A man was in critical condition after being stabbed at the Lillian Wald Houses this afternoon, the fire department said.

Around 2:40 p.m. the man, whose identity was not immediately available, was stabbed in the chest at 950 East Fourth Walk, near Avenue D; he was taken to New York Presbyterian in critical condition, the fire department said. The police said he was not likely to die.

In a separate incident, a fire broke out in the basement of 409 East Sixth Street, near First Avenue. The blaze was reported at 1:13 p.m. and was under control by 1:25 p.m., with no injuries reported.

Last week, Amadeus Bogner, a partner in the hand-pulled-noodle shop Hung Ry (and owner of Heidi and Extra Place nearby) reopened the Bond Street space as a French restaurant, Le Philosophe. We spoke to chef Matthew Aita, formerly of Jean-Georges, about his “classic French bistro” menu, which you can peruse below.
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Suzanne Rozdeba Sign outside of Obscura.

Two of the neighborhood’s celebrity misanthropes were at it earlier this week.

On Wednesday morning, a small crowd of “Oddities” fans stood outside Obscura, on Avenue A, while the show filmed inside. Mike Zohn, an owner of the store, told The Local that the show’s fourth season was being filmed, and would start in January after a best-of retrospective and a holiday episode.

Meanwhile, another trafficker in antiques and oddities, Billy LeRoy of “Baggage Battles” (also in the midst of a new season) e-mailed us the above photos of his coffin finally being removed from the Houston Street lot where his antiques tent used to stand.

In the weeks since Hurricane Sandy, downtowners have pitched in to help victims in harder-hit areas, and they’ve also continued to reach out to their closest neighbors. Last Thursday, Marissa Lippert of Nourish NYC and Allison Beale of George PR teamed up to raise $7,000 for the Red Hook Initiative and two of their favorite restaurants, Governor in Red Hook and the storm-battered Arcane on Avenue C. The Local spoke to organizers and attendees of the “FUNdraiser” at Pouring Ribbons, a cocktail den on Avenue B that escaped flooding because it was on the second floor and had no basement storage. Later, we caught up with Arcane’s owner, Ben Alter.

Happy Thanksgiving, East Village.

If you’re planning to hit the town tomorrow, you can find 28 prix-fixe menus here. (Should one of these options leave you in need of a post-feast cleanse, Angelika Kitchen’s chef has a recipe.) If you’re staying in and cooking, here are some wine-pairing suggestions from Kimberly Koharki of the Astor Center.

Be warned, the wine lines are long, according to our own Noah Fecks. But rest assured you won’t be spending as much time preparing as the Bowery Mission already has: as always, they started cooking for thousands last week.

See you back here in a couple of days.

wSuzanne Rozdeba 104 East Seventh Street

A pair of East Village walk-ups were sold as part of a $73 million portfolio that also included 14 properties in the West Village, Upper East Side, and downtown Brooklyn.

Paul Smadbeck, Senior Vice President of Sales at Massey Knakal, described the buyer, Stone Street Properties, as “a relatively young, new company that has been very active. Their main expertise is doing lovely renovations and really improving these 100-year buildings, and bringing them into the 21st century.” He added that the investment company is “very sensitive” to the community.

Suzanne Rozdeba 440 East 13th Street

The Real Deal reported that Stone Street, founded last year by Jeffrey Kaye and
Robert Morgenstern, acquired the entire portfolio from Manhattan landlord
Robert Koppelman.

One of the East Village buildings, at 104 East Seventh Street, stands right up against newly-opened Tink’s Restaurant and across the street from Saint Stanislaus Church. It holds landmark status, as part of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District that was approved last month. The other property is located at 438-440 East 13th Street.

Annie Fairman Ms. Ramos and Mrs. Rodriguez in the flooded apartment.

Annie Fairman Water line.

Ursula Ramos spent more than a decade asking the New York City Housing Authority for a transfer from her dark basement apartment on East Tenth Street. Earlier this month she finally got it, after Sandy flooded the unit with roughly three feet of water and destroyed nearly all of her possessions.

For twenty-two years, Ms. Ramos, 78, and her adult son shared a two-room basement unit at 384 East Tenth Street, in the Lower East Side Apartments. She spent eleven of those years asking for a transfer to another Section Eight apartment, but was told each time nothing was available.

“This isn’t an apartment, this is like a basement,” said Aurora Rodriguez, Ms. Ramos’ daughter while standing in the apartment in the days after Sandy hit. “But they make it an apartment.”
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Daniel Maurer The earlier incidents took place next
to 437 East 12th Street.

East 12th Street was the site of an armed robbery for the third time in a month, despite a continued decline in crime in the Ninth Precinct.

In the early morning hours of Nov. 5, two men in a light-colored car pulled up to 529 East 12th Street and robbed a man at gunpoint, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann said at last night’s Ninth Precinct Community Council Meeting. The victim had stepped out and was smoking a cigarette in front of his apartment when he was confronted.

It’s believed the suspects had committed another robbery roughly twenty minutes prior on West 12th Street, in the Sixth Precinct. Police were able to trace one of the stolen phones to 145th Street and Broadway, and are said to have strong leads in the case, including a description of the suspects and their car.  Read more…

Alexa Mae Asperin

You may have seen photos of 116 Avenue C in our Flickr stream yesterday: the space near East Eighth Street that was formerly Vibrations Lounge is well on its way to becoming The Third Man, the new project from Eduard Frauneder and Wolfgang Ban of Edi & the Wolf.

The cocktail bar will soft-open in the next couple of weeks, according to Florian Altenburg, one of the designers. Yesterday he told The Local that it would seat around 70 people and serve small plates. It was expected to open last month, but that has been pushed back: the bar’s basement, said the designer, saw some flooding during Sandy, though it fared better than Edi & the Wolf did, a block away.

In its fall restaurant preview, The Times wrote that The Third Man was “inspired by the noir film of the same name, with décor reminiscent of the Loos Bar in Vienna, including a floating steel bar suspended from the ceiling. There will be Austrian-influenced small plates, wine, beer, Champagne and cocktails created with house-made ingredients.”

Update | 12:17 p.m. Speaking of Edi & the Wolf, the restaurant has sent over its Thanksgiving prix-fixe menu. Check it out here, and see the menus for 28 more Thanksgiving feasts here.

Daniel Maurer

Good morning, East Village.

The bike police are back on East Fourth Street. We spotted the above on the very same block where someone threatened to cut bikes free from a “private” rack. This bike “has to be removed from this location by Nov. 19 or it will be dealt with as abandoned property and the chain cut.”

Billy Leroy e-mailed to let us know that his famous coffin will be removed from the old site of his Houston Street tent. “I’m taking the coffin out of Billy’s at 3 pm…I think it’s time,” wrote the antiques dealer. “I’m selling it to a Goth friend for $500. It’s an Italian-made, cherrywood coffin,” he said. As to the friend’s plans for the relic, he said, “Oh sleep in it, for real.”

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Suzanne Rozdeba

A block and a half from where Nino’s recently got a makeover, Mamani Pizza is up for sale.

The owner of the 99-cent-slice joint at 151 Avenue A, who didn’t want to be named, confirmed it’s on the market for $129,000. “We’d like to keep it private why it’s for sale,” she said, “but you can write about how good our pizza is.”

Earlier this week, we noted the closure of 2 Bros. Plus on St. Marks Place and the opening of another Joey Pepperoni’s on East 14th Street. Nearby on East 14th, Twitter user @THIEVERYCORP72 noted signage going up for yet another cheap-slice joint, Famous 99-Cent Pizza.

Alexa Mae Asperin

Alexa Mae Asperin

While small businesses on Avenue C struggle to become fully operational again, one of the neighborhood’s largest and oldest supermarkets remains completely shuttered during what would’ve been its busiest time of year.

The C-Town at 188 Avenue C, which has served the community for two decades, sustained “significant water damage” during Sandy, according to manager Elio Hernandez. He estimated the store had lost nearly $1.5 million, and said it wouldn’t reopen for another month.

About $100,000 worth of goods had to be thrown out after the 9,000-square-foot basement was submerged in 10 feet of water. On the main floor, which was flooded with two feet of water, new shelves will cost around $3,000, and $130,000 worth of refrigerators and cases will have to be replaced along with the flooring.
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Mary Reinholz A firetruck involved in cleanup.

A skateboarder was struck and killed in Union Square this morning, the police said.

The incident occurred shortly before 11:15 a.m. near Union Square West and East 17th Street, where police said a 24-year-old man fell off the skateboard he was riding and was struck by a box truck that was also traveling southbound. The victim was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel Hospital.

Mary Reinholz

The driver of the vehicle, a 2004 Mitsubishi box truck, remained at the scene. No criminality is suspected, but the investigation is ongoing, the police said.

A fireman on the scene said the skater “bled out” on the street. A large stain on the road had been wiped clean by this afternoon. Around 3 p.m., pedestrians seemed oblivious to the earlier tragedy; a young, bearded skateboarder was seen gliding gracefully toward Broadway and East 17th Street.

Mary Reinholz contributed reporting.

Update | Nov. 26, 2012, 10:50 a.m. The victim was not 24, as the police initially reported; he has since been identified as a 20-year-old N.Y.U. student, Kyle Larson.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Should you stay or should you go? It’s a dilemma with which ol’ Joe Strummer can sympathize. If you are staying in the East Village for Thanksgiving and you’re not into the whole cooking for days thing, here’s this year’s list of neighborhood spots that’ll be serving up prix-fixe feasts. We’ve arranged them from cheapest to most lavish. So gobble gobble!

ODESSA
$15.95
Glass of wine
Cup of cream of turkey soup
Turkey with stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and fresh vegetables
Pumpkin pie
Tea or coffee

LITTLE POLAND
$21.50
(May be slight variations to menu)
Turkey, white & dark meat stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Sweet potatoes
Cup of soup
Pumpkin pie
Coffee or tea

or $14.95
Turkey with two vegetables and stuffing
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Suzanne Rozdeba

In case you missed it last night, we broke news that developer Douglas C. Steiner bought the Mary Help of Christians property for $41 million, and is planning a residential project that would include some affordable housing units.

The Daily News reports that the police officers acquitted of raping an East Village woman and convicted of official misconduct will get to spend Thanksgiving at home. A judge ruled yesterday that Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata will not begin serving their sentences before Dec. 20.

The New York Times reviews “Wild Man in Rome,” Matthew Maguire’s new solo show at the Wild Project on East Third Street. It’s a “feverish account of a fantastic voyage — with the original hellhound on his trail — condensed into one night in which the Wild Man interacts with Amazonian hookers, pudgy-legged cherubim and a Gypsy fortune teller.”

The Times also reports on “Magic Fingers,” an experimental art space on East 10th Street that debuted last Saturday. In “Questionable Beliefs; Part 3,” an exhibition by the artist Danny McDonald, his alter-ego, Mindy Vale, “with a dead megaphone in hand…popped out of the front window lamenting the loss of electricity and the kinds of hardships many New Yorkers have suffered of late and then, sitting on step stool, proceeded to cut up $100 bill doormats and toss sections into the crowd as a symbolic Robin Hood gesture.”
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Suzanne Rozdeba Nublu’s current home.

A little over a year after it was shut down because it was too close to a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall, Nublu has been redeemed. At last night’s meeting of Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee, the club managed to win support for a proposed move up the street. Another high-profile applicant with ties to the legendary Beatrice Inn also went home happy, but Westville East, L’Asso EV and others failed to emerge unscathed.

Ilhan Ersahin, the owner of Nublu, plans to move the club a handful of blocks, from 62 Avenue C to 151 Avenue C, near 10th Street. Mr. Ersahin repeatedly referred to the new space — currently an unused car garage — as a “box within a box,” due to its structure as well as how it will presumably stop the sound of live music from emanating into the surrounding neighborhood.

Though neighbors spoke out against a license at Nublu’s current address just two months ago, the testimony was mostly positive this time; the committee voted to support a full liquor license by a relatively slim margin of two. Board member Ariel Palitz once again spoke in favor of the club, calling it an “exceptionally popular venue” and a “bastion of success” that is one of a dying breed.

Once the garage space is renovated and opened, the new license will be good until 2 a.m. Sundays through Tuesdays and until 4 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, assuming it’s approved by the State Liquor Authority.

Yesterday’s most controversial case involved a sidewalk cafe rather than a liquor license. Neighbors complained of lengthy lines and loitering deliverymen at popular brunch destination Westville East, on the corner of Avenue A and East 11th Street, and said that barriers separating the cafe from the rest of the sidewalk were too tall. Some said Westville and its sidewalk monopoly “completely blocks the corner” (others shouted it).
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Sanna Chu Workers removing traffic cones from Cooper Square

Time for another overhaul update.

Construction workers were removing orange traffic cones at Cooper Square today, after completing long in-the-works water-main repairs. The $10.8 million undertaking was slated to be completed last winter, but was delayed by the “tangled web of wires” underground.

Meanwhile, a couple of blocks north, neighborhood conversation piece 51 Astor Place got still more glass panels. Here’s what it looked like earlier today. Read more…

Daniel Maurer Plywood came down at Mary Help of Christians last week.

It’s official: the owner of Steiner Studios has purchased the East 12th Street lot that includes Mary Help of Christians Church for $41 million. Douglas C. Steiner told The Local he was planning a residential project that would include some affordable housing units.

The deal was closed Friday, according to John Matcovich, the parish manager of Immaculate Conception, where Mary Help of Christians parishioners were relocated in September. “The keys were relinquished,” he revealed to The Local, confirming that Mr. Steiner purchased a lot that includes the church, the school building at 436 East 12th Street, the rectory at 440 East 12th Street, and the parking lot at 181 Avenue A that was formerly home to the flea market.
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A mob of Supreme-clad skateboarders lined up outside of Sunshine Cinema on Sunday for the New York premier of “Pretty Sweet,” the latest skateboarding video from the Girl and Chocolate brands. The premiere, hosted by East Third Street shop DQM, drew the likes of Kanye West, Mike D of the Beastie Boys, actor Michael Rappaport, and actor, DJ, and East Village resident Leo Fitzpatrick, star of the forthcoming “Doomsdays.”

The highly anticipated film was introduced by Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, and Spike Jonze, co-owners of Girl Skateboards. Mr. Jonze is best known as the director of features such as “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation,” but he cut his teeth photographing skaters, and in 1991 directed “Video Days,” a landmark skateboarding short that established a formula of cutting-edge editing techniques paired with humorous skits.

“Pretty Sweet,” filmed in HD and boasting gratuitous slow-motion steady-cam shots, is the most evolved of the videos that Mr. Jonze has released with Girl, and no wonder: it took five years to complete – a time span longer than most pro skateboarders’ careers.

Girl was formed in 1993 in Torrance, CA, in part as an escape from the increasingly high-pressure, competitive direction of skateboarding. It was meant to be a “fun little thing,” in the words of Mr. Carroll, who along with Mr. Howard is still a talented skater in his own right. But after releasing “Goldfish” in 1993, the brand has managed to build an increasing amount of buzz around each of its subsequent works.

Packed with special effects and even an Owen Wilson cameo, “Yeah Right!” (2003) was the first of the videos to pair the cinematography and editing of Ty Evans with Mr. Jonze’s whimsical skits.
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