Le Sia is back in action on 7th Street

After nearly two-plus months of renovations, Le Sia reopens this evening on Seventh Street near Cooper Square.

EVG reader Jonathan Michael Fung shared this photo from last night, showing that the paper had been removed from the front windows. (It's not immediately known what changes ownership made to the Chinese restaurant during these recent weeks.)

Le Sia debuted in January 2018, and quickly received positive notices for its seafood boils and various skewers. As Eater put it — "NYC’s Most Exciting New Chinese Restaurant Dares to Pile the Heat on Seafood." And then there was The New Yorker: "At Le Sia, Find Nirvana in Crawfish Domination."

Report: State says landlords must now pay broker fees, not tenants

Updated 2/10

The New York Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order halting the ban on landlord-hired brokers charging tenants a commission, per Gothamist.

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Making headlines last evening: "Surprise for New York Renters: No More Broker Fees."

From The New York Times:

In an unexpected addendum to last year’s rent laws, state regulators said renters can no longer be charged broker fees, potentially upending the market and delivering the latest blow to an industry already reeling from new regulations and sweeping tenant protections.

Brokers can still collect a fee, the state said in the revised rules, but it must be paid by the landlord unless a prospective tenant hired them to help find an apartment.

This action caught many people off guard, chief among them the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), who is exploring legal action.

A REBNY spokesperson told The Real Deal that the new cost of landlords paying brokers fees instead of tenants would lead to an increase in rent.

Cloud99 Vapes has closed on 2nd Avenue

[Photos by Steven]

Cloud99 Vapes has closed at 50 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street.

As you can see, the space has been cleared out...



This had been expected. As reported back in October, the shop announced it was closing amid the public health crisis involving vaping products.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 2,711 hospitalized e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury cases or deaths have been reported from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands) as of Jan. 21.

As MSN reported last fall, business at Cloud99 had dropped by 70 percent.

In December, Mayor de Blasio officially signed into law a ban on the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes and flavored e-liquids in wintergreen, mint and menthol flavors. The ban goes into effect on July 1.

Cloud99 Vapes opened in 2015 at the site of the former Yoo's Convenience Store.

Wednesday's parting shot

Second Avenue at Seventh Street this evening via Derek Berg ...

Noted

EV reader Grant shared the above screengrab from Google Maps... showing that the description for Asian Taste on Avenue B and Third Street shows up as "My hot china wok balls, dipped in chilli oil, placed ..." when you type "24 hour food" into the Goggle Map search. Apparently it has showed up since at least this past weekend.

A variation of that description came up on our own search today...



From here, you could then find the full geo-tag description, which ends with the placement of those said "hot china wok balls."

Typing in Asian Taste Avenue B (or a variation of that) leads you to the usual listing on Google Maps.



Not sure why someone targeted the quick-serve restaurant with the sophomoric hack. This 2014 piece in Wired outlined how Google Map hackers have targeted small businesses in the past.

At the opening night of 'The Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic' series at the Anthology Film Archives

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

There’s a line forming when I arrive early this past Friday for the opening night of "The Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic" series at Anthology Film Archives.



I’m at this East Village treasure, 32 Second Ave. at Second Street, where I meet guest curator, Genevieve HK, media preservation coordinator at the New York Public Library, Kolbe Resnick, head theater manager, and Jed Rapfogel, programmer at the Anthology.


[Genevieve HK]


[Resnick]


[Rapfogel]

Tonight, Lucien Greaves, cofounder of The Satanic Temple, as well as some members of the Satanic Temple of NYC, are leading what’s billed as a black mass ritual but may, in fact, be a destruction invocation ritual before the sold-out screening of "HÄXAN." I'm there as everyone is setting up for the screening...











There's also a slideshow by Greaves that touches on pseudoscience and the history of satanic panic and hysteria in the media. Before his arrival, Temple chair of events and rituals Stryder Crown urges the enthusiastic audience to chant “Hail Satan” as part of the call-and-response to the ritual.



The evening included an appearance by several protestors, who prayed and demonstrated on the sidewalk outside the theater...



The series runs through Feb. 20 with notable visits from filmmaker Jacqueline Castel and occult historian Mitch Horowitz, who'll provide an intro to horror classic "Rosemary's Baby" this coming Saturday night.



You can see the schedule and learn more about the series at this link.





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The Anthology Film Archives will celebrate its 50th anniversary later this year. Visit this link to learn more about their expansion project.

Doma Food and Drinks debuts on 1st Avenue

[Photo by Steven]

Doma Food and Drinks, a Korean bistro, is now in soft-open mode at 120 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

As you may recall, the Tang closed here back in the fall with a notice that owner Yu Li was going to reboot the space with a new concept.

Florence Fabricant had this preview online yesterday at the Times:

[C]hef Jackie Kim weaves traditional dishes like bibimbap and Korean fried chicken into an eclectic menu. More offbeat are kimchi arancini made with kimchi rice, ceviche in a Korean mustard vinaigrette, and bossam to wrap in steamed buns instead of lettuce. (Ms. Kim is from South Korea, and has lived in Spain, which accounts for some of the influences.)

And the design?

The room, designed by Mr. Li’s partner, Minn Hur, who is also from South Korea, is done in pale tones with eye-catching pink velvet and strips of neon on the back wall.

Find the menu as well as photos of the food and interior at the Doma website.

The Tang opened here in July 2016.

Thai Direct is under renovation on Avenue A

[Photo from Saturday]

As you may have noticed, the windows at Thai Direct on Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street are now covered with paper...


[Photo by Steven]

The paper is also covering the closed-for-renovations sign that appeared last week. In an Instagram message, management confirmed the renovations, with a reopening date set for Feb. 14.

The quick-serve establishment, which bills itself as offering a healthy take on Thai street food, also has a beer-wine license in the works. CB3 gave approval back in December.

Thai Direct opened here in September 2018.

The Whale Tea beaches itself on 14th Street

The Whale Tea has set up shop at 209 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... we're told it's part of an international chain establishing its first NYC outpost.

They took over the space from another international bubble tea chain — Gong Cha.

It's a crowded bubble tea market on this stretch — PaTea and ViVi are less than a half block away.

Thanks to Shiv for the photo!

Tuesday's parting shot

Spotted today on Second Avenue... presumably an employee of Berkoff Supply, who may not have known that someone switched the B in Berkoff to a J on the back of his jacket...



Photo by Derek Berg...

North side L-train entrance opens at Avenue A on Monday

The L train's new Avenue A north entrance — for Eighth Avenue-bound commuters — will debut on Monday (Feb. 10). The Brooklyn-bound side arrived this past Nov. 4.



MTA officials note that the entrance is opening with "temporary finishes" ...



With this debut, the MTA will close the north-side entrance on First Avenue on Feb. 17 for renovations.

Here's the full schedule of what to expect from The L Project e-newsletter:

• Starting on Friday night (around 10), Feb. 15, you'll use the Avenue A north entrance to access trains in both directions on weekends and weeknights.

• On Monday, Feb. 17, the First Avenue north entrance will close for reconstruction. Like the other side, this will take about three months, so we're estimating a May 2020 completion. While this work is happening, both entrances to the First Avenue Station will be located at Avenue A.

• Once we complete the First Avenue entrances, the ones at Avenue A will close again for a bit so we can do the final finishes.

When all the construction is wrapped up, the revamped 14th Street First Avenue station will have four entrances — including the two on either side of 14th Street at Avenue A as well as two new platform-to-street ADA elevators that will be ready for use this summer. (Find more details on this MTA advisory.)

A visit to a poetry reading at Odessa

Odessa has been playing host to a literary reading series on Wednesdays in recent weeks.

Michael Graves, who started the Phoenix Reading Series in the West Village in the late 1990s, is the organizer at Odessa, the diner at 117 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by last week's event, where Amy Barone, Ron Kolm and Karen Neuberg were the featured poets.

Stacie reports that they were a very supportive bunch of readers and authors (and listeners) ...


[Michael Graves]


[Amy Barone]


[Ron Kolm]


[Karen Neuberg]

The series, which takes place in the back of the diner (near the bar) on Wednesday evenings (from 6 to 8 or 9), features several guests as well as an open-mic portion. There's a suggested donation of $5 as well as a request to order something from Odessa ...

Factory Tamal now open on 4th Street

[Photo via @factory_tamal]

The new outpost of Factory Tamal debuted yesterday at 63 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

This is the second location for Factory Tamal, which first started selling its reasonably priced (and homemade) tamales, egg sandwiches and panini from a small take-out space on the Lower East Side in January 2017. (They moved from Essex Street to 34 Ludlow St. in August 2017.)

Owner Fernando Lopez makes his own masa — "faithful to the ancient Mayan way," as the Times put it in an August 2017 feature. And the result of his hard work? "Mr. Lopez’s tamales are beautifully fluffy, clingy and crumbly at once, a texture that calls to mind the airiest of poundcakes."

An EVG reader snapped these photos of the menu...





Their hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Factory Tamal bringing its freshly made tamales to 4th Street

Melt Shop closes on 4th Avenue

The Melt Shop at 135 Fourth Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street has closed — less than a year after its arrival. (Thanks to @jcooper911 for the photos!)

A sign on the door directs patrons to the other NYC locations of the quick-serve restaurant that specializes in grilled-cheese sandwiches and tater tots...



Melt Shop took over from Make Sandwich, which was an extension of their brand.

This closure comes on the heels of Liquiteria's departure right next door.

The southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 13th Street has also been a challenge for businesses since the longtime deli was rent-hiked out of here in November 2012. The space has been home to Fresh & Co., Pie Face and Sandwicherie in fairly quick succession. Dig has the space now.