Friday, June 28, 2019

Friday's parting shots



Steven shared these photos from this evening ... as the 25th annual Drag March left Tompkins Square Park and headed west along Ninth Street...





More photos tomorrow...

A song along the Side of the road



Here's "On My Side," a track from the Chicago-based Dehd's second record ... the recently released Water (on Fire Talk).

Last chance to see 'The First Time I Saw The Ramones' at 72 Gallery



"The First Time I saw the Ramones" wraps up its residency on Sunday at 72 Gallery.

This solo show features photos by Tom Hearn, who documented a Ramones show up in New Haven on July 22, 1976.

You can see the exhibit from noon to 8 p.m (to 6 p.m. on Sunday) in the gallery space at The Great Frog, the rock 'n' roll ring shop and boutique at 72 Orchard St. between Broome and Grand. (And while you're down there, you can check out The Cast next door or Jimmy Webb's I Need More across the street.)

And as for some of Hearn's photos...








[The Dee Dee door]

Previously on EV Grieve:
'The First Time I Saw The Ramones' at 72 Gallery

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant



East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She shares some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Lola Saénz, since 1993

Why did you move to the East Village?

I grew up in El Paso, Texas. I always wanted to be an artist. I wanted to live in either Los Angeles or New York City — the East Village or Soho. It was all based on the movies that I would see.

When I moved here I ended up on King Street, not far from Soho. I lived there for a year. I had two roommates and we had to move in a hurry. It’s a long story.







How did you find your apartment?

I got a call from a close friend aka Prima. Asked if I wanted to stay in her studio apartment in the East Village while she was in Florida.

So I came to see the apartment. On my way here, on the corner of 12th Street, a guy asked me if I wanted to buy grass. I didn't buy any, but I was like, This is the East Village!

So I moved in. About three months later, my good friend aka Prima decided to stay in Florida. She came back and we had the lease transferred to my name. That was August 1993. I never looked for a place in the East Village — the apartment came to me.









What do you love about your apartment?

I’ve grown here. If I die today or tomorrow I would die happy — I've accomplished good things ... but I still have many more things I want to do with my life as an artist!





If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in the new issue of The New Yorker!

The Drag March is tonight


[Photo from 2018 by Stacie Joy]

The 25th annual Drag March is tonight ... starting in Tompkins Square Park, where hundreds of participants will being gathering at 7 before making their way over to Sheridan Square and then the Stonewall Inn.

The Drag March got its start during the Stonewall 25th anniversary celebrations in 1994.

Here's a HuffPost piece with more history:

Brian Griffin, aka Harmonie Moore Must Die, was a member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP and Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM) in the mid-1990s, an activist who saw the power of drag to confront intolerance and practice civil disobedience in a way that also celebrated queerness. But at planning meetings for the Stonewall 25th anniversary celebrations, Griffin told HuffPost, the committee made it clear that it was only interested in presenting a somewhat sanitized version of LGBTQ activism.

“The committee for Stonewall 25 had actually asked — and it still seems quite unbelievable — that they didn’t want anyone to show up in leather or drag. It still, 25 years later, blows my mind,” Griffin said. “They wanted to normalize the image of gay America for a mass audience. They wanted to present a palatable image of gay men and women, men and women who were normal.”

This year, of course, marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

You can revisit photos from last year here.

Will you buy a Gem Spa T-shirt?

As we've been reporting, the venerable Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, has struggled of late, in part due to its temporary ban on selling cigarettes and lottery tickets and various landlord issues ... yesterday, Parul Patel, who is running the shop for her father Ray, the owner since 1986, took to Instagram to announce the upcoming sale of Gem Spa T-shirts.

Commenters liked the idea — especially one with just the Gem Spa logo. (No to the fedora option!)

Metropolis Vintage is throwing a grand-opening party tonight on Broadway



Metropolis owner Richard Colligan and his staff are hosting a grand-opening bash tonight from 6-10 in their new home at 803 Broadway (at 11th Street).

The vintage shop packed up and moved to this larger space from Third Avenue at the end of May.

Party signage promises free pizza and beer and variety of prizes as well as DJs. (Jonathan Toubin will be doing a set of R&B starting at 7:30 p.m.)

Colligan first opened the store in 1990 at 96 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. Nearly 30 years in business is certainly something to celebrate.

P.S. Look for A visit to Metropolis Vintage on EVG soon.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Manitoba's has closed


[Reader-submitted photo this evening]

Manitoba's is now closed at 99 Avenue B.

Proprietor Handsome Dick Manitoba confirmed the news about his namesake bar, where framed photos of punk icons lined the walls here between Sixth Street and Seventh Street these past 20 years.

A bar employee said that Tuesday was the last night in business.

Manitoba said that he was in the dark about the official reasons for the closure. In a text exchange via Instagram, Manitoba said that his role of late had been working the front of the house — "greeting people, bringing people in ... telling stories, laughing, watching Yankees games, listening to music." He continued, saying that he "had a big rock-star partner" who had previously suggested that they sell the bar, though a sale never materialized. He said that other people were managing the paperwork and legal matters.

"So my guess — this is not a fact — is [the partner] said just close it down. It’s an educated guess because nobody else had the right to say that unless it was people we owed money to." (There had been financial difficulties in the past stemming in part from a lawsuit involving the Americans with Disabilities Act. A successful crowdfunding campaign in early 2015 helped raise more than $30,000.)

Here's part of a message that Zoe Hansen, a former owner and partner of Manitoba's, wrote on Facebook:

Yes, MANITOBA’S Bar has closed its doors after 20 years. As you all know I managed, & worked from day one with Richard Manitoba to bring a real down & dirty fun Rock N Roll Bar to the East Village. I met Richard in that bar 20 years ago. Many have met their ex's in that one small room after I. Giving it that eternal pivotal moment we can each cherish, or not. However your memory sways, I give respect to a scene now total gone from a once glorious block.

Thank you to my friends who’ve supported the bar over the two decades it survived.

She asked that the press not contact her — that this was her comment on the closing.

For his part, Manitoba called it a "great disappointment that after 20 years I couldn’t keep my bar going in spite of my age — as young and strong as I am."

In a follow-up message, he said that the Manitoba's website will live on.

"In spite of the fact that we’ve closed, we know that people from all over America and all over the world have excitedly entered our doors for 20 years," he said. "This wasn’t a 'bar' to them. It was a special, relaxed home away from home."



Previously on EV Grieve:
Manitoba's is in danger of closing on Avenue B

Grant Shaffer's NY See



Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.

A visit to Desi Galli on Avenue B


[Pria Chouhan]

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy

Admittedly, I’d not been very adventurous with Indian food and had only tried the vegetable biryani at Desi Galli before dropping in to meet owner and chef Pria Chouhan earlier this month.

Pria and her husband Vishal, hailing from Montreal and the U.K. respectively, now live nearby in Peter Cooper Village and run both locations of the traditional Indian street food spot: here at 172 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street, which opened in April 2016, and another in Murray Hill at 101 Lexington Ave.

The long, narrow, and brightly lit restaurant is perfumed with cumin, cinnamon, and coriander when we sit down to talk shop.



Self-taught cook Pria expands my vegetarian palate with a mango lassi (yogurt-based mango drink), some desipoutine (French fries with tikka sauce and grated paneer cheese) and vegan pani puri (Gujarati-style bread “baskets” stuffed with potatoes, chickpeas, and tamarind, served with mint “water” you pop whole into your mouth, “one bite, like sushi” Pria instructs) while discussing her personal and culinary history, the trials of running a small business in NYC, and her love of all things Rachael Ray.

Can you speak a bit about the history of Desi Galli?

I followed my heart to NYC from Montreal in 2009, and I did not know how to cook. We — my husband and I — were newlyweds and gained the typical love weight but ours was due to eating out all the time.

We would both crave our parents’ cooking, so I attempted to recreate them in my home kitchen. I failed many times at the beginning. I became obsessed with the Food Network and Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart became my gurus.

I started off with simple recipes and through trial and error mastered them. Then I started tackling Indian food, which is more complex with all the spices. Soon enough I made them exactly like our parents. With my newfound talent my husband suggested we start our own restaurant, and in 2012 Desi Galli was born.

Is it true that, before Desi Galli, you didn’t have any experience in the food industry other than a few years working at McDonald’s?

Yes, McDonald’s is my only food training. I am completely self-taught. The menu consists of family recipes. It’s my sister Rashmi’s pav bhaji and she came to New York from Montreal to teach me how to make it. Our addictive chicken tikka masala is thanks to my father-in-law in the U.K. I still don’t think I make it as well as he does.


[Mango lassi]


[Desipoutine]


[The vegan pani puri with mint “water”]


[Nyima Phuntsok, one of the chefs]

You have the outpost on 27th Street and Lexington Avenue. When looking over neighborhood options for expansion, what made you decide on the East Village?

We decided on the East Village because it is known as a hub for street food. I love the fact that you can pick up a slice of pizza, go for a walk and then pick up ramen noodles all in the same area. There wasn’t a spot for Indian street food and we make a great addition to the mix.

What do you like best about being in the East Village? What special considerations exist here that may not at your other location?

I love that East Village has a sense of community. We know many of our customers by name. Everyone is relaxed, not running for their next meeting and they have time to connect.

We were welcomed with open arms to the neighborhood. Our patrons did not care that there was a fine dining Indian restaurant diagonal to us. We would be their everyday meal since our price point is so affordable.

You mentioned in early May that you were working on a deal with the landlord to lower your rent on Avenue B. What is the status of that?

We are still in negotiations and new lease has not been signed yet. It is not 100 percent confirmed. (Ed note: The State of New York seized the restaurant twice this year for nonpayment of taxes. She declined to discuss that matter.)

What’s your favorite part of running the restaurants?

I love seeing the satisfaction on my customers’ faces when they take their first bite. That is what gets me out of bed every morning. Knowing that I make a fresh product that stems from our family’s history and that our patrons appreciate it.





What’s the best-selling dish on the menu? What might you encourage people to try if they are unfamiliar with the cuisine?

Best-selling dishes vary by location. Here in the East Village anything with the tikka gravy, like chicken tikka masala, paneer tikka masala and desipoutine keep our customers coming back for more.

Newbies to Indian food should start off with our samosas and kathi rolls. We have kathi rolls for all dietary restrictions, including vegan and gluten-free. Our menu can be made milder but don’t expect just salt and pepper: That would not be my Indian food.




[Making chicken tikka masala]

What’s next for Desi Galli? Any expansion plans?

We are starting packed snacks in the fall and are introducing a new vegan kathi roll made with Beyond Meat in August. We are also in talks with a few potential franchises who would love to have a Desi Galli in their area.

---

You may keep tabs on Desi Galli via Instagram.



Reader report: Designated bike lane arrives on 3rd Street



EVG reader @Jason_Chatfield shared these photos via Twitter this week... showing that city crews have added a conventional bike lane — with pavement markings and signage — on Third Street ...



He notes that the lane extends from Avenue D to Second Avenue for now...

In the swim: City pools open today



The Parks Department opens the city's 50-plus outdoor public pools for the summer today.

Nearby choices include Hamilton Fish Pool on Pitt and East Houston ... the Dry Dock Pool on Avenue D and East 10th Street (pictured in this post) ... and the Tompkins Square Pool (mini pool for kids and anyone who sneaks in after dark!).

Outdoor pools are open daily from 11 a.m. through 7 p.m., with a break for pool cleaning between 3-4 p.m. The pools close for the season on Sunday, Sept. 8. The Tompkins Square Park mini pool closes on Labor Day.

New this season: Dry Dock is now designated a Cool Pool via the city...



What does that mean? Per the Parks Dept. ...

Our Cool Pools are now more fun, relaxing and welcoming with:

• fun summer-themed wall art,
• lounge chairs for sunbathing and relaxing poolside,
• cabana-style shade structures to help keep you cool,
• plantings to make our pools greener
• fun and free poolside activities, including games, sports, arts and crafts, and fitness classes



As a reminder, the Hamilton Fish Pool has a Lap Swim program, which takes place July 5 through Aug. 30. This link has more details, such as the hours.

And as always — this PSA about the RULES for the POOLS, which include:

You’ll need to have a swimsuit to enter the pool area. We may choose to check men’s shorts for a lining if we can’t tell if they are wearing a bathing suit. Feel the need to cover up from the sun? Throw on a plain white shirt or white hat and you’re set. We don’t allow shirts with colors on them on the deck.

And...

No urinating or defecating in the pools.