In just 5 ovens, our kitchen team is preparing over 700 turkeys to serve delicious, traditional Thanksgiving meals to our hungry neighbors. The team started cooking on Sunday & will continue around the clock until Thursday.
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. donated 450 turkeys — "and a mountain of potatoes." The Bowery Mission expects to serve more than 10,000 meals during Thanksgiving week.
As previously reported, the Swiss Institute, a non-profit cultural center, is moving to the Icon Realty-owned 130 Second Ave. at St. Mark's Place.
Workers have been gutting the former Chase branch since August... on Tuesday, the sidewalk bridge went up ...
[Bottom 2 bridge pics from yesterday]
Hopefully this will help preserve the wheatpaste ads that seem to change every few hours on the plywood.
Inside, here's more about what to expect via the Institute's website:
In Spring 2018, Swiss Institute looks forward to relocating to a new long-term home in New York City’s East Village, moving into a building at the corner of St. Marks Place and Second Avenue. Swiss Institute has hired Selldorf Architects to oversee the transformation of the new building. The 7,500 square foot space features four levels – basement, ground floor, second floor and roof.
The design for the building will create spaces for exhibitions, projects and public programs, a library, a bookstore, and a rooftop garden. SI’s new home is located within half a mile of several prominent cultural and educational institutions including Anthology Film Archives, Cooper Union, Danspace Project, ICP, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New Museum, New York University, The Poetry Project, and The Public Theater.
Updated 10:30 a.m.
The scaffolding and construction netting is going up now...
As noted here yesterday, the International Bar is closing after service tonight (early tomorrow morning) at 120 1/2 First Ave. Starting on Thanksgiving, sister bar the Coal Yard a block to the south near Sixth Street will be the home of the International.
Ahead of that, the International Bar lettering was added yesterday to the Coal Yard's front window.
The latest iteration of the iBar opened in June 2008. Word is that No. 120 1/2 landlord Steve Croman wasn't offering a lease renewal.
The former Caffe Bene space is getting the covered-window treatment on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.
Renovations are underway inside the space... the work permits don't reveal who the new tenant is here at No. 24.
Per the permit in the all-cap DOBguage: "PROPOSE TO PERFORM INTERIOR RENOVATION WORK ON THE FIRST FLOOR RETAIL SPACE AS SHOWN IN THE PLANS SUCH AS INSTALL NON LOAD BEARING WALLS, COUNTER, CABINETS, REPLACE SINK AND COSMETIC WORK OF PAINTING."
If you had to bet based on current neighborhood retail trends, then something involving desserts or noodles would be a safe wager.
Before Caffe B, the address was a Pinkberry. The space was on the market for nearly six months before Caffe Bene signed a 10-year lease in August 2015, with a reported asking rent in the $240 per-square-foot territory.
This sidewalk addition apparently occurred last evening outside 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
Just because the photo isn't of your face doesn't mean they can't identify you. At this very moment this picture is on its way to Washington where the FBI has experts in this type of identification. If you turn yourselves in now, you may escape a Federal charge.
The latest iteration of the International Bar closes after service tomorrow night at 120 1/2 First Avenue. The bar will be merging with its sister saloon, the Coal Yard, one block to the south between Seventh Street and Sixth Street. The Coal Yard space will be rebranded as the International... and will be open on Thanksgiving. (This information comes from two bartenders and a handful of regulars.)
This move had been anticipated for some time as ownership knew that the landlord for No. 120 1/2, Steve Croman, wasn't going to renew the lease.
The International has had several lives since it first opened at 119 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue in the 1970s... owner Mary Petruno and her son Michael later moved the bar to No. 120 1/2 when she bought the building.
I'm a little hazy on details of when everything happened at No. 120 1/2, such as the bar moving from the north side of the space to the south side and back to the north side. (This post at Vanishing New York has some of the background.) The International closed in 2005 ... and the space sat empty until Shawn Dahl and Molly Fitch reopened the International in its current low-key neighborhood format in June 2008.
Thanks to EVG reader John M. for this screengrab... when Keith Richards walks by the International when it was on St. Mark's Place during the "Waiting on a Friend" video...
The Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is hosting an all-day Arts Festival on Dec. 13.
The day includes a variety of performances, workshops and displays by local artists from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. You can find the full rundown here.
Here's one highlight:
5-5:45pm: 16mm Film Screening. We'll be screening two short 16mm films from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts reserve film and video collection, both filmed on the Lower East Side, in our basement community room. The Heart of Loisaida (1979; 30 min.) Producers, directors: Bienvenida Matias and Marci Reaven. Shows efforts on New York's Lower East Side to revive abandoned buildings through the work and persistence of the local, predominantly Latino residents.
A la Guerra (1979; 10 min.) Producer, director: Thomas Sigel. Actor/poet Bimbo Rivas presents an ode to the struggle against assimilation being waged by the Puerto Rican community of New York's Lower East Side.
Composer Phil Kline will lead a massive chorus of boomboxes from the West Village to the East Village in the 26th annual holiday presentation of Unsilent Night. People gather at the arch in Washington Square Park, and less than an hour and mile later, end up in Tompkins Square Park.
Phil Kline will hand out a limited number of vintage boomboxes from his collection — and cassettes and CDs for those who bring their own. The public is strongly encouraged to bring their own boomboxes or sound-blasters, and to pre-download the track. Find out more about how to participate and download the tracks.
Participants will meet at 5:45 p.m. in Washington Square Park ... the approximate end time is 6:45 p.m. in Tompkins Square Park.
Turntable 5060 has been closed on Avenue B at Fourth Street since late July. A sign on the door pointed to a closure for renovations. (It never looked as if much renovating had been going on inside.)
In any event, now there's a new sign, one stating that they'll reopen on Dec. 1...
The restaurant serving Korean-style fried chicken and craft beers opened in July 2015. Turntable opened a new location on 33rd Street this past summer.
