Stephen Rex Brown

Being The Local ain’t always easy. Last year someone hacked our Twitter account and stole all of our followers. Boy, was that a bummer. But things are looking up: the new @nytlev handle just got its 1,500 follower, and we just passed 2,500 likes on Facebook. That’s almost as cool as getting the Mosaic Man treatment!

So, thanks, superfans. As for the rest of you good folks, follow us on Twitter and Facebook — and better yet, subscribe to our newsletter for free daily access to our top stories. And if you’d like to write for us, tell the editor a little bit about yourself, or pitch something via our nifty Virtual Assignment Desk. We do compensate our wonderful contributors. So let’s grab coffee somewhere in the neighborhood?

Nicole Guzzardi

Let’s douse some more cold water on those ridiculous rumors that Mermaid Inn is taking over the Candela Candela space, shall we? Turns out, the owners of the Cuban-Italian restaurant are remodeling it and turning into an organic Italian eatery.

Candela Candela officially closed its doors last Sunday, said owner Shai Zvibak. Mr. Zyibak, who also owns Hummus Shop in the Lower East Side, and his partner Marchello Assante will open a new spot, Organika. There, the pizza will be made from all organic ingredients, including dough made with white flour, kamut and favao.

“We are going to buy lots of the ingredients from farmers in upstate New York,” Mr. Zyibak said.

The eatery will have a full-sized bar offering organic wine and juices. Even the décor will be “green,” consisting of recycled wood and other items. The tables will be made from old bowling lanes.

“We are considering the ecologic situation of planet earth,” said Mr. Zvibak.

Organika is set to open in the next three weeks and hours of operation will be Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to midnight, and weekends 10 a.m. to 1 or 2 a.m.

Dana Varinsky

A woman thought to be 75 years old was hit by a taxi while crossing East Sixth Street at Avenue C this afternoon. According to a construction worker who was present at the time, a police car was at the corner when the accident occurred, and responded immediately. The woman was taken to the hospital with severe injuries. Her current condition is unknown.

Earlier this afternoon, East Sixth Street was closed at Avenue C: half the block to the east was sectioned off with police tape, and at least nine police cars were parked along Avenue C. The taxi was sitting inside the taped-off area while police examine the scene.

Massey Knakal Realty

Benjamin Shaoul is selling off a slew of his East Fourth Street apartment buildings.

195, 199, 201 and 203 East Fourth Street are on the market as a package deal for $32 million, a listing posted by Massey Knakal Realty indicates. The buildings include 46 residential units and one store, according to the listing.

Just a few blocks west, another two apartment buildings are for sale, said John Cirallo, Vice Chairman of Massey Knakal. 118 and 120-122 East Fourth Street are being sold as a package for $23 million, a recent drop from $25 million. They include 69 residential units.

Rent-stabilized tenants of those two buildings are responsible for Occupy East 4th Street, a blog dedicated to “maintaining East 4th Street as the diverse and mixed-income block it’s always been” in the face of what the site says is Mr. Shaoul’s plan to “empty our buildings of tenants, many of whom are rent-stabilized and senior citizens, do a cheap renovation and raise rents beyond market rate.” In July, eight rent-stabilized tenants of the buildings spoke about their landlord with The Times. “They recalled not learning who owned their buildings for months, lost rent checks, eviction notices, heat and hot water turned off with little notice, scant communication from the management company, a menacing property manager and intense construction that lasted well over a year,” The Times wrote.
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Dana Varinsky

Want to buy a four-story luxury townhouse from a media power couple? Congrats, the one that Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig are said to have checked out just got $1 million cheaper!

The price of the 5,840 square-foot townhouse at 238 East Fourth Street dropped to $7.5 million last week. The cut might have occurred because the penthouse unit above the townhouse has gone into contract, a representative of Town Real Estate told The Local.

Sue Hostetler, editor-in-chief of Art Basel Miami Beach Magazine, and her husband, media executive Jon Diamond, put the townhouse, between Avenues A and B, on the market in April. In September, the two-story, three-bedroom penthouse was also put on the market, priced at $3,895,000. Its owners, Oscar Proust and Colleen Goujjane, are the duo behind One If By Land, Two If By Sea, a romantic dining destination in the West Village.

The entire building, townhouse plus penthouse, was available for $12.4 million, the Wall Street Journal reported in September. But now that the penthouse apartment is in contract, the listing’s suggestion that the townhouse “can be combined with the duplex above for a spectacular 11,000 sq ft mansion” might soon cease to be true.
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Suzanne Rozdeba

Good morning, East Village.

Baby, it’s cold outside. Just look at this photo of a fire hydrant at Avenue A and East Fifth Street.

Community Board 3 has released its February calendar of meetings. [C.B. 3]

“A substitute teacher at an East Village junior high school stole donated books bound for Africa and sold them on eBay, city investigators have found.” [DNA Info]

A Brooklyn woman was “caught red-handed Sunday for allegedly stealing a pair of Jimmy Choo boots from Cadillac’s Castle at 333 E. Ninth St. — after biting both a store employee and a police officer who tried to restrain her, according to the clothing store’s owners and cops. [DNA Info]
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Daniel Maurer

If you often jump on the L to check out Williamsburg’s increasingly exciting dining scene, you can cross one off your to-try list: Bellwether, the restaurant that Josh Cohen opened in the former Royal Oak space a little over a year ago, has quietly closed – at least, for the moment.

Mr. Cohen, the budding impresario behind Anella and Calyer in Greenpoint, is no longer involved in the project, according to Matt Zalla, the designer who gave the space its sleek mid-century modern look. Mr. Zalla said that he’s currently in talks with a new partner who could help relaunch the restaurant, in some form, around mid-February.

“There was a need for somebody with a little bit more of an active role at the helm,” Mr. Zalla said of parting ways with Mr. Cohen. “He has a few other restaurants and we figured – he among us – that we needed to bring someone in with some more energy – and more money, frankly – to continue to fund the operation.”

Once the potential new partner is on board (Mr. Zalla declined to give a name because negotiations are ongoing, but revealed it was “somebody who’s well known”), the new team will likely open the dining room up to the street by installing new doors and windows. Read more…

Nicole Guzzardi

The storefront at 141 First Avenue that held the original location of Ramen Setagaya and then its replacement, Ramen Kuidouraku, and then yet another noodle joint, Ichiraku Ramen, is set to become (you guessed it!) another ramen joint.

This one, called Ippin, will be the first for owner Ejin Zen, who said the in-the-works menu would include ramen, tapas, beer and wine. The interior was being renovated earlier today: expect a massive shiny white bar-top and funky light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.

The otherwise tight-lipped Mr Zen said the restaurant is expected to open by the end of this month and hours of operation will be Monday to Sunday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Ichiraku Ramen closed here in April. “Business was bad,” owner Daniel Song told The Local.

Out with the old, in with the new.

As expected, students at East Side Community High School returned to their building on East 12th Street today for the first time since structural issues forced them to evacuate in September.

“I think I could speak for all the staff and parents that we are overjoyed and thrilled to be back,” said Maria Green, whose son is in the ninth grade. Ms. Green added that the students are also excited to get back to their usual routine. “They are grateful to Norman Thomas, but they are happy to be leaving because there’s no place like home,” she said.

Construction to secure a wall that had become detached from the building was slated to last until February, but work was completed sooner than expected and in time for the students’ second semester. Over the long weekend East Side staff and parent volunteers moved materials out of temporary classrooms at Norman Thomas High School and P.S. 1, and readied their original rooms for the students’ return. Read more…

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

Sue Palchak-Essenpreis, who was forced to leave her East Village apartment when the building was sold to a new landlord, still walks by the building on a regular basis “like a jealous ex-girlfriend.” [NY Observer]

“Rumors have circulated for months that Dovetail chef John Fraser would be the chef at The Standard East Village, the former Cooper Square Hotel that was taken over by Andre Balazs. Today, folks at the property confirm that the vegetable-obsessed chef will indeed be at the helm of the kitchen.” [Zagat]

“World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg will be leading a weekly walking tour highlighting struggles for urban space on New York’s Lower East side over the past generation—including the squats, community centers, community gardens and Tompkins Square Park.” [WW4 Report]

At a new exhibit of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs “it does not come as a surprise that the best thing about the poet’s photos are their captions.” [Gallerist NY]

Two Boots is expanding to the newly hip town of Nashville. [Grub Street]

Mermaid Inn’s TwitterYo, rumormongers: get a clue!

Last week the Mermaid Inn tweeted that it had some “pretty exciting news to share about the East Village” soon.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the neighborhood rumor mill kicked into high gear, as several readers told EV Grieve that the restaurant was expanding next-door. That blog’s post soon got picked up by food blogs, etc.

Now a representative of the restaurant tells us the good news “does not involve expansion — The Mermaid Inn East Village is set to launch its ‘Happiest Two Hours,’ an expansion on the current ‘Happy Hour and a Half.” So: starting Jan. 28, you can get $1 oysters from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Plus, the restaurant, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, is adding weekend lunch service, from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., with a one-hour “sunset menu” between lunch and dinner.

Speaking of changes in service, another fine spot for oysters, Calliope, announced on Facebook yesterday that it was launching breakfast as of 8 a.m. today. Great news if you’re a fan of La Colombe coffee and Shuna Lydon’s pastries (you’ll remember them from her recent days at Peels).

Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.

Emily Armstrong

In 1980, Ronald Reagan ushered in a long cold winter of conservatism in America. But a little bit of heat was generating on the Lower East Side. Over on the Bowery, the Ballistic Kisses were in their loft, practicing. With a sound that combined post-punk and politics, they brought something new to the downtown club scene.

Michael Shore, rock critic for The Soho Weekly News recalls, “In those days we did not even have a name for electropop, synth or what they were doing. And their lead singer, Mike Parker was very intense. They were the first NYC band with genuine, serious political thought, but with an interesting difference from the Sex Pistols — they seemed to be more street level. The Ballistic Kisses had an honest, urgent, sincere political thing going on.”

The band also had an interesting back story. Parker was an established poet and an elected judge in the bohemian mining town of Ward, Colorado. He came east with his friend and fellow martial artist, Jeff Freund. When Parker moved into a Bowery loft with musician Michael Hrynyk, things started to happen. Drummer Rich McClusky remembers,“Hrynyk would stay in bed all day and play music on his synthesizer and Michael Parker would read his poetry real loud. They figured, why don’t we put some of this to music? Jeff started playing bass and they wanted someone to do percussion instead of a drum box, so I joined them.”
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Mary Reinholz Drew Figueroa

A dispute is heating up between a city-supported non-profit and the for-profit bar that occupies its ground floor. The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center wants Drew Figueroa, a former program director and board member, to shut down the lobby bar he has operated for over a decade, but he isn’t going without a fight. Tonight, Community Board 3 will issue its final word on the matter, voting on whether or not to recommend The Suffolk for a liquor license renewal.

Founded on the Lower East Side in 1994, the cultural center, which has hosted events ranging from Latino puppet shows to Shakespearian drama, seems to regard Mr. Figueroa as a subtenant from hell. It has tried to evict him for rent arrears, and now it’s trying to keep him from selling alcohol.

Earlier this month, Jan Hanvik, the center’s executive director, called Mr. Figueroa a “rogue tenant” during a meeting of Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee and urged it not to support a renewal of The Suffolk’s beer-and-wine license, which expires at the end of next month. Mr. Hanvik claimed that the bar had created a “laundry list of problems” that jeopardized the center, including noise complaints from neighbors, a violation for accepting fake IDs from minors, and purported incidents of violence, one involving a bloody shirt found in the bar’s toilet. (City 311 data shows 29 noise complaints at 107 Suffolk Street since 2010.)

Mr. Figueroa denounced all the charges as falsehoods. He said earlier the shirt got bloodied when he bit down too hard on a Cuban sandwich and broke a tooth.
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Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Video shows men who had been drinking at Libation beating 37-year-old Kyam Washington on the corner of Essex and Rivington Street. The defendants say Washington prompted the attack by attempting to rob one of them. [NY Daily News]

“Nearly 1,000 friends and supporters packed the Great Hall at the Cooper Union on Saturday to honor Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who killed himself. [NY Daily News, City Room]

“A woman is in serious condition after jumping in front of a train in Williamsburg this morning, authorities said.” [NY Post]

“A woman was seriously injured after she set herself ablaze outside her lower East Side home on Saturday in a psychotic bid to ‘kill the demons inside her,’ sources said.” [NY Daily News]
Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everyone. We’re off contemplating the windows at 7A. Barring any breaking news, we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Holy smokes! We haven’t seen a line like this since, well, noodle nuts stormed Momofuku.

So why are all these folks waiting to get into Finnerty’s on Second Avenue when the place isn’t even serving drinks? Well, the 2012 World Series trophy is hanging out there until 6 p.m. But be prepared to wait your turn for that coveted trophy kiss (and a glimpse of general manager Brain Sabean): the queue of San Fran transplants is 140 strong. And that’s just the line to get in! There’s a second line (about half a block long) for securing tickets. A woman at the front said she had been waiting for about three hours.

Hey, at least the weather’s nice — in fact it feels downright Bay Area right now.

Daniel Maurer

The church that hosted a “Wear a Hoodie to Church” mass in honor of Trayvon Martin is now preaching and praying for gun control.

Middle Collegiate Church, located on Second Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets, plans to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s principles of nonviolence by participating in a Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath this Sunday, along with 150 other churches across the country.

Reverend Jacqui Lewis said it was important to add faith-based voices to the national conversation about guns. “Making a just world is essential to our faith,” she said. Ms. Lewis explained that joining the movement around gun control feels especially relevant now, since 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. “The church and faithful people everywhere are called to work for a better life, a peaceful life,” she said, adding, “’love, period’ is our motto.”

The worship will begin at 11:15 a.m. Sunday and is open to the public. Christina Fleming, Middle Collegiate Church’s Director of Communications, said several guests from Broadway are planning to participate in the “extremely musically infused” celebration.

To make sure everyone including the disabled can attend such events, Middle Collegiate is currently working to add an elevator to its building, which dates back to 1892. According to Ms. Lewis, the congregation is still raising the necessary funds, though construction is already underway.

The project has been in the works for a number of years and will be completed in October, Ms. Fleming explained: “We strive to be a very inclusive church and we wanted to make the building more accessible to all people.”

For now, Ms. Lewis is asking congregants to write to their congressional representatives and join her in a march for gun control in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 26. “We’re asking people to make a commitment to pray by writing these letters, make these letters our prayer, to pray by using our feet to march for justice,” she said.