A good sign at Little Poland

When Gov. Cuomo announced that indoor dining was expanding to 50-percent capacity on March 19, several East Village bars and restaurants said that they'd reopen ... including Little Poland on Second Avenue. 

In an Instagram post on March 10, the diner between 12th Street and 13th Street said that they were preparing to open its doors once again.... for the first time since the PAUSE of March 2020.

And in another positive sign, Little Poland is now hiring for several positions... 

It will be nice to have them back ... Little Poland first opened in 1985. 

Thanks to Steven for the photos...

La Cabra opening a Scandinavian coffee roastery and sourdough bakery on 2nd Avenue

Signage is up now in the window of a retail space at 152 Second Ave. for La Cabra, which will bring a Scandinavian coffee roastery and sourdough bakery to this space between Ninth Street and 10th Street...

Per an Instagram post via @lacabra.nyc:

We are revisiting this city sooner than we expected. Back in February, we signed a contract for a beautiful location in East Village and our first location will be an open and beautiful sourdough bakery combined with a coffee bar. 

We recently started the renovations and together with our local partner we look forward to welcoming you this summer with bright coffees, sourdough bread and handmade pastries.

The previous tenant here, Pure Green, which sold cold-pressed juices, smoothies and açaí bowls, closed in early 2020. They had several roommates — Wattle Cafe, Greecologies, PlantMade and the I.V. Doc — dating back to their opening in March 2017.

Thanks to Steven for the photo and tip!

Openings: Burrata Pizza on Avenue A, Sal's Pizza II on 14th Street

Burrata Pizza has debuted at 221 Avenue A between 13th Street and 14th Street. 

As previously reported, this pizzeria is taking the place of Muzzarella Pizza (1991-2020). 

Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. You can find a menu, which includes salads and paninis, at GrubHub. 

... and New York Sal's Pizza II recently opened at 536 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. The deal signage on the sidewalk offers two slices and a soda for $6.

The hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

This is a sibling to the New York Sal's Pizza up on 10th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen.

Anyone try either pizzeria? EVG regular Edmund John Dunn liked his slice from Burrata.

Gong Cha debuts on St. Mark's Place

The new Gong Cha outpost has officially opened at 27 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

This is the ninth Manhattan outpost for Gong Cha, which describes itself as "one of the most recognized bubble tea brands around the world" ... which got its start in 2006 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

This block of St. Mark's has seen a variety of bubble tea come and go through the recent years... some still in business (Kung Fu Tea right across the street).... and some not (Mi Tea). And there's more on the way for the northwest corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

This storefront had been vacant since Lab -320° closed in late 2016 after six months of selling ice cream. The previous longtime tenant here, The Sock Man, closed in January 2016 after a reported rent hike via (now former) landlord Raphael Toledano. 

Sock Man owner Marty Rosen later opened a new location at 99 1/2 St. Mark's Place ... where he remains today.

Added:

There was previously a Gong Cha location on 14th Street. 

Photo by Steven

I say love, it is a flower

An EVG reader shared these photos from Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue today ...

Headline H/T

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included (with a photo on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg) ...

 • City tries again with release of a Value Engineering Study for East River Park (Thursday) 

• Barnyard Cheese Shop returns; Brix Wines moves a storefront away (Monday) 

• Packing up the last of The Pyramid Club (Thursday) 

• At the first East Village Flea of 2021 (Tuesday) 

  A look at Full Tank Moto Cafe, now open on Monroe Street (Tuesday) 

• Easter in Tompkins Square Park (Monday) 

• Reopenings: Indochine, Kindred and Van Da (Wednesday) 

• This week's Gallery Watch looks at "There's the Air" by Clare Grill at Derek Eller Gallery (Friday)

• Halftime at NY See (Thursday) 

• Fresco will not be reopening at 138 2nd Ave. (Tuesday)

• "Diamonds, Razors & Champagne" debuts at 3rd & B’Zaar (Friday) 

• Vinny Vincenz Pizza has closed (Monday) 

• This photogenic East Village wisteria now has its own jigsaw puzzle (Tuesday) 

• Doc Holliday's turns 27 while closed during the pandemic; "We will be back" (Wednesday) 

• The Hayaty Hookah Bar space is for rent on Avenue A (Monday) 

• Rendering watch: 650 E. 6th St. (Wednesday) 

• Report of a balcony fire on 7th Street (Sunday) 

• 45-47 2nd Ave. has a new owner (Thursday) 

• Back to the 1980s (again) for "Russian Doll" (Friday)

• Partial reveal at the 101 Condominium (Monday)

... and William Klayer spotted DJ Mike Márquez at 7 a.m. for an early Twitch live stream in East River Park by the fogged-in Williamsburg Bridge...

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Follow EVG on Instagram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

Vinnie is missing [UPDATED: Vinnie is home safe]

Per the flyer:

Vinnie, very beloved, very friendly, and very dumb, not sure he knows his name but responds to treat-shaking. Gray and white striped. Wearing collar/nametag, microchipped. Probably got over wall to East 2nd Street cemetery or East 3rd Street backyards. Reward!!! 917-446-8822. Missing since late Saturday night, 4/10/21. 

Updated noon:

Vinnie is safe and sound now and hanging out in the living room...

Sunday's opening shot

Dense fog advisory until 10 a.m.! 

Thanks to Jeanne Krier for this photo, which includes the Con Ed Building on 14th Street to the left...

Saturday's parting shot

Thanks to EVG reader Doug for this photo on Stuyvesant Street at 10th Street...

A presentation of work by Ed Shostak/Rose Royale

An EVG reader just made me aware of this exhibit: Ed Shostak/Rose Royale: A Queer Perspective From Postminimalism to Social Practice, Selected Works: 1963 – 2020. 

Shostak, a longtime East Village resident, died on April 8, 2020, from complications due to COVID-19. He was 78. 

Per the reader: "He was an artist stemming from the Warhol Factory. We didn't know to what extent until after he died and his loft on Houston and Avenue A was chock-full of work and over 3,000 photos chronicling EV nightlife."

The exhibit, at the David Richard Gallery, 211 E. 121st St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, is only up through Friday. However, this is the first of several planned shows here to feature Shostak's work. 

Here's more via the gallery's site: 

It is unusual to uncover an artist of his pedigree for which so little is publicly known after establishing himself amidst the visual arts most notable institutions. Shostak cloistered himself in his downtown loft relentlessly working and opting for a less mainstream practice. This exhibition is the first look at many of his late works.

For those who are interested in reconsidering the parallel arcs of art history, examining and expanding the boundaries of the established canon of Post War art, Shostak's work will be a revelation. His work addressed so many of the known formal and conceptual concerns from that period, but through a queer lens. 

Eventually, he abandoned convention, favoring a more expansive view of the possibilities that an artist's practice could include by embracing a queer social practice and advocacy for the transgender community.

This presentation is not a retrospective of his artwork but is comprised of completed sculptural works, drawings, studies, performance, documentary images and films to illustrate and map two key aspects and threads of continuity throughout Ed Shostak's artistic career and life. 

While the imagery may have changed over the decades, the exhibition is organized to map these threads regardless of the subject matter, form or media. In fact, it becomes apparent that his personal life and art practice were inextricable — one and the same — and ultimately, the artist became both the subject and the art. 

Shostak had gone full circle from his childhood performances in the family living room to navigating the art world as a gay man and then to activism and politics to become not only his alter ego, but to be himself— transgender.

The gallery's hours: Wednesday-Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.  You can view some of the selected works and watch videos with curators Isaac Aden and David Eichholtz at this link.

How to download this Stop Asian Hate poster

Dragon76 recently painted this Stop Asian Hate mural on Chrystie and Hester (75 Chrystie St.) on the Lower East Side. 

East Village Walls, who sponsored this work, has teamed up with the artist to make free digital prints available to download via this Dropbox link. 

A free print was also going to be available today (4/10) at BAMBŪ at 124 Hester St. while supplies last. 

Per East Village Walls: 

Display it, share it, protest with it.

Be the change. Be the voice. Be active.

Do more.

We can all make a difference because it's time to stop the hate.

Awareness, Solidarity, Action.

The Welcome to Chinatown site has more information on ways to help businesses in this neighborhood. Think!Chinatown is another good resource. 

Photo by @elliephantdreams via @EastVillageWalls

Nurse Dolly

Dolly Parton reimagined as the cover nurse on blink-182's "Enema of the State" album for the COVID-19 era ... wheatpaste by SacSix as seen outside 7 Avenue A.

Friday's parting shot

Have a good weekend. And Merry Christmas. 

Photo on First Avenue and Sixth Street today by Goggla.

Details about a day of 'Free Fashion' tomorrow

The folks behind the Lexus Flea are hosting a clothing swap tomorrow (Saturday!) afternoon at Lucky, the bar at 168 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street.

It's being billed as "a day of free fashion." Drop some clothes off, and take some with you. There is a one-drink minimum at the bar.

7th Street freeze-out

 

The Acute, the East Village-based duo, released a new video a few weeks back ... check out "NYLA" (and enjoy some winter flashbacks on Seventh Street!) ... you can find the band on Instagram here ... and Bandcamp here... hopefully we'll see them live in Tompkins Square Park one of these days...

Gallery Watch: 'There's the Air' by Clare Grill at Derek Eller Gallery

Text and photos by Clare Gemima 

There's the Air, 

Derek Eller Gallery, 300 Broome St. 

Clare Grill delivers a deeply woven sadness through the formation of beautifully crafted oil paintings in her show There's the Air.

The work is fragile and joyful, fast but considerate, and made me feel instantly calm even amongst Grill's vast range of strokes covering each and every inch of her canvas. 

Grief weighs heavily in the narrative that informs Grill's paintings, and when you look closely at the named work you can find hidden forms like boots and brown bananas in Gull and adolescent-looking butterflies flying around in Emaline (oil on paper). 

When I read more about how this artist works and what she aims to communicate through her work, I actually began to notice more recognizable illustrations that were child-like, or even infantile in nature. 

Abstraction is so rampant in Grill’s works that once you process her sensibility around color, shape and composition and start to see shapes like the ones I mentioned above, it feels as though you've been captured in her own sorrow. 

You can feel the work change after a while of contemplating it. It makes sense to learn that these works were made while the artist experienced what I can only imagine being intensive sadness. 

Grill can work on a piece for months or even years before the painting is given a name. So while this show centers around grief, a newness comes from these paintings' existence. Once named, they are almost like the gift of a child. The light at the end of a tunnel, or some other terrible cliche grief quote.  

Grill's works are full of texture and incredibly satisfying renderings of shadows and light sources. Colors vary in hues and opacities and showcase an exorbitant talent for abstract painting. 

Although fun and unruly at first glance, this body of work is actually dealing with a lot of serious stuff — a true testament to an effective and thought-provoking show.

There's the Air is on view at Derek Eller Gallery, 300 Broome St. between Eldridge and Forsyth, until April 24. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.

 

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ 

Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com 

'Diamonds, Razors & Champagne' debuts today at 3rd & B’Zaar

3rd & B’Zaar, the mixed-vendor market and event space at 191 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, is hosting a new art show this month.

Diamonds, Razors & Champagne opens today at noon. The show, curated by Leopold Masterson and featuring the work of some 20 artists, will be up through April 23. 

Hours: noon to 8 p.m. daily with a closing-night event on April 22.

And coming soon: the space will become the Spring Into Pride market for the month of May. Stay tuned for more details on that.

3rd & B’Zaar debuted late last year as a group of local merchants, artists and designers hosted a month-long Holiday Market ... followed by Sex, Love & Vintage in February.

Member orientations start Sunday at the 6BC Botanical Garden

It's orientation time at the 6BC Botanical Garden ... on Sixth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

The orientation dates for 2021: April 11 (Sunday!), April 17, May 2 and May 15 .. from 1.30- 4  p.m. ...

Per the garden's website:

Orientations start with a workday, so please wear work clothes and leave pets and small children at home (just this once!) 

We take membership responsibilities seriously. Please read our rules. 

If you feel you cannot fulfill your obligations, please do not join, although you will always be welcome as a guest or volunteer. 

Keys will be given out at the end of the workday.

Back to the 1980s (again) for 'Russian Doll'

The cast and crew for the Netflix series "Russian Doll" were back in and around Tompkins Square Park yesterday. 

As previously noted, season two will once again do a time warp, and there are scenes set in the 1980s. 

As such ... a few props from along Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C courtesy of Stacie Joy...

... and in Tompkins Square Park... where the crew recreated a small segment of Tent City (and not the first production to recreate this time period)...

... and a few more photos via Steven...

Thursday's parting shot

A moment today on a break during the "Russian Doll" shoot ... with new cast member Annie Murphy of "Schitt's Creek" fame... decked out to fit the 1980s time zone for season two of the Netflix series ... photo by Derek Berg (and we have more set pics TK)...

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 and NYC ...  

City tries again with release of a Value Engineering Study for East River Park

Five days after East River Park Action (ERPA) filed a lawsuit against Mayor de Blasio and the Office of Management and Budget for the entire Value Engineering Study without redactions ... the city released a (mostly) unredacted version yesterday.

You can find a copy of the 300-plus-page report here. We haven't had a chance to comb through it just yet to learn what it was the city didn't want people to see. Concerned residents are curious why the city denied the existence of the report before releasing a mostly redacted version. We'll see how they did on the third try. (Blacked-out sections now are said to be for security purposes.)

Some background. About the lawsuit (BoweryBoogie was first to report on it):

A lawsuit filed April 2 asks for full disclosure of the much-discussed but largely unseen Value Engineering Study. Joining the lawsuit brought by East River Park Action attorney Jack Lester are Manhattan Borough President candidate Lindsey Boylan; and City Council candidates Christopher Marte, Erin Hussein, and Allie Ryan. The political club Grand Street Democrats also joined along with community activists. 

They seek transparency, accountability and a re-examination of the massive flood control project to find alternatives that will preserve parkland. 

On Monday, Justin Brannan, the chair of the City Council Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts, also called for the release of the report without redactions. On Tuesday, local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera tweeted that the report was being released "thanks to advocacy from my office & the Community Advisory Group."

City Hall will be releasing more materials from its ESCR value engineering review today thanks to advocacy from my office & the Community Advisory Group.

We'll review these materials carefully and support the CAG in efforts they make around this needed resiliency project. pic.twitter.com/BkyEqbjmGQ

— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) April 6, 2021

As previously reported, ERPA's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request and an appeal finally unearthed the three-year-old Value Engineering Study. (This after the city denied there was such a report.) 

However, following the appeal, a heavily redacted version of the study — the oft-cited factor behind the city's change of plans in September 2018 to bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet — was released in February.

On March 2, the group's attorney, Jack Lester, appealed to the Department of Design and Construction, the Office of Management and Budget and NYC Parks to see the entire study, not the mostly blacked-out version.

The city's current plan, which has been met with outrage by community members, will raze the 57.5-acre East River Park, bulldozing 1,000 mature trees and rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill meant to protect the Lower East Side and surrounding neighborhoods from a 100-year-flood event and sea-level rise. Work is expected to begin later in the spring, though the first round of estimates doesn't look promising. 

In October 2019, the city announced that they would phase in the construction so only portions of the park are closed to the public at any given time. According to various reports, the city has committed to leaving a minimum of 42 percent of East River Park open to the public. It is projected to be completed in 2025. 

Meanwhile, on April 18, ERPA is hosting a march that starts in Tompkins Square Park at noon...

 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

•  Report: Lowest bids for East River Park construction are $73 million over budget 

• East River community group gets action on release of (heavily redacted) Value Engineering Study

• Advocacy group: The city's Value Engineering Study for East River Park does not exist

Packing up the last of The Pyramid Club

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Tuesday marked the final loadout at the now-shuttered Pyramid Club at 101 Avenue A. 

After a year-long closure during the pandemic, the owners of the iconic East Village venue decided that they would not reopen the two-level space. 

I was there to see manager Maria Narciso, her fiancé, general manager and house DJ TM.8 (aka Quirino Perez), and filmmaker Rob Barriales, who often shot at the club, remove the famed window mannequin, the party sandwich boards, velvet rope stanchions as well as monitors, speakers and supplies (plus the 1980s electronic game Simon!).

"If it wasn't for the community love and support, the Pyramid Club would not have lasted 41 years," Quirino said. "We're moving on, taking that spirit with us to our new homes. Together, we can keep the Pyramid Spirit alive forever."

Of note is the fact that the club was recently listed on Loopnet for rent as a retail space here between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. That listing, first posted on March 6, has subsequently been removed, but you can view the cached version here.

This past Friday, someone affiliated with the building removed The Pyramid Sign from the doorway.

To keep up with what's happening with Pyramid parties going forward, check this link. 

Previously on EV Grieve

• Exclusive: Iconic East Village venue The Pyramid Club will not be reopening after year-long PAUSE

45-47 2nd Ave. has a new owner

There's a new owner for 45-47 Second Ave., a 6-unit building that dates to 1867 here between Second Street and Third Street.

A tipster notes that house flippers David Luttway and Dana Lowey Luttway (via HOLLISWOOD2AVE LLC) are now the owners.

Several of the residences are currently vacant, and two other remaining tenants are in rent-stabilized units without leases, per the real-estate listing. 

As the Westside Rag has noted, Dana Lowey Luttway "is known for her skill at flipping upscale townhouses." It's not known what their plans are for this building. There was an original $9.9 million asking price.

There are currently two commercial spaces (one vacant) and one with a lease until December 2022. That would be Timbuktu, a tranquil shop that specializes in items from Morocco. 

H/T Upper West Sider!