Daniel Maurer Lobster Joint’s Rockaway location.

Here’s more evidence of the East Village-Rockaway and the East Village-Greenpoint-Williamsburg dining continuums – oh, and a Lower East Side oyster trend.

Lobster Joint, which opened in Greenpoint last year and set up a concession stand in Rockaway Beach this summer, wants to sink its claws into the home of French bistro Lina Frey on East Houston Street.

Yesterday afternoon the seafood spot’s owner, lifelong Greenpointer Thomas Chabrowshi, chased local residents through a sea of tourists standing in front of Katz’s. He was looking for their support in the transfer of a liquor license at 201 East Houston Street, near Ludlow Street. Read more…

Courtesy of Glaze

Paul Krug wanted to open a Seattle-style teriyaki joint in the East Village, where he had lived for most of his ten years in New York. But the Emerald City native couldn’t find the perfect lease, so he settled in midtown instead. Two years later, he’s finally giving it a go just below 14th Street.

The second outpost of Glaze Teriyaki Grill opened today at 139 Fourth Avenue – right next to another narrow takeout joint, Dos Toros – in a building where Mr. Krug once lived (he’s now a couple of minutes away).

“We never intended to go to midtown first. We always wanted to go down here,” said the restaurateur. 

Take a look inside

Maharlika just released this amazing video promoting its balut-eating competition at the Dekalb Market this weekend. The Filipino snack strikes fear in the heart – or at least, queasiness in the stomach – of many (just watch East Villager Josh Ozersky lose his cool at the sight of a fertilized duck embryo being pulled from its shell), but according to chef-owner Miguel Trinidad, 20 brave souls have signed up to see how many eggs they can suck down in a five-minute span.

The pressure is on for the 10 who will take the stage: according to the chef, there’s been interest from Guinness World Records. No less than 300 eggs will be at the ready this Saturday (they’ll also be sold to spectators for $3 a pop). Mr. Trinidad said a friend of the restaurant has already done a test-run, and managed to down 25 eggs in five minutes. “He felt fine,” said the chef.

By the way, this isn’t the only gastronomic showdown involving an East Village restaurant. A reader uses the Virtual Assignment Desk to send word of an Iron Chef-style cooking competition at the Tompkins Square Greenmarket. Read more…

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

Melvin Felix

Tonight, Two Boots celebrates its 25th anniversary with an outdoor concert hosted by Luis Guzman and featuring performances by the Sierra Leone Refuge All-Stars, circus acts, live painters, poets from the Nuyorican and more. So we talked to the pizza and film chain’s maverick owner and community builder, Phil Hartman, about how he’s kept his Avenue A shop running while watching his other businesses open, close and relocate.

In the East Village and Lower East Side, you’ve endured some losses alongside your business triumphs.

We closed the Two Boots on Grand Street but that one was never supposed to stay open long. It was in a location too close to the East Village one. We also moved a location from Rock Center to Hells Kitchen. That was a cool move into a great funky environment. A big loss for me was when we closed down Mo Pitkins. The Pioneer Theater closing down was another one. Losing it was hard. We’d invested a lot into it. I used to say the Pioneer ate 40,000 slices of pizza a year at $2.50 a slice, so it was expensive to keep it going. I wish we could have kept it, but our lease ran out. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Daniel Maurer

Just a quick update from pizza land: a sign on the door of Pomodoro Pizzeria says it will be closed for three weeks for “cosmetic work and cleaning.” It’s uncertain when the note was posted or whether the spelling of “Pizzaria” will finally be corrected.

Maybe Pomodoro is feeling the heat from its new neighbor on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets? Michael White’s Nicoletta just got outdoor seats, as you can see above.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, a sidewalk barker with a bullhorn (hey, it’s hard to be heard above the construction noises from 51 Astor) was handing out “VIP Customer” cards for 15 percent off at another newcomer, Little Italy Pizza. She also noted that the place sells bottled water. (But does it contain supplements?)

And finally, signage for a new location of Joey Pepperoni’s Pizza, a chain that sells slices for $1, has gone up at 222 First Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets.

Oh, and L’asso EV has started hosting “Breaking Bad” viewing parties. $25 gets a pitcher plus a pie.

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

Melvin Felix Richard Cullen

After twenty years, Richard Cullen and Gail Busche, the couple that runs Archangel Antiques, may be coming to the end of their time at 334 East Ninth Street. The culprit, as you might have guessed, is rent. “When we first moved in it was like $800 a month,” said Mr. Cullen. “Now it’s close to $4,800 and it’s going to go up on the next lease – easily. So, we are thinking of retiring when the lease is up. By then we will be in our 70s and probably won’t want to sign another lease. We’ll be looking to sell the business.” We spoke with Mr. Cullen about the quirky antiques emporium and who they might want to hand it off to down the road.

You have two stores in one. How does that work?

One is west and the other east. They are both about 10-by-30. There are oddities on the east side of the store, which is the side I run. I say “home furnishings.” I have a stuffed hawk, stuffed iguanas, and all kinds of old, odd creatures. On the west side is the antique buttons and cuff links, vintage eyewear, the vintage jewelry and clothing that my partner Gail runs with Michael who manages that side of the store and has been with us for 18 years. The wacky stuff we get is endless, but we keep things neat and clean. I just sold a stunning marble bust of a Mississippi riverboat croupier. Read more…

This week, mourn the closing of Mama’s Food Shop; next week, celebrate 25 years of Two Boots.

Jeremiah Clancy, the owner of Mama’s Food Shop, has sent out the flyer you see here, inviting friends of the shuttered restaurant to a party at Heathers. If you didn’t get a chance to visit Mama’s before its sudden closing a couple of weeks ago, this is your opportunity to say goodbye to the staff, and maybe snag one of the maternal portraits that graced the walls. Also, Mr. Clancy has told Facebook fans that he may print commemorative t-shirts.

In happier news, Two Boots will celebrate 25 years with a blowout in East River Park next Thursday. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Lower East Side fixture Luis Guzman will host an evening of live music from the Sierra Leone All-Stars, Odetta Hartman (the singing-songwriting daughter of Two Boots owner Phil Hartman), and others; poetry readings courtesy of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and performances from members of Lady Circus and the Magic Beans, the Free Art Society, and 4Heads Art Collective. As if all that weren’t enough, there’ll be free beer and pizza.

Daniel Maurer

While 3-D artist and animator M. Henry Jones celebrates the success of his Kickstarter campaign, the plywood is off at the storefront that housed his former studio at 202 Avenue A. As you can see, there’s no longer a t.v. looping trippy visuals installed in the wall, and the place actually has windows! Kerry Bright tells us he’s waiting for some final furniture deliveries and Bright Audio should soft-open in the space between 12th and 13th Streets late next week, with his stock of home theater and audio-visual equipment filling in gradually after that.

We’ll have interior shots once everything’s in order.

Stephen Rex Brown 54 Bond Street.

Three’s a trend, right? A high-end clothing boutique, Intermix, is coming to the Bowery, joining Patagonia and Anthropologie and reinforcing the notion that the once notorious thoroughfare is thoroughly upscale.

A spokeswoman for the store catering to “trendsetters, A-Listers and glam fashionistas” confirmed the store was “slated to open on Bowery,” but wouldn’t say exactly where Intermix will join the mix.

Bowery Boogie reported that the store would open in 54 Bond Street, citing an anonymous tipster. But Billy Reid, which currently occupies the space, denied the rumor. In fact, an employee at the store said the owners “were really pissed” that it was reported before they were contacted. Read more…

Courtesy Back Forty

Sure, everyone associates Rockaway Beach with the Rockabus‘s home base of Williamsburg, but fact is, there’s also an East Village connection that goes all the way back to the Ramones song: Caracas has an outpost on the boardwalk, and Jeremy Spector of the Brindle Room serves up Donkey Punch Pizza nearby. Oh, and the folks who operate the Veggie Island farmstand keep an apartment on 12th Street. (And then there’s these dudes!) So it should be no surprise that Back Forty is joining the bunch, at least for a couple of days.

This Saturday and the next, you can enjoy the place’s wildly popular crab boil (currently in full effect at the Avenue B location) on the boardwalk, at the Beach 96th Street concession stand. From 5 p.m. till 10 p.m. (or whenever the crabs run out), $25 gets you a half dozen spiced jimmies (and a mallet to hammer them with), two ears of corn, and steamed potatoes. Plus, bands including Kyp Malone’s TV on the Radio side project, Rain Machine, will perform starting at 4 p.m.

If you can’t make it, mark your calendar for Aug. 28 to Sept. 1 – that’s when Back Forty will end the season with five consecutive nights of crab boils at the East Village location. Pre-paid reservations will go on sale here next Wednesday.

Stephen Rex Brown

Stephen Rex Brown

A new pizza joint opened at 23 Third Avenue today, right around the corner from where 2 Bros. started experimenting with $1.50 slices last week.

St. Marks Pizza is slinging pies in the former home of Tahini. Earlier this year chef Michael Huynh told Eater that he planned to open a restaurant serving cheese steaks in the space, though that idea apparently went nowhere. (Elsewhere in Mr. Huynh’s universe, Eater breaks news that BaoBQ has officially closed on First Avenue.)

Now, St. Marks Pizza is serving fairly standard fare. Several signs trumpet “Little Italy Pizza” (right here in the East Village!) A slice goes for $2.75. Read more…

Jamie Larson Bookshop owners Terrence McCoy and Bob
Contant.

The constantly-embattled St. Mark’s Bookshop surpassed its goal of $23,000 today, though that doesn’t mean the beloved store’s survival is certain.

“This first big chunk at least guarantees that we will keep fighting because you have shown everyone that there is a reason to,” the owners wrote in a thank you note posted online.

Currently, the store has raised over $24,000 and still has three days of fundraising left.

But in a phone conversation co-owner Terrence McCoy said many hurdles remained. For one, the store’s shelves are disconcertingly empty due to the fact that some publishers have stopped shipping new books due to unpaid bills. The owners are seeking investors who could fund the new storefront, but thus far, any potential backers have favored the existing location, Mr. McCoy said.

“I can’t say that we’re going to instantly move,” he added. Read more…

Back in June, Paul Gerard, the chef who took over the short-lived Zi’Pep space on Ninth Street, told us he would open Exchange Alley with Billy Gilroy, a partner in West Village hotspot Employees Only. So what does “New York with a New Orleans flair” look like? Watch our video of yesterday’s opening night festivities to find out.

Yesterday Mr. Gerard, who was a chef in New Orleans before most recently serving as chef of Soho House, said he would be preparing a frequently changing menu using, in part, ingredients from a backyard garden that he hoped would be used by local schoolchildren. “Some days I’m enamored with pasta, other days I’m enamored with tomatoes,” he said. “By the time the tomato season is just about over, I’ll be enamored with root vegetables and game.” The bar, backed by mirror-finished stainless steel, will serve beer-and-wine cocktails till 2 a.m. on weekends.

The walls are decorated with photos of some of Mr. Gerard’s creative inspirations, including downtowners like Lou Reed and Miguel Piñero. The chef is hoping to tap into the new make-up of the neighborhood, which has changed a lot since his younger days living in Alphabet City. Read more…

Courtesy Hill Country Pierogi Bacon pierogies

Rob Harding left his job in marketing to start a food truck in Texas and now he wants to bring his pierogies back home to the East Village.

After he got laid off from a gig at Groupon, the 39-year-old and his girlfriend, Britney Lukowsky, 30, moved to Austin, Tex. to launch Hill Country Pierogi last September. The truck, currently on summer hiatus, serves a traditional potato pierogi based on a recipe handed down by Ms. Lukowsky’s Polish family, as well as out-there varieties like chorizo and kimchi pork.

Last week, Mr. Harding posted an ad on Craigslist indicating that he was looking for an investor for a small brick-and-mortar takeout shop (a la Dumpling Man) in the East Village. That’s right, he wants to bring his pierogies right into Veselka’s backyard. Read more…

Sarah Darville Remodeling today.

Here’s one more late-August bar opening: The Beagle on Avenue A will reopen its doors in two weeks with a new look and a focus on the cocktails that Jim Meehan of PDT likes so much.

The Beagle’s cream-colored walls and tables have been replaced with dark blue paint, new blue glass doors, and booth seats. Its owners Matt Piacentini and Dan Greenbaum said their goal is to create a “cocktail den,” moving the space away from its previous status as half-bar, half-restaurant.

“We’re going for that intimate, cozy feel,” he said. “Making it somewhere where it’s a little more fun and easy to hang out.”

Mr. Piacentini said a new menu of cocktails and charcuterie would be “more approachable” but that the specifics were still in the works. One thing is certain: “There will be a lot of sherry,” he said.

Molecule really made a splash last month, opening to a veritable wave of publicity: the “water cafe” got several write-ups, and news of $2.50 to-go glasses of filtered water even crossed the pond. But while the owners touted their $25,000 filtering machine and their “fountain of youth” and “body repair” supplements, there was no shortage of wet blankets: here at The Local, a commenter, Courtney, called the place “one of the most offensive things I’ve heard recently” and implored: “Can we as a neighborhood agree to stay far away from it so that they go away?”

So, is anybody – other than intrepid reporters, of course – actually going to Molecule? Turns out, they are. During a recent afternoon, about eight people trickled into the store over the course of two hours. Okay, not exactly a flood of customers, but they came from Brooklyn, the Bronx, and (sorry, Courtney) right here in the East Village – and some were back for seconds. Maybe the store won’t be a one-sip wonder? Maybe this concept really will hold water?

Watch our video to hear customers shower the place with praise and tell us what you think: are they just drinking the Kool Aid?

Sarah Darville

Speaking of new incarnations of old favorites: a sign on the doors of Josie’s, in the former home of Joe’s, says “opening soon,” and its owners told The Local today to expect a debut in about two weeks. The bar on Sixth Street near Avenue B, which the owners of Mona’s had hoped would open mid-July, is still undergoing extensive renovations, but partner Fred Brown said that replicas of the bar’s old red-and-black floor tiles and patterned wallpaper are on their way. A spokesperson for the State Liquor Authority said the full liquor license has been conditionally approved pending completion of construction and paperwork.

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

Melvin Felix Cat Cabral carves a candle.

When Enchantments opened in 1982, the “witchcraft, goddess, and nature religion” store was “narrow, dark and kind of creepy, which was fun because it looked like a witchcraft store by movie standards,” said Cat Cabral, manager of seven years. In 2003, employee and lifelong witch Stacy Rapp bought the store and in 2008, she moved it down the block to 424 East Ninth Street – a sunnier, airier space where the rent is $6,500 per month (up roughly $1,000 over four years). Sunlight has been good for business. “It’s helped people realize our shop is a positive thing and not about black magic,” said Ms. Cabral. The Wiccan accoutrements are flying off the shelves – and not as the result of spells. Even in challenging times, said Ms. Rapp, the store sells well over 50,000 candles a year. We asked Ms. Cabral how the magic happens.

Can you describe to the curious yet unfamiliar what Enchantments is all about?

It started out primarily as a Wiccan and pagan supply shop, a community center selling books on different Wiccan and neo-pagan alternative systems. It also specialized in Afro-Creole-Caribbean religions like Santeria and kabbalistic, hermetic magic, different systems of European magic. We’ve grown over the years to cater to so many different spiritual and magical paths. I think of it as eclectic like New York is – full of people raised in different religions and now on various different paths of discovery and interested in hidden knowledge. Read more…

Sarah Darville Work at Blackbird earlier today.

Blackbird will open in the former Lakeside Lounge space next week with seasonal cocktails on offer and a longtime CBGB bartender at the helm.

As The Local revealed last month, the new bar’s principal owner is Laura McCarthy, an original partner in Lakeside who also helps run Bowery Electric, HiFi, and Niagara. Her operating managers will be Maria Devitt, a neighborhood bartender for over 15 years, including a 10-year stint at CBGB; Jesse Malin, who is also a partner in Niagara and Bowery Electric; and Mr. Malin’s bandmate in D Generation, Danny Sage.

During a stop-in earlier today, it was clear the former Lakeside space was getting a major makeover (ongoing construction has delayed a friends-and-family opening planned for tonight). Ms. Devitt said a new black-and-white look, which she described as “60s rock and roll,” would appeal to a broader audience.

“I said, ‘Let’s make it a place where girls want to go – have bathrooms that work and don’t smell horrible,’” she told The Local. “People say, ‘I love a dive bar. I love that it’s dirty and all that.’ And I enjoy it too – but I have to be pretty drunk to enjoy that.” Read more…