A short walk with a tall man

Text and photos Stacie Joy 

Chances are that you've seen Bobby ambling around the neighborhood. And how could you not?

We recently had the chance to take a short stroll with him. It took longer than expected, as many passersby stopped us to ask if they could take a picture or a selfie with him.

Bobby was super friendly with everyone he met ... a gentle giant with the starpower of a Marvel character.

Getting to know more about Bobby was not easy. However easy-going, he was evasive about answering questions, admitting to being from "upstate" and "walking to downtown NYC" but said he didn't know his age, last name or any other pertinent information. 

He said he likes ladders, Twizzlers, carrots, trees, skyscrapers and bananas and doesn't care for rain. He also said he gets pain in his hips and knees from being so leggy at 6-2. He insists he's "just very tall."

He later attempted to prove his height by using his own homemade measuring tape. 

So we went with it and enjoyed his good-natured company, stopping in a few shops along Avenue A and Avenue B... including Ben's Deli, where he obligingly turned on the hard-to-reach ceiling fans, watered the plants and enjoyed a cold drink...

We popped by Mast Books, where Bobby seemed crestfallen when told the store didn't have any books about skyscrapers...

A highlight from the excursion was the trip to Key Food, where Bobby helped manager Richie with signage installation ahead of the "Re-Grand Opening" celebration (Keyapalooza) earlier this month...

You can follow Bobby on Instagram here.

City looking for feedback about the Open Street of Avenue B

Since the spring of 2020, the Avenue B Open Street has hosted a variety of free events, including art shows, musical performances, theater, fashion events and exercise classes. 

The citywide Open Streets program was designed to ease the isolation of the pandemic by expanding outdoor public spaces. 

The Department of Transportation is seeking feedback on the Avenue B corridor, where activities take place between Sixth Street and 14th Street. 

NYC DOT has been conducting community outreach to better understand how the Avenue B Open Street is used, and how the community wants to see these corridors used in the future. 

NYC DOT is currently collecting feedback from the community for a design proposal for the Avenue B Open Street. Members of the community are invited to review the design proposal materials ... 

Here's a look at a preliminary concept...

The biggest proposed changes would occur between Seventh Street and 10th Street, which will better prioritize pedestrians and cyclists, expand public space and add amenities. Specifically, Avenue B between Eighth Street and Ninth Street would be a pedestrian plaza, with "dedicated space for programming, markets and more." 

You can find the feedback form at this link. And go here for the design proposal. Tomorrow (Sept. 30) is the deadline to submit your feedback. 

The Loisaida Open Streets Community Coalition is the DOT's community partner and volunteer group overseeing the Open Street of Avenue B. 

Photo via @loisaida_oscc

Art gallery Amanita debuts today on the Bowery

Photo from Saturday when paper still covered the front windows

Amanita opens its first dedicated NYC space this evening (Sept. 29) at 313 Bowery with "Place Holder," featuring works by emerging Italian painter Leonardo Meoni.

Here's more about the first show:

The works in the exhibition are all on velvet. The marked surfaces result not from any kind of additive or subtractive process, but from something in between. This liminal state, in which pigment is not added nor are the fibers of the velvet removed, represents a mode of mark-making that is as immediate as it is indirect. 

Through this technique, Meoni has devised a refreshing approach to image-making that is the result of active, performative gestures of rubbing, brushing, pressing, and imprinting forms into the responsive velvet surface. Leo uses his fingers, unloaded paint brushes, gardening equipment, cooking utensils and construction tools to create impressions in the medium.

Tonight's opening is from 6-8. "Placeholder" will be on view here in the 3,500-square-foot space between First Street and Second Street through Oct. 30.

Caio Twombly, the son of sculptor Alessandro Twombly and grandson of the painter Cy Twombly, founded the gallery last year in Florence. 

Patagonia was in this storefront for nine years, departing back in the fall. Previously, the address was a pop-up shop for a rock-inspired clothing line called Andrew Charles created by Andy Hilfiger and Steven Tyler ... and the Morrison Hotel Gallery. And before all this: The space adjacent to CBGB housed the CBGB Record Canteen and, later, the 313 Gallery. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Spazio Amanita coming to the Bowery 

Wednesday's parting shot

Photo by Derek Berg

Little Amal, the 12-foot puppet of a young refugee from Syria, was on the Lower East Side today as part of a 17-day NYC tour.

We'll have photos tomorrow via EVG contributor Stacie Joy from Little Amal's appearance. More background here.

Grab a chair: 'Free + clean' and for the taking on 2nd Avenue

As seen late this afternoon on the west side of Second Avenue near Sixth Street ... photos by Steven...

City removes tree with Dutch elm disease from Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Steven 

Parks workers were in Tompkins Square Park today to remove this American Elm between the main lawn and the dog run... unfortunately, workers said the tree had Dutch elm disease and needed to come down...

Dutch elm disease isn't a stranger to Tompkins Square Park, as we've seen through the years. 

Some background on the diseaase: 

Spread by bark beetles, the disease has decimated elm populations throughout much of Europe and North America.

The leaves on one or more branches of a stricken tree suddenly wilt, turn dull green to yellow or brown, curl, and may drop early. Young, rapidly growing elms may die in one to two months; older or less vigorous trees sometimes take two years or more to succumb. A brown to black discoloration occurs in the white sapwood of wilting branches just under the bark.

A look inside the former Gracefully storefront on Avenue A, vacant now for nearly 8 years

Photos by Stacie Joy

The sign for Gracefully remains in place outside 28 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street... even though the two-level market closed here in November 2014.

And the large space along a high-profile corridor has remained vacant these past eight years.

The other day, EVG contributor Stacie Joy toured the space with the permission of Derrick the super...

A potential tenant was to look at this space following Stacie's visit.

We don't know why this has sat empty for so long. Size? Price? Both! According to the LoopNet listing, there are 5,000 square feet on the main floor and another 3,500 in the basement ... at $80 per square foot. 

Gracefully arrived here in 1997. It was the tenant when the building — the one-time Burger-Klein furniture shop — underwent a gut renovation to look like Iron Man's helmet. 

And a little bit of Gracefully remains behind...    

Solo Pizza has closed on Avenue B

Updated: There's an auction here today at 2 p.m.

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Solo Pizza has closed as of Monday at 27 Avenue B between Second Street and Third Street. 

There's a pop-up message on the pizzeria's website...

Ownership didn't cite any reasons for the closure.

The pizzeria opened in 2007 and served up some solid slices... not to mention an eggplant parm hero. They will be missed. 

H/T Stacie Joy!

Openings: MayRee on 1st Street

MayRee has debuted at 58 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (First mentioned here.) 

The restaurant serves Southern Thai food from chef/owner Orawan Sawangphol and cocktails from industry veteran Sek Saraboon (formerly of The Met Bar in Bangkok and The Dominick Hotel in Soho). 

Here's more about MayRee via a rep:

Born and raised in Phang Nga, a small province in southern Thailand (about an hour from Phuket), Sawangphol started working in her family's restaurant at age 13, learning about techniques and spices as well as recipes from her great grandmother, eventually becoming the restaurant's chef. 

After studying hospitality, she moved to the U.S. She worked in California, Ohio, and Illinois before moving to NYC to open MayRee, her own restaurant, showcasing the Southern Thai dishes she grew up with. 

Sawangphol uses a bounty of Thai herbs and unique ingredients like garcinia cambogia (a tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia, aka Malabar tamarind), along with turmeric, coconut, chilies, and more. 

You can find a menu here. And some Instagram pics here. 

And if you are curious about the name...

The restaurant's name comes from a Thai folklore story called the Twelve Sisters — MayRee is one of the sisters. Despite the misfortunes that befall her in the story, she still manages to keep a cheerful disposition and, as a result in Thai culture, she symbolizes celebration and social gathering.

MayRee is open for lunch during the week from noon to 4 p.m., with dinner 5-11 p.m. (11:30 p.m. close on Friday and Saturday). There's a weekend brunch starting at 11 a.m. Phone: (929) 989-6213.

Previously

To no surprise, 'emergency work' is necessary at the long-empty 6 Avenue B

After reading yesterday's post about workers removing the sidewalk bridge from around the Mariana Bracetti Plaza ... several readers brought up everyone's fave abandoned building — 6 Avenue B at Houston.

Yes, the sidewalk bridge remains up here — as it has been dating to 2015-16. 

And who knows how much longer it will be up here outside the long-empty 6-floor residential building.

As EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently pointed out, there are DOB notices dated Aug. 31 by the entrance... per the notice, "emergency work" is necessary "due to the disrepair of the building facade on all exposures." The repair evaluation/plan by the licensed professional the landlord hires is due by Oct. 1, 2022.     

Given that there has been 0 work done here of late... that deadline will zip on by.

As previously noted here, the liquor store in the retail space has been closed since the owner passed away in the fall of 2009 at age 89. (Chico created the tribute to her on the gate in February 2010.)

In January 2013, workers were spotted hauling out some junk from the building...  in December 2014, bricks fell from the building, breaking the foot of a passerby, as the Lo-Down reported at the time. And an SUV took out part of the sidewalk bridge in November 2018. And that's about it.

And as previously noted, this is one of the abandoned buildings owned by the estate of the mysterious team of Arthur and Abraham Blasof, now both deceased. 

Previously on EVG:

• Because you've always wanted to know what the inside of the long-empty 6 Avenue B looks like

• Let's take another look at the eerie remains of the long-abandoned 6 Avenue B 

Tuesday's parting shots

Amelia and Christo, the resident red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, taking in the views late this afternoon along Avenue B... including way atop the Christodora House (below) ... photos by Steven...

Walk with Little Amal tomorrow on the Lower East Side and East Village

Photo by @respectivecollective via Instagram 

You've likely read about Little Amal, a larger-than-life representation of a young refugee from Syria. 

Little Amal, who symbolizes hope for displaced refugees, has been in NYC this month on a 17-day tour. 

Tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept. 28), Little Amal will be on the Lower East Side and the East Village. The itinerary for "The Walk" starts at the Tenement Museum at 1 p.m. and Clemente Soto Vélez Center at 4 p.m. The 12-foot puppet will then be at La Mama on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery at 7 p.m. for a procession over to Washington Square Park. Details here. 

Per the Walk With Amal website: 

It takes four puppeteers to bring Little Amal to life: one on each arm, one supporting her back and one inside walking on stilts. This fourth puppeteer also controls "the harp," a complex tapestry of strings that animate Little Amal's face, head and eyes. 

Little Amal Walks NYC is a co-production between The Walk Productions and St. Ann’s Warehouse in association with Handspring Puppet Company.

At long last, workers remove the sidewalk bridge from around Mariana Bracetti Plaza

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Last Tuesday, workers started removing the sidewalk bridge from around the Mariana Bracetti Plaza, the 7-story NYCHA-run housing complex on Third Street and Fourth Street along Avenue C.

The removal brought cheers from residents, as PIX11 noted. Residents who EVG contributor Stacie Joy talked with were thrilled it was gone, and that in the past eight years or so, the workers had only repaired a few bricks. 

Tenant advocates have blamed the longstanding sidewalk structures for the increase in illegal activities here in recent years — not to mention more rats and unsanitary conditions from use as a public restroom. 

According to DOB records, permits for a sidewalk shed date here to December 2000. (Reason: "loose brick.") There are records of permits for installing a sidewalk bridge in March 2003 ... April 2004 (for "remedial repairs") ... August 2015 ... and October 2017. (A Google Streetview shows a structure in place continuously back to 2016.) 

Hopefully, the sidewalks will remain free of other structures. There was a fake-out here in March 2021 after workers took down the sidewalk bridge before rebuilding it several days later. (They were replacing some rotting wooden planks.)

So the views for now...

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Local elected officials, NYCHA reps get firsthand look at the problems at Mariana Bracetti Plaza 

• Residents say dangerous safety conditions at Mariana Bracetti Plaza lead to illegal and hazardous activities 

• Another look at conditions in and around the Mariana Bracetti Plaza public housing complex

• PSA 4 providing increased security at Mariana Bracetti Plaza

345 Cantina takes over for Tableside on 6th Street

The 345 Cantina is up and running now at 345 E. Sixth St. just west of First Avenue. (Thanks to the reader tips on this!)

The 345 serves up tacos, beer and cocktails. You can find an online menu here. And an Instagram account here. 

This arrival also marks the end of Tableside ... the Italian restaurant closed on Aug. 29 after five-plus years in business. Ownership did not provide a reason behind the closure in an Instagram announcement.   

The P.F. Chang's outpost opens Friday on University Place

The P.F. Chang's outpost on the SE corner of 13th Street and University Place is slated to open this Friday, per the restaurant chain's website. (The brand's horse mascot has been under wraps here for the past few weeks.) 

As previously reported, this will be P.F. Chang's first sit-down restaurant in NYC — and a large one with three floors of space. 

The company opened several P.F. Chang's To Go outposts during the pandemic ... there are more than 300 locations worldwide. 

Italian restaurant brand Vapiano was previously in this University Place space. 

Thanks to EVG reader Doug for the photos!

Monday's parting shot

Power washing the graffiti off the ping-pong table in Tompkins Square Park this morning... photo by Derek Berg...

This week in paving (but not milling)

It looks like paving only tonight and tomorrow night on Third Street from Avenue D to the Bowery...

Seventh Street is also on the docket for paving from Avenue D to Cooper Square ... though it appears that just the section between Second Avenue and Cooper Square needs the new surface...

You can check the DOT schedule here. 

The milling on these streets commenced on Sept. 6.

Thanks to Stacie Joy for the top pic!