Jeremy Spector

So will DP Pizza return to Rockaway along with Caracas? Jeremy Spector, who also owns Brindle Room on East 10th Street, isn’t sure yet. “I wasn’t even sure if I was going to go back without the hurricane, just because it wasn’t completely my vibe,” he said. “That being said, it’s cool out there and all that.”

While he decides, the chef is focusing on a new night at Brindle Room, and it’s one you can get behind if you’re the type that frequents Academy Records. On Mondays from 9 p.m. to midnight you can bring your own vinyl and spin it on the house record player.

(Bring your own vinyl, build your own sushi — what’ll they think of next?)

This wasn’t the chef’s idea. “One of my waitstaff came up with the idea – one of the cool kids, not me,” he laughed. “I’m like the most uncool person ever. I don’t have a vinyl collection.”

Still, Mr. Spector bought a turntable at Best Buy and made a rare trek to a record store and you can now chose between James Brown, Dr. John, the “Shaft” soundtrack, Traffic, and others, or bring in your own wax (last week, customers contributed some Rolling Stones and punk). $15 gets you unlimited PBR and free hors d’oeuvres such as pizza slices or the Laos-style pork-sausage sliders that came out of the kitchen the other night.

Just don’t hog the turntable (30 minutes is just about the limit), and don’t drink too much of that bottomless beer or the record won’t be the only thing spinning.

SITE The new design.

An iconic theater is getting a makeover, and it promises to be a showstopper.

“It’s going to make the Theater for the New City well known,” said Crystal Field, the theater’s executive artistic director.

Designed by award-winning architect James Wines (perhaps best known to New Yorkers as the designer of the Shake Shack) the facade will feature theater seats embellished with coats, umbrellas and programs, as if it’s intermission during a show. “We’re very proud that it isn’t one of those glass and steel designs found all over the city,” said Ms. Field, adding that the new look would be “in line with the neighborhood.”

The redesign has been a long time coming: the theater commissioned the design when it first moved to its current location in 1986, but it has languished without funding. Next Tuesday, T.N.C. will formally request financial assistance from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
Read more…

Inside Caracas

It’s a shore thing: Caracas Arepa Bar will return to the Rockaways this summer, as will its partners in the Rockaway Beach Club.

According to Maribel Araujo, owner of the Venezuelan spot on East Seventh Street, its oceanfront outpost took a $70,000 hit when Hurricane Sandy sent waves cascading into the concrete bunker at Beach 106th Street, destroying equipment and uprooting the boardwalk around it. But the Parks Department is currently making repairs and aims to hand over the keys on Memorial Day weekend. After that, said Ms. Araujo, she’ll sell beer and water during the two or three weeks it will take to get fully operational again.

Rippers, Rockaway Taco, and Motorboat and the Big Banana will also return to their respective stands this summer along with 20 mobile food vendors, said Ms. Araujo. Read more…

As expected, Heart n’ Soul opened on East Third Street last week, which only triggered more nostalgia for the restaurant it replaced, Mama’s Food Shop.

@SarahMShaker tweeted, “Still Miss Mama’s food shop so hope heartnsoulnyc brings back what I loved to the neighborhood.”

@WilsonAlert wrote, “RIP to one of my favorite food spots in the East Village…”

@kikaeats struck a more optimistic tone: “Ideal replacement to Mama’s Food Shop. Pls make great fried chicken!”

Oh, and last month a Yelper left a proper epitaph on the Mama’s Yelp page.
See the menu…

Samantha Balaban

When it opens next week, Mentaikou will have something to distinguish it from the ramen joint a couple of doors down, and every other ramen joint in the East Village.

Four words: Build Your Own Roll.

Wilson Fu, the restaurant’s owner, says diners will be able to think outside the bento box and create their own, personalized sushi from a list of 50 ingredients. “We put your name in front of the creation,” he said. So go ahead Rick, invent the Rick Roll. Or if you’re not feeling creative, order the Satan Roll, a deep-fried number topped with “chef special sauce.” (We didn’t ask.) Read more…

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good Morning, East Village

11,000 old pay phones will become digital kiosks. |Hyperallergic|

Jennifer Esposito, known for her work in Blue Bloods and gluten free baked goods, plans to shoot her new reality series, “Playing With Fire,” in the East Village. |DNA.info]

Yuji Ramen is coming soon to Smorgasburg at Whole Foods Bowery. [Whole Foods]
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Ray LeMoine

It’s party time at Zaragoza tonight. The Mexican deli on Avenue A turned 13 tonight – on March 13, ’13. There’s free cake all night, and a rabbit in green mole sauce special. And Reuben Martinez, 28, says beer is coming back soon. Mr. Martinez and his mom and dad say thank you to all their customers and hope for many more years.

Anthony Pappalardo Hell-o!

A punk-rock pioneer celebrating the release of his memoir at a place called the Bourgeois Pig?

Last night at the lounge that’s just a short walk from his East Village apartment, Richard Hell greeted guests with a glass of wine in hand, wearing a minimalist sweater-and-jeans combo. His hair was cut short without any grays (no, he doesn’t dye it — or so he said).

“We didn’t do a pre-game meeting, but I hope someone jumps on the bar and starts reading,” he said when asked if he was planning to read from his new book.

As you know by now, “I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp” chronicles Mr. Hell’s years in New York, where, as a reaction to the flower-child aesthetic, he created a persona and style that was the basis for punk. Malcolm McLaren modeled the Sex Pistols after him, dressing them in leather jackets, shredded gear, and safety pins.
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Hot dog! Papaya King, the Upper East Side institution, is set to open on St. Marks Place.

And the mystery of the big box is solved: the storefront at 3 St. Marks Place will be the 80-year-old hotdog shop’s second Manhattan location, not including the 14th Street outpost that closed in 2009.

Workers said they had been building out the space between Second and Third Avenues for about two weeks but didn’t know when it would be completed.

The question now becomes: will Anthony Bourdain, a fan of both Japadog and Papaya King, opt for one, the other, or both?

Daniel Maurer FAB Cafe

The new iteration of the Bowery Poetry Club isn’t the only recent change in the neighborhood’s cultural landscape. Shakeups are also in store for the homes of The Living Theatre, FAB Cafe, and Red Room.

Monday, at a meeting of Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee, Stephen Michael Rondel, founder of the New Acting Company, revealed plans to open a new cultural venue in the former home of The Living Theatre. The committee voted unanimously to support a bid for beer and wine at a concession stand operated by Tyler Maganzini, owner of the Black Mountain Winehouse and the Union Grounds in Brooklyn.

The new theater at 21 Clinton Street will be home of Celebration of Whimsy (COW), a children’s and community theater group associated with the New Acting Company. In addition to hosting theatrical productions (the back room will be turned into a rehearsal space), the venue will be open to the community for things like “meditation groups, doctors who want to make presentations, improv groups, one-man shows, one-woman shows,” Mr. Rondel told The Local. Read more…

Andrew Cote Andrew Cote’s Bee Bus

When a bee buzzes in your window, you’ll all but crash your car to get it out. Not so with Andrew Cote: the beekeeper bought a school bus for the express purpose of filling it with bees.

The Bee Bus will be a mobile classroom for teaching kids about honeybees and beekeeping. “We’ve torn out the interior and we’re planning to build a Plexiglas room for the beehives inside the bus,” said Mr. Cote, who sells honey at neighborhood Greenmarkets and occasionally helps fight bee swarms on the Bowery.

With the bus, he’ll be able to bring the field trip to the school, which solves the problem of giving students access to his personal hives. “Most places that I keep my hives don’t have the correct insurance to cover 30 kids on a rooftop, so it’s difficult to bring school groups on tours,” Mr. Cote explained. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good Morning, East Village.

A bank manager who allegedly stole over $300,000 from a customer’s account was apprehended. [New York Post]

“After four consecutive months of modest rental growth, Manhattan rents are accelerating again, according to a monthly rental market report released today by Douglas Elliman.” [The Real Deal]

St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery needs donations to help “ramp up disability access.” [DNAinfo]
Read more…

Fatima Malik Babul Das.

Fatima Malik

Royal Bangladesh has flickered back to life.

The fate of the Curry Row long-timer seemed uncertain when it was cleared out about a month ago, but Babul Das, a member of the waitstaff, said the owners merely put in new carpeting and renovated the ceiling. And if you can believe it, there are now even more Christmas lights, he said — for that “garden-like view.”

Meanwhile, there’s a vacancy next to the building that also houses Milon and Panna II: workers were seen inside of the former home of Everest 2nd Nails, at 91 First Avenue, earlier today. Maybe it’ll be a lighting store?

Kelsey Kudak

Kelsey Kudak

A fresh coat of paint is still drying on the facade of the Bowery Poetry Club, but last week patrons slipped through the side door of 308 Bowery and entered another era.

The club now shares a space with Duane Park, the well-known burlesque joint formerly in Tribeca. Chandeliers from the 1920s glitter from 15-foot ceilings that allow room for aerial performances. Antique iron railings guard blue velvet booths and bar seats. A lofted VIP room looks over the restaurant’s 70 seats.

“I like that it looks like you’re out on the Bowery, and then you walk inside it feels like you’re somewhere else,” said Billy Camicia, a partner in Duane Park. Mr. Camicia books and produces the club’s acts. He has worked with Lady Gaga, and she’ll perform in the new club at some point, he said.
Read more…

Samantha Balaban

The developers of a building that would go up next to the historic Merchant’s House Museum managed to quiet critics of the proposed project today, but stopped short of scoring a decisive victory at a meeting of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

After more than an hour of discussion about the nine-story building proposed for 27 East Fourth Street, the commission decided to postpone a vote on whether or not to allow the landmarked garage that’s currently on the site to be torn down.

Representatives of SRA Architecture + Engineering described their plans for a building that would fit, they said, within the historic representation of the neighborhood and was designed specifically to provide extra structural support to the adjacent Merchant’s House Museum. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Will the building that houses the Gracefully supermarket soon be home to a gym?

The owner of 28 Avenue A has filed a construction application to convert the historic Burger-Klein building into a “physical culture establishment” — the city’s term for health and exercise facilities.

Last month, the anonymous blogger who goes by the name EV Grieve floated a rumor that New York Health & Racquet Club would take over the space. Today, a representative of the chain dismissed that report as incorrect, and said the company “isn’t looking at anything in that building at 28 Avenue A.” The chain already has an East Village location about six blocks away (so, about a four-minute walk), at 62 Cooper Square.
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“I think this is exactly what the East Village deserves,” said Roberto Deiaco, who opened East 12th Osterial last week. “There are all these beautiful people here, and they can be in a beautiful rustic, Italian-inspired place and eat the best quality food and wines.”

The former executive chef of Armani Ristoranate — a native of the Dolomites region of Italy who has spent the last 17 years in New York — designed that beautiful space himself, combining warm oranges with the building’s original tin ceiling and exposed brick. He added windows that will open onto outdoor seating in the summer, and imported Italian marble for the restaurant’s bar.

The food, of course, also reflects Mr. Deiaco’s heritage. He imports almost all of his ingredients — everything from unbleached flours to seafood — directly from the Mediterranean, he said.
See the menu…

Lila Selim Mark Birnbaum addresses the board.

Residents of 199 Bowery again sparred with the owners of Bow, Finale and The General at a meeting of Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee meeting last night. Over a dozen people spoke out against excessive noise and sidewalk congestion at the club/restaurant hybrid, which is seeking to open a sidewalk cafe and — more divisively — to move a basement dance floor to ground level.

Last month, the venue’s operator, EMM Group, withdrew its application after four hours of debate. After that, Susan Stetzer, the board’s district manager, offered to help mediate between EMM Group and residents by offering independent noise testing — only to be given the cold shoulder, she said. “I met with businesses, residents, and the Fifth Precinct,” she recalled. “We put notices out offering testing, and got no responses.”

Mark Birnbaum, an owner of the club, said that he hadn’t heard any complaints from tenants over the past month. Richard Halpern, the condo board president at 199 Bowery, said the club operators had indeed been “well behaved, cooperative” and had “kept the noise down” — but they were only acting like “choir boys” because they knew they would have to face the board again. He suggested the board wait one year before hearing the request again, saying, “We don’t want the leverage taken off them just yet, until they can show they are good neighbors.”

The Local reported yesterday that Travis Bass, who threw parties in the basement, is no longer involved in the space. Mr. Birnbaum explained last night that the “profit-sharing” partnership just didn’t work out. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village, and happy birthday, Jack Kerouac.

Taylor Mead, an 88-year-old iconic artist, continues to suffer in his fifth floor apartment at 163 Ludlow Street. A stop work order has been issued for the building where construction began last summer. [Bowery Boogie]

The Beth Hamedrash Hagadol synagogue on Norfolk Street will not be demolished after all. [Curbed]

The New York City Health Inspector shut down the Sunburnt Cow, citing more than 56 points in health violations. [DNAinfo]
Read more…