The Dieline points out that The Blind Barber has teamed up with Joya to create custom candles. One of the scents in the so-called “Tompkins” line is “Smoke.” If that conjures images of tents being torched or trash barrels being used for warmth, rest assured that the smells were inspired by the East 10th Street barber shop, not by the park.

A fire scorched the interior of Flea Market Café today at around lunch time. A spokesman for the Fire Department said the blaze broke out at around 1:23 p.m. and that 60 firefighters arrived at the scene on Avenue A between St. Marks Place and Ninth Street. Within 20 minutes the fire was under control, and one firefighter was treated for minor injuries, according to the spokesman. Shortly thereafter, the dining room was a singed mess, and burnt tables and chairs were strewn about the sidewalk. An acrid odor still hung in the air.

An employee at Nino’s next door reported seeing a napkin holder on fire before the flames spread. The cause of the blaze is still being investigated, according to the spokesman.

According to I Love East Village, a local arts group is looking for volunteers to paint an entire block of roofs on East Fourth Street. The White Roof Project, working with Fourth Arts Block, says the project will demonstrate that white roofs lower the temperature in the area, which in turn reduces demands on the power grid.

Last week’s episode of “Louie” stopped into East Village Wines, and last night’s episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” had an East Village arc, too. Sort of.

Early in the episode, Larry visits Veniero’s, the 115-year-old pasticceria on East 11th Street, and takes a loaf of Italian bread to Suzie’s dinner party “around the corner.” (You’ll forgive the grainy and inverted screen grabs.)

Funny thing is, an establishing shot shows the dinner party isn’t around the corner at all. Doesn’t this avenue look suspiciously like Central Park West? Read more…

Ross Bennett Lewis on capturing neighborhood creatives.

Silver Print / First Avenue, 1995

“Tompkins Square Park with the surrounding avenues and streets offer an endless milieu of unexpected finds. Photographing people is most challenging yet very rewarding. I admire people with creative energy and their endeavors. After losing so many people to AIDS in the 1980s, I was disappointed in not having taken wonderful black and white images of them, so by the early 1990s I resumed shooting in black and white, using analog cameras and film. Years later these photographs become historical, as they have a different texture than digital. New York City has an abundance of material to shoot, whether it be people, architecture or just recording the quality of light and city life.”
Read more…

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Photos: Lauren Carol Smith

After closing for renovations in March, the venerable Sidewalk Café reopened its bar yesterday. Tomorrow, its dining room reopens with the spiffy new look that you see here. Helah Kehati, who officially joined the family business in March, can be credited with some of the changes. Her father Amnon Kehati opened the “anti-folk” music fixture in 1985, the year after she was born. “I’ve been pushing him and begging him to revamp it for the last two or three years,” she said today. “I wanted a space that was cleaned up and caught up with the times. It was my dad who made the decision that if we’re going to do this, it has to be done the right way.”

That meant a complete gut renovation that might leave appreciators of shabby chic bristling. But Ms. Kehati is resolved. “I’ve seen drastic changes in the neighborhood,” she said. “The faces are different, for better or worse. You’re getting a lot of college students, younger crowds, higher rents. We’re not trying to change what we’re good at — we’re just trying to evolve with our neighborhood.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Dennis Mykytyn paid $3,000 for 100 phone numbers with a 212 area code.

Newcomers to the city are often burdened with area codes that advertise their rookie status like a scarlet letter. But few go to the drastic lengths of Dennis Mykytyn, who wanted a 212 area code so badly he paid $3,000 for 100 of them.

“It’s prestigious,” said Mr. Mykytyn, who runs a record label, Modern Records, in an office at Lafayette and East Fourth Streets. “When 212 is on your phone, everyone knows where that it is, and it means you’ve been around for a while.”

Mr. Mykytyn bought the 212 numbers in bulk in 2007 when he was moving his hedge fund from Westchester to 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He’s since closed the fund and now uses less than 10 of the numbers.

But he has no intention of selling the dormant digits. Read more…

According to a real estate listing picked up by Curbed, Karl Fischer, the architect that just last week unveiled his plans for a building on East 12th Street, is now designing a 33-unit building to replace an East Third Street townhouse dating back to 1900.

Elizabeth Vulaj The old East Village location

Back in April, Mara Levi touched off quite a bit of commenter chatter when she claimed that a lack of parking (caused by a newly installed bike lane) contributed to the closure of her East Sixth Street restaurant, Mara’s Homemade. In May, Ms. Levi opened a new location of the restaurant in Syosset, Long Island. So how’s life with a parking lot? Quite good, Ms. Levi said yesterday. In fact, she said she would probably not return to the East Village.

“You can’t do lunch, and it’s very expensive,” she explained. “I was paying Madison Avenue prices and not having the accessibility of that many people.” She said she had been offered a “much better location where I could do lunch” on the Upper East Side, at one third of the rent of her small East Village storefront. (Ms. Levi said she was not opposed to returning to the city: “If an opportunity comes along, we would consider it.”)

Meanwhile, the Nassau County resident is enjoying the perks of suburbia. Read more…

Susan Keyloun

Good morning, East Village.

Have you seen the bus stop sign on St. Marks Place that seems to have been hacked down like an old oak tree? If not, Neighborhoodr has some fun photos. “No Standing” indeed.

In other news, the fire department had an early wake up call this morning. DNAinfo reports that a minor fire broke out at 5:43 a.m. at 40 Avenue D. It took firefighters 30 minutes to control the blaze on the eighth floor. No one was hurt and the cause of the fire is being investigated.

Finally, after the closing of Banjo Jim’s was delayed, the staff of the bluegrass, jazz, and Americana bar has now announced (per EV Grieve) that Monday is the final day of business. As you know, new owner Rob Ceraso is converting the space into an artisanal cocktail bar.

Jay Sullivan A scene from “Yeast Nation,” part of the month-long Fringe Festival starting this evening.

You’ve already been told about “Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin’ Rock Opera” and “Theater of the Arcade: Five Classic Video Games Adapted for the Stage,” but where the 15th Annual Fringe Festival is concerned, that’s just the start of the kookiness. A few weeks ago, we received a whopping 87 press releases for the festival, which throws its opening party tonight. We combed through them to find lines that alone are worth the price of admission.

Whale Song or: Learning to Live With Mobyphobia: “Only Maya Swan knows why Molly the whale is stranded in the Hudson River. Maya knows Molly has come to deliver a message from her dead father (whose body was found sprawled nude on the back of a killer whale at Sea World). But what is the message?”

Killing John Grisham: “Follows aspiring author Josh’s quest to escape his minimum wage life, derailed by self-doubt, girl problems and loyal friends with violent tendencies. Did we mention the world famous author who steals Josh’s book? That too.” Read more…

Ai Weiwei and Clayton Patterson aren’t the only photographers whose portraits of the East Village in the eighties are getting new attention— The Villager notes that Arlene Gottfried’s photos of 1970s and 1980s Loisaida (a time and place that Marlis Momber also documented) are featured in a new book. “Bacalaitos & Fireworks” captures “the age of tube socks and tight gym shorts, disco and Menudo, the neighborhood’s abandonment by landlords and everyday arson.”

Photo courtesy Christina Tosi

We wouldn’t expect anything short of an inspired list from the woman who has introduced “crack pie” and “cereal milk” to a passionate fan base in the East Village and beyond, and happily Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar does not disappoint. The pastry chef with a Willy Wonka imagination has worked in the East Village for over five years, and appreciates what she describes as the neighborhood’s “open mind and ‘don’t take yourself so seriously’ approach to things.” It’s a perfect philosophy for Tosi’s unexpected approach to desserts, which will soon be revealed in her first cookbook, “Momofuku Milk Bar,” out in October.

“I hope ours are recipes that carry people through bake sales, sleepovers and celebrations for years,” explains Tosi via email on a typically busy day in the kitchen. We certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a salty pretzel-studded Compost Cookie at the local potluck. In the meantime, on to Tosi’s favorites! Read more…

Back in June, The Times asked, “In the East Village, Where Have All the Nomads Gone?” Now The Villager reports that some of the so-called “travelers” or “crusties” have returned to Tompkins Square Park, “though in smaller numbers.” A reputation for heroin is keeping one couple away; meanwhile in a separate item, veteran “gutter pirate” L.E.S Jewels tells The Villager that it’s not easy getting sober in the park since, he says, “everyone keeps offering me drinks.”

Rachel Citron

Good morning, East Village.

The weekend is almost here, so why not start partying a little early? Cure Thrift Shop is celebrating its 3rd birthday today with a party at 111 East 12 Street. Proceeds from the $5 admission fee go toward diabetes research and get you access to snacks, drinks, and a raffle, as well as live music from Roosevelt Dime.

In entertainment news, DNAinfo reports that the production staff of the USA Network show “White Collar” disguised Cooper Union’s Foundation Hall as a hotel for a recent scene shoot.

Speaking of cable television, the Post gets inside the East Village walk-up that Constance Zimmer of “Entourage” shares with her husband, commercial director Russ Lamoureux. Fun fact: She went to school with Benicio del Toro. Read more…

Almost a year after 45 Bleecker Street ceased to operate as a theater due to a dispute between the landlord and the production company that leased the space, the New York International Fringe Festival is reviving it as a temporary headquarters. Starting this Friday, the venue will host productions such as “Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin’ Rock Opera” and “Theater of the Arcade: Five Classic Video Games Adapted for the Stage.” However, it’s uncertain how long the space’s life as a theater will last.

The landlord Fred Rogers, a retired New York City electrical engineer who now lives in Las Vegas, is aggressively trying to find a new tenant. He said that of the potential renters, “a couple” were interested in turning the space into a restaurant, another couple hoped to turn it into a bar, and just one was interested in keeping the building as a theater.

Mr. Rogers said he doesn’t care what type of business eventually occupies the space: “I’m an owner, period, and I’m looking for steady tenants.” Read more…

Michelle Rick

Today on The Local, we’re hosting a dialogue about the neighborhood’s proposed historic districts. First, Britton Baine and Richard Moses, who serve on the steering committee of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, spoke out in favor of them. Now architect Ido Nissani argues that one of the districts would burden and disrespect the synagogue he attends. Add your own thoughts via the comments.

As an active member of the Meseritz Synagogue on East Sixth Street and a graduate of Cooper Union, the East Village has come to be part of my heart.

Recently, our house of worship has been included in a proposed historic district in the neighborhood. This has caused great concern among the congregation of the synagogue about the expenses associated with being a landmarked building, as well as the implication of ceding dominion of our building to a city agency.

For those who ask: “What guarantees do we have that the historic synagogue will still stand many years from now if it is not landmarked?” I respond: “What guarantees do we have to see these very buildings standing if they are landmarked?” Read more…

A second NYPD officer was sentenced to two months in jail today for his improper interactions with an intoxicated East Village woman while on duty, City Room reports. The sentence for Franklin Mata, 29, comes two days after his partner, Kenneth Moreno, was sentenced to one year for the same incident. City Room quotes the judge as telling Mr. Mata that he “drew the short straw” when he was assigned Mr. Moreno as a partner.