Vivienne GucwaSupporters of same-sex marriage during a parade last month. An anticipated spike in business for wedding planners, florists and others because of the new law has so far failed to materialize.

The legalization of same-sex marriage in New York meant many things to many people. It meant freedom to marry for lesbian and gay couples who had been waiting to do so in their home state. It meant a landmark civil rights victory for New York legislators. And to many in the wedding industry, it meant cash.

But they may have seen the dollar signs a bit too soon.

There were 659 marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples who wed on Sunday, the first day that the law was put into effect, but those numbers have not led to a bump in profits.

Wedding planner Jeannie Uyanik, executive director of C&G Weddings, thought that the expectations of business owners were overblown from the outset, making the lackluster increases seem even more disappointing.

“Even before the law was enacted, there were people who were going to get married no matter what. It didn’t matter if they had to go to Canada or Amsterdam or Massachusetts: where there’s a will there’s always been a way,” Mrs. Uyanik said. “This in and of itself is not going to change the wedding industry. There’s going to be that small blip — probably of just a year — but at that point its really going to normalize.”
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Meghan Keneally St. Mark’s Comics, 11 St. Marks Place.

This summer, the posters lining the walls of movie theaters could just as easily have been found in a teenager’s bedroom as comic books are hitting the big screen. “Thor” came out in May, “Green Lantern” in June, “The Green Hornet” in July, “Captain America: The First Avenger” debuted last weekend and new teaser trailers for the prequel to Spider Man and the return of “The Dark Knight” franchise were recently released.

Gossip Web sites and fashion magazines splash pictures of Hollywood stars greeting enthusiastic fans at Comic Con, the comic book trade show which finished Sunday in San Diego.

The public attention and adoration that equals big bucks for movie studios — “Captain America” brought in $65.8 million in its first weekend — does not necessarily translate into traditional book sales.

“Good movies help, and bad movies hurt,” said Mitch Cutler of St. Mark’s Comics, one of the oldest comic book retailers in Manhattan.
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Ian Duncan Crif Dogs was the second downtown business to try Google Offers, a new daily deal site

Last week tech giant Google rolled out its daily deal service in New York, launching with two East Village businesses: Pommes Frites and Crif Dogs.

Twitter user @jamiedurante summed up the pairing neatly: “LOL @ yesterday and today’s google offers. It’s like they KNOW us!! #eastvillage #eats #options #fat”

Despite the less-than-healthy picks, Google’s entry into this fast-growing business could be significant as it can bring search, e-mail and its new social network Google+ to bear on consumers. It had been trialing its Google Offers service in Portland, Ore., expanding the test run last week to New York and the San Francisco Bay area.

Like some other neighborhood business owners, Brian Shebairo, owner of Crif Dogs, said he had been unconvinced by other deal sites. “I kind of turned my nose up at these deals,” he said. “The reason I did it with them is because they’re Google.”

Mr. Shebairo explained that he thinks Google has the size to make the daily deal idea successful. He added that the company created a marketing campaign for the hot dog restaurant and gave his staff Android cell phones to scan offer barcodes.

The site works along the same model as Groupon and Living Social. Users sign up to receive a daily e-mail offering a coupon for discounted goods or services. When the coupons are purchased Google sends money to the business up front and customers use them to pay in the store. Last Thursday, 1,035 coupons for Crif Dogs were sold through the site. On Wednesday, the launch, 1,198 were sold for Pommes Frites.

Ian Duncan A Google Offers tag at Crif Dogs.

Google takes a cut of each offer it sells. For example, the $5 Crif Dogs offer was good for $10 of food at the store. Google keeps half, with the rest going to the restaurant.

At Pommes Frites, staff members were tight-lipped about the offer. Manager Ivan Roque said he could not discuss the terms of the deal and owner Omer Shorshi did not respond to e-mail messages requesting comment.

Meghan Keneally. A staple of the East Village music scene, the future of Banjo Jim’s is up for approval.

After the blogger EV Grieve reported that changes may be coming to Banjo Jim’s, a popular bluegrass bar on Avenue C, locals took to their keyboards and headed to the blog’s comments section in anguish.

The bar’s prospective owner, Robert Ceraso, told the blog that he will be presenting a plan to the State Liquor Authority Committee of Community Board 3 tonight asking that the liquor license for the bar be tranferred to he and his partners. In describing his vision for his bar, Mr. Ceraso said that he envisioned it as an “artisanal neighborhood cocktail bar.” And that did him in.

Commenters skewered his use of the word, likening it to buzzwords of trends past, and immediately branded him as one of the big bad developers swooping in to discard the East Village of old.

One commenter, Chris Flash, wrote: “Yet another cool unpretentious music venue lost on the LES, to be replaced by yet ANOTHER yuppie dive, as if Ceraso’s dive will be different from any other dive!!”

Another, Bowery Boogie, said: “Missing Banjo Jim’s already. Artisinal is one of those buzz words that makes me puke every time.”

Mr. Ceraso said that the reaction was not totally unexpected.

“I knew there was going to be some backlash,” Mr. Ceraso said in a telephone interview. “People don’t like change and they turned me into some crazy guy that wants to change the neighborhood.”
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As we noted earlier, the owners of a proposed business at 200 Avenue A — the former home of the oft-criticized Superdive — are speaking before the State Liquor Authority today. City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and members of Community Board 3 have both submitted formal letters in opposition to a liquor license for the business, which the applicant says will be an art gallery and restaurant. “The application also includes plans for a full service bar with 12 seats, live acoustic music and a DJ,” Ms. Mendez writes. “It appears that the gallery is incidental to a full service nightlife establishment.”
— Stephen Rex Brown

Meghan Keneally The logo for Restaurant Week.

The economics behind Restaurant Week means that a surprisingly small group of East Village restaurants are participating in the program.

The city-wide promotion, which runs for two weeks starting Monday, offers a prix fixe menu for $24.07 at lunch and $35 for dinner, the idea being that diners have the chance to get fancy meals at a lower cost. Because the majority of the East Village’s restaurants are less expensive already, many don’t see the need to participate.

“Our price point is extremely low — everything here is under $12 — so we don’t really fit the restaurant week model,” said Craig Koenig, one of the partners at Whitman’s restaurant on East 9th Street who is not involved in the promotion.

Yerba Buena, a Latin restaurant on Avenue A, is one of the five restaurants in the East Village that is offering Restaurant Week menus.

Participation in the East Village is low “because the restaurants are very small and a lot of people like to hit the really big places, like Gramercy Tavern and Nobu,” said Angel Deleon, the manager of Yerba Buena. “Those places may not give you the same value because the portions are small.”
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Khristopher J. Brooks Work is underway at the Yippie Museum Cafe.

Earlier today, EV Grieve reported that the Yippie Museum Cafe is under renovation. We now have more details about what the place will look like when the work is done.

When customers walk in, they’ll notice that the carpet, which dated back to the 1980’s, is gone. That’s because the cafe’s manager, Robert Payne, had the carpet pulled up and thrown away. Now after stepping in the front entrance, customers will see a black, rubber mat covering the hardwood floor.

After taking a few more steps into the cafe, customers will see stencil designs on the wood floor. Customers will also notice that the loft that loomed over the cafe’s cash register is gone. Mr. Payne, who plans to create the designs for the floors, decided the loft was taking up too much space. On the walls, customers will see the same Yippie posters and psychedelic art that was there before, but Mr. Payne will have the art restored, so the images will look like new.
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Ray Deter

We’d like to invite you to share your stories and memories of Ray Deter.

Mr. Deter, who owned d.b.a bar on First Avenue, died Sunday and dozens of his regulars are already paying their respects on d.b.a’s Facebook page.

Friends have recalled Mr. Deter’s knowledge about brews, his Internet radio program Beer Sessions Radio, and his work with the Good Beer Seal.

Write about your experiences with Mr. Deter at his bar in the Comments section below.

For a neighborhood with some of the highest concentrations of bars, restaurants and retail stores in New York, the East Village stands as a prime location for a coupon provider like Groupon.

“New York is a region that we continue to study intensively,” says Julie Mossler, a Groupon spokeswoman. “We handpick and curate the deals with the best businesses that are the most exciting or interesting in the area.”

But with questions being raised about Groupon’s business model, as well as complaints from some small business owners, The Local checked in with five East Village businesses to learn about their experiences with the coupon site.

While most business owners interviewed said that they saw an influx of customers, some voiced unhappiness with what they they saw as a lack of support by the site.

In response to situations in which a business owner was not completely satisfied with Groupon, Ms. Mossler said that Groupon attempts to work “extremely close” with merchants and describes their relationship as an “ongoing process.”

“It’s not like we sign you up, you run and that’s it,” she said. “You get an account representative who holds your hands through the process and gives you tools to help you take advantage of the feature.”
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Meghan Keneally The chef Anthony Bourdain earlier today.

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck had a famous fan on Tuesday afternoon, with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain stopping by while filming a segment for his new television show.

The truck, which has been around since 2009 and has more than 19,300 followers on Twitter, was parked on 17th Street and Broadway when Mr. Bourdain stopped by for his yet-unaired Travel Channel show, tentatively titled “The Layover.” Fans watched as the chef waited for 15 minutes like the rest of us food plebeians to get his hands on a “Salty Pimp” cone (vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche and sea salt, dunked in chocolate coating). According to a crew member, the show will air in either November or January.
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Courtesy of Lizzy Plapinger Lizzy Plapinger and Derek Davies.

Instead of trying to break into the music industry with new technology, one record company is looking back to the technology of the past to introduce new acts.

Lizzy Plapinger and Derek Davies started producing limited edition 7-inch vinyl singles for new and emerging bands through their record label, Neon Gold. Since starting in August 2008, when the now-23 year olds were only juniors in college, they have been credited for much of the early success of a number of indie bands and recently partnered with Columbia Records.

Ms. Plapinger and Mr. Davies are childhood friends, having spent summers together at camp in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. When summers came to a close, they returned to school in London and Washington, D.C. respectively but kept in touch about new music.

“It was always a pipe dream,” Ms. Plapinger said of their early talks about starting a record label together.

Though they had both held internships in the music industry and searched for new talent out of habit, they decided to start their specialized company in 2008 even though they were in the middle of college.

“We couldn’t really let this opportunity pass us by,” Mr. Davies said.
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Joshua Davis East Village boutiques have thrived by offering low priced merchandise to its customers. Still House, 117 East Seventh Street, sells artwork and jewelry by local artists.

With reports of hard times for struggling Lower East Side boutiques, The Local paid a visit to merchants on East Seventh Street to see how their businesses are faring. But rather than echoing the frustrated voices of Lower East Side merchants, many of whom have closed or moved to Brooklyn, the East Village is holding steady and even opening new stores.

The secret: low prices.

Here is what some local shopkeepers had to say about starting up and surviving in the East Village.

Rena Reborn and Still House, both at 117 East Seventh Street

Two newcomers to the block, both stores opened within a week of another last month, and both specialize in selling goods from local artists and designers. Rena Reborn, which sells new and recycled jewelry and clothing for women, draws many of its customers with $5 and $10 racks.

“Low prices keep us in business,” says owner Rachael Rush.
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Ian Duncan Owner Sam Penix makes a coffee at Everyman Espresso. Customers now swipe their credit cards through an iPad to pay

When web designer Matt Norris wants a coffee at Everyman Espresso, he doesn’t reach to his pocket for cash or a credit card. With a quick few swipes on his iPhone and a look at the barista he has paid and his drink is on its way to being made. For the barista’s part, he just looks Mr. Norris in the face, confirms his identity and the transaction is complete.

Everyman, on East 13th Street, is an early adopter of Square, a mobile-based payment system developed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The company’s name derives from the little square card reader that connects to a merchant’s (or anyone’s, for that matter) iPhone or iPad, turning it into a payment device, an approach a number of other companies are also taking. In May, Square launched its new product, the card case, which stores regular customers’ details and allows for flesh payments like that made by Mr. Norris for his coffee.

Following in the footsteps of a reporter from Fast Company, I tried out Square at Everyman, opting for the more conventional method of swiping my card. It works pretty much as you might expect: run the card through the white plastic reader, which connects to the iPad’s headphone jack, and sign using the touch screen and a finger. That last part was a little awkward – the result was a childlike scrawl that only loosely approximated my signature, but it was apparently sufficient for my bank.
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Meghan Keneally I-V Electronics Corporation, 108 First Avenue.

I-V Electronics Corporation at 108 First Avenue will close its doors for good this evening. And unlike some recently shuttered businesses, it doesn’t blame its demise on rising rents, bike lanes, or a difficult landlord.

“It’s not our landlord — we have the best landlord in all of New York,” said the store’s owner, Richard Serowik. “It’s Netflix, its ordering online that killed us in the competition.”

The store, which rents DVDs and repairs electronics, has been at its First Avenue location between Sixth and Seventh Streets for the past 16 years. Mr. Serowik, however, has been in the video business for longer, having run a store of the same name in Chelsea prior to coming to the East Village.

But his foray into our neighborhood coincides with the rise of video-on-demand services such as Netflix, which started about a decade and a half ago and streams videos into viewers homes through a device known as a Roku box.

As part of the store’s closing sale, all DVDs are $2.99 until they close at 10 p.m., and, at 5 this afternoon, there was easily more than a hundred still on the shelves. But Mr. Serowik isn’t too worried: anything that he doesn’t sell tonight, he’ll just sell online. If you can’t beat the competition, join ‘em.

Khristopher J. Brooks Chickpea, 210 East 14th Street.

One of the East Village’s most popular spots for falafel and shawarma is closed temporarily.

The Chickpea location on 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues is undergoing “minor renovations to the kitchen because we’ve had some equipment issues,” said operations director Bill Sharp. The restaurant will re-open at the end of July.

Mr. Sharp said the restaurant closed March 31 because the owners needed to purchase and install new equipment and rearrange existing equipment in the downstairs kitchen.

A sign in the store’s front window directs customers to the restaurant’s other location on Third Avenue near St. Marks Place.

Kenan ChristiansenA Ray’s customer contemplates the closure notice.

This morning Ray Alvarez could not stop fidgeting. He checked the soda machine for dirt, scrubbed the countertop with bleach, and consolidated the coffee into one pot. As he worked he counted off each potential violation.

“Now I’ve got to wash these, too, or they’ll be on to me,” he said, referring to the empty coffee pitchers.

Two days ago, Ray’s Candy Store, at 113 Avenue A, was ordered to close by the Department of Health. The store had racked up 53 points in health code violations, for issues which included mouse excrement on the floor and dirt on the soda machine.

The 78-year-old owner was told he could not reopen until these issues were addressed and his shop passed a follow-up inspection. At the time, Mr. Alvarez ignored the order, fearing that if he closed, for even a day, the loss in revenue would put him out of business for good.

It ended up being a costly decision. When the health inspector returned yesterday and found him still operating, Mr. Alvarez received a hefty fine and now estimates that he owes a total of $7,000.
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Brendan BernhardBrowsers at Mast Books.

On May 8, Mast Books, which takes up about 450 square feet at 66 Avenue A, sailed into its second year as a viable new business in the East Village. Why “Mast”? Is Bryan Leitgeb, who owns the store together with his wife, James McKee, a secret fan of Patrick O’Brian, C.S. Forester, and other icons of nautical literature? Smiling at this idea, Mr. Leitgeb shakes his head but says he prefers not to reveal why his store should have such a singular name.

Mr. Leitgeb, 37, who came to New York from Flint, Mich., is already a veteran of the city’s used-books business. (He spent seven years at Mercer Books alone.) He is also confident that he has hit upon the right business formula in the right place at the right time. Unlike East Village Books, long a fixture at 99 St. Marks Place, Mast has the air of a used book store acutely aware it is in the midst of an intellectual revolution that has raised the image far above the word.

This knowledge is Mast’s secret. With its polished wood floors, white walls, track lighting, and eye-catching display tables, it doesn’t look “used” or “second-hand” in the slightest. On the contrary, it is designed to evoke a small art gallery and to attract similarly chic crowds, although its strong neighborhood ethos prevents it from feeling in any way exclusionary. Mr. Leitgeb, whose blue eyes are alternately melancholy and highly focused, does his part to make non-hipsters feel at home by going unshaven, wearing non-designer glasses, and a brown cap unlikely to be featured in the next edition of Vogue. More importantly, he’s also unsnobbish, helpful, and friendly.
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Elizabeth Vulaj The owner of Mara’s Homemade, who recently announced that the restaurant is closing its doors, cited bike lanes that were installed last summer as part of the reason that the restaurant saw a decline in business.

Taxes and the rent have gone up but Mara Levi mostly blames the bike lanes for having to close Mara’s Homemade, her authentic New Orleans-style restaurant on East Sixth Street near First Avenue. If the customers come from all over the tri-state area and even beyond, she said, a restaurant has to have parking.

Ms. Levi said that she now pays double for taxes than she did when she opened seven years ago, but that the addition of the bike lanes, which opened in July and reduced the number of available street parking spaces, have significantly contributed to the business’ decline.

“We saw a drop in business the day those lanes came in,” said Ms. Levi. “When you go from twelve parking spaces per block to three, that makes a difference.”

In January, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg conceded that city officials should have notified residents when they decided to install the lanes. Levi said she was not even aware of any plans until one evening, where she saw construction workers toiling away on First Avenue.

“One night we come out, and they were marking lanes and paving,” said Ms. Levi. “It was a total surprise. There was no input from the community and it upset me a lot.”
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Mariko Osanai cupped her cell phone away from her mouth and whispered “Just one second, I’m on the phone with my sister in Japan – there’s been another big earthquake, and they’re having a blackout. Can you believe it?” She shook her head, visibly upset, and stepped outside Dlala salon on Avenue A to smoke a cigarette, taking deep drags and pacing as she listened to the news.

Weeks after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, Ms. Osanai, like many other Japanese living in the East Village, continues to spend much of her time on the phone, reaching out to friends and relatives from the hard-hit coastal regions.

But for Ms. Osanai and a handful of Japanese East Villagers, making phone calls is not enough. A group of local Japanese artists have designed a logo – emblazoned with the words “Love Save Japan” in capital letters – to draw attention to the crisis in Japan and which has already helped raise thousands of dollars for the relief effort.
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