Bahram Foroughi

Good morning, East Village.

Mayor Bloomberg has announced a $5.5 million grant for small businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy. [NY Post]

Two teens are wanted in a strong of local robberies: “The suspects, believed to be 14 years old, have been going into local businesses under the guise of raising money for a youth basketball team and then swiping phones and computers, police said.” [NY Post]

Stogo has closed after four years in business. The vegan ice cream shop was having trouble paying the rent and then lost $6,000 in sales and $6,000 in inventory during Sandy. [NY Times]

Only four synagogues remain in the East Village, which once boasted as many as 100 of them, but leaders of the holdovers “remain optimistic about their synagogues’ future existence, as does the rabbi of the recently-opened Chabad Serving NYU Orthodox synagogue at 353 Bowery.” [Jewish Voice]

Fifth Street Farms is one of almost 200 school gardening programs that have cropped up in the past couple of years. [NY Times]

“An East Village source tells us there have been frequent sitings of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ director Danny Boyle hanging out on the stoop of the former squat at 544 E. 13th St., where his new girlfriend, actress Rosario Dawson, and her family members live.” [The Villager]

“Tompkins Square had its own share of post-Thanksgiving frenzy on Black Friday.  Rats were going for a dime a dozen and, as one hawk sank its claws into a tasty rat snack, an aggressive squirrel (who I’m sure had been camped out all night in anticipation of the holiday bargains), tried unsuccessfully to drive its rival away.” [Gog in NYC]

Coming to Theater for the New City, “Don’t Tell Mother” is “an off-beat, domestic comedy about the Rooney family – a once politically connected Irish American clan from Albany, New York with way too many secrets to hide.” [NearSay]

Suzannah Troy says it’s getting too cold for Giuseppi Logan to blow his horn in Tompkins Square Park. “GL needs work. He needs warm clothes.” [East Village East East Village]

A cat has gone missing from Stuyvesant Town [PCVST Bee]

Frank restaurant has posted photos of its holiday decorations. [Webstagram]

Adam Platt bestows two stars on First Street newcomer L’Apicio, but with a word of warning: “Thompson and Campanale have designed L’Apicio, unlike their other restaurants, for volume (and profits), and when the crowds swell in the evening and the thrumming music is turned up loud, the room can have an impersonal, clubby feel.” [New York]

At Ducks Eatery, “exciting things are happening in the kitchen, but the dishes that come out don’t always show it.” [NY Times]