowery... someone tags the wall, then Goldman Properties has someone paint over it... repeat!

David Choe's mural here was painted over in June as the controversy over his past comments about an alleged sexual assault resurfaced... his work was scheduled to be up through October.



There has't been any word of a replacement.

The sounds of the 1970s this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

This afternoon in Tompkins Square Park... via the Facebook event page: "Mike SOS and Super Morgan spin the 70s jams from 2pm until 6pm! ALL AGES and FREE!"

This event comes courtesy of FBOMB NYC, who hosts a rock-n-roll showcase at Arlene's Grocery the last Saturday of the month.

Friday's parting shot

First Avenue at Sixth Street tonight... before it rained (again)...

'Melt' down

Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1983 with "Melt!" (and with Robert Smith). Always seemed like a good summer song...

Report: Owners of Babu Ji settle 2nd wage lawsuit

News broke back in March about a second wage-theft and overtime lawsuit against Babu Ji owners Jessi and Jennifer Singh. Around that same time, their popular Indian restaurant on Avenue B at 11th Street went dark ... and never reopened in this location.

Eater reports today that Babu Ji has settled the second lawsuit.

Last fall, three employees of the restaurant’s now-shuttered East Village location accused Jessi and Jennifer Singh of withholding tips and failing to pay overtime. The same lawsuit claimed that Jessi Singh threatened servers and their families.

Settlement papers filed to public record earlier this week show that each of the three former employees will receive under $28,500 as part of the agreement, while attorney (and notorious restaurant thorn) Maimon Kirschenbaum’s firm will receive more than $44,000. The Singhs did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the deal.

Babu Ji, which opened on Avenue B in June 2015, is now at 22 E. 13th St. between Fifth Avenue and University Place.

The former Babu Ji space on B and 11th will be an Indian restaurant from the founder of Curry in a Hurry, Akbar Dawat and Café Spice, among others.

Photo from March

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Babu Ji on Avenue B hit with another wage lawsuit

With court date looming, Babu Ji 'is taking a break' on Avenue B

A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural

The last two willow trees in La Plaza Cultural on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street will have to be removed.

A recent inspection by Manhattan Forestry confirmed what some members of the community garden had feared: the trees are rotting.

The willow (nicknamed Cher) in the corner of La Plaza by Avenue C looks especially bad ...



The other willow (aka Krusty) is located near the garden's gazebo.



Here's part of a missive that La Plaza shared:

Our weeping willow trees are around 41 years old. They were first planted in La Plaza thanks to a grant from Plant-A-Lot, and there were originally three willows and three linden trees all planted at the same time. One willow and one linen were toppled by Hurricane Irene. And another linden had to come down after Hurricane Sandy. And recently the Parks Department has determined that the willows are rotting from the inside and are in danger of falling. One even has visible fungus. The Parks Department has made a descion that they must come down and will take them down when they have the time. La Plaza Community Garden is saddened by the loss of our great willow trees and is reaching out to the community seeking people's opinion as to where we should go from here.

On Sunday afternoon, Rev. Billy and members of his choir will lead a weeping willow wake...



Per La Plaza executive director Ross Martin: "We have no idea when the city will come to perform this unthinkable yet necessary act, but it will be soon, so please join us one last time in the green shade."


[Underneath the green shade of Cher the willow tree]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Willow tree down in La Plaza Cultural

Tree muggers at the La Plaza Cultural

The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence

[Photo from June]

As previously reported, the recently sold Webster Hall is expected to close in early August ... so that new owners Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents can begin renovations at the landmarked music venue on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

Now, a group of filmmakers are hoping to make a documentary on the club's final month.

Here's their pitch via Kickstarter:

Since 1886 Webster Hall has stood as a gathering place ... cultivating a welcoming environment that included anyone from the mainstream, fringe, underground, or anywhere in between to congregate in the same place at the same time.

On August 9th, 2017 Webster will be closing its doors for renovations. In 2018 it will reopen under corporate management. The Producers of this short wish to make a feature-length film documenting the last month of Webster’s current incarnation in an attempt to preserve its vibe.

You can read more about the project and it goals as well as watch a short at Kickstarter.

The filmmakers have been working at Webster Hall as stage hands since early last year.

"When we discovered that one of the city's last original music venues would be shutting its doors for a corporate clean-up, we were shocked to learn how uninformed both the Webster Hall staff and its neighbors were about the transition," Sanford Jackson, one of the documentarians, said via an email. "After speaking intimately with the staff about the upcoming changeover, we felt it necessary to utilize our talents as filmmakers to document a piece that will genuinely capture what Webster Hall represents within the East Village community and the city's rich nightlife history entirely."

And what have they learned so far during filming?

"One of the more universal themes we've found when talking to staff at Webster Hall is its sheer diversity in both clientele and its staff. On a single night you might expect a children's story book play in the basement, a death metal band in the studio, and an LGBT club night in the ballroom. Thousands of people under the same roof at the same time for remarkably different reasons," said Jackson. "That said, the stories we've heard were really just snippets of a larger tale — a simple introduction to the menagerie of bacchanalia teeming in the memory banks of it's diverse neighborhood and it's employees. We're hoping to capture as much of that as possible with this doc."

The East Village artists behind the Danceteria time capsule from 1984 that prompted a bomb scare in 2017

It's never good if they have to call the #NYPD when your time capsule is discovered. The capsule was deemed safe by ESU & the Bomb squad. pic.twitter.com/6cZxYRfahj

— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) July 6, 2017

On Wednesday, an unexploded, World War 2-era bomb briefly shut down 21st Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

As you may have read, the suspicious-looking device turned out to be a bomb-shaped time capsule that belonged to the now-shuttered Danceteria.

In various published reports, John Argento, who owned the club until it closed in 1986, said that the capsule was an "empty practice bomb" that was buried in 1984 in an alley adjacent to the club ... to be unearthed again in 5,000 years. (Construction at the site ruined things for partygoers in 6984.)

Via The Beat, we learned that East Village-based artists James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook were instrumental in creating and then burying the time capsule back in 1984 as part of a party to say hello to the year 6984.

As Van Cook wrote on Facebook:

We buried the time capsule which had one of Diana Ross’ fake eyelashes and Chi Chi Valenti g string among thousands of messages to the future. All the messages read ”fuck you” which seemed to be the only sentiment that people came up with. We had the ceremony in the adjacent alley to Danceteria ... I broke a bottle on the bomb casing! Wow!

[Image via the Beat]

And this may have a happy ending of sorts. Per CBS New York:

It isn’t exactly police protocol to give someone their old bomb shell back, but police say in a few days once it’s thoroughly searched, Argento can likely pick up whatever was inside.

The CBC has more on the story here.

Previously

Cholo Noir opens on 6th Street

[Via @CholoNoir]

Cholo Noir opened this week at 503 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Here's their description via @CholoNoir: "Chicano cuisine & speakeasy... celebrating Chicano culture through art, drinks, and a fusion of Mexican street food and backyard southwest BBQ."

CB3 twice denied a liquor license for the proprietors last year ... among other reasons, there are 20-plus full on-premises liquor licenses within 500 feet of the address. CB3 members also didn't see much public benefit from the concept on a mostly residential block in a nightlife-saturated neighborhood.

Given the amount of work they already put into the space, the owners then went to the State Liquor Authority for a license, which was apparently granted given that they are advertising margaritas on the sidewalk chalkboard.

Here's more via a Cholo Noir update from February at DNAinfo:

[T]he owners remain positive the eatery will be a good presence in the neighborhood, claiming Cholo Noir will be centered around the food, with cocktails to complement the menu.

“Most people don’t go into a Mexican restaurant and say, ‘Let’s go get wasted,’ but people do go for good Mexican food and they like to have something to complement it,” said Paul Le Mos, who plans to run the restaurant alongside Lennard Camarillo, former operator of West Village eatery Florencia 13.

The proprietors don't want to bring another noisy bar to the neighborhood, he said, but want to serve the community with great food and culture.

You can find the menu and more info at the Cholo Noir website here.

No. 503 was previously home for five weeks to Long Bay, a Vietnamese restaurant, in 2015. Several years earlier the space housed Gladiators Gym.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Another no for Cholo Noir

Stop, in the name of... art

Seventh Street on the east side of Avenue A...

A renewed effort to restore and preserve the Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame on 2nd Avenue

If you've walked on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street outside the Chase branch, then you've likely noticed the five-pointed gold stars set into granite celebrating names such as Abraham Goldfaden, Bessie Thomashefsky and Michal Michalesko ...


[Top two photos from 2014 by Derek Berg]

In 1984, Abe Lebewohl, who owned the Second Avenue Deli in this corner location, installed this Yiddish Walk of Fame to commemorate when the area was a vibrant Yiddish theater community in the early 20th century.

In recent years, many of the stars in the double row have become worn down or broken and are mostly illegible. Higher rents forced Second Avenue Deli to vacate here in 2006. (Lebewohl was murdered in March 1996.) Since then, the building's landlord, Jonis Realty, who's responsible for maintaining the sidewalks, hasn't apparently done much to repair the stars (though at the same time they didn't have them removed).

There's now a fresh movement afoot to preserve and protect the Walk of Fame in an effort led by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and several other community groups. Yesterday, EVG regular Daniel noted that reps for Friends of the Abe Lebewohl Yiddish Walk of Fame were collecting signatures of support on this corner...





Here's more on the history of the Walk of Fame ... via the GVSHP...

The Second Avenue Deli closed its doors at this location in 2006. Luckily, the Walk of Fame remained despite the closure. But now this civic tribute is deteriorating. Friends of the Abe Lebewohl Yiddish Walk of Fame is working to promote the history and culture of Yiddish Theatre and the neighborhood inspired by the granite stars first embedded in the sidewalk of Second Avenue by restauranteur Abe Lebewohl. GVSHP is proud to be working with fellow stakeholders, with the support of the Lebewohl family, to secure the future of this important piece of our neighborhood history.

Here's what they have planned ...

Friends of the Abe Lebewohl Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame seeks to preserve, educate, inspire and reinstall a recreation of the historic plaque tiles in the area of cultural relevance and with long term stewardship. We will work to gently remove the original plaque tiles.

Exhibit them as part of a permanent or traveling exhibition. Support programming that highlights the Yiddish Theatre and the neighborhood, and inspire the continuation of the rich artistic tradition. And we will commission a recreation of the original plaque tiles to be reinstalled somewhere relevant and nearby, with long term stewardship as our goal.

Learn more about the preservation efforts here.