The Day | Lucien On Pink Pony: ‘The Era Changed’

Wise Men RestaurantScott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

“A report released by the National Hurricane Center on Tuesday charged that downgrading Hurricane Sandy to a post-tropical cyclone limited the warnings that weather forecasters could issue.” [NY Times]

“With Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to leave office at year’s end, there is concern that the city’s next leader will end a period of bike-friendly programs and policies.” [NY Times]

Lucien Bahaj explains the closing of the Pink Pony: “I serve high quality food at lower prices and that market is not there anymore. My prices cannot be maintained with that kind of rent and I don’t want to raise my prices,” he says. “It’s not a tragedy. It belonged to an era and the era changed and I changed with it. All my customers have left or changed. The neighborhood used to be full of creative types — painters, writers, filmmakers. We don’t have that anymore.” [NY Daily News]

Greg Seider of Summit Bar and Prima agrees New York bars are losing their edge. “The style of New York has disappeared. Now all these hot places aren’t really hot places because inside, it’s just all these reality TV people and none of the funk and grit and style and coolness of New York. It’s hidden somewhere. I don’t know where it is.” [Food GPS]

Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas are having a baby. [NY Post]

New Lower East Side spot Los Perros Locos serves up ” a variety of Colombian street food-themed items, from the El Niño Loco hot dog ($4.50), topped with Kraft macaroni and cheese and crushed Fritos, to the El Perro Perdido ($8), which is served in a deep-fried French Toast bun.” [Washington Square News]

“he East Village’s Zucker Bakery will host a pop-up restaurant, the Kubbeh Project, as of March 1. It’ll remain open for three weeks to serve Jewish and Iraqi comfort food from 6 p.m. until the kubbeh pots runneth dry.” [Grub Street]

“On Thursdays at Jeepney, the new Filipino gastropub in the East Village, you eat with your hands. And it’s harder, and less intuitive, than you’d think.” [Diner’s Journal]

The critically lauded Kajitsu “will close its East Village space on Feb. 25 and reopen March 12 in Murray Hill. The ground floor will serve lunch, with seafood and eggs; a second floor will offer the vegan menu for lunch and dinner.” [NY Times]

Place Matters is giving tours of East Fourth Street. [East Village Arts]