When we first brought word of Alphabet City Beer Co. in December, it was an empty storefront. Last Thursday, the bar-and-beer-shop hybrid opened its doors and its taps. Helmed by David Hitchner (co-owner of In Vino, Alphabet City Wine Co.) and Zach Mack (a writer who has worked at tech start-ups) it’ll serve far-east guzzlers and gourmands who don’t feel like schlepping over to Good Beer to refill their growlers. In addition to coolers stocked with takeout bottles and cans from around the world, there’s a bar serving about a dozen beers on draft (expect the recently launched Alphabet City Brewing Co. to make appearances) and a grocery section carrying cured meats and cheeses picked out by Martin Johnson, an East Villager who writes the Joy of Cheese blog and also knows a thing or two about jazz.
The new shop expects to host beer tastings on a weekly basis. Sixpoint Brewery recently visited, and Louisiana’s Abita Brewery will follow up with an event next week. Watch The Local’s video for a look inside.
You’ve met the the DJ, the musician, the drag queen, and the bar manager. Now, to conclude this week’s series, meet Agnes Wtaszczuk, the overnight waitress and floor manager who hosts the nightly after-after-party at (where else?) Veselka.
“Pool (no water),” by British actor, playwright, and journalist Mark Ravenhill, ends its run at the 9th Space this weekend. If you’re in town, you may want to make your out-of-town friends jealous by catching One Year Lease Theater Company’s production of the 2006 play tonight or tomorrow.
Envy, after all, is what this excellent work is all about. In it, a group of artists divulge the story of a friend who, having found the critical and commercial success they haven’t, invites them to her new mansion to party like old times. This friendship is called into question when she gravely injures herself from jumping into a pool with, well, no water.
The group sees artistic potential in their friend’s condition, which leads to thoughts of profit. They photograph her discolored body, even moving it into the light of the hospital window. Yet they insist (and not without credibility) that they still love her. Most shockingly, she starts to recover — and says she’d love to work with their photographs. Read more…
Landmarks Preservation CommissionThe garage at 27 East Fourth Street, and the proposed building.
Community Board 2 beefed up its efforts to protect the historic Merchant’s House Museum last night, resolving to disapprove of a plan to build a hotel next to the historic building unless the proposed structure is scaled back.
Earlier this week, the board’s Landmarks and Public Aesthetics Committee issued a recommendation that the nine-story hotel be “in scale with the adjacent Merchant’s House, not industrial buildings on Lafayette,” meaning the new hotel should only be four stories tall. But last night, members of the full board objected that the recommendation failed to explicitly demand that the hotel’s construction permit be denied unless its developers agreed to downsize.
Nick Nicholson, the chair of the board of directors of the Merchant’s House Museum, felt that, without such a rejection clause, the recommendation wasn’t forceful enough in voicing concern that the demolition of a one-story garage next to the Merchant’s House and the construction of the hotel might jeopardize the structural integrity and delicate plasterwork of the 19th century landmark. And members of the board agreed. Read more…
Construction workers at 35 Cooper Square were preparing to pour concrete for a new sidewalk this afternoon, but knew nothing about any plans for the closely watched lot. Last year preservationists fought a losing battle to save the Federal-style building built around 1825 that once stood there.
We’ve heard from the DJ, the musician, and the drag queen. Today: meet Liam Wager, a bar manager at Sidewalk Cafe. He’s one of the people who keep the East Village popping.
The construction shed at Iconic Hand Rolls, which got memorably defaced last month, has come down; earlier today, workers were painting the facade of the building on Second Avenue near St. Marks Place. Seems everyone’s in a painterly mood: Calliope was sporting new colors earlier this week, and yesterday we spotted work being done at Michael White’s forthcoming pizzeria, Nicoletta, at Second Avenue and 10th Street. Here‘s how it looked today.
Aziza isn’t the only new hookah lounge in the neighborhood. Sahara Citi opened on 13th Street earlier this month. The restaurant sells about 30 flavors of tobacco and Mediterranean cuisine (see menu below). An inspirational message on the wall reads, “It is what it is…but it will become what you make it,”which might well be a reference to the casual ambiance and modest decor. Another small sign reads: “Wine me up and watch me go!” Unfortunately, despite a last-minute blessing from the community board, Saraha Citi’s beer-and-wine license is still pending, so alcohol won’t be served for at least another month. See the menu…
An “aerial circus,” poetry, burlesque, plenty of theater and even talk show legend Joe Franklin are part of this weekend’s Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.
The free festival, celebrating its 17th year at the Theater For The New City, starts on Friday and will feature outdoor performances on East 10th Street near First Avenue.
Other highlights include excerpts from productions by local institutions La Mama ETC and Horse Trade Theater Company, a film festival dedicated to the neighborhood, and a performance by the experimental dance group from the Children’s Workshop School. The theme for the over 100 participating arts organizations is “Legalize Freedom: Art as Activism.” Read more…
Martine MallaryAn actress plays Evangeline Cory Booth at the Markle’s 80th anniversary in 2010.
The Salvation Army’s Markle Evangeline Residence for Women, which celebrated its 82nd anniversary yesterday, is one of the last of the city’s “girls’ homes,” and an odd bird: incoming tenants pay $1,650 to $1,735 a month for a single room that comes with perks like weekly maid service, two meals a day, and access to a rooftop lounge with sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. At the same time, they’re forbidden from having alcohol in their rooms, or bringing men back to them, and the building is run by staff members with titles like major and lieutenant colonel.
General Evangeline Cory Booth, daughter of the Salvation Army’s British-born founder, envisioned the residence as a safe haven for young single women of modest means. When the cornerstone of the 17-story art deco building at 123 West 13th Street was laid in 1930, one of its first residents beamed, “already it has the atmosphere of a real home. There are 325 girls overjoyed to be living here.”
But as the Markle observed its anniversary yesterday in a basement space that once held a swimming pool and is now used as a dining room, not everyone was so overjoyed. Last month, Marion Jeeves jumped from the window of her small apartment and died at the age of 57. Friends said she was a poet who had been depressed over long periods of unemployment and financial difficulties.
Others have left the building under less tragic but still bitter circumstances, complaining that the residence no longer caters to those of modest means. Read more…
Don’t worry, they’re not real! The brain-noshers above are part of a promotion for the video game Zombie Swipeout at the Bleecker Street station this morning. Similar photo ops are taking place all over the city. A contractor working on the renovations to the subway station was overheard joking that he better alert a safety inspector on duty.
If this sort of thing annoys you, you may want to steer clear of the L train Sunday.
A truck struck and killed a 21-year-old woman crossing the street at Union Square early this morning and then fled the scene, the police said.
The truck was traveling eastbound on East 14th Street at around 1:15 a.m. when it made the turn onto Broadway and hit the victim, who was crossing Broadway, according to the police. The name of the victim, who was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital, has not yet been released. The police have not made any arrests for the incident.
In an example of particularly grim timing, a new short video by Karen Loew, who lives near East 14th Street, highlights the particularly dangerous intersection with First Avenue, only three blocks away from the fatal accident. Read more…
We’ve introduced you to the DJ and the musician. Know who else keeps the East Village popping? Linda Simpson, the self-declared “multimedia drag queen artiste” who with fellow legend Murray Hill hosts Monday Night Bingo at the Bowery Poetry Club. She tells The Local what it was like living in the East Village when it was the epicenter of New York City’s drag scene and clues us into some of her current favorite places to walk on the wild side.
Stephen Rex BrownGelato Ti Amo, prior to its opening.
So what’s with the symbol that popped up in the window of 136 Second Avenue, near Ninth Street, recently? Is that a frothy head of steamed milk, indicating a new coffee bar on the horizon? Is it a scallop, meaning a seafood spot?
Neither. A construction worker told The Local that a gelato joint is bound for the space, a mere five blocks north of Gelato Ti Amo, which opened in the last week. (And, it should be noted, a block from where Timi’s Gelateria Classica quickly went out of business.)
The battle between Gathering of the Tribes and its landlord rages on.
Yesterday the founder of the art space at 285 East Third Street, Steve Cannon, was served with a formal “10-day notice of termination” for “continued use of the premises as an office and art gallery, which is contrary to the lawful usage permitted by the certificate of occupancy for the building.”
The document (below) goes on to cite a violation from the Department of Buildings, as well as parties that have “disturbed the quiet enjoyment as well as affected the safety of other tenants in the building” as other reasons for the notice. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownThe arborists prepare to climb trees at Astor Place.
Tree-climbers are searching for the dreaded Asian longhorned beetle at Astor Place today. An arborist at the scene said that no beetles had recently been spotted, but that the area was contaminated about four years ago, so investigators are being “extra careful.”
The climbers typically look for circular, pencil-diameter holes in the trees, the signature of the Chinese beetle that first appeared in the city — and in the U.S. — in 1996. When a beetle is found, it spells the destruction of the infested tree and usually many of the other trees nearby in an attempt to quarantine the insect.
The tree-climbers are a fairly common sight in the neighborhood. Late last year they were spotted on Avenue A.
A program that serves needy East Village and Lower East Side immigrants is in peril, as a significant chunk of its funding will disappear when its sponsor, the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, closes next month.
After last-ditch efforts to keep the Cabrini Center open fell through and the new owner of its building at Fifth Street and Avenue B, Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Realty Group, announced in March that it would go ahead with redevelopment plans, it became apparent that the nursing home’s 240 residents would be forced to relocate.
Those elderly residents won’t be the only ones affected by the closure on June 30. The Cabrini Center also sponsors Cabrini Immigrant Services, a Lower East Side organization that, according to its director Sister Kelly Carpenter, feeds about 16,000 people a week. City, state, and federal grants totaling $94,000 pay for most of the meals, but the cost of administering them has, to this point, been covered by the center. Read more…
Arts Beat has the latest on the lineup of bands scheduled to play the inaugural CBGB Festival July 4 weekend, including War on Drugs, a stable of New York bands and plenty of throwbacks like MxPx.
Local venues like Otto’s Shrunken Head, Lit Lounge, The Bowery Electric, Local 269, Webster Hall and Joe’s Pub are among the 30 that will host shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The Local has also discovered that the Upright Citizens Brigade will curate a series of “rock and roll comedy and improv shows” at the UCB East Theater. A new documentary, “The Rise and Fall of the Clash,” will premiere during the film portion of the festival. See ticket prices, film and conference lineups…
Clayton Patterson sent the above photo of over 100 people marching down Broadway, near East Ninth Street, in a show of solidarity for students protesting tuition hikes in Quebec. Another tipster sent us video of protesters heading down Bowery. Around 8 p.m., The Local spotted police cars racing down 12th Street and up and down Avenue A in an apparent effort to head off the march at Tompkins Square Park. It ended in Union Square.
A representative for Bantam tells us the Stanton Street lounge will open a 30-seat tented patio after a preview party tomorrow. It’ll be open at 17 Stanton Street, Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for happy hour and then the door will get more selective after 11 a.m.
With the former Van Tassell & Kearney Horse Auction Mart building now a landmark, Off the Grid takes a closer look at its history, noting that it also served as an assembly-line training center for women during World War II. Read more…
They’re the people that keep the East Village popping: yesterday we introduced you to the DJ. Today, meet the musician. On Ka’a Davis, a former squatter, discusses changes in the music and art scene over the three decades he has lived in the East Village.
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »
