Daniel Maurer

If you’ve ever woken up on Christmas day to find a brand new bicycle by the tree, you can imagine how Evan McKnight must’ve felt when he walked into his East Village apartment building on the morning of Dec. 25 to find his bike – valued between $1,100 and $1,200 – missing from a stairwell where he had left it the day before. He’s now taking his search for the bicycle to the streets, by posting flyers offering a $300 cash reward.

Mr. McKnight, 27, a piercer and body-jewelry buyer at New York Adorned, said he bought the frame of the 1997 Uno bike for about $850, and this year, sunk somewhere around $1,200 into converting the track bike by installing a 3-speed gear system, breaks, and other accessories. When he locked his bike outdoors, he used two Kryptonite U-locks. When he stowed the bike indoors, he locked its wheel to its frame; but that wasn’t enough to discourage someone from entering the building at 420 East 10th Street sometime on Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning (while Mr. McKnight was out of town) and swiping the bike. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Workers have now demolished the walls of all but the first story of the building that housed Mars Bar. This was the scene during their lunch break today, looking southeast from where the dive’s bathrooms used to be.

The Local has turned its attention to the services offering free food in Tompkins Square Park once or twice before. Today, we ride alongside Adi Purusha Das, a monk at the Bhakti Center, and Father Joseph Gingrich, a priest at St. Nicholas of Myra church, who – under the name Interfaith Community Services – team up with locals and tourists alike to bring home-cooked meals to the park every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Know of other neighborhood organizations that deserve recognition? E-mail The Local to tell us about them.

Scott Lynch Union Square last month.

Thought the imminent closing of Filene’s Basement would be the biggest news coming out of Union Square today? Not so much. A 36-year-old man was stabbed in the leg in Union Square earlier this afternoon, the police said.

The victim, who was not identified, is said to have been stabbed around 3 p.m. at Union Square and East 15th Street by an unknown Hispanic man who fled the scene. A representative of the police department did not know whether the man had been taken to the hospital, but said he was not considered likely to die.

The author of the blog Sana and the City tweets a rumor, which The Local has not been able to confirm, that the victim was homeless.

Know anything else about the incident? E-mail The Local or comment below.

Wally Gobetz The Standard East Village

Hotel Chatter points out that there are still New Year’s Eve rooms available at the Cooper Square Hotel, now 0fficially The Standard East Village. Out of curiosity, The Local called around to other hotels in and around the neighborhood to find out who’s booked up, and who still has “cheap” rooms available. Here’s what we found.

The Standard East Village: King room available, $475.

The Bowery Hotel: Queen room available, $495.

Whitehouse Hotel: Fully booked.

St. Mark’s Hotel: Fully booked.

Lafayette House: Fully booked.

East Village Bed and Coffee: Fully booked.

East Village Apartments: Fully booked.

East Houston Hotel: Standard room available, $329.

The Gem Hotel Soho: Fully booked.

Of course, there’s always Craigslist and AirBNB.

Well folks, it’s about time for The Local to close down shop at 20 Cooper Square and head off for the long weekend. So go ahead and grab some egg nog from the new 7-Eleven, and if your apartment is too small for a Christmas tree or a fireplace, well then at least light some Douglas fir incense and curl up to our video recreation of the Bowery Hotel’s lobby hearth. Barring any breaking news (Santa’s sleigh crashing into an illegal rooftop addition, etc.), we’ll see you Tuesday. Have a wonderful holiday.

Angelo Fabara

What you have here is photographic evidence that 7-Eleven has finally opened at 351 Bowery. No, they do not sell Mars Bars.

Courtesy NYPD

A woman was attacked by a man who attempted to rob her iPhone on the morning of Dec. 10, the police said.

According to the police, the incident occurred around 11:30 p.m. in front of 167 Essex Street, near Rivington Street. A man thought to be in his 30s and 6′, 1″ rode up behind the 25-year-old victim on a white bicycle. The man, who wore an orange hat, is said to have punched the woman in the face and chest. He then attempted to grab her iPhone, but she held on to it during a struggle and he eventually fled on his bike toward East Houston Street.

The Seventh Precinct is looking for the suspect shown here in connection with the attempted robbery.

In Timeout’s roundup of the best restaurants of 2011, associate editor Chris Schonberger writes that when guests come to town, his “secret weapon” is to offer them a seat at Robataya NY’s counter, where the chefs “leap in front of you to pluck raw ingredients from the bountiful, market-style mise-en-place — a whole red snapper, maybe, or earthy eryngi mushrooms — then hop back to their prep stations, where they work their minimalist magic.” Tip from The Local: Keep an eye out for fried fugu (or blowfish) on the specials menu.

Meagan Kirkpatrick

Good morning, East Village.

The Times has more on the charges against eight soldiers in the apparent suicide of Private Danny Chen. “It’s of some comfort and relief to learn that the Army has taken this seriously,” says Private Chen’s mother, who lives in an East Village housing project.

According to East Village Arts, the Cooper Square Committee is raising funds for the proposed Bea Arthur Residence by selling tickets to a special performance of “Accidentally, Like a Martyr” at Paradise Factory Theater.

According to City Room, some oppose the diesel-fuel generators at the Union Square holiday market because they say they emit fumes that can be harmful to children as well as those with lung and heart ailments. Read more…

After four years of whetting the whistles of wine drinkers in the far East Village, David Hitchner, co-owner of In Vino Winebar & Restaurant and Alphabet City Wine Co., is striking out on his own. This time, he’ll be tapping kegs instead of popping corks, as he plans to open Alphabet City Beer Co. at 96 Avenue C next February. Mr. Hitchner recently took The Local on an early tour of the space.

Tonight should be a big one at the Bowery Poetry Club: The second of Urbana Poetry Slam’s four semifinal rounds starts at 7 p.m., and the flow is going to be fierce. Six of the season’s top slammers – who won Tuesday-night competitions earlier in the year – will be competing to go on to Urbana’s finals in May, where all four semifinalist winners (along with four wild cards) will get a shot to continue on to the National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C. Also performing tonight is Rachel McKibbens. She won’t be competing, having already earned her stripes as an eight-time National Poetry Slam team member, but as a big heavy on the scene, you’ll want to check her out.

In the meantime, watch The Local’s footage of a recent slam to find out what it takes to get to the semis.

You may have noticed a new crew selling Christmas trees in front of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery this year. Roger Francis Baust – who took the spot over from his friend, Daniel Lamey, after the French-Canadian was prevented from crossing the border to sell his trees – died in September at the age of 64. Now Joseph Schommer of Brooklyn and Edward Chin-Lyn of the East Village are working around the clock to sell 700 trees they cut down in West Virginia last month. Watch The Local’s video to find out how the Tree Riders, as they call themselves, snagged the coveted spot on Second Avenue.

Following parts one and two of The Local’s holiday gift guide, here are ten options for your geek of the week.

Above:
1. Earbud cuff, $88.00 – Patricia Field (302 Bowery)
2. Terracycle motherboard coasters, $12.99 – Sustainable NYC (139 Avenue A)
3. 3-D drawing pad, $8.75 – Exit 9 Gift Emporium (51 Avenue A)
4. Voltaic solar-charging tablet case, $399.95 –Sustainable NYC (139 Avenue A)
5. Invader ring, $60 – Patricia Field (302 Bowery) Read more…

This afternoon, on what happened to be the three-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, swing dancers and jazz bands “occupied” the platform of the Second Avenue subway station as vintage subway cars traveled from the station to Queens and back. Levys’ Unique New York Tours, which offers tours such as “Jewish Gangsters of the Lower East Side” and the “The Bowery Punk Rock Pub Crawl & Walking Tour,” coordinated the festivities along with the N.Y.C. Swing Dancers and N.Y.C. Balboa Club. As tea and cookies were served, Susan Keyloun, a contributor to The Local, shot the videos above and below. (She also took photos that you can find in The Local’s Flickr group.)

The M.T.A.’s vintage trains will make their final appearances at the Broadway-Lafayette and Second Avenue stops, among others, next Saturday. Read more…

This isn’t exactly new information, but it’s not commonly known, and Gothamist finds it worth repeating now that ramen season is upon us and no one (well, almost no one) wants to hang out on Fourth Avenue in 30-degree weather: “Just drop by in the morning or mid-afternoon and tell the host or hostess that you’d like to make a reservation for that evening. Give them your name, party size and time and as long as you return at the time you said with your full party on hand they will do their best to accommodate you as soon as possible.”

Daniel Maurer; Japa Dog Japa Dog’s construction and future incarnation.

At a meeting last night of Community Board 3’s S.L.A. and D.C.A. Licensing Committee, tensions erupted between local residents and the owners of Keybar during an hour-long debate over whether or not the bar could serve alcohol at a new location. Meanwhile, Death & Co.’s request for an extension of operating hours got a thumbs-up from the committee.

Gyula Bertrok and Attila Draviczki have owned and operated Keybar, on East 13th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, for nine years, but said they were leaving their current location because their landlord was tripling their rent. At last night’s meeting, they sought the licensing committee’s support in having the inactive license at their desired location removed – the first step in obtaining their own license for a new location at 14 Avenue B.

Mr. Bertron and Mr. Draviczki are having trouble gaining support from residents near the new Avenue B location based on past experience with the former tenants, a bar called Butterfly, Butterfly. That bar, which closed in 2007, was notorious for noise violations and general rowdiness at all hours of the evening. Read more…

Lucyna Mickievicius, the owner of Lucy’s on Avenue A, has lived in the East Village for over 30 years. In 1981, she tended bar at Blanche’s on St. Marks Place while putting in weekend shifts at Blue & Gold bar. Blanche’s moved to Avenue A, and became known as Lucy’s after Ms. Mickievicius made a trip to Poland to visit her son.

“People were asking what happened to me,” she said. “The owners got frustrated telling the same story, so they made the Lucy’s sign outside to show I was still there. I came back from Poland and saw the sign. It didn’t look so bad.”

“What was I supposed to do?” she laughed. “It would be a shame to destroy it. And it’s stayed that way ever since.” Indeed, Lucy’s took over the dive 15 years ago and still spends her nights behind the bar – barring the occasional vacation.

Before one of Lucy’s recent breaks, The Local’s Suzanne Rozdeba spent the day with her, visiting some of her favorite haunts, including Ray’s Candy Store, and speaking to her in her native Polish about how she came to work at the bar.