Indoor masking recommend for vaccinated New Yorkers; local businesses change entry policies

Updated 10:30 a.m. 

New York City will require proof of vaccination to enter all restaurants, fitness centers and indoor entertainment venues, Mayor de Blasio announced this morning. 

"If you're unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things," de Blasio said, as reported by CNN. "If you want to participate in our society fully, you've got to get vaccinated." 

The mandate will go into effect next month and apply to employees and customers. 

Eater has more details on the program, dubbed "Key to NYC Pass." 

"The program, which appears to be the first of its kind in the United States, will start on Aug. 16 with full enforcement beginning on Sept. 13."

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Yesterday, city and state officials recommended that New Yorkers start wearing masks indoors again — even if they have been fully vaccinated.

Said NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi: "I am making a strong recommendation that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask in public indoor settings. This is based on our review of the latest scientific evidence showing that the delta variant of the coronavirus can spread even more easily than previously thought." 

However, Mayor de Blasio is not issuing a mask mandate at this time. "We want to emphasize vaccinations, vaccinations. That is the whole ballgame," he said yesterday, as reported by Gothamist.

NYC: Wear a mask to prevent the spread of #COVID19!
😷 Masks are required on public transit and in hospitals, schools and congregate settings
😷 Unvaccinated people MUST wear a mask in all public settings
😷 Vaccinated people should wear a mask in ALL indoor public settings pic.twitter.com/ODG62pNLAC

— nychealthy (@nycHealthy) August 2, 2021

In addition, Gov. Cuomo said that he is asking private businesses — including bars and restaurants — to require proof of vaccination as a condition for entry. 

"I am asking them, and suggesting to them, go to vaccine-only admission," Cuomo told reporters. "I believe it is in your best interest." 

Meanwhile, before yesterday's announcements and recommendations, several East Village businesses had announced a change in their policies. 

To eat inside at Yellow Rose, the Tex-Mex restaurant at 102 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street, diners must show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test. Outdoor seating will remain open to all diners. 

Starting today, Nowon, the Korean restaurant at 507 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, will only serve vaccinated patrons indoors. Outdoor tables will remain open for any guests. 

The owners of Ruffian, the wine bar at 125 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, and Kindred (pictured above), 342 E. Sixth St. just west of First Avenue, are suspending indoor dining until further notice. Their outdoor spaces will remain in service.

Eater is compiling a list of restaurants requiring proof of vaccination here.

The Anthology Film Archives, which reopens for in-person screenings on Thursday, had previously announced that only vaccinated (and masked) moviegoers will be allowed in for now at the theater on Second Avenue and Second Street. To see Stomp at the Orpheum Theatre on Second Avenue, guests 12 and over must show proof of vaccination. 

Elsewhere, White Trash, specializing in mid-century modern furnishings at 304 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, requires vaccination proof for entry.

According to city data, 55 percent of all adult New Yorkers have been fully vaccinated; the number is 66 percent in Manhattan — and even higher in the 10002, 10003 and 10009 zip codes. 

La Plaza Cultural debuts two free lending libraries

La Plaza Cultural, the community garden and open-air theater on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street, now features two free lending libraries ... with a third on the way.

For now, one of the bookshelves is on the outside fence along Avenue C, while the other is inside the garden, which is open on weekends from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (as well as for other special events during the week).

Passersby are welcome to drop off books and pick up a few in exchange. According to a La Plaza volunteer, the bookcases are built of sustainable bamboo plywood paid for through a Citizen's Committee grant. 

Local residents and activists founded La Plaza in 1976. It was renamed in honor of Armando Perez, a community activist who was murdered in 1999, in 2003. 

Photo via La Plaza Cultural

New signage day for the NW corner of 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Workers yesterday started putting up the signage for the new business on this most high-profile of East Village corners — the NW side of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

As previously reported, the Taiwan-based Xing Fu Tang, a bubble tea chain specializing in brown sugar boba, will be setting up shop here...

No word on an opening date...

Nobletree Coffee closed here in May 2019 after just five months in business. This storefront previously sat empty for three years — ever since DF Mavens closed in January 2016 ... after a Dec. 26, 2014 debut. (It took the Mavenators 14 months to open the space.)

Other tenants in recent years include Eastside Bakery (.net?) and Roastown Coffee. And the only business to last here in the past 30 years: the Gap, from 1988 to 2001.

Thanks to Steven for the photos! (And thanks to Jeff and Brian for sending some along as well!)

Monday's parting shot

An early morning look at the southwest corner of 11th Street at First Avenue... thanks to Jason Solarek for the photo!

The RBG mural by Elle Street Art went up here last November.

Remembering Biz Markie

There's a new memorial in place for the late Biz Markie outside the Second Avenue F stop at East Houston. 

Will Power created the mural over the weekend for Markie, the legendary beatboxer, DJ and rapper who died on July 16 at age 57. 

Services for Markie, who was born in Harlem, were held this afternoon. 

The mural is expected to be up here for the next two weeks.

First sign of the B Bar & Grill-replacing 21-story office building on the Bowery

A banner ad for the new 21-story office building coming to the southwest corner of the Bowery at Fourth Street now looms over the space it's replacing — the former B Bar & Grill.

The ad, titled "A Singular Experience," touts the "limited collection of full-floor office suites" ...

There's also a teaser site for the building, which will use 360 Bowery as its address. Per the site, with a Midtown-looking rendering, occupancy is expected in the spring of 2023...

Included is info about potential tenants in the ground-floor retail spaces:

Permitted uses in M1-5B (Includes Wholesale, Light Manufacturing, Bicycle Rental and Repair, Clothing Rental Establishment, Public Auction, Room & House of Worship). No UG6 retail, office, or restaurants.

As we first reported in January, permits were filed for a 21-floor mixed-use development — a 283-foot-tall office building. (For a comparison, the Standard East Village a block to the north is 21 floors.) 

According to the proposed plan, the well-employed architect Morris Adjmi's building will encompass 98,799 square feet, with 26,000 square feet set aside for use as an unspecified community facility. 

CB Developers paid $59.5 million for a stake in 358-360 Bowery, previously a gas station before its conversion into the bar-restaurant. B Bar owner Eric Goode, who owns a handful of hotels, including the Bowery Hotel across the way, assembled air rights to build the larger development on this corner space. 

As for the B Bar, the one-time hot spot (circa the mid-1990s) was expected to close for good last August. However, the bar-restaurant never reopened after the PAUSE in March 2020. On April 3, 2020, nearly 70 B Bar employees were laid off without any extension of benefits or offer of severance pay.

Permits are on file now to demolish the single-level structure on the corner. This will be the second office building to rise along this corridor... joining the 10-floor structure in the works on Third Avenue at St. Mark's Place.

It will be interesting to see how the developers position this office space for a post-pandemic world. As WNYC/Gothamist recently reported, "Across Manhattan, office buildings are still suffering from a glut of available space more than a year after the pandemic sent workers home and shut down most leasing activity."

Previously on EV Grieve:
• CB Developers pay $59.5 million for an interest in 358 Bowery — current home of the B Bar & Grill and likely a new development

• B Bar & Grill lays off its staff without severance

• Permits filed to demolish the former B Bar & Grill on the Bowery

Bagel Boss opens on 14th Street

The Bagel Boss outpost at 238 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is now open. (Thanks to the reader for the pic!)

Hours: Daily from 6 a.m. to, we're told, 4 p.m.-ish.

Meanwhile, the BB coming to East Houston and Mott has a little longer before its debut...

Bagel Boss, founded in 1975, will now have 15-plus locations in NYC (including First Avenue between 15th Street and 16th Street) and on Long Island. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Bagel Boss to preside in storefronts on 14th Street, East Houston

Gorillas will be in the mix at this 14th Street retail space

We have a new retail reveal in the renovated storefronts at 428 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue... signage went up this past week for Gorillas, the on-demand grocery delivery startup... 

A tipster told us that this space will be a small distribution outpost (as opposed to merely an ad) for the Berlin-based company that "promises to let you order groceries and other 'every day' items for delivery in as little as 10 minutes," as TechCrunch noted. Gorillas debuted in Brooklyn in May. 

There isn't any signage up yet for another new tenant — a European Wax Center. (Winick Realty reported this on its Instagram account.) There's also a European Wax Center on University Place — in the former home (the last one anyway) of the Cedar Tavern.

No. 428 has been undergoing a gut renovation ... the previous retail tenants were victims of the L-train work here. 

Updated 11 a.m.: Sifted has a post today on workplace tensions titled "Gorillas: The new WeWork?"

Thanks, Upper West Sider! 

The two-story dining structure that almost was on 4th Street

Back on Thursday, EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos from Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... where workers were starting to add a second level — complete with artificial turf — to the dining structure outside Izakaya NYC...

Work continued on Friday morning ...

Though by the end of the day, the job's mission changed to a removal after neighbor complaints — two-story structures are not allowed — led an inspector from the Department of Transportation to the site, who nixed the double-decker.

Here's a look at the de-constructed second level and streeteatery yesterday...

Curbed, who first reported on this Friday, received a statement from Izakaya NYC owner Yudai Kanayama:

Kanayama said he wanted to add extra outdoor space as COVID cases are rising once again, but reiterated that he was taking down the upper level. "I thought the only potential to create more seating was this," he said. The plan had been to lay fake turf upstairs and make the area more like a park or lawn than a restaurant with tables and chairs. "I was basically looking for the best we could do under the restrictions by being more creative and ambitious."

The DOT said that an inspector will return this week to confirm that Izakaya NYC removed the in-progress second deck. 

The ill-fated duplex also made the cover of the Post on Saturday, in which Steve Cuozzo excoriated al fresco dining structures. 

Wegmans makes it sign official on Astor Place, plus other thoughts on the grocer's arrival

As you likely know, Wegmans Food Markets announced it was opening an outpost — the first in Manhattan for the chain — back on Thursday... taking over the two-level space from the just-closed Kmart here at 770 Broadway. 

By Friday, the Wegmans signage was up... the store is expected to be operating by the second half of 2023 on Astor Place ...

The reaction by EVG readers, via comments, emails, DMs, etc., was generally favorable. Some people appreciated the thought of a first-class grocery coming to the area, a welcome alternative to, say, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. A few folks said they found Wegmans to be overrated and overpriced. Some people said they will miss Kmart. And a handful of commenters were turned off by the perceived celebration of a chain. (And for the record, I've never been to a Wegmans, so I don't have an opinion on their stores.)

Meanwhile, retail reporter Warren Shoulberg wrote a piece for Forbes titled "Wegmans In, Kmart Out: But It’s About So Much More Than That."

Among his observations:

• Any talk of the demise of urban living — and urban shopping — can be tossed aside with this Wegmans' move. It validates the premise that younger generations (and older ones too who don't want to move) are going to continue to choose living in a big city as opposed to the suburbs, small towns and all points in between. 

Young families with kids or about to have kids will go that route — as they have for every generation since the end of World War II — but anyone thinking this was the beginning of the end of urban destinations like New York City needs to rethink that theory.

Stay tuned for more analysis about Wegmans over the next two years! 

Sunday's parting shots

A big weekend for discarded furniture with the end-of-the-month move ins and move outs... the above photo was spotted on Ninth Street (thank you Steven!)... and below on 11th Street (thank you Carol from East 5th Street!)

... and Ninth Street at Second Avenue (thank you Doug!) ...

Furniture tagging courtesy of @plannedalism ...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo on First Avenue by Derek Berg) ...

• Renovation watch: This is what the inside of the former Hells Angels HQ looks like now (Thursday) 

• New bike lanes next for freshly paved Avenue C (Tuesday) 

• Brooklyn Bean Roastery closes on Avenue A (Monday) 

• Wegmans makes it OFFICIAL, will take over the former Kmart space on Astor Place (Thursday)

• A short tribute — sob — to the World Famous Pee Phone™ (Friday) 

• Advocates urging City Comptroller to withhold approval for East River Park reconstruction — with update (Tuesday) 

• Report of a slashing outside 7-Eleven on Avenue A (Tuesday) 

• 787 Coffee debuts on 10th Street (Thursday) • Post debuts in new 3rd Street space (Wednesday)

• Now You're Clean, offering self-service dog washing, opens on 10th Street (Wednesday) 

• An encore presentation for the Pyramid Club on Avenue A? (Wednesday) 

• Karma's newest 2nd Street gallery is open (Tuesday) 

• Mochinut bringing mochi doughnuts and Korean-style hot dogs to 2nd Avenue (Monday) 

• "I see you over there" — the return of a Zoltar and words of wisdom (Wednesday) 

• XOXO 2nd Avenue (Sunday) • At long last, workers remove the sidewalk bridge from 75 1st Ave. (Friday) 

• East Berlin set for 169 Avenue A (Thursday) 

 ... and B&H Dairy unveiled a new line of t-shirts this past week... with a logo modeled after the lunch counter's longtime neon sign... $20 at B&H, 127 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St Mark's Place...

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A new work of fart on the Bowery

New on the gate at 246 Bowery (near Stanton): "Concept'yall Fart" by Mousel D'ohchamp ... Work by @plannedalism on space curated by the East Village-based Lisa Project. Pic by @catscoffeecreativity!

Waiting for the Sunday papers

As seen on First Avenue this morning... 

 With a partial H/T to Joe Jackson.