Alec Tabak took the above photo Tuesday night of an incident near Astor Place. His report, via The Local’s Flickr pool: “Victim was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital by ambulance. What kind of moving thing hit the woman unkown to me.” We’ll let you know if we find out more.
The Daily News posts a recording of a 911 call reporting the altercation between Lana Rosas and Oscar Fuller. According to the Post, the jury is still deadlocked and will return for a fourth day of deliberation on Monday.
The Times discovers that Michael White, the acclaimed restaurateur behind high-end midtown seafood destination Marea as well as the more casual Osteria Morini in Soho, will open a pizzeria, Nicoletta, in the spring at 160 Second Avenue (Tenth Street). He acknowledges that “there are already 66” pizzerias in the neighborhood, but his pie will be “different, crisper.” Read more…
According to the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation’s Off The Grid blog, Father’s Heart Church and its former rectory at 545-547 East 11th Street, near Avenue B, were added to the New York State Register of Historic Places last month. Make sure to read the registration form nominating the church. Among the many interesting facts: In the 1860s, when the Gothic revival building was erected, Avenue B was known as “German Broadway.”
Steven Kim tells The Local that NY Tofu House, his new Korean eatery at 6 St. Marks Place (a building that was once home to the New St. Marks Baths), may open as early as tomorrow, assuming all goes well at a private preview dinner tonight. The Local attended a similar event last week and found the grills firing, pop music blaring, and waiters offering bowls of tofu stew to more than two dozen attendees. Watch our video to see the restaurant’s interior as well as some of the dishes on the menu below. Read more…
The Post reports that the jury has failed to reach a verdict in what the paper is calling the “parking-punch trial,” in which Oscar Fuller is accused of causing a brain injury to Lana Rosas after punching her during an argument over a parking spot on East 14th Street. “The judge did not declare a mistrial,” reports The Post. “He is expected to instruct jurors after lunch to keep working.”
Time Warner, the cable company that boasts a measly 1.5 stars on Yelp, has been going out of its way to please the neighborhood of late. Maybe they’re nervous about that rogue Comcast truck? Witness the form letter (and a flyer) from a so-called Concierge Relationship Representative for the 10009 zip code that recently appeared in the foyer of at least one East Village building. “I would like to personally take this time to speak with you,” writes Sheeva Butler, who includes her cell phone number, “to discuss any needs or concerns that you may currently have.” Sure – let’s grab a latte at Ost? Meanwhile, a contributor to The Local who preferred to remain anonymous e-mailed us this tale of an unexpectedly fruitful exchange with Time Warner’s customer service department. Read more…
Food and drink writer Joshua M. Bernstein has spent many an evening in the pubs and taprooms of the East Village. In fact, tonight at 6 p.m. he’ll sign his new book at one of them, Jimmy’s No. 43. With “Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution” out this month, we asked Mr. Bernstein to take us to his five favorite beer joints in the neighborhood. Crawl along with the sultan of suds by watching our video, and below, find out what he likes to wet his whistle with at each spot. Read more…
Michael Sean EdwardsOutside of Life Cafe earlier this year.
Good morning, East Village.
Addressing accusations that Cooper Union hasn’t been forthcoming enough about its financial troubles until now, the school’s former president George Campbell Jr. tells The Times that the current administration is perhaps being too forthcoming about the possibility that it will begin charging tuition. He says, “Frankly, I think it’s a mistake to have this discussion now in the public domain, before doing all the hard work to see whether there are viable alternatives.”
The Times reviews a production of “King Lear,” starring Sam Waterston and directed by James Macdonald, that opened at the Public Theater on Tuesday. Bill Irwin delivers “an enlightening new interpretation of a well-worn character.”
One need only prowl the East Village’s boutiques to see that the perpetually popular animal-print trend is far from becoming endangered. Incorporate it into your look and you’ll come off as bold, chic, feminine – even rich. As with the neon trend, you may want to avoid going head-to-toe unless you want to look like a confused cheetah. (And stick to faux fur or printed fabric if you love animals so much you could cry.) Instead, take a less-is-more approach and add just a “hint of print” via one of the skinny belts, necklaces or hats that The Local’s Boutique Freak spotted in some of the neighborhood’s standout shops this past weekend.
The playwright Anton Chekhov once wrote that “one must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.” In “Refrain,” a new play at The Wild Project on East Third Street, Chekhov’s gun comes in the form of an unconventional pregnancy.
When Sarah dies in a sudden accident with her infant daughter, her husband Leo (Marc Santa Maria) and sister Angela (Brooke Eddey) decide that the best way to honor her memory is to have a baby together via artificial insemination. So much for memorial services.
Angela is an aspiring painter who stands to benefit financially from this arrangement. By renting out her womb, she earns a free ride to art school courtesy of her brother-in-law, himself a commercial musician. (Hey, it beats taking out a student loan.) Leo’s aims are more pitiful than they are insidious. Through Angela, he hopes to recapture the family that was abruptly snatched from him, even if it means courting a woman who mostly finds him repellent. In a scene that echoes an exchange from “Waiting for Godot,” Angela shoos Leo away during a bout of morning sickness because she can’t stand the smell of his skin. Like Vladimir and Estragon before them, these two are stuck with each other, at least for the duration of Angela’s pregnancy. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownThe moving truck outside of Life Cafe.
Kathy Kirkpatrick, the owner of Life Cafe, was spotted moving kitchen equipment out of the beloved eatery this afternoon — the latest sign that her business remains in limbo.
Ms. Kirkpatrick, who closed down the cafe in September because of the condition of the building, told The Local she remained frustrated with her landlords.
“Significant work still needs to be done,” she said. “There is scaffolding; a pigeon coop with [crap] falling on the sidewalk; they ripped down my awning; no one can see the cafe; there are sloping floors; they ripped off frontage, exposing ugly brick.”
But one of the landlords of the building, Bob Perl, said that the repairs should only last around 45 more days. “She could have been in possession all through this time,” Mr. Perl said. “Construction to repair the building is ongoing right now.” Read more…
Last night, Mark Epstein, chairman of Cooper Union’s board of trustees, held a community meeting with students, alumni and school officials, in part to discuss a controversial announcement that the school may begin charging tuition for the first time in over 100 years.
Though press was not allowed at the event (The Local was firmly but politely escorted out of the school’s Great Hall), the proceedings were tweeted by Sean Cusack, an alum of the school and an adjunct professor who is a member of the Cooper Union Task Force.
Mr. Cusack’s tweets depict an at-times contentious exchange. Asked if he would take personal responsibility if the school had to charge tuition, Mr. Epstein is said to have drawn boos and hisses when he stated, “If it weren’t for the lack of alumni support, we wouldn’t be here.” Read more…
As a founding member and primary songwriter of the Dictators, Andy Shernoff was a key figure in the downtown proto-punk scene of the 1970s. He and the band released three albums during a furtive period that also saw the rise of Television and the Ramones. Since then, he has worked as a producer and a songwriter, and played in Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom alongside Dictators bandmate “Handsome Dick” Manitoba, the owner of the eponymous bar on Avenue B. The Dictators released a new album in 2001, and Mr. Shernoff contributed significantly to Joey Ramone’s only solo album, “Don’t Worry About Me,” released posthumously in 2002. After a hiatus, he has returned to music with a new single and video, “Are You Ready to Rapture?” The Local spoke to Mr. Shernoff, who will perform a 7 p.m. set at Lakeside Lounge every Wednesday this month. Read more…
A performance of “Golem.”
This month, the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater will perform “Golem,” which retells the Jewish legend about a golem created by a revered rabbi to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks.
Vit Horejs, the director of the musical, which features eight performers handling puppets that are roughly four-foot tall, said that the story is a classic in the Czech Republic. He expected a big crowd for the performances, starting Nov. 17 at La MaMa theater on East Fourth Street.
“Every Czech child will know it,” said Mr. Horejs, 61. “People come from all walks of life to see it. A lot of people are interested in Golem.” Read more…
Tonight, the Williamsburg outpost of Mama’s, an East Village comfort-food fixture since 1995, officially debuts after having “soft opened” on Thursday. Last night at a private party, The Local sat down with Jeremiah Clancy, the onetime manager of Mama’s Bar who bought Mama’s Food Shop in 2007. Mr. Clancy, who grew up in Chicago and now resides in Prospect Heights, lived in South Williamsburg in the 1990s. “It reminds me of what the East Village was 15 years ago,” he said, smoking a cigarette at an outdoor table that looked onto an overpass of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, a street festooned with Dominican flags, and a playground where he said games of pick-up basketball are popular.
Inside, portraits of mothers – including those of the restaurant’s landlord and broker, as well as some belonging to local residents – hung on the walls. “I didn’t want to compete with Bedford or Berry,” said Mr. Clancy of his off-the-strip location. “I just wanted to provide good cheap food for the neighborhood.” Read more…
A line formed outside of Video Games New York on East Sixth Street last night (above: the scene at 7:30 p.m.), in anticipation of the midnight release of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” The video game was expected to sell as many as 6 million copies in 24 hours, according to Bloomberg.
According to DNA Info, a representative of the Department of Transportation will be at tomorrow’s meeting of Community Board 3’s Transportation and Public Safety Committee, in order to hear suggestions about where in the neighborhood bike share stations should go.
EV Grieve notices flyers in several buildings maintained by Jakobson Properties encouraging fellow tenants to tweet about any upkeep problems that haven’t been addressed. Read more…
The Local was on the scene this afternoon as a group of protesters – supported by City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu – headed from 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue to Zuccotti Park. Check back here for video from the 11-mile march as it went down Broadway near 13th Street.
Today The Local is turning its attention to the monks of the East Village. Earlier we heard from an investment banker turned Bhakti monk. Now: a pair of former monks turned cheese mongers.
Co-owner Lobsang Tsultrim, in the office at
East Village Cheese.
Around the corner from Astor Place, the East Village Cheese shop is a long way from the Himalayan plateau, where owners Thupten Tenphel, 35, and Lobsang Tsultrim, 29, grew up. Like many who opposed the Chinese occupation of Tibet, they were forced to flee the country in the 1990s because of their political views. Neither spoke a word of English when they arrived in New York, but they found work at East Village Cheese and taught themselves in part by listening to chatter in the cramped, bustling store.
On a recent afternoon, as employees waited on customers, they spoke about their journey. Sharing a desk in a small office behind the counter, the two also share a timid, humble nature – a vestige of their upbringing as Buddhist monks. From time to time, they even complete each other’s sentences when command of the new tongue wavers. Read more…
A reader sent word at 3:41 p.m.: “Occupy marching at East 10th and Broadway now,” presumably referring to today’s march from Washington Heights. A group of Latino and black protesters (several hundred people strong, according to the Daily News) is expected to arrive in Zuccotti Park shortly. If you witnessed the march as it passed through the neighborhood, tell us what you saw and what you think via the comments, and upload photos to our Flickr pool.
The East Village is home to a thrift shop that goes by the name of Monk and a bar where the bartenders have been known to dress as monks. Of course, there are actual monks here, too. Today we’re turning our attention to a few of them.
Rasanath Dasa is the epitome of the American Dream – to a point. Upon graduating from the prestigious India Institute of Technology, he was hired by Deloitte in 2000. He came to New York without a credit card, but after receiving a MBA from Cornell University, he became an investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In June 2007, his interest in devotional Hinduism led him to take up part-time residence at the Bhakti Center, the Hare Krishna cultural center on First Avenue. On Aug. 15, 2008, India’s Independence Day, he quit his job at the bank to become a monk full-time.
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.
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Alec Tabak
