EV Grieve

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Plywood report on the SW corner of 1st Avenue and 3rd Street

Over the weekend, workers removed the pretty exquisite Exquisite Cleaners signage from the southwest corner of First Avenue and Third Street as renovations continue here.

ICYMI (first post here): A cafe, "specializing in small, handmade wines," is in the works for the space from the owners of Urban Wine & Spirits a few storefronts away.

Exquisite Cleaners shut down in the summer of 2020 ... one of 10 dry cleaners in the East Village to close during the pandemic.

Esperanto has apparently closed on Avenue C

Several readers have noted that Esperanto has not been open lately on the northwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street. (H/T Salim!)

There aren't any notices about a temporary or permanent closure on the restaurant's website or social media channels. However, the interior is now mostly empty...

Open Table also lists them as permanently closed. And the phone has been disconnected.

Esperanto, which served what they called "Latin fusion," had been open dating back to March (after a winter hiatus) ... with its usual sidewalk seating — offering views of La Plaza Cultural and 9th Street Community Garden & Park — as well as two curbside dining structures.

Esperanto first opened in 1999.

The first retail space for Tom's Juice will be on 4th Street

Tom's Juice, a made-to-order juice brand available for delivery around parts of NYC, will have its first retail outpost at 75 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Signage arrived late last week.

Tom Wright started the business in 2019, though it gained popularity during the pandemic as he turned it into a full-time venture.

Here's more via a Grub Street profile from June:

Unlike the blends available at many juice bars, Tom's Juice comes in single-ingredient, ultraconcentrated flavors. This month's lineup includes cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, grapefruit, celery, and extra-potent ginger-lime shots, among others. The corporate vibe at bigger chains is antithetical to the experience of ordering from Wright, who hand-delivers each juice on his bike, rain or shine.

You can follow Tom's Juice on Instagram for updates.

Oddfellows had been in this small retail space until the summer of 2020.

Thanks to Derek Berg for the photo!

First sign of the Mayfly on East Houston Street

Updated: The Mayfly opened on Sept. 28.

Signage went up over the weekend for the next bar for 269 E. Houston St. — the Mayfly.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy took these shots of the in-progress interior ...

The Mayfly is from the team behind Gael Pub, Trinity Pub and Juke Bar, among others. This place has been in the works dating back to the fall of 2019. (There was previously an April 2020 opening date, though the pandemic put all that on hold.)

You can follow them on Instagram for opening updates.

The space on the southeast corner of Houston and Suffolk has seen its share of bars come and go through the years. It has sat empty since Suffolk Arms shuttered in 2018 after two-plus years.

Before Suffolk Arms, we had the Local 269, which never reopened after a flood wiped out the live music venue's equipment in the fall of 2012. Other recent tenants included Meow Mix and Vasmay Lounge.

Treetops now visible above the plywood on lower 2nd Avenue

Here's the first glimpse of Treetops, the 10-story condoplex now rising above the plywood at 14 Second Ave. here between First Street and East Houston.

You actually get a better view from inside the adjacent First Street Green Art Park...

As we've been reporting, preliminary work on the full-floor luxury condo building started here in January 2019. The completion date is listed as July 2022.

This site has been vacant for years, last housing Irreplaceable Artifacts until its demolition by the city in July 2000. There's a lot of back story, which the links below cover...

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Workers remove artifacts from the vacant 14 2nd Ave., fueling speculation of new development

• Development watch: 14 2nd Ave.

• Vacant lot at 14 2nd Ave. sells for $7 million; will yield to 10-floor condoplex

• More about Treetops, the name of the condoplex coming to 14 2nd Ave.

Km1 returns to 58 E. 1st St.

Km1 had its grand reopening back on Friday here at 58 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The restaurant, short for Kilometro Uno, and serving food from the Caribbean, opened in the summer of 2020... but went dark late last year without any notice to patrons.

Then in March, VistroBurger and PurpleThai arrived in the space.

Not sure what all happened in the whirlwind — VistroBurger and PurpleThai relocated to Third Avenue in Gramercy Park — but Km1 is back. They are open daily from 5-11 p.m.

This address has seen several quality restaurants come and go in recent years. Esperanto Fonda lasted nine months here, closing in May 2017. Before that, this was home to BARA for two years and Prima for three years. The Elephant, a Thai restaurant, was previously here for 17 years.

Monday, September 6, 2021

Another end-of-summer appreciation: The grocery cart garden

Wrapping up summer number 2 with the grocery cart garden on Fourth Street near the Bowery...

This opuntia is the latest addition...

The prickly pear was adopted from Stuyvesant Cove Park, which is getting ready for flood-wall construction over the next few years.

Thanks to Anna for her patience and creativity in continuing to tend to this mobile plot!

The mystery puddle in the middle of Avenue A

Sooo a few EVG readers have been asking about the mysterious puddle in a groove of the southbound lane of Avenue A at Sixth Street...

The water level never seems to lower... and there isn't any sign of a leak. A thorough investigation of this body of water reveals that it is generally shallow enough to walk through and too small to traverse with a boat or raft.

Oh, and the puddle pre-dates the heavy rains that the remnants of Henri and Ida dumped on the area.

Mystery aside, this puddle needs a name (Instagram and OnlyFans accounts can follow).

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Sunday's parting shot

A view of Village View along Avenue A this evening...

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included...

• Gardening in the East Village is 'a great way to meet your neighbors' — and other things (Thursday)

• City clears and closes the area around the chess tables in Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday)

• Bon voyage to The Baroness (Tuesday)

• In a New York Groove (Wednesday)

• 6 Avenue B doesn't appear to be part of a new (and rumored) Houston Street development (Tuesday) ... This East Village business strip has been cleared out ahead of rumored new development (Monday)

• It takes a court order to clean out the long-empty 89 1st Ave. (Wednesday)

• The Sullivan St. Bakery pop-up on 9th Street has closed (Monday)

• At the Protest: Queer Liberation March installation on 10th Street (Saturday)

• 50-58 E. Third St. sold again (Thursday)

• Here is the trailer for the Velvet Underground documentary (Monday)

• Openings: Mochinut on 2nd Avenue, Little Rebel on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

• Astor Place Wegmans watch, work-permit edition (Monday)

• The new location of Cure Thrift Shop opens (Friday)

• FULL glass reveal at this incoming Lower East Side boutique office building (Monday)

• So long to the Clover Deli's iconic neon signage (Monday)

... and new awning-signage alert at 328 E. Ninth St. ... where Pillow-Cat Books, specializing in books for animal lovers, is opening soon... (thanks to Steven for the photo...)

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

Saturday, September 4, 2021

Saturday's parting shot

A moment during the "Fuck the Hamptons" event today at KGB on Fourth Street ... photo by Derek Berg