Simon McCormick Layne Mosler’s quest for culinary delights prompted her to ask cab drivers about the city’s best food finds, like pork soup dumplings at Grand Sichuan.

Layne Mosler is always on the hunt for a good, cheap meal. Back in 2007, she realized that taxi drivers often stumble upon fast food finds in their forays around the city so she started asking them for suggestions and doing taste tests herself. Her culinary escapades have taken her around the globe from Berlin to Buenos Aires and are chronicled on her blog, TaxiGourmet.com.

Last January, Ms. Mosler decided to join the ranks and became a New York City yellow cab driver, working a 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift three days a week.

Ms. Mosler took us on a tour of her favorite East Village eateries last week. Dressed in a taxi-yellow shirt, she said she
chose these East Village eateries because they remind her of her travels. Of course, they’re perfect for a cabbie—or anyone else—trying to catch a tasty, cheap bite in a hurry.
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Jesse O’Neill The New York City Marble Cemetery was founded in 1831, when the Lower East Side was tracts of farmland and the city’s northern border was Grand Street.

Tucked on a sleepy stretch of East Second Street, between First and Second Avenues, the New York City Marble Cemetery is one of the oldest institutions in the neighborhood. It featured prominently in headlines earlier this month when a cache of military-grade explosives was found abandoned there in a garbage bag. Otherwise, the cemetery keeps a resolutely low profile. Closed to the public and shrouded by 250 feet of grand iron railings, it is the resting place of some four thousand souls who shaped the modern city.

On a recent visit, Colleen Iverson, the cemetery’s director, introduced me to our late neighbors. The cemetery was founded in 1831, when the Lower East Side was tracts of farmland, a retreat from the bustling city whose northern terminus was around Grand Street. As Ms. Iverson explained, the location was prime, because our 19th century predecessors believed that Second Avenue would eventually transform into a fashionable residential thoroughfare. It never quite became Park Avenue, but by the 1850’s there were eleven cemeteries in a three-block radius. New York City Marble is one of only two that remain. The other is the unrelated (despite the name) New York Marble Cemetery.
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Clint Rainey Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street.

As I was making my way down Avenue A last week, a young girl in combat boots asked me for a light. I stared at her, confused. It was obvious to me that before she left the house that morning, she had remembered to smear her eyes with liquid liner, wrap her hips in enough metal belts to refurbish a John Deere machine, and carefully paint each of her nails a different shade of black – but she forgot her lighter?

“Here,” I gave her a neon pink Zippo I’d had since the last time I was hounded by Marlboro promoters at ACE bar.

“Thanks,” she said, and after using it threw the lighter into the dark depths of Tompkins Square Park, provoking the muffled sounds of an annoyed rat. Maybe she thought it was a large, cold, match. Read more…

Colleen Leung The author along the East River waterfront.

Community contributor Al Kavadlo, a personal fitness trainer, offers a regular perspective on staying fit in the East Village.

Running is one of my favorite ways to exercise. It doesn’t require a gym membership or any fancy equipment and it’s a great way to get some time alone with your thoughts. In spite of this, when I suggest that my clients try running, I hear all sorts of excuses.

Around the East Village, the most common gripe is that with so much traffic in the streets (foot, bike and automobile), it’s futile to even attempt to go for a jog. I don’t mind weaving around pedestrians and cars, but I’ll admit there are some spots that are more conducive to running for fitness than others.
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Leslie Koch, a contributor to The Local East Village, visited the 20th annual Dog Parade at Tompkins Square Park Saturday and turned her lens on the costume competition.

Karen Biehl, of the Upper West Side, posed with her Chihuahua Eli. Their Egyptian costumes were created by pet fashion designer Roberto Negrin.
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Today, The Local East Village begins a new recurring feature highlighting the work of local photographers who are our community contributors.

Regular readers of The Local are likely familiar with the photography of Gloria Chung, whose contributions often grace our morning roundup of blogposts known as The Day. Ms. Chung, who’s lived in the East Village for seven years, discusses some of her favorite images and how she found them.
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Clint Rainey Frank Restaurant & Vera Bar, 88 Second Avenue.

Frank Prisinzano opened Frank’s, a trattoria on Second Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Street, in 1998, a time when the East Village was not yet a byword for funky cosmopolitanism. “I was the first of the small restaurants in the neighborhood,” Frank said, exercising perhaps a bit of poetic license. “People said we’d never make it. My ex-wife was out front, my father and I did the prep work.” They made it. Today the restaurant is the foundation of the Frankish empire, which also includes Lil’ Frankie and Supper, both on First Avenue between First and Second. And Frank himself is wreathed in glory, his restaurants celebrated in The Times, the Michelin Guide and elsewhere. Try getting a table at Supper on short notice.

Frank’s serves serious food in a self-consciously non-serious setting, which is to say that is very Lower East Side. On my first visit, I had a kind of galette made of an oozing straciatella the texture of crème fraiche on top of two thick slabs of tomato. Then I had fabulous beet ravioli. “It’s kind of a teenage-girl color,” my friend Nancy said — the purple of a scrunchy. It was a lovely summer day, and Nancy and I were sitting outside behind the white picket fence, which Frank has incongruously built out on to the sidewalk. Liesl Schillinger, the crackerjack book reviewer for The Times, walked by on her way to the Ottendorfer Public Library to return some books. That’s one of the nice things about sitting outside at Frank’s. Liesl was dressed for the season — vivid pink and lime green. “Her shirt was. . .” “The color of your lunch,” Nancy finished for me.
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Alexa Tsoulis-Reay Carlos Rodriguez, a customer of the fang-maker known as Father Sebastiaan, shows off his new fangs. The author, while researching an article on vampire culture, purchased a custom-made set of the prosthetics, too.

On a recent soggy fall evening just past 7 p.m., I found myself standing on Fourth Avenue, smoking a cigarette while my new custom-made vampire fangs set. Next to me hovered a six-foot tall man dressed in a shiny black butcher’s apron, splattered with white paste, like he had been interrupted while baking a cake. A black cowboy hat sat upon his long-blonde hair.

Meet Father Sebastiaan aka Sebastiaan van Houten: Master Fangsmith, a self-described living vampire and head of the Sabretooth Clan.

“The Father,” as he is commonly known, has lived in Paris since 2007. Attracted by the scent of Halloween, he returns to the East Village every October to custom design removable fangs. He sets up shop in a tiny red and black windowless room, just past the pirate costumes inside the Halloween Adventure costume store on Fourth Avenue near 11th Street. He is assisted by Victor Magnus, whom he met in 1995 in a Greenwich Village magic store and who now runs the New York arm of the fang business.

I had been researching vampire culture and heard that I must talk to Father Sebastiaan, fang-maker extraordinaire. When we met for the first time, he insisted that I experience the fang design firsthand to truly understand his craft. After some convincing, I submitted to the procedure.

Seated inside his cramped workroom, I was instructed to use my pinkies to stretch open my mouth and reveal the top of my teeth and gums. I felt like a cat, about to get an oral vaccination. “I’ll make them subtle,” he said, then, turning to Mr. Magnus, who hovered nearby, he added, “We don’t want to make her look like a beaver.” Next, I was told to roar and throw a pair of devil’s horns. This took some time for me to perfect.
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Carl Guadalupe The front steps of 98 St. Marks Place today (above) and as it appeared on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album “Physical Graffiti.”

The buildings’ stony expressions look out over this last leg of St. Marks Place going east, between First Avenue and Avenue A. At first glance these two buildings look like standard East Village stock, but, eyes wide-open, the facades of 96 and 98 St. Marks Place have witnessed musical history taking place on their very stoops.

They are the iconic buildings featured on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album Physical Graffiti, and also in the 1981 Rolling Stones music video, “Waiting on a Friend.”

Bobby Pinn, the creator and host of Rock Junket walking tours, “In the 70’s, Led Zeppelin were big fans of New York City. They partied here a lot and they played the Garden quite a bit, so they really had a close tie to New York. The cover was designed by Peter Corriston, a graphic design artist from New York. Peter said that he was looking for a building with a lot of character, which this building has with all the kings’ faces and it has that tenement-style feel with the fire escapes. He wanted a building that had symmetry and a lot of windows.”
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East Village Street Style from Sally L on Vimeo.

Last month, The Local showed you fall runway trends in some of the most popular neighborhood boutiques.

But what are East Villagers actually wearing now that the temperatures are dropping?

We took to the streets on a recent Sunday afternoon and asked stylish locals about their personal fall fashion.

There is no shortage of opinion when it comes to the speed hump installed in November 2009 on East 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

But now that the hump has been installed for nearly a year, many residents and storeowners are concerned about its effectiveness or confused by its location – or simply annoyed by it.

After several car accidents involving children in front of the 10th Street Boys’ Club, residents and neighbors from the local community board lobbied for the installation of a speed hump on the street.

Roadway layout and driveway locations are major factors that determine where the city places speed reducers, according to a spokeswoman with the Department of Transportation. The department determined the 10th Street hump’s current location as the best place to maximize safety for pedestrians crossing the road.

NYU Journalism’s Alexandra DiPalma, Sarah Tung and Rachel Wise describe the reactions of those who live and work near the speed hump.

Today, The Local East Village inaugurates a recurring feature of photo essays on neighborhood pets called “Beyond the Dog Run.”

One day, Michael Sean Edwards, an East Village photographer, decided to pay close attention to the dogs that were waiting for their owners outside a neighborhood coffee house. This is what he saw.
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C.C. Glenn A typical sign outside East Village bars and restaurants on fall weekends.

Football season is upon pigskin fans, and you don’t have to wander far to seek out lively crowds, bargain beers, jumbo screens and crazy specials on caloric-heavy favorites like hot wings, burgers and mile-high nachos. The East Village, and its 10003 zip code, was recently ranked the nation’s second-most dense nabe for bars, with 73 in the area. (Wait – 73, is that all?)

On any given Saturday, Sunday and definitely Monday night, rowdy — and some not so boisterous — bars burst with sticky-fingered fans. Decked in jerseys and bright team colors, patrons take advantage, maybe too much, of cheap drink specials and let loose with indefatigable chants.

The East Village is a goldmine for football fans of all kind, bar none. But let’s face it, some are better than others, especially when seeking the winning combination of libations, vittles and good company. Jets and Giants games are ubiquitous, but where can you watch teams that are not housed in New Jersey? Urban Tailgate links like-minded fans with game-ready bars. Whether it’s the Bears or the Bulldogs, there’s a place where fellow football fanatics will, depending on the score, share your joy or pain.
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Helen Zhang Amanda Cohen at work in the kitchen of Dirt Candy.

In October 2008, Amanda Cohen, fresh out of culinary school, ventured into the high-risk restaurant business with a novel but untested concept: all vegetables, all the time. Not vegan, not vegetarian. Simply vegetables. This month, she will celebrate the second birthday of Dirt Candy, her restaurant on East Ninth Street that revolves around what she calls, “candy from the earth.”

Ms. Cohen ascended to food blog notoriety over the past year, thanks to her recent appearance on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America,” dueling Masaharu Morimoto in a battle of broccoli. Since then she’s claimed her own hash tag on Eater.com, turned down the chance to be on The Next Iron Chef and gained a few admirers expressing their affection via Craigslist. She draws 7,000 visitors on the restaurant’s blog each month.

We caught up with Ms. Cohen earlier this month as she briskly chopped dozens of stalks of celery in preparation New York City Wine and Food Festival.

There are dozens of dining options for vegetarians in the East Village. How is Dirt Candy different from a typical vegetarian restaurant?

There are fish restaurants in the city, and steak restaurants, and you know, fried chicken restaurants, and we revolve around vegetables and there is nothing like us in the city. So we happen to be vegetarian, but that’s not our focus. Our focus is vegetables.
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Meredith Hoffman A line form at Tompkins Square Park to await food distribution by the volunteers of Bowery Mission.

Beyond serving as a green refuge, Tompkins Square Park offers a wide range of eating experiences. A recent food tasting in the park allowed area restaurants to serve up their creations. Locals frequent the Sunday morning farmers’ market where artisanal cheese from Hudson Valley farms and apples from nearby orchards are among a host of organic produce.

Saturday mornings, around 8 o’clock, a lengthy line reminiscent of Coxey’s Army begins to form along Avenue A. A broad ethnic mix of people, many aged or infirm wait patiently alongside mothers with their children in strollers. Most are wheeling shopping carts. Some on crutches, in wheel chairs form a separate line.
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John Galayda Steve Simpson.

Just last month, vendors celebrated the re-opening of the Mary Help of Christians weekend flea market on 11th Street and Avenue A.

Among the happiest was vendor Steve Simpson, who until the market’s closure in 2006, had been “bringin’ the goods” for more than a decade. “Where do you get all of your stuff from?” we asked. Some are bought, he replied, some are donated, some even come from estate sales.

Amid an ever-changing array of goods on Mr. Simpson’s table, music is one constant. Hat on backward, holding his red, white, and blue guitar, Mr. Simpson plays while being backed by tracks on an old boombox. He writes and records his own music and finds the market a great place to sell his CDs and whatever other interesting commodities he finds along the way. — Gabbi Lewin

Mariya Abedi An all-in-one flu shot protects against the traditional flu as well as the H1N1 virus.

Last year everyone was talking about the swine flu but modern medicine has made some changes to make your life a little easier and less painful. Now an all-in-one flu shot is widely available, so you don’t have to get injected twice.

While flu shots were offered for free to all public school students last year, including schools in the East Village, the vaccines won’t be available in schools this year.

The Department of Health still recommends every New Yorker older than six months get a shot or nasal spray but check with your doctor.

While you can get a flu shot at your doctor’s office, some pharmacies in the East Village will carry the vaccine starting this month, including the New York City Pharmacy, 206 First Avenue,
 and Avenue C Pharmacy & Surgical, 
178 Avenue C. CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacies will also carries the vaccine.

CVS and Walgreens are also providing the shot to those who are uninsured and hold special vouchers. Unfortunately, the closest place to get vouchers is at the Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center on 650 Fulton Street, near the Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street subway stop. Without the voucher, the shot costs around $30.

Senior citizens are able to get free flu vaccinations at the Chelsea Health Clinic at 303 Ninth Avenue between 27th and 28th Streets. It’s the closest location to the East Village where the Bureau of Immunization is holding clinics. The walk-in clinic is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Call them at 917-438-9780 an hour before you plan to arrive.

For more information about the flu vaccine, visit www.nyc.gov/flu and www.cdc.gov/flu/.

Carolyn Stanley A sticker for the Barcode Cinema project, one of the walkable exhibits at the Conflux Festival.

The East Village became a technological playground of sorts this weekend: an 8-foot tall “Urban Speaker” received phone calls and broadcast them across Tompkins Square Park. Images of bustling city sidewalks flickered across an outdoor movie screen attached to the handball court fence near Avenue B. Custom-designed barcode stickers were affixed to street signs, lampposts and buildings.

A mix of events, activities, and installations were dispersed throughout the neighborhood, all part of Conflux, an experiment in psychogeography, demonstrating how changing the urban landscape impacts people. Established in 2003, the Conflux Festival is an annual art and technology exhibition, and this year, most of the festival’s 75 projects appeared in the East Village. Exhibitors were encouraged to position their projects within a walkable radius, so they could explore how a community responds to participatory art.
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Rhea Mahbubani Thomas Krever, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, says recent suicides by gay teenagers reflect a troubling “sense of isolation and hopelessness.”

Growing up, Jairo Alcantara thought it was normal to be treated badly. It seemed ordinary to walk down the hallways of his Queens high school hearing homophobic slurs. “I can’t help the fact that I’m gay,” Mr. Alcantara said in a recent interview. “It’s a horrible feeling when you think God made you the wrong way. It’s an even more horrible feeling when other people tell you so.”

After years of pretending to be someone else, Mr. Alcantara, although still fearful for his safety, grew tired of being weighed down by a single lie. Today, Mr. Alcantara, who’s 18 and a recent graduate of the Harvey Milk High School in the East Village, is candid about his sexuality after having come out twice – first as bisexual and then as gay. “I had to come out,” said Mr. Alcantara, who transferred to Harvey Milk after two years at another school. “I was tired of living in this bubble that I couldn’t breathe in.”

Advocates point to the recent spate of teenage suicides by those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning as evidence of the pervasiveness of bullying and victimization. It is against that backdrop that the gay community today observes National Coming Out Day – an annual call for equal rights that is framed this year by the loss of young lives.
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