Daniel Maurer

For the past decade, the blue awning at 508 East 12th Street has boasted the name of Jubb’s Longevity, the shop that sold organic, raw, and vegan food from the storefront until it closed in 2008. In recent days, a banner went up over the awning indicating that the space is up for rent.

According to a sign on the door, the location between Avenues A and B currently serves as the office of Jason Hennings and the companies that operate Diablo Royale and Black Iron Burger Shop. Mr. Hennings could not be reached for comment today, but Ken Brandman, President of New York Commercial Real Estate Services and the broker representing the space, said that the restaurateur will move out at the end of the month.

Last week, Mr. Hennings went before Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee, where neighbors complained about Diablo Royale Este, the establishment he operates on Avenue A, up the block from the 12th Street office.

Read more…

The Daily News has an update on Jimmy “The Rent Is Too Damn High” McMillan’s fight against eviction from his $872-a-month one-bedroom apartment on St. Marks Place (his landlord claims he actually lives in Brooklyn). During a court hearing today, “the quirky ex-candidate acknowledged that he hasn’t paid federal incomes taxes for years.”

Courtesy of Frontstoop Films.

I Love Old New York recently visited the Block Drug Store, snapped a few pictures from the sidewalk, and chatted up the owner, Carmine Palermo. The blog’s shutterbug wasn’t allowed to shoot inside, however: “[Mr. Palermo] told us that such permission would cost a lot of money.” The Local called up the pharmacy to inquire about Mr. Palmero’s asking price, and he said that in general he only charges top dollar to filmmakers.

“We’re local,” he explained. “People depend on us. There are very few times when we can close — they want to take over the store for 12, 15 hours.”

So, just how much would he charge? “Whatever it takes to discourage them,” Mr. Palermo said.

Of course, nothing is stopping filmmakers from shooting the store’s neon sign. That’s exactly what local auteur Ajay Naidu did for the above shot in his film “Ashes,” which recently became available online.

Next month’s calendar for Community Board 3 meetings was just released, and a variety of familiar businesses will try their luck before the liquor license committee. Nublu, which has temporarily set up shop beneath Lucky Cheng’s, is again on the agenda for a possible new location on Avenue C. Japa Dog, the hotly anticipated hot dog chain, is also once again on the agenda. Nevada Smith’s will apply for a liquor license at its new home, 100 Third Avenue, as well. One other item caught The Local’s eye, too: A “request to support legislation to reclassify Alcopops (malt sweet pre-mixed alcoholic beverages), as spirits to be sold only in liquor stores.” Anyone ever tried an Alcopop?

Daniel Maurer

A nondescript doorway that acheived some measure of infamy in recent weeks is getting a new look.

Earlier today, workers were seen installing wood paneling outside of the First Avenue building where a man attempted to rape a tenant in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.  The building’s management company has not yet responded to an inquiry into the remodeling, but workers on the scene showed The Local that they were installing a new lock system near the building’s front door. A security camera was also being worked on.

Aided by surveillance camera footage, the police arrested Imre Meszesan less than 48 hours after he allegedly followed Jane Callanan, a 27-year-old fashion industry worker, into her building and attacked her in the stairwell. News trucks were positioned on the block between 12th and 13th Streets for days.

Update | 2:25 p.m. The owner of the building, who asked not to be named, has now told The Local that the changes have “nothing to do with what happened.” He said that they are part of a makeover of the public areas of the building that started a few weeks ago, and will not include changes to security (we have revised the original headline of this post accordingly). “I have a very sophisticated system and that’s why the police were able to identify the person from crystal clear photographs,” he said, adding that there are a dozen cameras in the building and “the key system is remaining the same. I have good locks on both doors.”

Two adjacent lots on East Houston Street near Attorney Street have recently gone on the market for $9.5 million, The Lo-Down reports. The lots, at 327-329 East Houston Street, are part of the portfolio of the deceased William Gottleib, who was “legendary for hoarding his estimated $1 billion worth of NYC properties,” according to the blog. Following an inter-family struggle, Mr. Gottleib’s nephew is now selling much of the real estate empire piece by piece.

Daniel Maurer The window at 7A.

What to do now that it’s too late to pick up a Thanksgiving to-go from Momofuku Ssam Bar or a slab of heat-and-eat porchetta from Porchetta? Obviously, you’re going to have to eat out. With a bounty of all-American standouts in the neighborhood (Back Forty, Peels, and Five Points, to name just a few), you won’t have to go far. But why limit yourself to Americana? The Local has rounded up Thanksgiving menus of every variety – from French to Italian to Ukrainian – and ordered them from cheapest to most lavish. (Prune’s $78 repast is fully booked, but we’re told there will be a walk-in table for two plus four seats at the bar.) Just remember to call ahead for reservations and hours of operation, since many restaurants close early on turkey day. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Times profiles Jeffrey Lewis, a “singer, illustrator and professional-grade neurotic” who has managed to find success, even if his idea of a “hit” is a record that sells 5,000 copies. “For some weird reason I’m surviving,” he tells The Times. “I’ve been making a good living for 10 years in the music industry. I own an apartment in the East Village; I’ve got a car.” Part of his secret? He “still lives a block from his parents, in a co-op he bought for $23,000 down and ‘a monthly rent that’s so low it’s embarrassing,’ he said.”

According to Broadway World, Phil Kline’s “Unsilent Night” will return for its 19th year. On Dec. 17, the composer will hand out boom boxes, each loaded with a separate track comprising an entire piece of music, to as many as 1,500 participants who will walk from Washington Square Park to Tompkins Square Park in a mobile electronic orchestra. Take it from The Local, the event is not to be missed. Boom boxes are limited, so bring your own.

The Local spotted Jim Gaffigan walking up First Avenue near Seventh Street yesterday. Bowery Boogie now reveals that it sat across from the comedian and actor on the F train last week. Read more…

Mary Beth Powers often awakes to the overwhelming odor of bacon wafting from the IHOP 11 stories beneath her apartment.

“There can be times at three or four in the morning when you feel like you’re in the kitchen with them,” said Ms. Powers, who lives on 15th Street. “There is no relief.”

The smell is at times so pungent, she said, that it clouds her thinking.

“It smells like rancid bacon. I just imagine it: a film of crap on my furniture, on my rugs, on my walls. I actually wonder, is this being soaked up in my apartment?” said an exasperated Ms. Powers. “Is it in my hair? Do I smell like IHOP now?” Read more…

Okay, so you now know what to get your Thanksgiving host. But what if you’re the one cooking the bird? The East Village Meat Market & Deli is selling 10- to 20-pound Bell & Evans turkeys at $3.25 per pound, but there’s still the matter of what wine to serve to your ravenous guests. Enter Kimberly Koharki, a wine educator at Astor Center, and Michael Krondl, a chef and food writer who happens to live in the neighborhood. In The Local’s video, they tell you how to work the right wine (or cider!) into your feast, whether it’s splashed in a rich gravy or paired with candied yams and marshmallows.

After EV Grieve noted yesterday that some scaffolding has come down at St. Brigid’s Church (The Local checked in on the church’s painstaking restoration a few weeks ago), Off The Grid notices that scaffolding has also disappeared from All Saint’s Ukrainian Church. Click through to see new tile art adorning the approximately 160-year-old church’s facade.

Daniel Maurer, Japa Dog The store as it was today, and a rendering of the interior design.

This morning, The Local spotted a construction crew working on the East Village outpost of Japa Dog, the Japanese-style hot dog chain that counts Anthony Bourdain (and apparently Ice Cube and Steven Seagal) as fans. Noriki Tamura, who founded the chain in Vancouver, Canada, where it now boasts four mobile locations and a storefront, said the first of what he hoped would be multiple New York City outposts (including hot dog stands) will open at 30 St. Marks Place sometime next month.

So why St. Marks? “There are so many stores here; so many restaurants,” said Mr. Tamura, with the aid of an interpreter. Read more…

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One hundred and two years ago today, Clara Lemlich made a speech that echoed through the Great Hall of Cooper Union and led 20,000 women to walk out of sweatshops and onto the picket lines to protest intolerable working conditions. “The Uprising of the 20,000,” as the general strike led by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union came to be called, started in November of 1909 and ended in February of 1910 with higher wages and a 52-hour work week. A little over a year later, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire would claim 146 victims (roughly one out of three of them East Village residents) and galvanize labor reform still further.

On Saturday, to commemorate the anniversary of the Uprising, Andrea Coyle of The Lower East Side History Project led a Women’s History Walking Tour of the East Village. Now readers of The Local can follow her path by clicking on the map, beginning with the tour’s starting point at Cooper Union and continuing southward down and around the Bowery.

The police have arrested a suspect for an attack on a woman at the Broadway-Lafayette Station on Nov. 10.

Police say that 50-year-old Samuel Mangum of Staten Island snuck up behind the woman at around 10 a.m. as she was boarding an M train and assaulted her. No injuries were reported. Mr. Mangum faces one count of sex abuse in the third degree.

DNA Info reports that in the past month, two dogs have been attacked by pit bulls from Social Tees, the animal shelter on East Fourth Street. A pug-shih tzu mix suffered puncture wounds and lacerations on his neck, and the owner of a Shepherd mix predicts her veterinary bills will amount to between $2,000 and $4,000. Robert Shapiro, the owner of the no-kill shelter (which The Local profiled last year; see video above), says the responsibility lies with the pit bull owners.

Yesterday The Times, along with a dozen other organizations, sent a letter to the N.Y.P.D. protesting that “the police actions of last week have been more hostile to the press than any other event in recent memory.” Referring to incidents similar to the arrests of Jared Malsin, a reporter for The Local, and Tim Schreier, a contributing photographer for The Local, Michael Powell writes in The Times, “At least since the Republican National Convention of 2004, our police have grown accustomed to forcibly penning, arresting, and sometimes spraying and whacking protesters and reporters.” Read more…

“Thanks” will only get you so far this Thanksgiving. Do you really think a smile – or even the usual bouquet of flowers or mid-tier bottle of wine – is going to cut it when your host has spent the whole day with his or her head shoved up a turkey’s carcass? If you’re aiming to impress, give them one of these conversation starters from a local shop.

If you just can’t get enough of the images coming out of Occupy Wall Street, you’re in luck: JujoMukti will be hosting a photo exhibit of the protests on Dec. 1. The Local’s photographers and videographers have filed numerous dispatches from Lower Manhattan and Union Square; one of our contributors even spent two nights behind bars. Doors open at 7 p.m. at the tea lounge on East Fourth Street between Avenues A and B. Just be careful where you park your bicycle.

Stephen Rex Brown Avenue A Mini Market.

A construction shed has gone up at the boarded-up Avenue A Mini Market. A worker told The Local today that another bodega would open in the space between Ninth and 10th Streets. In September, the 24-hour store posted a sign saying it would soon reopen. One month later, a sign in the window advertised the space to potential tenants. A call to the building’s landlord was not answered.