Amanda Plasencia A bodega customer leaves the 21 Produce Corp. Deli & Grocery in the East Village.

Mexican music recently filled the 21 Produce Corp. Deli and Grocery on Avenue B near Second Street in the East Village. But on a recent Thursday afternoon there was no one in the store to buy the corn tortillas, cigarettes and other staples of this corner bodega.

“We’re already losing a lot of businesses due to increases in rent and if it keeps going on like this, we won’t be in business much longer,” Geodoro Hernandez, 55, who works the counter at 21 Produce Corp., said as he gazed around the empty store.

The desolate scene at 21 Produce is a stark example of how small, neighborhood grocery and convenience stores are struggling to stay afloat in a rough economy. Retail groups and other industry experts say that a combination of forces, including high rents and competition from larger, more upscale markets, have placed the future of many bodegas in jeopardy.

In a recent survey of the city’s bodega owners, roughly half said that their businesses are at risk of closing. The cause? Nearly three-quarters cited rising rents.
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Cary Abrams

One of the blessings New York City residents enjoy is living in one of the few places in America where it is possible to exist without owning an automobile. In fact, three out of four Manhattanites do not own a car. They miss out on the city’s fabled alternate side of the street parking rituals. They are unable to experience the jolting sensation of driving over the current epic crop of potholes making the streets an urban minefield, and fail to become apoplectic, sitting in lengthy traffic jams or searching for one of those few rapidly disappearing relics, a gas station.

A byproduct of Lower East Side gentrification has been the demolition of the many of the gas stations that once lined the heavily traveled Bowery and Houston Streets. The Bowery Hotel towers over the site of a two story building formerly housing a gas station and taxi garage that some claim is still haunted by the spirit of a German shepherd who roamed there protecting unoccupied taxis. B Bar, the restaurant with an outside dining terrace at East Fourth Street and the Bowery, capitalizes on its former life as a Gulf gas station. The gleaming metal clad Adidas Store on Houston Street and Broadway occupies the narrow sliver of land where the Whale of a Wash car-wash and gas station once had cabbies lined up to ride the conveyer belt through the gyrating stiff bristle brushes, ermerging for a final polishing by some guy with a towel.

After hearing the daily news reports of rising gas prices, nearing the dreaded $4 per gallon, I visited the three remaining East Village gas stations to do some comparison shopping. I found my sticker to be in marked contrast to the complacency of many of the drivers I spoke with. One was unfazed by his $62.31 tab of $4.23 per gallon high test gasoline that he pumped into his Lincoln SUV at the Mobil station on Avenue C and Houston. He related that his usual tab had been in the $50 a fill up range as he shrugged, “I’ve got to drive.”

The prices at the Mobil station were higher than at the other two East Village stations. Both the BP station across from the Puck Building at Houston and Lafayette and the Gulf station at Second Avenue and First had identical prices of $3.79 per gallon for low test and $4.09 per gallon for high test gasoline (Mobil charged $3.93 for low test). These prices are for self serve customers paying cash. Credit card prices are approximately fifteen cents a gallon higher, and full service high test nears the shocking $5 a gallon mark, selling for $4.95 at the BP station. A driver from New Jersey who I spoke to summed it up as we discussed the lower Jersey gas prices: “If you’re going to run out of gas, you’ve got no choice.”

Of course, these were last week’s prices. Gas might be even more expensive today.

Ian Duncan Sutra lounge, owned by Community Board 3 member Ariel Palitz.

Community Board 3 should be taking a rest from conflict. Last week, in a vote meant to end five months of debate, it finally passed a set of reforms to the way it makes recommendations about licenses to the State Liquor Authority. But bar owners who sit on the board are not satisfied and have vowed to challenge the new rules and investigate why they were banned from voting on the reform package.

Shortly before last Tuesday’s meeting, a complaint was made against David McWater, a board member who owns three bars on the Lower East Side. Susan Stetzer, Community Board 3’s district manager, referred it to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. In a written response, COIB officials recommended that the three bar owners on the board be barred from voting on the reform resolution, as they had a direct financial stake in the vote.

At the meeting, Ariel Palitz, a board member who owns Sutra Lounge on First Avenue at First Street, called the recommendation an “eleventh-hour attempt to gag” bar owners. Mr. McWater, who was recovering from a fall, was absent from last week’s meeting.
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Ian Duncan

On a recent afternoon, Sumana Ramakrishnan, a 21-year-old student with her eye on a pink frosted cupcake, stepped up to a cash register inside Butter Lane and reached into her pocket. But instead of pulling out her wallet she tapped on her smart phone and showed it to the knowing cashier. There would be no charge, it turned out, for Ms. Ramakrishnan’s cupcake. Hers was one of more than 800 that had been given away in February by means of a promotional website.

The site, Tenka, is among the newest of a host of such sites seeking traction in the East Village. It was started in October by Nhon Ma, a former Google operations manager, who said he targeted the East Village because of its density of small businesses and population of Web savvy young people.

“The East Village is fiercely competitive relative to other areas,” said Mr. Ma. “Tenka deals really resonate with merchants because they are able to see the power of social recommendation.”

Tenka is a cell phone-based online service that lets customers redeem coupons for free items at participating stores. Tenka charges merchants to create a deal. The merchant chooses how many coupons they want to offer, and Tenka promotes it on its site and across its users’ Facebook pages.

Many of the small business owners who turn to deal sites, and other forms of social media, do so because they don’t want to spend money on other forms of advertising.

“From the beginning our strategy was, what kind of marketing can we get for free?” said Maria Baugh, co-owner of Butter Lane. “Having no marketing budget, a lot of social media opportunities were great for us.” Read more…

Reginald Pointdujour

Reports from Washington D.C. today reveal that the Federal Reserve has upgraded its outlook on the national economy. The Fed is now forecasting greater economic growth this year, although unemployment is expected to remain high.

Is it too early to detect signs of a return to economic health in the East Village? Is the pinch at least a little less painful than it was a year ago? Let us know. Put your response in the comments below. Provide details, please.

Carl Guadalupe Physical Graffiti, a vintage clothing store located in a building that was featured on a Led Zeppelin album cover (below) and in a Rolling Stones music video, will soon close and re-open next month as a tea shop.

A lonely pink high heel lay atop a basket of embroidered scarves, its beautiful gold toe pointing away from a box marked “Moving and Storage.”

Outside, on St. Marks Place, it was raining; inside Physical Graffiti, a vintage clothing store, which occupies a landmark site on the block between First Avenue and Avenue A, workers were packing up the contents of the shop.

The clothing store is closing its doors after 16 years because of the bad economy, but will re-open in March as a loose leaf tea shop under a slightly different name – Physical Graffi-tea – and the same management.

“It’s so sad but there is just no market for the clothes,” said Ilana Malka, 45, the store’s owner.

“Teas are affordable,” she said. “People eat and drink anyway even when the economy is bad and there are a lot of people out there who are looking for good fresh loose tea.”

On Wednesday Ms. Malka was busy packing boxes along with Holden Bucy, 24, a seamstress who had worked at the store for the past year. Ms. Malka picked up some of her favorite pieces that were still on display— a yellow taffeta dress and a 1950’s Persian fur coat, as Ms. Bucy filled bags with men’s collared shirts.

“Everyone was concerned that we were closing,” said Ms. Malka, reminiscing as she made her way past boxes holding in her hand the floor plan for the new shop. “But a lot of people are also excited about the teas.”
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Suzanne Rozdeba The 7A Cafe, a neighborhood mainstay, re-opened this week after extensive renovations. “We haven’t remodeled since 1986,” said the general manager, “and the owner thought it was time.”

After a two-week closure for renovations, 7A Cafe is back open for business with a new, eclectic, jungle-meets-50s-diner look.

The 24-hour restaurant, a favorite in the East Village for brunch, re-opened on Jan. 18. It now has a green and beige color scheme with jungle and bamboo-themed wallpaper, spacious diner booths, a zinc bar with faux bamboo lighting hanging overhead, and an overall more open feel.

The décor was chosen by Mark Wilson, a SoHo artist who is a friend of the owner, Moshe Hatsav. “Mark was in Brazil in the Amazon, and he said, ‘Let’s do something with the Amazon, green with bamboo,’ and I said, ‘O.K.!’” Mr. Hatsav told The Local. “We wanted to give it an upscale-diner look. The look before was from the 80’s. I’m very happy with the changes. Green is the thing.”

Mr. Hatsav said customers are enjoying the new look. “Customers who have been coming for years really like the changes. The food is the same because the customers really like our food.”

The delicious, $13 brunch on weekends continues to include choices like Shrimp and Avocado Benedict, Smoked Mozzarella Frittata, and Brioche French Toast. The price includes coffee or tea, and your choice of freshly-squeezed orange juice or an alcoholic drink such as a Mimosa or Bellini.

Doug Rochelle, the general manager, told The Local, “Everyone else is remodeling in the neighborhood, or opening something new. We haven’t remodeled since 1986, and the owner thought it was time.”

Mr. Rochelle called the new design “diner-like with a twist. It’s an eclectic mix of things. There’s a new zinc bar, the bathroom has cartoon characters on the wall, there’s the jungle theme in the back, and the café feel in the front. We’re blending all of those different flavors.”

7A Cafe, East Seventh Street and Avenue A. 212-475-9001.

Suzanne Rozdeba Junk, 102 St. Marks Place.

James De La Vega’s funky museum art store has been replaced by Junk.

Amy Sidney, took over the St. Marks Place store as a space to sell her collection of things tossed aside. She calls herself a gatherer of memories, of stories behind the items she personally picks to sell. She calls her thrift store Junk.

The store’s name was created on a simple rule of marketing.

“I studied marketing, and the rule was the acronym KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. You have two or three seconds to catch someone’s eye. Eve and I came up with ‘Junk.’ We thought, ‘What a great name,’” laughed Mrs. Sidney. The store’s rent and overhead cost come to $8,000 a month.
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Helen Zhang Alx Alvarez is a stylist at Salon 13, at 212 Avenue B, one of several salons in the East Village that offers customers wine or beer while they wait.

I am finally sitting in the hairdresser’s chair, after nervously picking off most of my blue nail polish. My anxiety has been building for about two days since I made my annual appointment to cut my tailbone-length locks. In the past too many too-generous inches were chopped off without warning, so it’s hard to keep my cool once those pointed scissors come at me.

But stylist Alx Alvarez at Salon 13, at 212 Avenue B, assures me that she had been cutting hair for 20 years, styling the likes of Tommy Lee and Kate Hudson. Despite the fact that she was slugging down a 40 of Yuengling beer, I decided to trust her. To help me relax, she offered me a Coors Light.
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Hannah Rubenstein Boshir Khan, of Panna II, and Thahmina Ahmed, of Milon, are continuing a restaurant rivalry that has lasted more than 20 years.

Boshir Khan leans over the plastic tablecloth at Panna II, glancing around the crowded restaurant to ensure that no one is listening. His voice is conspiratorial, nearly inaudible beneath the blaring Bollywood trills and ululations that emanate from speakers overhead. “I am launching a new website,” he says confidingly. When asked for more details, Mr. Khan will only smile mysteriously. “It will be completely new,” he replies. “Go and see.”

He will say no more for fear that his latest business innovation will be usurped by the enemy, Milon, a rival restaurant which shares the same building at First Avenue and Sixth Street. A silent, dazzling and well-chronicled war has raged between these two Indian eateries in the East Village for more than two decades.

Now, a new generation of owners is preparing to take this battle for the hearts and stomachs of diners to a new level online. Any day now, Mr. Khan will launch a revamped website and he promises that its features will assure Panna II of its culinary supremacy once and for all.

For now, though, Mr. Khan offers few details and each evening as the sun sets, the battle begins anew, bathing the sidewalk in a neon blaze.

Milon and Panna II are mirror images of one another. They share many similarities: menus, BYOB policy, prices, décor—and a home. Flanking opposite sides of an iron staircase, each restaurant consists of one corridor-like dining room where tables and chairs form a labyrinthine obstacle course for waiters. Bollywood music is pumped through the restaurants at a deafening volume. A disco ball hangs from the ceiling.
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NY Craft Beer Week, promotes brews with quirky names — Ommegang, Pretty Things, and Dog Fish Head — that have been designated “craft, ” meaning made by traditional methods and lacking “adjuncts” like rice or corn that are often used in mass production beers.

The East Village can claim bragging rights for having more bars participating than any other neighborhood in the city, according to Josh Schaffner, director of NY Craft Beer Week. Each bar features a specific brewery and offers money-saving promotions with the purchase of a passport.

Below is a map of all participating bars, their locations, and featured breweries. Craft Beer Week ends Sunday.

View NY Craft Beer Week – East Village in a larger map

Samantha Ku A selection of flavored seltzers at Northern Spy Food Co., 511 E. 12th St.

Instead of biting into a crisp apple to celebrate (finally) the start of fall, how about going upscale with a glass of homemade Fuji apple lemon seltzer? Or you could try Concord grape or quince, all flavors concocted for microbrewed seltzer.

Northern Spy Food Co. at 511 East 12th Street between Avenues A and B has been serving the sparkling spritzers since opening November. The flavors, made from locally sourced, organic ingredients, change with the seasons from strawberry-rhubarb in spring, to cucumber-mint for early summer, and watermelon-basil for the early days of autumn.

The restaurant, named after a local variety of apple, even mounted an old-fashioned seltzer arm, hearkening back to the soda fountain heyday of the ‘20s and ‘30s.

Samantha Ku Preparing a seltzer with carbonated water and syrup.

Traditional soda fountain culture has its roots in the natural mineral baths of 18th-century Europe, according to Anne Cooper Funderburg, who wrote “Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains.” Scientists believed that duplicating the effervescence of the spa waters would also produce healing effects in the body, a far cry from soft drinks of today. Now, restaurateurs are taking fountain drinks back to their roots with fresh ingredients and simple flavors.

Samantha Ku Northern Spy Food Co. owner Chris Ronis enjoys his creation, the coffee seltzer.

C.C. Glenn A bowl of Peter’s Pot soup at Quintessence, 263 East 10th St.

Some people eat to live, and then others eat to achieve an altered state of spirituality. Devotees of a raw vegan diet claim that all those veggies and nuts can help you become spiritually “lighter.” Can bliss be found in a bowl of soup?

My quest took me to Quintessence, a cozy raw vegan restaurant on 10th Street where I slurped a bowl of Peter’s Pot soup, an orange-colored concoction blended from cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a raw vegan diet involves foods (such as a blended vegetable soup) that are uncooked and never heated above 118 degrees.

Mid-soup, I tried to imagine myself slowly moving towards the so-called spiritual “light” that other customers claimed they had found. The chilled vegetable melange was tasty, but I didn’t exactly transcend gravity.
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Mariya Abedi Some East Village business owners say that recently installed bike lanes are adversely affecting their deliveries.

New bike lanes may be a welcome sight for cyclists in the East Village, but after two months they’re still not going over well with some small businesses.

When transportation officials placed bike lanes between the sidewalk and a parking zone, they separated delivery trucks from direct access to many local stores. Some business owners say they’re having more difficulties with deliveries as a result.

The Department of Transportation has begun installing loading zones but even that step may not completely solve the problem.
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Giant Robot, the Los Angeles-based gift shop and art gallery, is closing the doors of its East Village store Sept. 23. Paintings by Susie Ghahremani and Kelly Tunstall, two of Giant Robot’s most popular featured artists, were selected for the gallery’s last show called “Out and About.”

Hannah Rubenstein The owners of the iconic Ukrainian restaurant Veselka are planning a new restaurant on the Bowery.

In a few months there will be a new Veselka Restaurant on the Bowery. Whispers about construction on a Second Avenue subway line prompted Tom Birchard, owner of the iconic East Village Ukrainian restaurant, to take out an unconventional “insurance policy” on his investment: Nine blocks south, in the same building as DBGB Kitchen & Bar, Veselka Bowery is taking shape behind closed doors.

The second Veselka, located on Bowery and First Street, won’t be a carbon-copy of the original — Mr. Birchard said that he hopes the new restaurant will allow him to explore Ukrainian food “at a slightly higher level.” Mr. Birchard’s son Jason will take over the day-to-day operation of the original location at 144 Second Avenue.

The owners of Veselka already operate a café, Little Veselka, near East First Street and First Avenue, which essentially features an abridged version of the Veselka menu — coffee, sandwiches, breakfast food. But Veselka Bowery will be its own restaurant with an entirely different menu and a plan to serve alcohol.
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Claire Glass Coffee shop owners wonder if eliminating free WiFi access can reduce scenes like this, at Ninth Street Espresso, and improve their bottom lines.

When we East Villagers head to the coffee shop we claim the table, the nook, and the dent in the sofa as our own for hours on end because, well, it seldom costs more than the price of a cup of Joe. And what keeps us there? Often it’s the free WiFi.

But now local coffee purveyors are starting to re-think WiFi because offering unlimited access in exchange for a $3 cup of coffee draws enough Web-hungry customers to threaten their shops’ vibes and, sometimes, their bottom lines.

“It was a question of managing the Internet,” said Aaron Hagedorn, co-owner of Ost, a shop at 12th Street and Avenue A, explaining why he and his partner adopted a no-computer policy after 7 p.m. and eliminated WiFi after 11 a.m. on weekends at the start of the summer. “And we had to do just that — manage it — all the time. It would have been hard to stay in business if we didn’t.”

Not everyone was thrilled with the compromise.

“I don’t know how you can disconnect the use of Internet and coffee shops,” Ost customer Braden Smith said while enjoying an espresso. “They’ve always been places where you come and sit to work for hours.”
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