Dana Varinsky Ruhith Ahmed waters the plants.

Dana Varinsky Scott Stinger and Daniel Squadron add new plants.

At the official opening of Robert E. Simon Complex’s rooftop garden today, fifth-grader Julia Cannizzo pointed to two small lettuce plants and introduced them as Bob and Bruce Lee. “It’s really exciting to see the baby plants grow because they look so optimistic,” she said.

Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Daniel Squadron and Councilwoman Rosie Mendez – who all contributed funds to the four-year, million-dollar project – led today’s ribbon cutting, joining students and teachers of the Earth School, P.S. 64, and Tompkins Square Park School, which share the East Fifth Street building.

Ms. Mendez told The Local that the garden was a natural continuation of the neighborhood’s history. “Before community gardens were popular, this community, with all the devastation here, went into these lots and they cleared the debris and the rubble and made community gardens. So this feels like an extension of that vision.”’ Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

Suzanne Rozdeba Elsewhere Espresso

A couple of family-run joints are new to the neighborhood. First, Elsewhere Espresso, the coffee shop owned by three siblings, opened this morning, as you can see from the balloons at right. It’ll be open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven days a week.

Just a block north, Tink’s Restaurant, which we first told you about in January, will finally open next Thursday. It, too, is a family affair, as Isabella Aqel will run the spot with the help of four sisters, a brother, and her parents.

“If I didn’t have them, there’s no way I’d be able to do this,” Ms. Aqel, 25, told The Local today at the restaurant on East Seventh Street, where her twin, Sophia, her brother Alex, 23, and her 52-year-old mom, Jenny, who runs a family sheet-metal business in East Harlem with her husband, were helping put some finishing touches on the place. She hopes her restaurant will be “a sit-down place you can bring your boyfriend or girlfriend, a romantic, date spot.” Read more…

Last night, everyone at Professor Thom’s was glued to – no, not the Yankees game: the place is a Boston bar, after all. They were watching the Vice Presidential debate, silly! The Local stopped by to see which zingers got the most cheers.

In the month since Pouring Ribbons opened, owners Joaquin Simo, Jason Cott, Troy Sidle, and Toby Maloney have been stirring up more than cocktails: they’ve been waging a friendly(?) Twitter war with “the boys” over at the neighborhood’s other recently opened cocktail spot, Evelyn Drinkery. It all seems to have started when Evelyn Drinkery asked whether Pouring Ribbons was a sewing club, and quickly devolved into accusations involving armpit hair, man purses, phosphate drinks and Taylor Swift. Oh, those crazy cocktalians!

Anyway, after all the back and forth (which you can read for yourself below), we just had to stop into Pouring Ribbons and see what the place was all about (sorry, Evelyn Drinkery, but Mr. Simo, formerly of Death & Co., is the American Bartender of the Year). Despite all the tomfoolery on Twitter, they take their cocktails pretty seriously, as you can see in our video above. Read more…

Nicole Guzzardi Halloween at The Bean’s First Avenue location.

Good morning, East Village.

It finally happened: The Lo-Down reports that the City Council voted in favor of a Seward Park Urban Renewal plan that will add 1,000 apartments and a good deal of commercial space to nine plots totaling 1.65 million square feet near the Williasmburg Bridge. The request for proposals will go out in January.

The police tell The Times that the suspect in the fatal stabbing of Michael Jones has fled to Mexico, leaving behind an apology note. Commissioner Ray Kelly “suggested that Mr. Orea’s destination may have been a village where he had family ties. Members of the Police Department would be sent there, he said, adding that the police were in contact with local officials, the State Department and Interpol, the international police network.”

The Daily News and The Post report that a bellhop at the Bowery Hotel was busted on the job after allegedly selling pot to undercover officers. He was charged with criminal possession of marijuana. In happier news, Alexis Bledel and Vincent Kartheiser of “Mad Men” recently “went public” at the hotel, according to The Post.  Read more…

Daniel Maurer JoeDough is psyched.

With the Yankees going into game four tonight, it’s going to be tough to find somewhere to watch the Vice Presidential debate, which starts at 9 p.m. But there are a few places where you can join fellow Democrats or Republicans, or go bipartisan.

Village Pourhouse (64 Third Avenue, at 11th Street) if offering a left-leaning gathering, with $5 blue Barack O-Bombs, while sister establishment SideBAR (120 East 15th Street, at Irving Place) is catering to the Republican crowd with red Rum-ney shots for the same price. Marketing director Lauren Ferrante said specific ingredients are up to the bartenders, but she was thinking black cherry rum with a spash of grenadine for SideBAR and Absolut Mandarin and blue curacao dropped into Sprite for Pourhouse. Just don’t let the drinks determine your party affiliation.

Those who want to hash out the issues with a more neutral crowd can watch at Professor Thom’s (219 Second Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets). The New American Tavern, which produces bar events for the politically inclined, is hosting, and asks that you RSVP.

Other Democrat gatherings in the area include a Watch Party for Young Professionals of Color at Katra Lounge (217 Bowery, near Rivington Street) and a viewing at the 13th Street Repertory Company (50 West 13th Street, near Sixth Avenue). Both require RSVPs. Read more…

Photos: Nicole Guzzardi

After selling macarons wholesale for three years, Christina Ha and her husband Simon Tung opened the first brick-and-mortar location of Macaron Parlour earlier this afternoon.

The shop offers classic varieties of the French confectionery, like pistachio and lemon, plus unconventional flavors (e.g. honey and cognac), some of which were inspired by junk food. “We really want to stick to things that her and I grew up with, ” Mr. Tung said, citing a s’mores macaron as well as a bacon one with maple cream cheese filling. The store also offers cookies, croissants, and other goodies.

The shop’s story is as sweet as its baked goods. The owners, who got married in April, met at a Halloween party in 2009: she was dressed as Lady Gaga and he, along with his friends, went as a nerd.  “She picked me out of all the nerds,” Mr. Tung said proudly.

Ms. Ha attended pastry school at the Institute of Culinary Education and Mr. Tung also worked in the food industry, so they decided to go into business together. Read more…

Dana Varinsky

To promote the Bike-Friendly Business District, Veselka is giving out complimentary carbs to cyclists. The pierogi promotion goes till 7 p.m., so get to peddling.

On the heels of last week’s rededication ceremony, The Public Theater unveiled two new amenities this week. At an event last night, the “Shakespeare Machine,” a sort of high-tech LED chandelier, made its formal debut. The installation – created by artist Ben Rubin and statistician Mark Hansen, who collaborated on a similar work in the New York Times building – pays tribute to the Bard’s works by parsing up his language and displaying it in found patterns.

Watch the above video to see the machine in action and hear more about how it works.

And below, have a look at The Library, the lounge that Andrew Carmellini’s team, along with the folks at Joe’s Pub, have installed on the Public Theater’s new mezzanine. The books and trinkets on the shelves were picked by designer David Rockwell in collaboration with The Public’s archivists. For more, including the menu, refer back to last week’s post.

Photos: Noah Fecks

Last night, Toy Tokyo celebrated the 30th anniversary of He-Man by pre-releasing the latest Mattel action figure, The Temple of Darkness Sorceress. Oh, but that was just part of it: once fans purchased the $22 toy, they made their way downstairs to TT Underground, to check out original art inspired by the Masters of the Universe. If the names She-Ra and Skeletor mean anything to you, you’re definitely going to want to watch the above. And if you’re looking for the ultimate dorm room decoration, the artwork is going for around $100 to $400.

“Masters of the Universe 30th Anniversary Art Show,” through Oct. 24, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., at TT Underground, 91 Second Avenue (Lower Level); (212) 673-5424

An eclectic group of musicians – including Gordon Gano belting out his Violent Femmes classic “Blister in the Sun” – performed last night at a benefit to “put a stop to this destructive, environmentally calamitous process that’s destroying the city we all love.” At least, that’s how the evening’s M.C., Mark Crispin Miller of Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, put it shortly before announcing that Susan Sarandon and Matthew Broderick were among those who pledged money to a lawsuit against N.Y.U.’s expansion plans.

The idea behind the “Save the Village” concert at Le Poisson Rouge, Mr. Miller told an audience of about 200, was to show that the Village still rocks – even if “N.Y.U. does not rock. N.Y.U. rolls. It rolls its students; it rolls its faculty; it rolled the City Council. We’ve got to stop this.”

To that end, songstress Janine Nichols kicked off the night by cooing “This Land Is Your Land” with John Kruth on sitar. (It was that kind of evening: bongos, banjos, cowbells, canastas, and, yes, even scatting. At times the Greenwich Village club resembled a genuine Beat coffee shop.)

Noise rocker Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth got right into it with composer and saxophonist John Zorn. The duo launched into a cacophany of discordant free jazz that had all the abrasiveness of, well, jackhammering south of Washington Square Park. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Mark Federman, the principal of East Side Community High School, shared some good news via Twitter yesterday: “We get to go in our building tomorrow evening to get instructional materials. Yay!!” DNA Info has more on the development. The matter was a subject of much discussion at a parent association meeting earlier this week.

Over at The Awl, Choire Sicha has his own special take on the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. Contrary to the local nostalgia bloggers, he thinks the neighborhood started going downhill almost 100 years ago, “when the City drained a swamp and imposed Tompkins Square Park on the people so as to create an public promenade to enforce socially acceptable behavior, except during the Mexican-American War (spoiler: we lost), when the park was a military staging ground, and then after, when the park became a meeting place for angry young unwashed people to march on Wall Street (the mid-1850s), until it became a Civil War encampment, and then until it again became a gathering place for dirty people to march on Wall Street.”

Grub Street reports that Smorgasburg, the weekly foodie free-for-all produced by the Brooklyn Flea, is teaming up with Whole Foods Bowery: “Prepared food vendors, such as Cemita’s and Hugh Magnum’s Mighty Quinn’s, will set up shop inside the grocery store for monthlong pop-ups. Early next year, the grocery store chain and small-batch food market will expand their collaboration by opening the Smorgasburg-branded ‘Snack Bar,’ a retail outlet for goods like Grady’s Cold Brew growlers, Dough’s doughnuts, and Mile End’s bagels.”
Read more…

Art in Odd Places is underway on 14th Street: earlier this week we ran Scott Lynch’s photo of Marie Christine Katz, who is inviting the public to join her as she walks and knits. She’s just one of many artists and performers livening up 14th Street now through Oct. 15. The Local took its own walk down the boulevard, with a camera in lieu of knitting needles, and encountered poet Michael Howley, among others. Watch the above video to hear him read and to see some more guerilla art from the festival.

If you care to hear more from Mr. Howley, watch a second video in which he tells us why he’s reading poetry on the street, to be overheard by passersby. “We’re all just walking by, we’re just passing through this life,” he said. “And 14th Street is life.”

Daniel Maurer Half of the neighborhood’s Subways.

Back when we took stock of all the East Village’s chain stores, we discovered that Subway was the most ubiquitous chain in the neighborhood, with eight locations.

Make that seven – at least, for now.

The sliver of a location at 227 First Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets, was closed today, with UPS delivery notices from last week affixed to the shutter.

We placed a call to the store’s next-door neighbor, Gabay’s, and a man who identified himself as the sub-landlord of the Subway space, who did not want to give his name, said the franchisee closed the store for “personal reasons.” He added, “All I know is that they’re looking for another franchisee.”

Of course, there’s another Subway just six blocks down First Avenue. We also like Russo’s for sandwiches.

Suzanne Rozdeba Margaret Hearn in her East Village apartment.

Margaret Hearn has given up the $747-a-month Gramercy pad she was holding on to as security, while continuing to fight for her $291-a-month, rent-controlled three-bedroom on East 12th Street.

“I don’t want to be there, it’s not home to me,” Ms. Hearn said of the 300-square-foot alcove studio in Gramercy that she has kept for 20 years. She said it was a financial burden to pay for both apartments, and that “nasty comments” from those who read about her living situation persuaded her not to renew her lease, which expires Oct. 31.

Last month, she told The Local she was fighting to keep her East Village apartment because she believes she is the rightful heir to the two sisters who in 2008, she said, asked her to share it with them.

“Win or lose, this is my home. Not because I feel entitled to it, or that I earned it, or anything like that. This is where I’m connected because of my relationship to the ladies. They were my family, and the neighborhood is my family,” she said yesterday.  Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Allow us to sprinkle a few nuggets (nibs?) of information on you, fro-yo fiends: the Red Mango that came to Stuyvesant Town last month (the first in the area since the St. Marks store closed a couple of years ago) will celebrate its grand opening next Thursday by doling out free small frozen yogurts. They’ll also give away merch such as t-shirts to the first 100 customers, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Elsewhere in self-serve land, EV Grieve notices that Only U, a colorful fro-yo joint that opened in July, has already closed. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

The Valley National Bank on Fourth Avenue was held up around 12:30 p.m. today.

A man thought to be around 50 years of age, wearing a jean jacket and with grey-blonde hair, walked into the bank at 111 Fourth Avenue, near 12th Street, and left with an unknown amount of money, according to one of the responding officers, Alan Tagliamonti. “The suspect fled immediately,” he said. Investigators were still trying to determine the amount stolen when The Local arrived on the scene around 1:30 p.m.

After celebrating its fifth anniversary last week and the creation of an East Village/Lower East Side Historic District yesterday, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative is already looking to the future (via the past, of course). The group wants to see the East 10th Street Historic, created in January, extended to other buildings around Tompkins Square Park.

Richard Moses, the organization’s president, said the L.E.S.P.I. is currently surveying buildings from St. Marks Place/Eighth Street to 12th Street, in the blocks on either side of the park, to determine which of them should be part of a proposal that will be submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Committee. The protected area, which would likely be called the Tompkins Square Historic District, would include Avenue B alongside the park, as well as the park itself. Read more…

Daniel Maurer The wall of P.S. 60 this morning.

Parents at East Side Community High School are demanding to know when their children will be allowed back into the P.S. 60 building, evacuated over two weeks ago. Last night, they called on the Department of Education to start searching for alternatives to an interim school building that they likened to a prison.

At a parent association meeting at Theater for the New City, Michael Mirisola of the city’s School Construction Authority drew scoffs as he explained that the agency wouldn’t know when students could return to the building at 420 East 12th Street until engineers submitted a report – likely by the end of the week – based on their daily probes of the building. “By this time next week we should have a better idea of where we’re at,” he said. “I won’t know if we’re going to have a plan yet.”

That wasn’t good enough for some of the 150 or so parents who attended, several of whom complained that their children were no longer motivated to go to school now that they were sharing a Midtown South building with students of Norman Thomas High School. (Councilwoman Rosie Mendez also attended the meeting.)

“Whoever is going to Norman Thomas is being bullied. The only one that can actually do something about it is me – I’m a gangster,” said the parent of a 12th grader, to laughter and applause. He complained that he didn’t know where his daughter’s upcoming college fair would be located.

Another parent, of a ninth grader, said she was only at Norman Thomas for an hour when she began “suffocating” from a lack of air and light. “These kids are in prison from 8:30 a.m. to whenever they leave the building,” she said to applause. “I don’t even know how those kids survive on a normal daily basis. No matter what kind of kids you put in there they will end up bad.” Like others at the meeting, she stressed that the Department of Education should begin looking for alternative locations in case repair of a faulty wall at 420 East 12th Street took longer than expected. Read more…