Once a month, an eclectic band of experimental artists assembles for an evening of community, inspiration and presentation. Tonight, the Animamus Art Salon kicks off its most ambitious project yet: a week-long Living Salon at the hybrid bar and art gallery, Culture Fix. Works by fifty artists will line the walls, priced $100 each. Four artists-in-residence will set up makeshift studios, and daily events include a tea salon, movie night, a trendy gem spa, and a poetry “brunch.”
The Salon began in 2011 when a frustrated photographer who goes by her first name, Ventiko, decided to convene other artists struggling with similar issues. Now she is at the heart of a roving support group of sorts. “We never talk about the darkness,” said Ventiko of the self-doubt many artists deal with regarding to their personal artwork. “It’s not considered ‘cool’ to discuss anxiety when there’s so much pretension out there, but our group is all about giving somebody the chance to really express themselves in front of an audience that is encouraging.”
The monthly gatherings are something like master-class critiques. “The idea is to get up there, show your ideas, and people make suggestions and ask questions,” explained Michael Blase, a Lower East Side-based photographer and frequent participant and time-keeper. “Sometimes people collaborate afterwards.” Read more…
John Legend sold his Bowery condo — purchased for $1.9 million in 2009 — for a $775,000 profit. [TMZ]
At the Rite Aid on First Avenue, “an East Village store clerk jumped into action after spotting an alleged shoplifter making a run for it yesterday, chasing and tackling the suspect as the man crashed over displays of merchandise.” [NY Post]
Four of Julian Schnabel’s large early paintings are on display at a storefront on East 10th Street. “Speaking of the one-at-a-time presentation of large paintings in a tiny space, Schnabel said, ‘There’s something absurd about it, like there is about all art. At the same time there’s something very pure about it.'” [Art in America] Read more…
The designer who outfitted Chloe Sevigny’s apartment as well as her brother’s club, the Beatrice Inn, has opened an expanded retail shop on Second Avenue.
Cafiero Select, formerly on East Sixth Street, moved to the corner of Second Avenue and East Second Street late last year. Last week, it finally reopened to the public.
“We’re looking forward to a larger street presence,” said David Cafiero, using words like “excited” and “deliriously happy” to describe his feelings about the new, larger digs. His design firm’s studio, formerly located in Williamsburg, is now in the basement; the store is now on the ground level. The offices are on a second-floor loft. The whole shebang is around the corner from Cafiero Lussier, the event design and catering business he co-owns with Thom Lussier.
According to Mr. Lussier, the space had been vacant for more than 30 years when the building’s owners offered it to them. “The universe chose us,” he said.
The sun-drenched shop is filled with an eclectic selection of brightly woven throw pillows, wingback chairs, tripod lamps and original artwork. You can browse the inventory online.
Cafiero Select, 36 East Second Street (at Second Avenue); (212) 414-8821
Walking to CBGB on the way to a hardcore matinee in 1997 made me think about the contrast between the relatively safe Giuliani-era Bowery and the sleazy punk scene born there twenty years prior. Even 16 years ago, the thought of Television or Blondie playing the venue seemed distant as I watched a boy answer a bulky flip phone while waiting in line.
Despite constantly being surrounded by the familiar cultures of skateboarding, indie rock, and art, it wasn’t until I entered the lobby of the New Museum to view “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star” that I felt their impact on downtown culture today and also felt like a relic.
While there is a long and impressive list of artists that contributed to “NYC 1993,” it’s Larry Clark’s mounted skateboard decks, stickers, and stills from his 1995 movie “Kids” that dominate the exhibit. A deck with a hanging Klansman is mounted on the main wall next to one with a naked woman. Next to them is another with a swastika and Star of David with the text, “Never Forget 6,000,000 Dead.”
In 1993, most East Coast skateboarding scenes were tight-knit enclaves for latchkey kids and diehards: skating was far from a sport. “Kids” depicted that culture and the drinking, drugs, and sex that surrounded it in a new light that disturbed many. Because skateboards weren’t lining the shelves of department and sporting goods stores and they were produced in such small runs, their graphics could be as taboo as the designer wanted. Deck design hasn’t become completely tame, but at a time when the industry was so small, there was no filter. Read more…
Earlier this month, McSorley’s Old Ale House celebrated its 159th birthday. Geoffrey “Bart” Bartholomew has been a barman at the saloon for 40 of those years. His son has worked there on and off throughout most of his twenties.
Mr. Bartholomew moved to New York City from Ohio to pursue a writing career. After struggling to capture the essence of the history-clad, sawdust-covered tavern in form of short stories or novels, he found his voice in poetry. Last year, “The McSorley Poems Volume II — Light or Dark” was published by Charlton Street Press.
Now, his son Rafe — a writer for the popular sports website Grantland — is trying to tell those kinds of stories in his own way. Having spent most of his childhood at McSorley’s, Rafe feels a special connection to the place. After a three-year absence, he moved back to New York from Los Angeles, and now works as a stand-in for his father every other week, or sometimes even side-by-side with him.
In our video, above, Rafe tells us more about the book he’s writing about the bar.
Here’s a peak inside the “all-day American brasserie” that the operators of Tocqueville and 15 East are opening on the ground floor of the long delayed Hyatt Union Square.
Named after Paris’s Fourth Arrondissement (and located on Fourth Avenue), The Fourth will occupy one of the city’s legendary nightlife spaces: 76 East 13th Street has held The Cat Club, The Grand, Spa, and Plaid. According to the Hyatt’s Website, the 100-seat room will boast “a café with a European style espresso and wine bar, a 24-seat communal bar and dining space, and a 45-seat full-service formal dining area.”
The menu will consist of “traditional brasserie fare with a modern American interpretation: upscale fare with a continental flair.” The wine program will be overseen by Roger Dagorn, the highly decorated Master Sommelier from Chanterelle, Tocqueville and 15 East, and the cafe will have its own private-label coffee. Read more…
“Word just came from the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors that the legendary street is now included in the National Register of Historic Places.” [The Lo-Down]
Luc Sante, Martin Scorsese and Angela Westwater are among the honorary hosts of a benefit to celebrate the designation on March 20. [LES History Project]
“A lower East Side theater that championed anarchism, Utopian experimentalism for 66 years will close for good this week — and its fiery founder will spend her remaining days in an unhappy retirement. Judith Malina will move Thursday to the Lillian Booth home for retired artists in New Jersey after losing her lease on Clinton Street’s Living Theatre, where she produced cutting-edge theater for six decades.” [NY Daily News] Read more…
Superdive’s infamous Mad Dog Room has really gone to the dogs.
ABC Animal Hospital is leaving East 14th Street and aims to open at 200 Avenue A at the end of next month, said Shirley Yeo, the hospital’s marketing director.
That’s right: after three and a half years of outcry from neighbors, the former home of Superdive has gone superdry.
The animal hospital has been at 532 East 14th Street for about five of the 14-plus years it has been in the East Village, said Ms. Yeo. Its owners had hoped to stay longer, but the building was sold last year.
Ms. Yeo said it would “cost a lot to rebuild the place” at 200 Avenue A, but hoped it would be worth it. “The new space is larger so we’re hoping that will help us do more business,” she said, floating the idea of installing a coffee station, a more accessible pharmacy area and maybe even bookshelves.
It wouldn’t be the first time the storefront held coffee and books: from 2006 to 2008, the onetime Korova Milk Bar space held Rapture Cafe & Books. It was, of course, replaced by Superdive, a rowdy bar that incensed neighbors with its keg service, bottomless drink specials, and a Mad Dog Room that ran afoul of the Department of Buildings. The community board accused the bar’s owners of exploiting Rapture’s liquor license, which had been granted on the condition that it be used only for a bookstore and cafe. Read more…
Sam Lewontin burst into tears when he learned he’d won the Northeast Regional Barista Competition this afternoon.
“I don’t know if I can describe it,” said Mr. Lewontin, who works for Everyman Espresso in the East Village (he was one of the local baristas we profiled earlier this week). “It’s a little surreal. I’ve watched a lot of people be in that spot.” Though he has been a barista for more than 12 years, this competition was only his fifth.
Mr. Lewontin’s competitive strengths come from his background in performance and theater, and his touch for signature beverages. At the beginning of his 15-minute performance, he handed out cards with a flavor note on each side and asked the judges to pick the flavor they expected from the Burundi coffee he was using. Then, on the fly, he created a signature beverage that highlighted the opposite flavors, using an apple-like acidity and ginger-rimmed shot glasses.
The win means Mr. Lewontin will get to bypass the first found of the U.S. Barista Competition in April, and will get to visit a coffee farm in Kenya. Read more…
Earlier this week we discovered that Star, the wonder dog that survived a police shooting, was given a new identity. But why?
We called the National Greyhound Adoption Program to ask whether Shiloh, a dog it had listed for adoption, was really Star. “I don’t know,” said Bobbie Gunning, an adoption coordinator there.
But after a minute of conversation, she admitted she knew Shiloh’s heart-wrenching story. “I just don’t tell people when they call,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a secret.” She said she didn’t know why there was a need for secrecy, but thought it was to protect the dog.
As footage of Star’s shooting on East 14th Street went viral last summer, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and the Lexus Project took custody of her. She was then turned over to the National Greyhound Adoption Program.
Robin Mittasch, president of the Lexus Project, said that’s when she became Shiloh. “Her name was changed in Pennsylvania so even the staff wouldn’t know who she was and they didn’t.” Read more…
Kathleen Webster has had enough of her unwelcome neighbors at Sara D. Roosevelt Park. She thinks the rat population has exploded since Hurricane Sandy, particularly around the Golden Age Center for senior citizens.
“I saw about forty of them crawling out of the garbage in back of the building,” she told Community Board 3’s parks committee last week. Ms. Webster, a representative of the SDR Park Coalition, said the health department “hasn’t been as diligent as it needs to be” about the increased rat population and asked the board to press for action.
Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the parks department, confirmed that there had been an uptick in rats in recent weeks. As a result, the parks department has upped the amount of bait it uses. In addition to collecting trash daily, employees routinely patrol Roosevelt Park looking for rat burrows, then bait and destroy them, Mr. Abramson said. Several dozen of the holes were visible in the park yesterday morning. Read more…
Nevada Smiths isn’t the only thing coming to Third Avenue early next month. A door down from the soccer pub, Feast will offer a menu that’s true to its name.
“We kind of want to change the way people eat,” said George Chiang, an owner. And so groups of diners will pick between three tasting menus priced at $35 to $45 per person. One will be a seasonal market feast based on ingredients from the Union Square Greenmarket; another will be a nose-to-tail feast featuring various parts of a whole lamb or pig. There will also be a limited number of la cart options nodding to “American regional food,” Mr. Chiang said last night as Chris Meenan, a former chef de cuisine at Veritas in Union Square, geared up in the kitchen.
“Everything will come out all at once and everyone eats family-style,” said Mr. Chiang. “We want to bring back communal dining.”
Mr. Chiang, whose family owns and manages hotel and motels, is opening the restaurant with Brian Ghaw, owner of Savoy Bakery in East Harlem. They had planned to open Feast uptown until the framing store below Mr. Chiang’s longtime apartment at 102 Third Avenue (his family owns the building) vacated the space after many years.
“We took a hard look at it,” he said of the East Village. “Traffic is… you know, this whole area has been changing the last couple of years. It’s a lot different than it was a couple of years ago.” Read more…
Courtesy Andreas KnutsenRodriguez and Andreas Knutsen
Sunday night, when the Best Documentary feature is announced at the Oscars, you can be certain which film Andreas Knutsen and his fellow staff of Other Music will be rooting for.
Last year, on April 25, the 38-year-old manager and head buyer had barely opened the store when in walked a man with long black hair. Mr. Knutsen almost dropped his coffee.
During his years working for the East Village’s largest indie-music record store, Mr. Knutsen had been pushing customers toward a 2006 reissue of “Cold Fact,” a “tripped-out, fuzz-heavy” 1970 album recorded in Detroit by Rodriguez, a long-forgotten singer who he describes as “part Jose Feliciano, Bob Dylan, and Love’s Arthur Lee, all in one.”
But here before him was unmistakably the same Mexican-American man on the legendary album cover, but face aged by four decades. And Rodriguez, the subject of “Searching for Sugar Man,” wanted to shake his hand. Read more…
Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer and State Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh pen an op-ed about the Blueway: “We would build a footbridge spanning the FDR Drive at East 14th Street that would not only improve pedestrian access, but also protect the Con Ed power station from future floodwaters and guard against a repeat of last fall’s devastating blackout.” [Town & Village]
“In honor of Black History Month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has released a list of 25 designated landmarks related to African-American culture and history. One of the 25 is the Charlie Parker Residence at 151 Avenue B in the East Village.” [Off the Grid]
The Brisket King of NYC has been crowned: “BristketTown’s Daniel Delaney took home the top prize at last night’s Brisket King competition at Santos Party House.” [Eater] Read more…
After a year’s delay, Nevada Smiths now plans to open its new space on Third Avenue in the first week of March.
“We’re 90 percent there, but we’re just waiting on the buildings department to approve everything,” said an employee of the popular soccer bar who didn’t want to be named.
The hope is that the bar will reopen in time for the first round of Union of European Football Associations knockouts, which start March 5. “March is a really big month for soccer,” said the employee, “so we definitely want to have people in to watch the games at our new location the first week of March. That’s what we’re hoping.”
Smiths is currently showing games at Webster Hall, but none appear on the online schedule there past March 7.
The bar closed in November of 2011 to make way for a nine-story building housing luxury rental apartments at 74-84 Third Avenue. (A photo of that construction is below.) It will reopen at 100 Third Avenue, a block away.
The space that held the hemp-happy Galaxy Global Eatery for 15 years will be reborn as Ichabod’s tomorrow. It’s the second establishment named after Washington Irving (it’s on Irving Place, see) that Eric Sherman and Brian Krawitz have opened in recent months.
At a private party last night, many of the guests were friends of the owners, who took over the space adjacent Irving Plaza last year. A couple of months ago they opened The Headless Horseman in the former home of Bar 119, around the corner on East 15th Street. It’s a woodsy speakeasy-type spot that looks like a dungeon from the outside.
So what’s with the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” allusions? See the menu…
On the heels of an application to convert the former P.S. 64 building into college dorms, Villagers are again calling for the historic building to be used for non-profit organizations and low-income housing.
“The building was an arts and cultural center, and it really needs to be returned to that,” said Carolyn Ratcliffe, a member of Community Board 3 who is also vice president of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative and a member of the Ninth Street Block Association.
Ms. Ratcliffe, who protested the eviction of the CHARAS/El Bohio community center in 2001, questioned the intentions of Gregg Singer, the developer who bought the building from the city in 1998 and has been clashing with local residents and elected officials ever since. “He has not been a good neighbor in the past,” she said.
Frank Morales, a long-time housing activist who has led numerous discussions about the building’s future, is hopeful that community members can reclaim it. “The former P.S. 64 needs be converted into low-income and affordable housing for those in need,” he said, “as we are amidst a deep crisis in this city regarding the lack of accessible housing for poor and working-class people, a situation that we intend to change and reclaiming Charas back from the speculators is part of that plan.” Read more…
For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Russian & Turkish Baths.
Courtesy Dmitry Shapiro
In this kind of weather, there’s no better place to thaw out your tuchis than at the Russian & Turkish Baths at 268 East 10th Street. The 120-year-old “social spa,” purchased in 1985 by Russian emigres David Shapiro and Boris Tuperman, has always drawn a loyal following of hardcore shvitz-heads, and now a new generation has discovered it thanks in part to online coupons. But if you’re planning to cash in on this week’s half-off promotion, you’ll have to go on one of Mr. Shapiro’s days: the owners have been at odds with each other for over a decade. We asked Mr. Shapiro’s son Dmitry — who works with his brother Jack 181 days out of the year, and has the other 184 days off — how the anachronistic business has managed to survive despite its wacky business structure.
Q.
What is the deal with your internal feud? Why do we all know about it?
A.
I can tell you first-hand this thing isn’t interesting. Yes, this is a unique business and business structure, but I don’t think it’s really the best way to run a business. I just really think this happens to be the only way we could do it. Read more…
Jared Kushner ain’t done yet: “Kushner Cos. is in contract for two deals with Icon Realty Management’s Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen. The deals include 325 East 10th Street right on Tompkins Square Park, and the nearby 329, 331, 333 and 335 East Ninth Street for a total of 55 apartments and five stores for $28.75 million.” [NY Post]
“Two bedbugs have been found at a Lower Manhattan elementary school since early January, and at least one parent says her child came home with bug bites. PS 188 on the Lower East Side confirmed there was a bedbug sighting in early January, and then again last week.” [NBC NY]
A witness to the Alec Baldwin kerfuffle says he didn’t hear the actor use the word “crackhead” or make any other derogatory comments to a New York Post photographer who has accused him of using a racial slur. [Gothamist] Read more…
Dolphins in Gowanus, seals in Rockaway, and now pandas in the East Village.
Panda Diplomacy, the pop-up surf-wear shop on East Sixth Street, has unleashed a sleuth of eye-patched pandas on the neighborhood. (Fun fact: sleuth is the technical term for a family of pandas.) According to a rep, they’re there to hand out discount cards and “spread panda love and share their joy with the community.”
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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Courtesy Animus Art Salon
