Time for another installment of Neighborhood Appeal, where we appeal to East Villagers to share their go-to spots. Today, Kate McGee Reyes salutes some dog-friendly businesses. Leave your own tips in the comments. 

Alberto Reyes

The East Village is a great neighborhood to have a dog: we’ve got the dog run, some great dog rescues, the beloved Puppy Love Kitty Kat, and of course Doggie Dearest. But where do you go for your morning Joe when the health department doesn’t allow dogs inside cafes? Ost Cafe, on corner of 12th Street and Avenue A, has the answer in the form of a walk-up to-go window. Not only can you get your cappuccino and croissant there but the baristas always have some dog treats to dole out.

Veselka will let you and your canine companion share a meal in its outdoor eating area, so long as he or she stays on the other side of the fence. While there, you can get their made-on-premises dog biscuits for just 35 cents or three for $1. And the servers are always happy to fetch a bowl of fresh water.

If you’re the type that prepares for the Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade months in advance (and who doesn’t?), stop by Sew Good Cleaners at 337 East Ninth Street, where they’ll make you a custom costume. They’re exceptionally kind and patient while making measurements for the outfit, and they’ll also mend your doggie’s winter coat to last another season.

Have some suggestions of your own? Unleash ’em on us!

The police arrested an East Houston Street man yesterday and charged him with four counts of robbery related to the string of 16 stick-ups near the East River since May. Dion Whitehead, a 38-year-old resident of the Lillian Wald Houses, had previously been arrested for attempted murder, according to The Post. In the robberies the suspect would brandish a weapon or pretend he had one, then grab his victims’ belongings, the police said. None of the victims were hurt. The Daily News reported that investigators were led to Mr. Whitehead after a tipster recognized him in subway surveillance images.

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Post reports that stop and frisks were down 34 percent during the second quarter of the year: “A city official with access to the data said 133,934 people were stopped by police between April 1 and June 30, compared to 203,500 from January 1 to March 31.”  Those stopped were “66 percent black; 26 percent Hispanic; 6 percent white; and 2 percent Asian.”

More Than Usual has a photo of a flyer that went up at the site of the notorious “private” bike rack. It appears that the owner of the bike that was stolen from the rack has not given up his search.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the city has declined to defend Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna in a civil suit. Inspector Bologna is accused of pepper spraying protestors during an Occupy Wall Street rally near Union Square in September. The move means that the police officer “could be personally liable for financial damages that may arise out of the suit,” according to the paper. His lawyer is fighting the decision by the city. Read more…

Farewell, leather jackets, hello nano puff hoody. The Commercial Observer reports that Patagonia is moving into the two-floor space at 313 Bowery that was once part of CBGB. The outdoor apparel brand reportedly signed a lease in excess of 10 years for the space that was formerly occupied by the Morrison Hotel gallery and Riff. Racked notes that Patagonia is likely the first tenant post-CBGB that “isn’t self-consciously cashing in on the club’s legacy.” John Varvatos will remain next-door at 315 Bowery. Come to think of it, Patagonia’s outdoor gear isn’t that radical a departure from CBGB. Heck, the club’s name is slapped across punked-out cycling jerseys.

Melvin Felix Evelyn McCue.

For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Doggie Dearest.

Back in college Evelyn McCue’s career plan was to be a veterinarian. When she became pregnant with her son, her career took a different turn. “Instead of becoming a veterinarian, I made one myself,” Ms. McCue joked about about her son’s career as a neurological veterinarian. But after years teaching English as a second language and bartending, she revisited her love of animals and opened Doggie Dearest at 543 East Fifth Street. Ms. McCue said her boutique dog grooming business was the first of its kind in the neighborhood, and for nearly 19 years she’s groomed roughly eight dogs a day, three days a week. The Local spoke with Ms. McCue about the popularity of the pet industry, the weirdest creature she’s ever brushed, and why poodle owners can be so strange.

How did you end up in the dog grooming business?

I was on the phone, sitting on hold and flipping through the Yellow Pages when I saw an ad for a grooming school. I called them and somehow it turned out perfectly. At first it would just going to be a cool hobby. But lo and behold, it turned out I am really good at it! Read more…

Just when we had Mary Jane on the mind (the other day, as we were leaving Tom and Jerry’s, someone handed us the business card you see here), The Villager has a buzz-worthy story about a pot activist who is offering free examinations of your ganja. The man, Kenny Toglia, says a lot of the weed on the street harbors a cancer-causing fungus, so he uses a $20 microscope, from Radio Shack, to perform inspections at University of the Streets every Thursday at 6 p.m. This isn’t the expert’s first encounter with publicity, either. Mr. Toglia “insists he’s not setting up another marijuana club like the one in 1999 — in the same location — that had 600 members and was raided by police,” the paper reports.

Stephen Rex Brown Mohammed Rahman, moments after being punched.

It was a hellacious start to the day for Mohammed Rahman, a Bangladeshi man who serves gyros, lamb over rice and the like from his cart at Astor Place.

At around 12:15 p.m. a shoeless woman flipped out at him, yelling that Mr. Rahman was “making me wait so long for my damn food.” She then tossed a handful of the cart’s water bottles behind her, nearly striking a man in a suit walking by the Chase Bank. “Whoa! Take it easy!” he said.

The woman, who looked to be in her early 20s, walked off toward St. Marks Place. But the trouble was only beginning.

Three other men, who were apparently with the woman, were still lingering around the food cart, berating Mr. Rahman. The vendor, who has been in the U.S. for two and a half years, stepped out of his cart to call the police. While he spoke on the phone, one of the men, wearing all black and carrying a backpack, clocked Mr. Rahman in the jaw. Read more…

Matthew Kraus On East Second Street.

Good morning, East Village.

Maribel Araujo, the Venezuelan restaurateur behind Caracas, has found inspiration in the Rockaways, where she has opened a new outpost on the boardwalk. “I don’t find the East Village and Williamsburg interesting anymore,” she tells The Daily News. “The people here are for real. They’re all characters.”

East Ninth Street jewelry shop Verameat just opened an outpost in Willamsburg (just like every other business, it seems), according to Racked.

EV Grieve has a thorough roundup of all the new developments and openings and closings on Avenue B. Read more…

Photos: Melvin Felix

“I can’t imagine anyone my age wanting to sit in a Pinkberry,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, 34, whose gelateria Fresco opened on Second Avenue yesterday, around the corner from the fro-yo chain’s St. Marks location.

Mr. Iliopoulos, who owned a chain-operated gelateria in Greece for five years, said his first independent venture is meant to be reminiscent of a Greek shack, or “paragka.”

“There’s nothing wrong with Pinkberry and 16 Handles,” he added, “but they cater to a younger demographic because they’re very colorful and very bright. I wanted to create an environment where you can actually get a gelato but you wouldn’t mind hanging out there as well.” Read more…

On Monday The Local heard a rumor that a sushi restaurant would take over the long-vacant storefront next-door to Whole Earth Bakery. That turned out to be partly true. Gary Auslander, the broker who handled the deal, said that a “very exclusive” 15-seat Japanese restaurant would be moving in. Like another newcomer, Bugs, it will indeed serve sushi, among other things. Mr. Auslander added that it won’t be competing with Sushi Lounge a few doors away, rather, it will be “more like Momofuku.” The owners of the restaurant, who will appear at this month’s Community Board 3 meeting, are bringing over a well-regarded chef from Japan, according to the broker.

Vanessa Yurkevich Sho Boo at Bugs.

Vanessa Yurkevich

Sho Boo grew up in Osaka, Japan, a daughter of Korean immigrants. When she was young her mother opened a small ramen shop in their hometown and that’s when she took an interest in cooking. “I would help her out at the shop,” she said, “and I learned from her. “

In Japan, sushi chefs were rarely women. So when Ms. Boo came to the United States 11 years ago she was surprised to find opportunity: for 10 years she worked as a sushi chef, training at Sushi Yasuda in Midtown and Jewel Bako in the East Village. Today she’ll return to her love of cooking, as she opens a shop of her own called Bugs on East 12th Street.

“Bugs tend to gather, especially around a bright light and this restaurant is the bright light that everyone would gather around,” said Ms. Boo. Read more…

It’s a lament almost as common in the neighborhood as complaints about bar noise — property taxes are way too high. Just two days ago, the owner of Mama’s Food Shop said that his property taxes had nearly quadrupled since he took over the business around 2007. Now, District Attorney Cyrus Vance is urging reform of the assessment system for the taxes, which a grand jury found is rife with abuse. “Some unscrupulous individuals and entities routinely try to cheat the City out of this valuable revenue stream by filing false information with City agencies,” he said in a press release. In one case cited by the grand jury, “60 percent of property owners surveyed who derived income from signs posted on their property failed to report that income to the Tax Commission when they sought to reduce their taxes,” the statement noted.

Stephen Rex Brown The suspect in a long string of robberies.

The police are on the hunt for a suspect in a string of at least 16 robberies, half of which were in the East Village.

In all the cases, which take place near the East River, the perpetrator either flashed a knife or gun, or simulated one. He then attempted to take his victims’ property — common items include cellphones and wallets — and usually succeeded. None of the victims were hurt.

In the first four incidents in early May the suspect robbed victims in elevators in Campos Plaza and the Lillian Wald Houses, the police said. Only in the last incident on May 15 did he actually flash a weapon — a knife — before grabbing the victims Sony PSP, cash and a watch. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Yesterday at Cooper Square.

Good morning, East Village.

An executive with a background in digital technology has purchased a bundle of downtown papers that includes The Villager, the paper announced yesterday. Jennifer Goodstein, a former exec at MetLife, bought Community Media LLC, which also includes Gay City News, Downtown Express, the East Villager and Chelsea Now for an undisclosed amount. Ms. Goodsetin told The Post she has no plans to shut down any of the papers. The papers were previously owned by John Sutter, who bought them in 1999. “[I’m] delighted to have found someone like Jennifer Goodstein who understands and believes in the community newspaper space and has the digital skills, ideas and ambitions for the newspapers and their websites,” Mr. Sutter said in a statement to Crain’s. Ms. Goodstein’s husband is News Corp. Senior Vice President Les Goodstein, who runs the Community Newspaper Group. (This reporter landed his first job at The Brooklyn Paper, which is part of C.N.G.)

A jury recommended that the sergeant facing charges related to the suicide of Private Danny Chin serve 30 days behind bars. Supporters of Mr. Chin told The Times the sentence was too lenient.

P.S. 63 William McKinley was the first stop for the “Recyclarium,” a mobile lab meant to teach students the importance of recycling. Schoolbook reports that the school received the honor because it “has reduced its trash by 85 percent in two months by composting food waste.” Read more…

Photos: Jason Trobman

There was a swimming pool in Union Square today, but unlike the zip line that popped up some weeks ago, nobody got to use it.

The pool party was created for It’s So Miami, a campaign by the Greater Miami Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Spectators weren’t allowed in the water or on the chaises, and had to settle for tossing beach balls while free trips were given away. (Areas reserved for hunky models? That is so Miami!) Bouncing to club tunes and sipping coconut water, the models, at least, looked like they were having a blast, as did Karina Smirnoff from “Dancing with the Stars.”

Louis Aguirre, a Florida news reporter serving as master of ceremonies, touted Miami as the “sixth borough,” Hey, it’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Edna Ishayik 265-267 Bowery.

A beer hall bound for 265-276 Bowery has become involved in a dust-up that could hurt its chances of snagging a liquor license.

Last Wednesday, Vanessa Solomon was working in her loft apartment on the second floor of the building between Stanton and Houston Streets when a cloud of brown dust came up from the storefront space where the Paulaner Brauhaus plans to open. Her floors, bed, clothes, and papers were covered in dust, she said. She and her live-in partner, Timothy Davis, spent the rest of the day scrambling to find a clean place for their five school-aged children to sleep that night.

“It looked like Pompeii,” Mr. Davis told The Local.

It was only the latest disruption for Ms. Solomon, who, after 17 years in the loft, had already started looking for a new home in Brooklyn. A week before the dust plume struck, her landlord, Craig Murray, called to tell her that her month-to-month lease would end on Sept. 1 due to construction. “The same day,” said Mr. Davis, “demolition started downstairs without any notice to us and without any precautions although Tony Morali, the architect, had promised repeatedly that he would first put in a dust barrier and soundproofing.”

After dust began coming up from the first floor, Paulaner project representatives sent a cleaning service. But that was nothing compared to the carpet of brown powder that rose up July 25.

According to Rudolf Tauscher, an operator of the beer hall, that incident occurred during pre-construction safety checks, after ceiling panels were removed to reveal an “unsafe condition”: cracked wooden planks and beams. “We were trying to establish what needed to be corrected when dust went upward and when a hostile tenant informed the DOB,” he said. Read more…

Sarah Darville Water main construction at Cooper Square.

The steel beams of 51 Astor Place now loom over the entrance to the 6 train. High school students will soon be attending class at Cooper Square. And city contractors are still tearing up asphalt to repair a vital water main.

Here’s a roundup of the latest news on four projects that will transform the gateway to the neighborhood.

Courtesy of Sciame Construction Corp A rendering of 51 Astor.

51 Astor Place

In May, Commercial Observer reported that Hult International Business School was negotiating to take the second floor at the black-glass tower being built at the corner of St. Marks Place and Fourth Avenue. But William Lyman, Vice President of Global Development at the school says it is no longer pursuing the space. That deal would have satisfied a requirement that the building host at least one educational institution. Who will occupy the rest of the space remains a mystery. Microsoft and IBM have previously been rumored to be interested in moving in. Read more…

Time for the latest installment of What’s That You’re Playing?, where we ask a clerk at one of the neighborhood’s record stores to tell us what’s spinning. This week: Cory Feierman of Academy Records.

Melvin Felix 505 LaGuardia

New York University has reached an agreement with the co-op board at 505 LaGuardia that will prevent dramatic rent hikes at the building. The new agreement extends the current lease in perpetuity, as long as the building remains part of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program.

The building’s previous lease was due to expire in 2014 after standing for 50 years. Terms of the new lease became a sticking point in the negotiations surrounding the university’s expansion, even though the building itself would not be affected. Politicians including Borough President Scott Stringer, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, and State Senator Thomas Duane had repeatedly called for the university to come to an agreement with 505 LaGuardia that would avoid rent hikes at the 30-story towers designed by James Freed and I.M. Pei.

Today, N.Y.U. described the agreement, the specific terms of which were not released, as a reflection of the university’s commitment to affordable housing. Read more…