Stephen Rex Brown Work permits in the window of the new wing of Porsena.

Sara Jenkins’ restaurant on East Seventh Street is in for an upgrade “alla sinistra.”

The new wing in a storefront to the left of the dining room and bar will be dubbed Porsena Sinistra (which means, appropriately, “left” in Italian) and feature a lunch counter during the day and a wine bar at night. The space was previously occupied by Fragrance Shop New York, which reopened on East Fourth Street.

Ms. Jenkins said the lunch menu would include sandwiches, soups and salads. The bar will have a selection of Mediterranean wines, not just strictly Italian fare. She expected it would open around the end of August. (Check back later for some of the plates Ms. Jenkins has in mind for lunch). Update | 4:16 p.m. (Ms. Jenkins changed her mind and decided the menu items weren’t ready for public consumption.)
Read more…

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

Courtesy NYC Velo Andrew Crooks

Andrew Crooks raced bikes in college and then graduated to become an engineering consultant in Houston, Tex. He was coming to New York City a few times a month when he decided it was time to shift gears, career-wise. “When I made that list of what I’d like to do for 70 to 80 hours a week, cycling was at the top of the list,” he said. When he opened NYC Velo seven years ago on Second Avenue (a popular commuter route even before it got a bike lane) the East Village’s other bike shops specialized in used rides. On the other hand, NYC Velo’s brand new bikes are priced from $400 to $4,000: hence clientele like Robin Williams and Leo DiCaprio. We asked the bicycling enthusiast turned entrepreneur how he’s managed to make it.

Have the bike lanes brought you more business?

It’s hard to pin it on the bike lanes. We chose the location long before there was a lane. We do tailor our schedule around the commuting culture so we’re open later for people riding home from work and who might stop by because they need something. We open later in the morning because not a lot of things happen in the East Village before 11 a.m. Read more…

Sandy Berger The new machinery.

Can the neighbors of IHOP breathe easy?

Sandy Berger, a watchdog of the chain restaurant that she dubbed The International House of Putrid Odors, just sent over photos of a new piece of equipment that seems to have eliminated the overwhelming odor of bacon that has tormented her and many others for months.

“I can smell something now, but it doesn’t assault you. It would be the same as if you were walking down the hallway and you smelled a neighbor’s cooking,” Ms. Berger said. “That’s livable. It’s nothing like it had been before. Nothing.”

Ms. Berger added that three or four workers installed the machine on Tuesday using blowtorches and jackhammers.
Read more…

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

People’s Pops just got some competition: An Icy Introduction, a shaved ice stand that popped up on Lafayette Street last month, just started selling SnoPops, packaged snoballs that go for $5 a pair and $20 a dozen.

Kafi Dublin, the stand’s owner, creates her snoballs by pouring handfuls of ice into an ice shaver that shreds it into small bits. Then she pours sweet syrup, made with organic Muscovado sugar, on the ice cup and adds toppings like sweet condensed milk, caramel sauce, and marshmallow cream.

SnoPops are packaged in plastic tubes, much like supermarket ice pops. “They’re a portable version,” she said. “You can put them in the freezer and eat them later.” Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba A new awning over the Fat Sal’s space.

Benny’s Burritos is expanding into its onetime takeout space. Al Landess, a manager at the Mexicali spot on Avenue A said the restaurant let go of the next-door nook several years ago for rent-related reasons, and it became Fat Sal’s Pizza. “When the pizza place left,” he said, “we decided to jump on it again.” Mr. Landess said he hoped to expand into the space and add more tables within a month.

You may have also noticed on Community Board 3’s July agenda that Croxley’s Ales plans to inform the SLA & DCA Licensing committee of an alteration at its July 16 meeting. The agenda notes an “expanding space,” but a manager at the restaurant knew nothing of plans to expand. We’ll let you know if we hear more.

Melvin Felix Edgar Villongco

Edgar Villongco dreamed of opening a cafe on East 12th Street, a couple of blocks from his home, where locals could enjoy a traditional Swiss dish, similar to fondue, with a glass of white wine. But this week, he opened a scooter shop, Urban Motion, in the spot where New York Raclette would’ve been.

So what happened? Mr. Villongco had his cafe at 508 East 12th Street, in the former Jubb’s Longevity space, all planned out: a chef de partie at Cafe Boulud would craft the raclette, a dish consisting of melted cheese scraped from the wheel and served with meat and potatoes; a former employee of Danny Meyer’s Tabla would help with the menu and the wine selection. A Website, which The Local linked to in March, promised “a relaxing cafe experience.”

“I had a good team but obviously it didn’t work out that way,” Mr. Villongco said. “Some people spoke out against having another liquor license on this street and I heard them loud and clear.” Read more…

Sarah Darville

Sarah Darville

Iconic Hand Rolls isn’t the only takeout joint that’s new to the neighborhood: an empanadas spot will host its grand opening tonight, days after quietly soft-opening on East Ninth Street.

Empanadas Bar makes a bold claim on its menu, as you can see below: “We only use organic or local farmer market products.”

“The idea was that New York doesn’t have good empanadas,” said owner Juan Tourn. “Here, everything’s fresh.”

He and another cook, Efrain Sosa, left Novecento, an Argentinian restaurant in SoHo, after Mr. Tourn spent a year dreaming of opening his own small place. Deciding what to serve at Empanada Bar was easy, he said, since he’d been making empanadas for decades, first in Argentina (where he got his dough recipe) and then in Spain.

Will this newcomer fill the void that Ruben’s Empanadas left when it closed on First Avenue? Find out for yourself: tonight’s grand opening starts at 6 p.m. Read more…

Photos: Daniel Maurer

Back in April, we brought word that David Ravvin, a 29-year-old graduate of N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business, planned to open a quick-service sushi spot in the former home of Cotan, on First Avenue near Saint Marks Place. Soon after that, its plywood got defaced (to the delight of neighbor JoeDough), but after a fresh coat of paint, the restaurant opened to friends and family just minutes ago, and will open to the public tomorrow.

Earlier this evening, Hiroko Shimbo, the Japanese cooking authority who designed the menu, was busy in the kitchen as Mr. Ravvin buzzed about the modest eat-in area, which is still awaiting some finishing touches. Mr. Ravvin plans to plaster a mural of this photo of Rocky Aoki, the late charismatic founder of the Benihana chain, on a wall where the restaurant’s few tables are lined up. “He’s kind of an inspiration,” he explained. And he’s still working on perfecting a method of delivering the cone-like temaki rolls that will be the signature of his menu. (You can see that menu below.) Hours are from 6 p.m. to midnight daily, and beer and wine will be served. Read more…

Miha Matei

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

Grace Kang spent her early career as a buyer for fashion retailers like Barneys, Bloomingdale’s, and Saks. “People thought I would open a fashion clothing store,” she said, “but I am into doing the unexpected.” Five years ago, she opened Pink Olive, a gift shop stocked with charming treasures at 439 East Ninth Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A. It did so well that she opened a second location in Park Slope. She told us how she’s managed to make it.

Why did you choose the East Village?

The East Village has always felt like home to me. It’s my favorite neighborhood because it is low-key and full of unexpected finds. That’s what Pink Olive is all about, too: character with hidden gems. The East Village has the kind of vibe I wanted for my store. Read more…

Sarah Darville Diablo Royale’s back garden.

The tequila may have to stop flowing in a few months at Diablo Royale Este. The embattled Mexican restaurant won’t have a liquor license come September unless its owner, Jason Hennings, files a special proceeding against New York State, according to a State Liquor Authority spokesperson.

At a hearing last month, the authority told Mr. Hennings it would renew his liquor license only if he agreed to close down his restaurant’s back garden earlier. Since 2010, neighbors have claimed they’ve lost sleep because customers are allowed to linger on the patio after-hours.

Stipulations in Diablo’s license dictate that the patio be closed at 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends, but Andrew Coamey and Meri Micara, who live adjacent the restaurant, have testified in the past that the curfew hasn’t been honored. At the May hearing, Ms. Micara complained to the S.L.A. that her front door “is always blocked, music fills the building, the backyard noise is unbearable.” Michele Burger, appearing on behalf of Council Member Rosie Mendez, showed support for the residents, and said of Diablo, “[They] just aren’t being good neighbors.”

Presented with timestamped photos allegedly showing customers using the patio after-hours, the restaurant’s owner grew visibly irritated. “It’s not people,” he said. “They’re black chairs.” Even S.L.A. chairman Dennis Rosen said he couldn’t tell what the pictures showed. Read more…

Philip Kalantzis-Cope The East Village location of Life Cafe.

Less than six months after its original location officially closed for good, the Bushwick location of Life Cafe will shut down as well.

Owner Kathy Kirkpatrick explained in a brief phone conversation that her landlord refused to extend her lease on the space at 983 Flushing Avenue.

“My husband and I have gotten over our disbelief, anger and sadness at losing both places in one year,” Ms. Kirkpatrick wrote in a press release. “We see it now as the universe giving us a less than gentle nudge into retirement. We’re now eagerly looking forward to our ‘Adventures Before Dementia.’ It’s time for a little relaxation.” Read more…

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

Shira Levine Keshav Das

During his forty-six years as a professional musician, Keshav Hunter (known to most as Keshav Das) has played with the likes of Sting, Jeff Buckley, and Alice Coltrane. He also spent twelve years touring with Krishna Das and playing with him at the Jivamukti Yoga School. “Everywhere we went people would say, ‘Hey man, where can we get a harmonium?'”, said the 59-year-old. Finally, he decided to open a store where fellow musicians could shop for Indian instruments or just sit around and play them while sipping chai and smoking beedies. Nearly eight years after Keshav Music Imports moved from its namesake’s Suffolk Street apartment to a 300-square-foot space at 67 East Fourth Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, the owner is still plucking away at sitars as well as selling and repairing them. We asked him how he’s managed to make it.

Your store seems to be doing well. Why do you think that is?

Musicians and artists are always looking for a new flavor. People in general are looking to fill a hole. Some people fill it with music. Some people fill it being on the Internet. Some people fill it with sex, some with drugs. I fill it with music and find people with the same thinking. Read more…

Melvin Felix Kerry Bright in what will be his new showroom.

When Kerry Bright designed and built custom audio and video systems in the basement of 205 Avenue A, passersby would note the name of his company – Bright Home Theater – and buzz to ask about improv shows or to try to drop off their acting resumes. He’s hoping to clear up that confusion by opening a proper showroom across the street, under the name Bright Audio.

After working as a general contractor specializing in home theaters for about 15 years, Mr. Bright spent eight years at 205 Avenue A, showing products by appointment only. He signed a 10-year lease across the street at 202 Avenue A, previously the studio of artist M. Henry Jones, and moved out of his old digs last week. His current clients, he said, range from do-it-yourself audiophiles in search of components to “very, very wealthy people,” including a couple of celebrities he couldn’t name. One of the high-end speakers featured on BHT’s website retails for $13,995 per pair.

The new showroom, set to open in four to five weeks, will display high-end audio systems as well as gadgets that control anything from speakers to projection screens and shades. The store’s eight employees will continue to provide installation services ranging “from hanging a TV on a wall to creating a custom home theater,” said Radek Nesnidal, an employee. Read more…

Sarah Darville Kirk Marcoe at the bar.

“It’s going from a crappy, super dive bar to a more appealing one,” said Fred Brown yesterday as he helped turn Joe’s Bar into Josie’s.

Kirk Marcoe, a new co-owner of the longstanding bar on East Sixth Street near Avenue B said it would reopen with a slightly cleaner look and a new name in mid-July. “We all appreciate a good dive bar, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have clean restrooms,” he said.

Mr. Marcoe and Rich Corton, who together also own Mona’s and Sophie’s, said they both had a special appreciation for Joe’s. They spent much of the late 1980s and ’90s playing pool there, and still live blocks away. And Mr. Brown met a woman at the bar who’s still with him 17 years later.

Mr. Marcoe’s story about a former girlfriend wasn’t quite as romantic: “She broke up with me in this bar, right over there,” he said, pointing to a spot near the front windows. Read more…

Edna Ishayik

Community Board 3 may have set a record last night: with 27 items on the agenda  – including Ninth Street Espresso’s bid to serve beer, a pitch for a German beer hall on the Bowery, and a Starbucks location’s attempt to win back its sidewalk seats – the board’s State Liquor Authority committee meeting ran past 2 a.m.

The main event: the owners of B-Side are hoping to open a spot at East Broadway and Clinton Street that would be “totally different” than the punk bar on Avenue B and would include a chip shop purveying “the best fish, chips and falafel you’ve ever had,” according to owner Sivan Harlap.

In an e-mail, Ms. Harlap called the new venture a “grown-up version of B-side,” explaining that “there are things I am interested in now that I wasn’t that all interested in when I was 22 – craft beers, cocktails, thoughtful food, this new place will reflect those new interests.”

Speakers lined up to argue in favor and against the new watering hole that would be catty-corner to the Seward Park Cooperative. Some neighbors said they looked forward to having a place to grab a drink or a bite in an area that isn’t laden with bars and restaurants. But opponents, some of whom were concerned about loud noise, had collected over 600 signatures, partially through churches and schools nearby. Read more…

Melvin Felix Chef and owner Levent Akyol at Reyna Turkish Restaurant and Mediterranean Grill.

Reyna Turkish Restaurant and Mediterranean Grill opened in the former Mission Cafe space on Second Avenue over the weekend. Owner and chef Levent Akyol, a veteran of many a Mediterranean kitchen, plans to concentrate on the food of western Turkey, which he said was more Greek influenced and seafood-heavy than its eastern counterpart.

Mr. Akyol has been in the restaurant business since he was 10 years old. Back then, he cooked fish in his family’s restaurant in the city of Izmir, one of Turkey’s primary port cities. He moved to the United States in 1999 and was the owner of Marmaris Restaurant in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, until it closed in February. Here, he’ll serve a similar menu: seafood casseroles, char-grilled fishes, meat kebabs, cold appetizers such as cod caviar salad and hot appetizers such as cheese rolls and stuffed mushrooms. True to Reyna’s name (it means “new again”), there will also be new dishes like Turkish chicken wings.

Check out the new restaurant’s menu below. It’s B.Y.O.B. while it awaits a license to sell wine and beer, and will begin delivery soon. Read more…

Photos: Noah Fecks.

Yesterday, The Local showed you a mural (possibly 80 years old) excavated during renovations of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. If that got you feeling nostalgic for the old dive, by all means indulge in the slideshow above. Back in February, our photographer Noah Fecks found time – in between cooking meals from every issue of “Gourmet” magazine in his East Village apartment – to wander into the Holiday just days after The Local published photos from the final night of service. These postmortem shots, published here for the first time, are a fine tribute to the St. Marks stalwart.

Noah Fecks Mural from Ali Baba

Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa who in February took over the adjacent Holiday Cocktail Lounge space, tells The Local she plans to preserve elements of the iconic dive, including the awning and the horseshoe bar. Not only that, but she’s restoring elements of the cocktail lounge that came before it.

Ms. Sibley said that the removal of a mirror and deer’s head from behind the bar revealed a mural belonging to the Holiday’s predecessor, which she believes was called the Ali Baba lounge. The 6-by-4-foot mural, as you can see above, shows a dancer being observed by men and harem girls. Read more…

Photos: Noah Flecks

Michael White, the oft-lauded chef-owner of three-star seafood palace Marea, fine-dining Italian spot Ai Fiori, and SoHo’s Osteria Morini, will open Nicoletta, his first pizzeria, for dinner tomorrow, and the pies will be a touch different from the ones at all those other East Village parlors. (A Midwestern touch, to be exact.)

The crust, formed in a wood-burning brick oven (imported from… Long Island) was inspired by Mr. White’s teenage years slinging dough at Domenicos in Beloit, Wis., and is said to be a bit chewier than the Neapolitan norm. Pies, said to cost an average of $21, will come in 12-inch and 16-inch varieties, and can be topped with bacon lardons, egg yolk, truffled mushrooms, and more. Shown in our slideshow: the Calabrese (fennel sausage, pepperoni, red onions, and Pecorino Romano) and the Patate (mozzarella, crushed potatoes, pann, bacon, and charred scallions). Read more…