Daniel Maurer

David Ravvin, a 29-year-old graduate of N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business, is opening a sushi joint where Cotan once rolled rice at 135 First Avenue, near St. Marks Place. As you can see from the plywood art created Tuesday by street artist Para, he’s hoping his concept will be a bit more iconic than his predecessor’s was.

The name of the 14-seat restaurant, Iconic Hand Rolls, is a play on the word “cone” – a reference to the funnel-like rolls that Japanese cooking authority Hiroko Shimbo created for the 8- to 12-item menu.  Read more…

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s news that L’asso EV is getting into the bagel biz: Panya, the Japanese bakery known for its strawberry milk, cheese corn bread, and other goodies, has started serving plain, sesame, and everything bagels. From 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., you can get ’em with butter ($2), cream cheese ($3), or egg and cheese ($4) with the options of ham or sausage for a buck more.

Daniel maurer

“Are you keeping the Kiss mural?” That’s what David Conn of Community Board 3’s S.L.A. Committee wanted to know last night about the restaurant that will replace Nice Guy Eddie’s.

“We’re discussing; it depends on the windows,” said Darren Rubell, the co-owner of Ella and Gallery Bar who plans to turn the 16-year-old bar into a comfort-food restaurant with large windows. Mr. Rubell pledged to take the sentimental value of Chico’s longstanding mural into consideration before making a final decision. “It’s been blogged about,” he said, “I’m keeping an eye on it. It’s iconic.” Read more…

Noah Fecks

Thought the bagel burger was unorthodox? L’asso EV is getting into the bagel business, and the restaurant and pizzeria plans to offer hemp-seed, gluten-free, and even vegan varieties.

The ingredients aren’t the only thing of note: the all-organic orbs will be baked for 10 to 12 minutes in the restaurant’s wood-fired oven at the beginning of the day and then toasted in the same oven, to order. Greg Barris, a co-owner of the restaurant, said the bagels will be a whole different story from the traditional kettle-boiled variety. “They’re not as puffy and they have that wood flavor to them,” he told The Local, going on to liken them to harder, flatter Montreal-style bagels. Read more…

No more bumping elbows with the person next to you while gobbling noodles. The new location of Rai Rai Ken is open and roughly double the size of the previous space just a couple doors down on East 10th Street between First and Second Avenues.

Acting manager Yo Katsuse said that the restaurant was in soft-opening mode, and that the official opening date is April 29. “We need to get used to operating in a place this size,” said Mr. Katsuse, 35.

The previous location, which has now closed, only had room for 15 seats at the counter facing the kitchen. The new Rai Rai Ken still has a counter — a feature popular with many customers, Mr. Katsuse said — but also has tables for larger groups. All told, the place can seat 31 people. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

After a 16-year run, Nice Guy Eddie’s will be replaced by a restaurant operated by Darin Rubell, the owner of Ella and Gallery Bar, documents posted on the Community Board 3 website reveal.

David McWater, the owner of the bar at Avenue A and East Houston Street, has not returned an email seeking comment. Mr. Rubell also had no comment. A liquor license questionnaire, prepared for the community board’s SLA committee in advance of a meeting next week, says that the new 10-table restaurant will serve “American comfort food” from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. everyday. It also notes that the restaurant will include “numerous” televisions, raising the possibility that it will continue catering to sports fans. No word yet on whether the new joint will be dominated by boisterous Philadelphia Eagles fans on any given Sunday, as is the case with Nice Guy’s. Read more…

Natalie Rinn Susan Stetzer points at documents as S.L.A.
committee chair Alexandra Militano leafs through them.

Before finalizing a controversial set of stipulations that would ease Community Board 3’s stance against new beer-and-wine licenses in nightlife-heavy areas – so long as applicants agree to close shop early – a task force decided last night to seek counsel from a higher power: the State Liquor Authority.

During a meeting at C.B. 3’s offices last night, District Manager Susan Stetzer said that the board should repair a feeling that it is particularly unbending, shared by applicants and the S.L.A. alike. “We have become infamous,” she said, explaining that applicants’ lawyers approach the S.L.A. and say, “C.B. 3 has a moratorium [on new licenses in resolutions areas], and it’s illegal” – a sentiment with which S.L.A. chair Dennis Rosen agrees, according to Ms. Stetzer. “We are losing respect and clout,” she said. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Ichiraku Ramen at 141 First Avenue.

The ramen joint that replaced Setagaya on First Avenue between St. Marks Place and East Ninth Street has closed after only 18 months. “Business was bad,” said owner Daniel Song, who confirmed that the restaurant shut down this week.

This certainly doesn’t augur a ramen shortage in the neighborhood, however. Rai Rai Ken, Ippudo, and Kuboya (to name a few) are just a few blocks away. Ramen aficionados may recall that the arrival of Setagaya (now on St. Marks Place) at this First Avenue location in 2007 was hyped as a showdown between the Japanese chain’s “authentic” cooking versus the more experimental noodle dishes served a few storefronts away at Momofuku Noodle Bar.

Daniel Maurer

The bacon will keep sizzling, but the smell won’t linger.

At least that’s what Ed Scannapieco, the owner of the IHOP on 14th Street, expects when he installs a new ventilation unit that costs $40,000.

“It knocks down virtually all of the odor and almost all the noise,” said Mr. Sannepieco, who was taking a break from an IHOP conference in Washington, D.C. Read more…

Lauren Carol Smith The restaurant at 7 St. Marks Place will expand next door.

A worker renovating the below-ground space at 5 St. Marks Place, near Third Avenue, just told The Local that the Thai restaurant next door, Klong, will be moving in. An employee at JKNY Realty, which is listed as the owner in Department of Buildings records, confirmed the expansion. The space was previously occupied by Hottie, which closed in November.

Daniel Maurer

A Japanese restaurant with three locations in Long Island will open in the space that was home to Lan, a neighborhood favorite for a little over a decade. When The Local stopped into Kotobuki at 56 Third Avenue earlier today, the owner politely declined to speak about the restaurant or let us take photos, since he is still staffing up, but said he hoped to quietly open next Thursday.

According to a Website advertising outposts in Babylon, Roslyn, and the original location in Hauppauge, the mini-chain was established in 1987, with an aim to “relentlessly revolutionize the facets of Japanese fare to craft extraordinary delights to satisfy even the most discerning of palates.” Read more…

Michelle Rick

Community Board 3 continues to debate whether it should soften its hardline stance against new beer-and-wine licenses in nightlife-saturated areas. Last night, a task-force meeting pitted residents who don’t want to see C.B. 3 bow to late-night noisemakers against a landlord who said he has been financially stymied by the board’s current policy.

In response to evidence that the State Liquor Authority routinely approves beer-and-wine applications even when C.B. 3 recommends disapproval, the board may start supporting the soft stuff in resolution areas that are currently verboten, so long as the applicant agrees to operate primarily in the daytime and close at midnight or earlier. The new stipulations, the board hopes, will both curtail noise and attract more diverse – and especially daytime – businesses.

Residents who live on streets like St. Marks Place and the avenues of Alphabet City, which devolve into something resembling a carnival on weekend nights, showed up at C.B. 3’s offices on East Fourth Street to voice their concerns about the potential policy shift. Read more…

Daniel Maurer Former home of Jubb’s Longevity.

Community Board 3 has released its April calendar of meetings. Looking at the S.L.A. Licensing committee’s agenda: A company by the name of Downtown Dining LLC, which pursued the 205 Club space on the Lower East Side before Matt Levine took it over, is now going after 5 Avenue A, which happens to be the address of neighborhood fixture Nice Guy Eddie’s (no one picked up when we called the bar to find out whether it may close). The former Mo Pitkins and Aces and Eights space, 34 Avenue A, is back on the calendar, this time with the mysterious Great Life Hospitality Group pursuing wine and beer there. Read more…

At last night’s full board meeting, Community Board 3 upheld its liquor licensing committee’s vote to recommend that the State Liquor Authority deny a full liquor license at 200 Avenue A, the old Superdive spot, as well as at Spanish newcomer Bikinis unless the latter operates as a full service restaurant during the day and nighttime hours are curbed to midnight. There was, however, one reversal: earlier this month, the subcommittee voted against a beer and wine license at Sahara Citi, a falafel joint at 137 East 13th Street, under the mistaken impression that it stood on “grandfathered” non-compliant commercial property. Last night, it was discovered that the address was in fact zoned commercial and the decision was overturned.

Daniel Maurer Andy Koszewski at the cafe’s front counter.

The Bowery Poetry Club’s front café, which went dark after Bowery Beef closed last summer, is once again brewing coffee, this time under the eye of a former manager at Think Coffee’s Mercer Street location (not the Bowery location just a block away – that would be awkward).

Andy Koszewski, the café’s new operator, opened shop earlier today, and is pouring drip coffee ($2.50, refills $1.50) from Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co., a stylish small-batch roaster from his hometown of Milwaukee, Wis. Once the La Marzocco machine is back from the repair shop later this week, he’ll be pulling espresso ($2.50) for cappuccinos ($3.75), mochas ($4.25) and the like. Also on offer: Chai lattes, hot chocolate, and eventually croissants and quiches from Ceci Cela Patisserie, salads from Choice Greens, and cookies from Salt of the Earth Bakery. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

Go enjoy the lovely weather in International Bar’s backyard and you’ll be surprised to find a wooden fence splitting it in half. The divider is the result of a court battle roughly a year ago that pitted the owners of the bar against the neighboring German sausage and beer joint.

A co-owner of International Bar, Shawn Dahl, said that the landlord of both businesses, Steven Croman, had rented the whole backyard to International when it opened after its renovation, and subsequently rented half of it to Wechsler’s when it opened in 2009.

“When Wechsler’s came along it turned out that the landlord had rented them the backyard as well,” Ms. Dahl said, later adding, “I blame the landlord.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Earlier this morning, a new neon sign was going up over Artichoke Pizza. Now the hungry hordes can spot the 14th Street hole-in-the-wall from the avenues! (As if the line wasn’t long enough?) We’ll check back later to see the signage in all of its illuminated glory.

Mark your calendars, barflies: On Sunday, Lucyna Mickievicius, the owner of Lucy’s, will close shop for two and a half weeks to visit her son in Poland. “He’s very sick and I’m going to spend some time with him,” she told The Local. “I’ll be there for Easter with my family, and will come back April 12 or 13. It’ll be nice to spend Easter in Poland.” Aww, but will she miss us? “I’ll miss everyone at the bar,” she said. “I always do.”

Stephen Rex Brown Future home of Bikinis.

Two items proved contentious at a meeting of Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee last night: Neighbors got their bottoms in a bunch over Bikinis, a sandwich shop that had been vying for a controversial backyard space. And the new project in the former Superdive space got the committee’s thumbs-down once again.

First, the good news: At 116 Avenue C, the owners of popular newcomer Edi and the Wolf are opening a new Austrian tavern. Transfer of the existing full liquor license quickly and easily got the committee’s support. Also: Angelica Kitchen, which had been illegally allowing customers to bring their own bottles, got a vote of support for its first wine and beer license, which the owners said would help it resume BYOB service.

Meanwhile a “simple ground-floor sandwich shop,” as a representative described it, due to open at 56 Avenue C didn’t have such an easy time of it. The owners of Bikinis, which will serve the like-named Spanish sandwiches, made clear that the backyard they had previously expressed interest in using was off the table for the moment. But eleven community members lined up to protest anyway, some insisting the noise from the supermarket recycling machines on the corner and the oft-overpowering music and revelry from Nublu was already unbearable. Read more…