We caught up with the Palenque food truck on East 14th Street before the holidays. The crew is taking a break through mid-January, but follow their schedule to find out when you can next get organic arepas in the East Village.

Some activity observed around the neighborhood over the holiday.

Kim Davis131 St Mark’s Place.

Nino’s, the fixture pizzeria at the corner of St Mark’s Place and Avenue A, was shuttered by the Health Department last month, then seemed briefly to re-emerge as a Lebanese takeaway. A more substantial refurbishment was underway over the weekend: scrawled notices suggested it would become a pizzeria called The Spot. “New menu come 2013.”

Kim DavisBoulton & Watt

Boulton & Watt, the industrial revolution-styled gastropub at the bottom of Avenue A looks closer to opening with each passing day.

Kim DavisThe Burger Shop–or is it The Village Joker?.

Meanwhile, also on St Mark’s, the strange Burger Shop stand-off continues. It’s open, the Burger Shop sign still hangs, the menu and beer selection remain the same–but the garish Village Joker signage also glares. An identity crisis? The burgers are good, anyway, so shield your eyes and step inside.

Kim DavisEvelyn Drinkery, Avenue C

When I moved to the Avenue C neighborhood more than a decade ago, cocktail choices were pretty much limited to a mojito at Esposito’s, or a cosmopolitan at the world music lounge Lava Gina. Now that the city has bartenders muddling, and measuring, and chipping blocks of designer ice, from Chelsea to the Lower East Side, and from Bushwick to the Bronx, Alphabet City (as nobody calls it any more) hasn’t been left behind.

The East Village’s most vaunted drinks may be made at Death & Co. on East 6th Street, but with The Third Man finally open, in the former Lava Gina (and Vibrations) space, Avenue C now boasts an impressive battery of cocktail bars.

Louis 649 is a step or two off the Avenue, on East 9th Street, just past Brix Wine Store. It’s a veteran of some eight years standing, although when it first opened its concentration was on live jazz, and its drink selection limited. Somewhere along the way it reinvented itself as a serious cocktail bar, offering a long list of vintage potions, like the “Last Word” as well as its own creations, all made by bartenders willing to go off-menu and improvise–a cocktail-lover’s dream.

Kim DavisLouis 649

The Summit Bar has been around a few years too. A young crowd hugs the long, curved, black bar; the music pumps; but staff will studiously pour tinctures and infusions to make the “John Lee Hooker” (whisky, lemon and bitters, topped with Lagunitas “Hop Stoopid” ale), or the “Born and Raised” (honey bush tea-infused Scotch, sweet vermouth, agave, and orange bitters).

I recall the last night of Micky’s Blue Room at 171 Avenue C, with Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith band blasting chords in the back room. Micky’s is long gone, and its successor Teneleven closed earlier this year. Haunting the two room space now is Evelyn Drinkery. Smooth jazz has taken over in the back room; rich and potent concoctions up front. I tried a Fort Watson, which–with oloroso sherry as well as Bourbon, Carpano Antica vermouth, and bitters–was a stirring elaboration on a Manhattan. Read more…

The Bureau of General Services–Queer Division is the last gay bookstore in Manhattan. It’s currently in a temporary home at the Strange Loop Gallery on Orchard Street, but it’s fund-raising for a permanent home.

Suzanne RozdebaBarbara Shaum in her workspace on East 4th Street.

When you’ve been in business as a ‘solopreneur’ since 1962, you find you’re known for a few things, and you pay no mind about taking your time to relay all the details to anyone within earshot. For Barbara Shaum, 80-something, the legend behind the institution that is Barbara Shaum Ltd. on 60 East 4th Street, that means noting she was the very first woman officially to enter the male-only McSorley’s Bar, and that she hand-makes what fashion icons view to be some of the very best leather sandals and belts in the city. These days, it is rarity to enter a shop where there is a craftswoman who cobbles the very item you plan to slip on, right there in the store. Ms. Shaum, but she doesn’t have plans to retire either. Too many people are depending on her to outfit their feet.

How did you make your way into this business?

I was doing wholesale and living in a loft on West Broadway. I was working for a wonderful sandal-maker who taught me so much of what I know. This was back in the 50s. Then I went on my own in 1962, opening up a shop on 7th Street between Bowery and Second Avenue.

Right next to McSorleys! That must have been interesting.

Absolutely. It was for men only until 1970 when the Civil Rights Bill was passed and they could no long discriminate against women patronizing their establishment. I was the first woman in there and that’s the kind of person I am.

Was there a benefit to being in the location next to such a legendary place?

I sell to men and women and the bar was enormously popular. It was the 60s so there were hippies wearing a lot of belts and sandals so I was making a lot of sandals and belts. That was a good time for me. Lots of off-beat people with style.

People weren’t really worrying about making their rent so much then were they?

In those days things were not so much focused on real estate and money and that sort of thing. My rent was very low. It was $75 a month for quite a large place. I had a front part and a back part where I put up a wall and I lived back there. I also had a backyard and I’d have these big backyard barbecues with like 75 people coming by. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

Hetal 111 First Convenience Store on First Avenue was being cleared out by workers today, and a new business is already planned in its place.

“I’m opening a convenience store at 111 First Avenue. That’s my lucky number,” laughed Zahid, the new owner, who declined to give The Local his last name. The number is also the address of the store.

Zahid owns another convenience store in a “quiet” area of Kew Gardens, Queens, but said he likes the vibrancy of the East Village. “There’s life over there. You can see that. I lived in Karachi in Pakistan, and back then, it was thickly populated. It was busy 24 hours. That’s in my system,” he said.

“My target is to open hopefully the first week of next month,” he said. He will sell items including magazines, newspapers, health and beauty aids, candy, beer, and soda. He plans on staying open from 6 a.m. until midnight, and later on weekends.

The store will be called 111 Convenience Store. Sometimes, at least, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Suzanne Rozdeba

The latest addition to the Indian restaurants of Curry Row is Malai Marke, opening at 318 East Sixth Street later this month.

Yesterday, The Local spotted workers putting the finishing touches on the restaurant’s interior, where decorative, copper bowls imported from Northern India lined a cozy, exposed brick wall. The restaurant is steps away from Zen 6, a ramen spot that opened at the end of November.

“We’re planning to open on the 27th of this month. We will be serving kabab, Vindaloo, a lot of dishes from Goa, and also original dishes from Northern India,” owner Shiva Natarajan told The Local. The restaurant’s website promises the place will offer “the ultimate dollop of ethereal joy!”

Mr. Natarajan credits his culinary inspiration to his family and upbringing. “Some of my family lives in Goa, and I was born and raised in Calcutta,” he said. Mr. Natarajan already owns a number of restaurants in the city, including Singapura, Chote Nawab, and Dhaba, all in Curry Hill. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba Chung Pai, owner of Landmark Bicycles.

Landmark Bicycles, which opened in the East Village almost five years ago on East Third Street, has expanded to a space around the corner on Avenue A.

“We’re selling new bicycles and accessories in the new space, and will eventually move the store on Third Street downstairs, where we’ll continue to sell vintage bicycles and parts, and do repairs,” Chung Pai, 44, who owns the shops, told The Local this morning. The new store, where Mr. Pai pays $6,500 a month in rent, opened last Wednesday and was formerly occupied by Organic Modernism.

He’s selling brand-name bikes including Jamis, Diamond, Biria and Viva, Chrome messenger bags and cycling shoes, and helmets, bike chains, locks, gloves, and lights. The new store is having a sale until New Year’s Day, with everything 10 percent off. Select messenger bags, used bikes and other items are 15 to 50 percent off.

Mr. Pai came up with the idea of expansion when he learned over the summer that a space had opened up around the corner from his shop. With the bigger space, which also has a basement, he could move into selling new items, as well as continue his vintage-focused business. “My main customers on Third Street are locals, but in the new space, I’ll probably get more people who are just walking around the neighborhood because it’s on the avenue.” Read more…

Laura Gurfein A four-legged friend gets his first look at Ruff Club.

“Come on in the back, where the magic happens!”

Alexia Simon Frost, a co-owner of Ruff Club, led a small group of people and their dogs into the large playroom with walls dotted with decals that look like supersized nail polish art, where more pets and humans were already congregating. For the first time on Saturday, Alexia and her husband, co-owner Danny Frost, along with six staff members donning matching dark gray zip-up hoodies with the company’s orange crossbones logo, welcomed the public into their East Village “dog-friendly social club” for an open house to recruit membership.

Though the doggy daycare and boarding center with its lounge for owners to work or socialize while enjoying complimentary coffee and WiFi doesn’t officially open until January 2, the newlywed couple greeted neighborhood pet enthusiasts this weekend for a tour of their 3,300 square-foot, two level space and invited them to fill out applications. The first-time business owners, both 29, were keen to present themselves to the neighborhood as an innovative enterprise that fills a void in the East Village. So intent, in fact, that Danny stood outside for a time to entice anyone walking a dog to step inside.

It’s easy to tell why they see an opportunity here. A stroll through the East Village is teeming with four-legged friends, and the Frosts figured it was only natural that dogs and humans alike were looking for a place to congregate. In fact, the New York City Economic Development Corporation estimated in September that there are approximately 600,000 dogs in New York City, and up to 55,000 dogs in the area that Ruff Club hopes to serve. Few stores and cafes in the neighborhood allow pets (The Bean, a small franchise with two neighborhood outposts, is an exception). As Danny puts it, the East Village community is “very eager for, essentially, urban living rooms, like a place to hang out, particularly with your dog.”

Laura Gurfein

Alexia and Danny inherited their attitudes towards dogs from their parents. The Simon family got a Keeshond, a large gray German spitz with a curlicue tail that looks like an oversized version of its Pomeranian cousin, when Alexia was eight years old. They named him Astro. “My dad had one when he was growing up. That’s how we ended up with one,” she explained of her first dog at her childhood home in Roseland, New Jersey. Danny’s parents, meanwhile, resorted to lying to keep furry nuisances out of their household.

“What was the story she told you?”

“I think my mom told us there was an allergy-type problem,” he replied. “It was just never even really a remote possibility, and probably as a kid, I just, you know…“

“You pick your battles,” Alexia chimed in.

“My mom, my parents, they hate animals. And my sister and I, therefore, always wanted pets,” Danny said of his childhood, split between Queen’s Bayside and Long Island’s Plainview. “Um, we ended up with fish.” Read more…

Credit: Douglas Singleton Porchetta

For the last year, when chef-owner of Porchetta, Porsena and Extra Bar Sara Jenkins wasn’t in the kitchen creating swine-centric plates and cozy pasta dishes for her East Village storefronts, she was working on a cooking app for iPad users.

“I want to encourage and enable people to pick up a zucchini or an eggplant at the farmer’s market on their way home from work and cook it,” said Ms. Jenkins, who launched the New Italian Pantry app this week.

As for encouraging home cooking, she’s not worried it will diminish her business. We’re not worried either — the roasted pork, slow cooked with spices, garlic, rosemary and wild fennel, still seems to run out regularly at Porchetta’s tiny Seventh Street storefront.

“I believe in home cooking. I don’t think I’m in any danger of going out of business if I encourage home cooking,” Ms. Jenkins said, laughing.

Ms. Jenkins partnered with Lazy Susan Media, a company created by Tasting Table’s founding editor Nick Fauchald and app-development company Mizaplas, to create the clever app advising home cooks which pastas and peppers to keep in the cabinet.

As the Italian chef sees it, it’s a “whole-new world” for cookbooks and recipe sharing. The app gave her the opportunity to show home cooks how to prepare delicious food step by step.

“There were some things we thought in particular would be really, really helpful like the shots of what does brown garlic look like and what does it look like when this happens,” Jenkins said.

Credit: Lazy Susan Media Home-Style Porchetta recipe in app

The photo-heavy app is a guide to traditional Italian cooking. The experience entails filling your pantry with 16 staple ingredients — including dried pasta, extra virgin oil, wine vinegar, garlic, onions, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and salt-dried capers. All home cooks have to do is pick up some fresh produce, meat or fish when it comes time to prepare a meal.

There are 75 recipes available, a few of which will be recognizable to regulars to Jenkins’ sandwich and pasta shops. On the app, there’s a recipe for a “home-version” of porchetta, boned pork shoulder slathered with white wine and rubbed with herbs. On the tablet app, there are also recipes for Jenkins’ pastas and sauces.

Sara Jenkins’ New Italian Pantry app is $3.99 on iTunes.

Dana Varinsky

Long before there was the new Bettie Page store, there was Enz’s. Mariann Marlowe opened the pinup, rockabilly, and burlesque-inspired fashion boutique 34 years ago. “My store was a necessity that came from the scene,” said the designer. “I was hanging with Sid and Nancy, getting inspiration from Malcolm McLaren. Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Bette Midler — everyone in the scene was hanging out and coming by. That’s when it was on 49 Grove, and that didn’t last. We either died or we changed.” The store, which also had locations on St. Marks Place, the Upper East Side, and in the Hamptons, is now at 125 Second Avenue. We spoke to Ms. Marlowe, 55, about its evolution.

It’s hard to survive the punk-rock and rock-n-roll lifestyle as a person much less a business, how are you doing it?

I am always reinventing myself. My store was the first punk store in New York when we opened in 1978. I had just come from living in London and was very influenced there by the scene. I had all this creative inspiration and suddenly my clothes were in movies and on album covers. Debbie Harry, Joey Ramone, and Lou Reed were coming by and Andy Warhol was bringing me a copy of Interview Magazine to check out when it was just 18 pages! Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Nino’s, the iconic pizzeria that closed and then reopened with a new look, has been shuttered again — this time by the health department.

The pizzeria’s windows were papered over earlier today. Health department records show that it racked up 86 violation points (well above the 28 score that puts an establishment in danger of closing) during an inspection last week. Violations included food temperature issues, evidence of mice, and inadequate personal cleanliness.

When Nino’s reopened with a minimalistic look post-Sandy, a manager said “the place is going to be the same.” But last week a tipster reported evidence of change.
Read more…

Alexa Mae Asperin

After redecorated its dining room and garnering three stars from Bloomberg, Hearth is about to get some competition: East 12th Osteria, a fine-dining eatery serving cuisine inspired by northern Italy, is set to open at 197 First Avenue, directly across from the Italian veteran.

The newcomer at First Avenue and East 12th Street is owned by Roberto Deiaco, previously a chef at Palio and the Rainbow Room, and most recently the executive chef at Armani/Ristorante. Mr. Deiaco, a native of Dolomites, Italy, specializes in “modern interpretations of classic Italian dishes,” according to his Website.

His wife and business partner, Giselle Deiaco, a former journalist and wine educator, said the osteria would house a “green” kitchen utilizing induction heating, a method that eliminates grease and boils water twice as fast as gas or electricity would. She previously teamed up with her husband on a wine label.

The menu at East 12th Osteria will feature luxe touches such as truffles and foie gras, at “gentle prices,” Ms. Deiaco said. The restaurant is set to open Dec. 20.

Joann Pan Ame Ame

Shops on East Ninth Street are pulling an all-nighter and hoping to make back some of the thousands of dollars in business they lost in the weeks after Hurricane Sandy.

On Wednesday, at least 11 boutiques that usually close their doors around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. will encourage the after-work crowd to “Shop Until Midnight.”

Hurricane Sandy’s negative effect on business has been very well documented. Devorado NYC — a vintage store selling Emilio Pucci, Yves Saint Laurent and classic Dior — saw an extreme dip in sales after the storm.

Carmen Ruiz-Davila, who opened the store just five months ago, panicked when she noticed the slump. “I didn’t sell anything for three weeks, not a single thing,” she said. “After we regained power, people were not in the mood to shop; they were helping people in need.”

On Wednesday Devorado and other participating shops will offer special 30-to-40 percent sales on select items.
Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba A burger from Aaron’s Grill.

Katz’s isn’t the only restaurant that recently started delivering via Seamless: in recent months, Aaron’s Grill began using the online ordering service to deliver organic Bison burgers, salmon burgers, and fried pickles.

Never heard of it, right?

And yet its Seamless listing said it was located right in the East Village, at 92 Third Avenue.

But go to that address, between East 12th and 13th Streets, and you won’t find Aaron’s Grill: you’ll find Blue 9 Burger, the chowhound favorite known for its classic fast-food-style burgers (and certainly not for fancier fare like the wood-fired turkey burgers at Aaron’s Grill).

We got to wondering: did Blue 9 create Aaron’s just so it could top Seamless’s alphabetical list of delivery joints?
Read more…

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

Jamie Larson Terry McCoy and Bob Contant.

St. Mark’s Bookshop might seem like an odd choice for this column: given all the to-do about its struggles with landlord Cooper Union, and its subsequent fundraising for a new location, it’s hard to say the store has been “quietly making it.” But last month, owners Terry McCoy and Bob Contant celebrated 35 years in business — and if that isn’t Making It, what is? In light of the anniversary, we spoke to Mr. McCoy about what the future holds. As it turns out, he has a new space in mind, and it’s right here in the neighborhood.

How did St. Mark’s Bookshop come about?

We were originally five guys who knew each other from working at a store on St. Marks Place called East Side Books and it was struggling. We felt like we could do a better bookstore so we opened our own. We didn’t have much money and borrowed a small amount. Read more…

Dana Varinsky

Plywood has come off the windows of the former Vandaag space on East Sixth Street, where Mighty Quinn’s Slow-Smoked Barbeque will open in about two weeks, according to co-founder Micha Magid.

Pitmaster Hugh Mangum draws his barbecue expertise from his Texas upbringing, and got the fast-casual joint’s name from his son, Quinn. He’ll be smoking naturally raised meats over cherry, oak and apple wood from local farms.
Read more…

Sasha von Oldershausen

While one home furnishings shop prepares to move into a larger space, another is closing.

Cafiero Select, the design firm and antique shop that was replaced by the Panda Diplomacy pop-up, is set to reopen on Second Avenue.

The new location at 39 Second Avenue, at East Second Street, is around the corner from Cafiero Lussier, an event design and catering business also co-owned by David Cafiero. The catering offices will share the space with Mr. Cafiero’s shop when doors open to the public in February.

Meanwhile, after nearly 14 years of business on Avenue B, Amaran is closing.
Read more…

Daniel Maurer

If you welcomed the news that Mile End is again delivering its smoked meat sandwiches, boy are you going to love this: you can now order lunch and dinner from Katz’s.

Traditionally, if you wanted to get delivery from one of the last of the old-school delis (R.I.P., Stage), you had to get the whole office in on it: there was an order minimum of $80 and a $20 fee for delivery to the East Village. But in recent days, Katz’s joined Seamless, where the order minimum is a mere $15 and the charge for delivering to the East Village is $2.95. (The delivery fee jumps up to $7.95 if you live in the West Village and goes up from there, depending on neighborhood.)

According to an employee, Katz’s quietly joined GrubHub a couple of months ago (the delivery minimum is a mere $10 there) and is now serving Seamless customers as well.

We ordered lunch earlier this week and within half an hour got a pastrami sandwich with a couple of pickles, a wooden spoon for smearing mustard, and, thankfully, a big ol’ stack of napkins.

Now if only Russ & Daughters would deliver?