Rally for the Small Business Jobs Survival Act tomorrow at City Hall

As Jeremiah Moss wrote:

The Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA) is the best way we currently have to slow down the loss of our small businesses and the scourge of high-rent blight that is killing our streetscapes.

Recently, City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriquez reintroduced the SBJSA. Corey Johnson, the new speaker of the City Council, has pledged to give the bill a public hearing, and we hope it will go up for a vote and pass in full force.

Find more background here. The rally starts tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10 a.m. at City Hall.

Rue St. Denis is closing after 25 years of selling vintage clothing and accessories on Avenue B

[Photo by EVG reader Brucie]

Several EVG readers shared the news that Rue St. Denis, the vintage clothing and accessories shop, is closing on Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street.

The boutique, which sells unworn vintage collections that span multiple decades, opened here in 1993. (The shop debuted on the Upper West Side in 1990.)

Founder Jean-Paul Buthier and his partner Riccardo Bonechi are closing the store for a change of pace, not because of rising rents or declining sales, as The New York Times reported. (The article from the Times notes how popular Rue St. Denis is for the costume designers of the film and television industry.)

No word yet on an official closing date... for now, there are sales...

Pop-up theater in the former Pork Pie Hatters on 9th Street

[Photo by Steven]

Out of the Box Theatrics is starting its 2018 season with a production of Adam Rapp's "Nocture," staged inside the former Pork Pie Hatters on Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Previews start tonight ... with a short run through May 6. Find tickets here.

Here's more about the company via their website:

Since its 2015 inception, Out of the Box Theatrics (OOTB) has been committed to hiring a diverse company of actors, regardless of gender, race, creed, ethnicity, or disability. We are dedicated to producing new and classic works while challenging audiences to experience work outside of their expectations with a fresh perspective in site-specific locations.

roviding accessible and individualized experiences to many different ages, ethnicities, disabilities, gender and sexual identifications of all kinds. By offering performances that speak to both experiences they are confronted with as well as perspective beyond their own backyard, OOTB serves enthusiastic patrons of culture and art and underserved communities equally.

H/T Veronica!

440 East 9th Street is home to an old hat shop that we are transforming into a bookstore for this production of ‘Nocturne’! We are so excited to share this immersive experience with you! We are truly getting site specific here! The play takes place in the LES - "Mrs. Levitsky, a Nabokov fanatic. She lives on Tenth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, next to a Russian and Turkish bathhouse, where on a cool night the smell of eucalyptus drifts up from the courtyard and in through the window to his 9-by-9 room." ^^^THATS WHERE WE ARE! How cool is this? . . . . . #nocturne #ootb #immersive #nonprofit #offbroadway #sitespecific #oneman #les

A post shared by Out of the Box Theatrics (@ootbtheatrics) on Apr 19, 2018 at 3:03pm PDT

Cafe in the works for 2 St. Mark's Place, previously Ayios and St. Mark's Ale House

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

CB3 hasn't listed the dates yet for its committee meetings in May. However, one eager applicant has posted notice of a new liquor license application for 2 St. Mark's Place.

The applicant is called 2 St Mark's Cafe LLC ... and is eyeing the former home of Ayios Greek Rotisserie at 2 St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue/Cooper Square. That restaurant closed at the end of 2017 after 16 months in business. Previously, the address was the St. Mark's Ale House, which had a 21-year run until July 2016. (And once upon a time it was the second location of the Five Spot Cafe.)

No other information is available just yet about the applicant. The CB3-SLA committee is May 14, per the flyer.

[Updated] Proposed addition for 827-831 Broadway is back in front of the LPC today

A revised proposal to add a (slightly smaller) four-story glass addition to the landmarked buildings at 827-831 Broadway between 12th Street and 13th Street returns to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) this morning.

Back in January, LPC commissioners told the design team to return with a revised proposal, as Curbed reported. (Find a PDF of the new proposal here.)

Last November, the LPC voted to landmark the circa-1866 cast-iron buildings where artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Paul Jenkins, among others, lived and worked. That decision spared the address from demolition. As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel in 2015 for $60 million.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) campaigned for more than 18 months to help preserve these buildings. Read more about their efforts here.

Updated 2 p.m.

The LPC rejected the plans, per the GVSHP...

Great news! @nyclandmarks again rejects plan for out of context glass topper for 827-831 Broadway, 1866 former de Kooning studios we fought to get landmarked and save from wrecking ball!@CarlinaRivera @DeborahJGlick @bradhoylman @LizKrueger pic.twitter.com/JnYEV78kUc

— GVSHP (@GVSHP) April 24, 2018

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

There's a proposed addition for the recently landmarked 827-831 Broadway

Report: LPC rejects glassy addition for landmarked 827-831 Broadway

A discussion on nightlife and retail diversity with NYC Commissioner Julie Menin tomorrow night

Julie Menin, commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, is the guest at a community discussion and Q&A tomorrow night on the Lower East Side.

As the flyer shows, she'll be discussing a variety of topics, including retail-diversity concerns and quality-of-life issues. Menin also oversees the recently named senior executive director of the Office of Nightlife (aka Night Mayor), which is billed as another point of conversation.

Attendees need to RSVP here by 1 p.m. tomorrow.

The meeting, sponsored by several local block associations and community groups, starts at 6:30 p.m. at Hotel Indigo, 172 Ludlow St. between Houston and Stanton in the third-floor conference room.

Former East Village Cheese space for rent on 7th Street

A for rent sign now hangs in the front window at the former East Village Cheese, officially bringing an end to the shop's two-plus years at 80 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

EV Cheese quietly closed in early December. On Dec. 21, co-owner Lobsang Tsultrim was spotted at the storefront along with a Remove All My Junk truck. Before some of the perishable items had been discarded, the aroma of ripe cheese had been noticeable in the adjacent storefront.

Earlier this month, an EVG reader spotted workers hauling trash bags from the building's basement. The reader said that the smell of cheese — possibly from the content of the bags — was noticeable coming up from the sidewalk cellar doors...


[Reader photo from early April]

East Village Cheese moved here from Third Avenue in September 2015.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Neighbor: East Village Cheese, closed now for 2 weeks, is starting to smell

The nonpayment of rent notice has arrived at East Village Cheese

Concern for East Village Cheese Shop

[Updated] Will this be the week that Joe and Pat's opens?

Joe and Pat's is looking ready for pizza action here at 168 First Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street.

Workers on-site told several different EVG readers that they are aiming to open this coming week, with one employee saying Thursday. (Another reader called the Staten Island location and got an "opening this week" message too.)

The family-owned pizzeria got its start on Staten Island in 1960.

Their transformation of the former Lanza's space started in earnest last May. (The coming soon sign arrived in April 2017.) Casey Pappalardo, one of the pizzeria's owners, originally told the Staten Island Advance they'd be open within six months, but he didn't sound so convincing. "That's if all goes well — there's always some setbacks."


[Photo April 19 by Steven]

Anyway, it will likely have been worth the wait. The Daily Meal named Joe and Pat's one of the best 10 pizzas in the country last year. And here's Grub Street on the place:

Joe & Pat’s is the king of Staten Island pizza. Its pies are the ultimate version of one of the borough’s dominant styles: thin-crust, vodka-sauced bar pie. Open since 1960, it doesn’t look like much, but the pizza is magnificent. The dough is pounded so it doesn’t get airy, resulting in a crust that’s disappearingly thin and extra crunchy. The vodka sauce is sweet and smooth; pepperoni, curled up in crisp cups, makes the perfect foil. But it’s tantalizing just with mozzarella, which, unlike in a traditional New York slice joint, doesn’t fuse with the sauce; the fresh cheese is applied more sparingly, so the islands of cheese remain distinct and creamy.

A post shared by Joe & Pat's Pizzeria (@joeandpats) on Mar 18, 2018 at 10:45am PDT

This vodka pie looks like pure heaven! We can only imagine how good it will taste! Make this your lunchtime meal today! 718-635-4719.

A post shared by Joe & Pat's Pizzeria (@joeandpats) on Apr 4, 2018 at 8:00am PDT

Updated 4/24
They will now open on Monday, per Eater.

Plywood arrives at Webster Hall

OK, so it's not much... but the plywood arrived this past week at the eastern entrance of the former Webster Hall on 11th Street.

As previously reported, the new owners of the landmarked building, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, filed permits in December for interior demolition and structural work to renovate the facility and make it ADA compliant. The city approved those permits last month.

There hadn't been much, if any, sign of activity here between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue... except for the placement of the approved work permits...



... and that whole marquee-almost-falling-down thing.

Some reports suggest that the new concert venue won't be ready until 2020. Billboard reported that there may be a name change here too.

Webster Hall closed last Aug. 10. Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment and The Bowery Presents bought the building from the Ballinger family for $35 million last spring.

A look at the fire-damaged 218 E. 9th St. and Yakiniku West

[Photos from yesterday morning]

In case you missed this news from Saturday afternoon... when a two-alarm fire broke out at 218 E. Ninth St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

FDNY officials told reporters that the blaze likely started behind a refrigerator in a second-floor apartment.

A fire official said the building is now "unlivable." The building houses Yakiniku West restaurant on the first floor and three apartments

No word on when (or if) Yakiniku West, the restaurant specializing in cook-it-yourself Japanese BBQ, might reopen. There weren't any messages on the restaurant's Facebook page or website. Calls to the restaurant go unanswered.



CBS 2 reported that 25 units with 106 firefighters had the fire under control in about 90 minutes. Nearby residents on the block applauded the FDNY's efforts, containing the fire and keeping it from spreading to the parking garage next door. No injuries were reported.


[Photo Saturday by Steven]