[Click on image for more detail]
Here's this week's NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood ... and elsewhere.
Friday, November 23, 2018
Grant Shaffer's NY See
[Click on image for more detail]
Here's this week's NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood ... and elsewhere.
[Updated] Report of a fire at 204 E. 13th St.
The FDNY responded to a report of a fire this morning at 7 on the top floor of 204 E. 13th St., a four-story building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.
MAN ALL HANDS 204 E 13 ST, MIXED OCCUPANCY FIRE ON TOP FLR, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) November 23, 2018
A resident on the block shared these photos and video...
No word at this moment on injuries or the cause of the fire. The resident said that the FDNY quickly extinguished the fire in the apartment, which appears to be gutted.
According to Streeteasy, the building, owned by Steve Croman, has three residential units. Bruno Pizza is in the retail space.
Updated 11/26
Bruno Pizza, will be closed for the foreseeable future.
"There is extensive water damage in the restaurant," owner Demian Repucci told me via email. "But the biggest thing is that ConEd shut off the electricity, gas and water to the whole building.
"We're trying to figure out the situation and what it will take to get back up and running."
Take a Stand at this holiday market on 7th and C
The Stand, the small gallery space on the southwest corner of Seventh Street and Avenue C, is hosting a holiday market starting today (Black Friday!) at noon.
Here's info via the EVG inbox...
Join us for our East Village Stand Holiday Market Nov. 23 - Dec. 24 on the corner of Seventh Street and Avenue C.
Opening Reception & Performances: Friday, Nov. 23, 6-8 pm. A shakuhachi zen flute performance by Till Behler
Participating vendors at the East Village Stand Holiday Market include:
• Bottleworks, bottle lamps, pendant lights and glassware by Joe Harrigon
• One of a kind handmade picture frames by Anne Edris
• Taconic Trading Company spiced pepitas and Applewood smoked sea salt
• eulenspiegelchocolatelab cookies and chocolates
• Black Lives Matter holiday themed jewelry and ornaments by Carla Cubit
• Artwork by Baum Earth Elements
• Handmade natural products by Body Vanity
Find updates via Facebook. The Holiday Market is expected to be open from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday (not counting the 6-8 opening reception tonight...).
Green paint arrives on the new 12th Street bike lane
On Wednesday, crews painted the new eastbound bike lane on 12th Street... I spotted them between Second Avenue and Avenue A ...
The bike lane for 13th Street arrived at the beginning of the month.
Meanwhile...
Time elapsed between painting the new 12th street bike lanes and people parking in them 1.0234seconds. #bikenyc @bikeblognyc @evgrieve #eastvillageParking #workingclass @bikesnobnyc pic.twitter.com/38ezAPTQFX
— Christopher J Ryan (@ChrisRyanAction) November 21, 2018
As previously reported, the city put in a bike lane on the north curb of 12th Street from Seventh Avenue to Avenue C, and the south curb of 13th Street from Greenwich Avenue to Avenue B separated from traffic with a painted buffer ahead of the April L-train closure.
The bike lanes are just one of the ways the city hopes to keep people/commuters moving during the 15 (or so) months that the Canarsie Tunnel under the East River gets repaired.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Prepping for the new protected bike lanes on 12th and 13th streets
Bike lane line work continues on 12th Street
DOT puts down the green paint on the new 13th Street bike lane (except for one mysterious spot)
Steamy Friday
EVG regular Salim shares this photo from Tompkins Square Park this morning... with the always photogenic Con Ed power plant in the background. As of this writing, it's 18 degrees, which according to the Weather Channel "feels like" 12.
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Today in last-minute dessert-related needs
As on previous Thanksgiving days... Sweet Generation, 130 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, is open today until about 4:30 p.m. (or while supplies last).
Owner Amy Chasan shared a list of available items, including pumpkin, pecan, traditional apple and apple crumble pies ... cupcake packs (Cranberry Black Sesame, Bourbon Chocolate Caramel, Caramel Apple Crumble, Pumpkin Spice) ...cookie platters ... pumpkin breads, etc.!
Sweet Generation, who turns 4 in January, partners with several nonprofit organizations and local high schools to create an internship program that teaches baking, food safety, customer service, work readiness, and entrepreneurship to teens and young adults from low-income communities.
Meanwhile, down First Avenue between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, the 59-79-99-cent shop is open for last-minute table-setting needs... probably find some Easter stuff in there too...
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Nov. 21
Today seems like a good day to toss the Christmas tree from last Christmas... as tree vendors are setting up around the neighborhood, with the chance to buy a new one just hours away...
Thanks to EVG reader Bill Spector for sharing this from 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Report: NYCHA tenants on Avenue C have been without heat and hot water since Thursday
[Photo on 6th Street from October 2017]
The temporary boilers that arrived after Superstorm Sandy nearly became permanent sitting here for five years on Sixth Street at Avenue C outside the NYCHA-owned building officially known as Lower East Side Rehab Group 5. (The Daily News once reported that a temporary boiler costs $5,000 a month to rent.)
However, a new boiler arrived last fall, thanks to funding from FEMA. Still, by January, residents in the building said that they rarely have heat or hot water, according PIX 11, who noted that the work there was "serving as a model for 17 other projects."
Today, the Daily News reports that the residents have been without heat or hot water now since Thursday's snowfall.
“This is a harsh living condition,” said tenant Neicee Johnson, saying she has no heat and barely any hot water.
She wakes each morning at 5:45 a.m. to boil a pot of water on the oven and turn on two space heaters. Her family, which includes two teen children, sleeps with multiple layers of clothing and blankets.
“We barely hang out in the apartment,” she said. “We are hardly ever home. We go to the local library or community areas until it is time for us to come home.”
Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera is quoted in the article... she is also tweeting about the situation...
We aren’t going to solve @NYCHA’s fiscal crisis overnight. But with the temperature expected to drop to dangerously cold levels over the next 24 hours, the city must treat this crisis like the emergency it is and bring in resources to fix heating problems immediately.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) November 21, 2018
The residents of LES V, the members of my own staff who live in local public housing, and all the other residents suffering deserve to know if they will be able spend Thanksgiving in their homes without risking their lives.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) November 21, 2018
Back to the Daily News:
Resident Clara Rivera, 91, has also been shivering in her apartment since the snowstorm last Thursday.
“The house is really cold. They give nothing here in the morning or night,” said Rivera, who has asthma and arthritis. "We're dealing with this every day. I'm not going to die from this cold!"
There were an estimated 6,366 NYCHA tenants throughout NYC with the same problem, according to an online “service interruption” tracker, as the News pointed out.
A tradition almost as traditional as Thanksgiving itself
The familiar Thanksgiving signage arrived just a little bit later this year than usual over at the Odessa, 119 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place ...
The complete dinner price remains the same as in recent years — $18.95. (Management bumped it from $15.95 to $18.95 for Thanksgiving 2014.)
Neither here nor there but this link takes you to Veselka's Thanksgiving menu.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Odessa breaks out the Thanksgiving Special signage
It now seems like Thanksgiving with the Thanksgiving Special at the Odessa
Odessa unveils Thanksgiving Special; complete dinner still $18.95
Thanksgiving at Odessa
Still the best Thanksgiving deal around
1 idea for a last-minute Thanksgiving meal
No Romaine holiday
Key Food on Avenue A appears to be romaine-lettuce free after yesterday's urgent CDC safety alert...
CDC is advising that U.S. consumers not eat any romaine lettuce, and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell any, until we learn more about the outbreak. This investigation is ongoing and the advice will be updated as more information is available.
• Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick.
• This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad.
• If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
• Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator.
• Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any romaine lettuce, including salads and salad mixes containing romaine.
CDC officials believe that it may be contaminated with E. coli. To date, 32 people, including 13 who have been hospitalized, have been infected with the outbreak strain in 11 states, according to the CDC.
Meanwhile, Key's sale on the Urban Meadow handle roasters continues... two varieties going for $2.99.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Scenes from a (re)marriage: Comedy classics at the Anthology Film Archives
This holiday weekend (and through Nov. 29), the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street at Second Avenue is screening a classic series titled "Stanley Cavell & the Comedies of Remarriage."
Cavell, a writer, philosopher and scholar, published several books on pop culture during his lifetime (he died in June at age 91), including "Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage" in 1981.
Per the Anthology: "Cavell astutely identified and brilliantly analyzed the hidden micro-genre that he called the 'comedies of remarriage,' a group of classic Hollywood romantic comedies whose unassuming wit belied their capacity for sustained, penetrating analysis."
Here's a look at the classic romantic comedies screening in the days ahead (find more details here) ...
Frank Capra
"It Happened One Night"
Nov. 23 at 6:45 PM
Nov. 25 at 6:15 PM
Leo McCarey
"The Awful Truth"
Nov. 23 at 9:15 PM
Nov. 25 at 8:45 PM
Howard Hawks
"Bringing Up Baby"
Nov. 24 at 2 PM
Nov. 28 at 6:45 PM
George Cukor
"The Philadelphia Story"
Nov. 24 at 4:15 PM
Nov. 26 at 9 PM
Nov. 29 at 6:30 PM
Howard Hawks
"His Girl Friday"
Nov. 24 at 6:45 PM
Nov.r 26 at 6:45 PM
Preston Sturges
"The Lady Eve"
Nov. 24 at 9:15 PM
Nov. 27 at 6:45 PM
Nov. 28 at 9 PM
George Cukor
"Adam's Rib"
Nov. 25 at 4 PM
Nov. 27 at 9 PM
Nov. 29 at 9 PM
RIP Jimi Zhivago
[Image by James Lanning via Facebook]
Jimi Zhivago, a musician, producer and composer who lived in the East Village since the early 1980s, died on Nov. 8 after a short illness*. He was 67.
Born James Daley on Aug. 1, 1951, in Brooklyn, Zhivago "had been a musical legend and force around NYC and beyond," his friend and collaborator Chris Riffle said.
Zhivago moved to Chelsea in the mid-1970s and later to the East Village where he lived on Fifth Street since 1982. He was a regular on many scenes, including at Max’s Kansas City where he performed with Klaus Nomi and Wayne County, then later at Sin-é on St. Mark's Place.
He had many varied credits to his name. He played with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and Glen Hansard, among many others. He had a major label solo record released in the late 1970s and was a founding member of Ollabelle. Zhivago played electric sitar on the Neptunes' remix of "Sympathy for the Devil" in 2015 and produced the SiriusXM show "Live at the Living Room" for 10 years, broadcasting performers like Norah Jones, Jason Isbell and Madeleine Peyroux.
"He was an integral part of so many careers," said Riffle, a singer-songwriter who recently toured with Zhivago. "From producing albums to playing live, Jimi was a huge part of the East Village and will be sorely missed by many."
There will be a musical remembrance and celebration of his life on Dec. 3 at Drom, 85 Avenue A, from 6 p.m. to midnight.
* Updated
Zhivago died from liver failure from a reaction to a drug taken for prostate cancer.
Dua Kafe, serving Albanian-American cuisine, now open on 14th Street
Dua Kafe is now up and running at 520 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B ... bringing a little homespun warmth to a block dominated by the impersonal chill of the EVGB retail-residential complex on either side of the address...
The menu, per the cafe's Instagram account, features Albanian-American cuisine with a variety of egg dishes and paninis ...
The hours don't appear to be set as the cafe remains in soft-open mode ... though regardless of the time, breakfast is served all day.
Despite its mediocre food, Panna II is a line-waiting smash thanks to Instagram and those twinkling lights
[EVG file photo]
Rachel Pelz files a long read at Thrillist on the growing appeal of Panna II Garden, the parlor-floor Indian restaurant at 93 First Ave. near Sixth Street, in a piece titled "One of NYC’s Worst-Reviewed Restaurants Is Also the Hottest Table in Town."
The place has been around for 30-plus years, and is mostly known for BYOB and a room full of twinkling lights that New York magazine once likened to eating inside a Christmas tree ... not to mention its competitive stair greeters battling neighbors Milon, Spice Wala and Royal Bangladesh.
However reasonably priced the menu items, the food is wholly mediocre at Panna II, as New York notes.
There are so many better places to eat. Still, of late, the lines seems to be getting longer outside.
To the article...
So why are tourists and New Yorkers beating down the door to get into a spot with middling food and coarse service? Because its luminous, rainbow-hued interior looks incredible on Instagram. The decor doesn’t just make up for the food; it justifies its existence.
Apparently singer-actress Vanessa Hudgens helped start the Instagram craze with a four-photo post to her 30.4 million followers last December.
Soon, Instagram exploded with #pannaii pictures of influencers and wannabe-influencers lit red and gold and green. The hashtag, which now has more than 2,000 posts, is an endless scroll of colorful lights with hardly a samosa in sight.
The owner's take...
"A lot of people are coming in and taking pictures. In '17, it got popular on Instagram, and it still is today. It’s still famous. You get all these international people who come because of Instagram," says Boshir Khan, Panna II Garden’s 44-year-old current owner.
And a discerning patron...
Alexandra Lacorne, who’s been waiting an hour to celebrate her 27th birthday with a group of girlfriends ... can’t wait to get inside. “It’s my first time at Panna,” she says. “I don’t care about the food. I’m in it for the lights and the drinks and that’s it.”
Oh, and how's that food?
Panna II’s late in life, juggernaut success makes it vulnerable to the internet’s seemingly unending supply of armchair reviewers. A search of its 902 Yelp reviews offers 66 results for “terrible,” 37 results for “horrible,” 110 results for “bad,” 76 for “worst,” and, blessedly, only one result for “diarrhea.”
Monday, November 19, 2018
What lies beneath 9th Street and 3rd Avenue?
An EVG reader shared these photos of some type of underground brick vaults that a construction crew unearthed earlier today while doing road work... taken on the northeast corner of Ninth Street and Third Avenue.
Per the reader: "Would imagine they have something to do with structures originally along Stuyvesant Street, which means they could be very old. Not an expert on dating cellar construction."
EVG Underground Brick Vault correspondent Steven took these pics...
Perhaps we can find out what this was part of... maybe something to do with the elevated train that ran north-south along Third Avenue ... or the trolley system near here.
Anyway! Here are some photos of the area via the NYPL Digital Collections ... this is described as "Third Avenue, looking North from the 9th Street station of the Third Avenue L" from October 1927...
... a similar view, but from 1880 (
... and "27-29 Third Avenue, at and adjoining the S.E. corner of Stuyvesant Street. May 18, 1934." (Basically where the Bean is today...)
Updated 11/20
See the comments for more possible explanations of what these bricks might be part of... ———>
Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Workers dig up streetcar tracks on 3rd Avenue
New building permits pre-filed for the (slightly larger) tech hub on Union Square
The first permit was filed last Thursday for the new building that will house the Union Square Tech Training Center (aka the tech hub and 14th @ Irving).
Renderings for the tech hub arrived at the former P.C. Richard & Son property on 14th Street at Irving Place earlier this month. Previous reports on the building, including the city's own news release, listed the 258,000 square-foot project at 21 floors.
However, the permit on file with the DOB lists 22 floors and 309,000 square feet...
Not sure what accounts for the discrepancy. The Schedule A on the permit shows that the 22nd floor is for elevator machinery rooms, the boiler room and the generator switchboard room.
Meanwhile, there's nothing on file yet with the DOB about demolishing the existing building.
As previously reported, the project is being developed jointly by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and developer RAL Development Service. The building includes Civic Hall, which will offer tech training for low-income residents, as well as market-rate retail, office space and a food hall.
[Image via Davis Brody Bond]
The hub, initially announced in early 2017, passed through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) earlier this year, capped off by a unanimous City Council vote in August. A rezoning was required to build the the
For months, some residents, activists, small-business owners and community groups expressed concern that the rezoning necessary for the project would spur out-of-scale development on surrounding blocks. (You can read more about what transpired in the links below.)
The 14th @ Irving website states that construction will start in the first quarter of 2019, with the building opening in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Construction on an already-congested thoroughfare will coincide with the L-train closure starting in April 2019, when 14th Street is expected to serve as a (mostly) car free busway for displaced subway commuters.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC
Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood
P.C. Richard puts up the moving signs on 14th Street; more Tech Hub debate to come
Preservationists: City schedules next public hearing on tech hub without any public notice
City Council's lone public hearing on the 14th Street tech hub is tomorrow
City Council unanimously approves tech hub; some disappointment in lack of zoning protections
The conversation continues on the now-approved tech hub for 14th Street
1st signs for the future tech hub arrive on 14th Street; more details emerge about 14th @ Irving
A concept revamp for the Cienfuegos space on Avenue A
Ravi DeRossi is changing concepts at Cienfuegos, his Cuban-inspired rum bar-restaurant upstairs that opened nine-plus years ago at 95 Avenue A and Sixth Street.
The new space will be Honeybee's, specializing in plant-based Texas BBQ and bourbon and rye.
"It's been almost 10 years since I opened Cienfuegos," DeRossi said in an email. "It's still one of my favorite places, but it's time for a revamp. I was either going to update the decor, menu, etc., or completely change the concept. In the end I decided it would be a lot more fun to change the concept."
Like his other restaurants — LadyBird and Avant Garden, among them — the menu will be all vegan. He's still finalizing the food-and-drinks lineup and design.
Honeybee's is named after his dog, whom DeRossi said was a big influence on him removing the meat and dairy items from the menus in his establishments. (DeRossi started going meat free in early 2016 and launched BEAST Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ending animal cruelty.)
The change from Cienfuegos to Honeybee's is on the agenda at tonight's CB3-SLA meeting. You can find a PDF of the application at the CB3 website.
The corner space on Avenue A and Sixth Street also houses two other DeRossi operations — Mother of Pearl and Amor y Amargo.
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