For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Two Boots.
Melvin Felix
Tonight, Two Boots celebrates its 25th anniversary with an outdoor concert hosted by Luis Guzman and featuring performances by the Sierra Leone Refuge All-Stars, circus acts, live painters, poets from the Nuyorican and more. So we talked to the pizza and film chain’s maverick owner and community builder, Phil Hartman, about how he’s kept his Avenue A shop running while watching his other businesses open, close and relocate.
Q.
In the East Village and Lower East Side, you’ve endured some losses alongside your business triumphs.
A.
We closed the Two Boots on Grand Street but that one was never supposed to stay open long. It was in a location too close to the East Village one. We also moved a location from Rock Center to Hells Kitchen. That was a cool move into a great funky environment. A big loss for me was when we closed down Mo Pitkins. The Pioneer Theater closing down was another one. Losing it was hard. We’d invested a lot into it. I used to say the Pioneer ate 40,000 slices of pizza a year at $2.50 a slice, so it was expensive to keep it going. I wish we could have kept it, but our lease ran out. Read more…
In an interview with The Atlantic, Jeremiah Clancy, the owner of Mama’s, reiterates some of what he told The Local about the food shop’s closing. On the East Village: “Where it used to be a very vibrant neighborhood with a mix of cultures as well as different socioeconomic backgrounds, it started becoming very homogenous.”
Big news on the Lower East Side. DNAInfo reports that the long in-the-works Seward Park Urban Renewal (SPURA) plan got the nod from the City Planning Commission. “The current plan — which includes space for retail stores, offices, community facilities and a bundle of 900 apartments with 50 percent of them allocated for permanent affordable housing — is the closest any proposal has come to being built.”
According to DNAInfo some neighbors are upset that Jane’s Sweet Buns didn’t give them notice that it was changing to a 10-seat speakeasy called Proletariat. Read more…
Across the street from where a dorm will rise at 35 Cooper Square, there’s more big news: Grace Church School will take over the Village Voice’s offices next year.
During a tour of the school’s new state-of-the-art high school building at 46 Cooper Square, headmaster George Davison revealed this morning that the school will also move into the third floor of the adjacent building at 36 Cooper Square once the Voice’s lease expires there next year.
Tony Ortega, the Voice’s editor-in-chief, confirmed the embattled weekly’s impending departure. “Thankfully we’ll be leaving this dump in the spring, and we’ll be taking the letters on the outside of the building with us,” he wrote in an e-mail.
When the Voice moved to 36 Cooper Square in 1991, the building’s owner, Leonard Stern, also owned the alternative paper. Mr. Ortega pointed out that things changed after Stern Publishing sold the Voice. “Since 2000 the Voice has just been a renter here, and if you’ve been in our offices you know they’ve seen better days,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to going to our new home.” Read more…
A critical hearing regarding the proposed nine-story hotel abutting the Merchant’s House Museum is scheduled for September 4, the museum just announced in an e-mail. Following the hearing, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will either give the green light for the controversial hotel, or send the developer back to the drawing board. Supporters of the museum consider the proposal dangerous because construction could undermine the structure of the 180-year-old building, as well as its aesthetic. Still, there’s no guarantee the hearing will take place on the scheduled date — it’s been postponed four times already. “Hopefully we don’t have a fifth postponement,” said Emily Wright, a museum spokeswoman. “We’re still of course very concerned, the potential for damage is very serious.”
The Times reports that a dozen or so community gardeners occupied a vacant lot on Attorney Street near Stanton Street in an effort to prevent an L-shaped building planned for the space. “The actions on Sunday harked back to an earlier era, when territorial battles on the Lower East Side involved lawsuits filed to prevent the sale of gardens to developers and barricades erected around city-owned plots by gardeners hoping to stave off takeover attempts.”
DNAInfo files a dispatch from a Democratic debate for the 27th District seat. Brad Hoylman, who has been endorsed by outgoing State Senator Thomas K. Duane, touted his experience as district chair of Community Board 2, saying it gave him an edge over his opponents.
ArtsBeat continues its string of Fringe Fest reviews, this time showing love to “American Midget”: “The message of this little psychological gem, conveyed by a cast that can play comedy all the way to pathos and back, is both pessimistic and spirit-affirming.” Read more…
Those flyers calling for a boycott of Bar Veloce have disappeared from the neighborhood – and the wine bar got a spiffy new sign today – but rest assured there’s drama on the horizon: the bar on Second Avenue is gearing up for a courtroom fight with the disgruntled ex-employees who sued it in April 2011. A series of court filings made as recently as yesterday reveal that both parties will go to trial before a federal judge on November 5.
You’ll recall the twists and turns of the case: three employees sued Bar Veloce for unpaid wages and labor violations. In February, Frederick Twomey, the owner of the bar, filed a countersuit alleging that one of the plaintiffs, ex-employee John Sawyer Preston, defamed him and damaged his business by posting flyers urging customers to avoid Bar Veloce and other restaurants he owned. In turn, Mr. Preston filed a counter-counter suit alleging that the defamation suit amounted to unlawful retaliation in response to the original claim of backwages.
But now a layer of litigation has been peeled away: late last month Mr. Twomey filed a motion to withdraw his defamation suit (a hearing regarding that case is scheduled for Thursday) and yesterday, Mr. Preston withdrew his counter-counter suit as part of an agreement that paves the way for November’s trial. Read more…
Melvin FelixThe Mosaic Man’s cane and service
dog, in court today.
After being thrown out of his studio in the basement of Barbiere, Jim Power avoided eviction from his apartment at The Lee today. Mr. Power, known for creating the neighborhood’s mosaic trail and outfitting local businesses like Porchetta and The Bean, agreed to pay $547.29 in outstanding rent by the end of September, staving off a return to homelessness.
In July, the low-income residence brought a lawsuit demanding $806.66 in back rent and requesting a final judgment of eviction. The Mosaic Man said he had stopped paying the monthly dues for his rent-stabilized apartment in order to protest a slew of problems at 133 Pitt Street. This week, he told The Local, he found a pool of blood in a building elevator.
“It’s shocking,” Mr. Power said. “They need to put a security guard in there with a gun.” (The Local has left a message with a spokesperson for Common Ground requesting comment.) Read more…
Just a quick update from pizza land: a sign on the door of Pomodoro Pizzeria says it will be closed for three weeks for “cosmetic work and cleaning.” It’s uncertain when the note was posted or whether the spelling of “Pizzaria” will finally be corrected.
Maybe Pomodoro is feeling the heat from its new neighbor on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets? Michael White’s Nicoletta just got outdoor seats, as you can see above.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, a sidewalk barker with a bullhorn (hey, it’s hard to be heard above the construction noises from 51 Astor) was handing out “VIP Customer” cards for 15 percent off at another newcomer, Little Italy Pizza. She also noted that the place sells bottled water. (But does it contain supplements?)
And finally, signage for a new location of Joey Pepperoni’s Pizza, a chain that sells slices for $1, has gone up at 222 First Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets.
Here’s what the line outside of the 7-Eleven on 14th Street looked like this afternoon.
Celina Alcobendas and Nelson Valle came in from New Jersey and had been waiting since before 9 a.m. to meet Shaun White, there to promote a brand of gum.
The legendary snowboarder signed Mr. Valle’s longboard and Ms. Alcobendas’s white tank top, which she planned to sport on the slopes. “He’s really good-looking in person,” she said. “I actually told him that if my boyfriend wasn’t here, I’d ask him to marry me.”
Yesterday we showed you footage of a former church being leveled – and the fate of another church hangs in the balance. But it’s not all gloom and doom where religious institutions are concerned. A few blocks from that demolition site on Avenue B, renovations continue at St. Brigid’s. In recent days, East 11th Street was temporarily closed so worshippers spilling out of the Madina Masjid could pray in the street during Ramadan. And as you can see in the above video, just posted to YouTube, the ever inventive Middle Collegiate Church performed a triple wedding ceremony a few weeks ago. A reader wants to hear still more blessed news, and uses the Virtual Assignment Desk to request it:
Seriously, there’s more to the EV than restaurants and bars. Talk to the leaders of our mosques, churches and synagogues once in a while. See what they’re up to. Maybe it’s news, or maybe it’s just life goin’ on.
So what say you? Have any news to share from your house of worship? If so, go to our Open Assignments desk and volunteer to leave us a tip or report the story yourself. If you have a specific story to pitch, do so at our Virtual Assignment Desk.
“Eleanor Rigby” is filming in the neighborhood again. As you can see above, East Seventh Street has been secured for shoots tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday.
Um, wow: someone has gone and remixed the audio of Star the pit bull getting shot by a police officer and incorporated it into a video that seems calculated to shock and disturb. “It’s only offensive to people who love dogs,” says the creator.
ArtsBeat reviews “Antigone Unearthed” at the Fringe Festival and isn’t a big fan. “Be wary of a play whose selling points, according to its publicity materials, include ’20 cubic feet of potting soil’ and ‘spinal movement.'” Read more…
Police officers were mobilized to Webster Hall shortly before 8:30 p.m. last night when a large crowd lined up for “Summer Madness 2,” a series of rap battles that drew hip-hop stars Lloyd Banks, Busta Rhymes, and Q-Tip as spectators. “I’m on line,” tweeted one attendee. “East 12th st…the venue is on east 11th…do the math on how many ppl are here.”
According to XXL and a flurry of Twitter reports, none other than Sean “Diddy” Combs took the stage to offer $10,000 in cash to the winner of one of the battles.
If you missed that special appearance, know that the anti-Diddy, singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt, will be involved in the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop’s first-anniversary festivities on Sept. 3. A tweet promises, “Preparation for shop’s 1 yr anniversary party are going great! Fun at shop, webcasts by @MrDaveHill, Stephin of @TheMagFields, more. Sept 3!”
The luckiest guy on the Lower East Side previously dropped by the ice cream shop’s Festivus celebration and has been known to rock a Big Gay Ice Cream t-shirt on stage with the Magnetic Fields.
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.
Richard Hell with set list.
You can’t talk about punk rock without talking about Richard Hell. Television, the band he founded in 1973 with then best friend Tom Verlaine, was one of the groups – along with Blondie and the Ramones – that laid the foundation for the downtown scene at CBGBs. Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren purportedly looked at a poster of Television in 1974, pointed at Richard and said, “I want to start a band that looks like him.”
With his chopped hair and ripped-up shirt, Hell looked like nobody else. And with his kinetic, jangly stage presence and slinky bass, he sounded like nobody else. “Richard had some charisma you can’t buy in a store and apply to yourself like a cream,” recalled Television guitarist, Richard Lloyd. ”He had ‘it,’ the inimitable ‘it,’ the mysterious ‘it.’ His loopy bass lines were cartoonish in their wonderment; he was fantastic.”
Not everyone in the band agreed and Richard left to join the Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders in 1975. But sharing stage and song time with Thunders seemed like a Television rerun for Hell: “I wanted to try something quicker, more strange than the stuff Johnny wanted,” he said. Read more…
Here’s video of workers demolishing the building on the corner of Avenue B and East 12th Street that held the Elim Pentecostal Church and before that, a theater that was a locus of 1960s counterculture.
A 40-unit, seven-story condo will be built at 193 Avenue B, with the church returning to the ground floor and basement. Earlier today, the walls of the Bijou (later the Charles) Theater were being demolished brick by brick.
The Bijou was opened in 1926 by Charles Steiner, a “pioneer motion picture exhibitor” who opened his first theater in 1906 (when “motion pictures were scarce,” per the Times obit) and died in 1946. According to the book “Selling The Lower East Side,” the Charles (as it was renamed) showed underground and experimental movies in the 1950s (think Edward G. Ulmer) and then became a “favored site for the nascent hippie community” in the early ’60s. Read more…
Melvin FelixAfter the shooting, this cop car with a kennel in the trunk likely hauled the wounded pit bull to a veterinarian.
The pit bull that took a bullet in the middle of 14th Street last week continues her remarkable recovery. “She is showing more signs of improvement,” wrote a spokesman for Animal Care and Control. “Her swelling has gone down and she is more alert.”
Meanwhile, the debate continues on The Local’s Facebook page regarding whether the shooting was justified. Graphic video of the incident shows that the dog, named Star, did indeed lunge at the police officer who shot her. But most commenters believe that deadly force was unnecessary. “Star was doing what she was suppose to do,” wrote one reader. “If you watch the video in entirely you see for 9 min they did not even attend to her owner still on the ground. This was not justified.”
“That cop will remember this for the rest of his life and if he owns dogs at home I hope he doesn’t do this to his own pets,” wrote another. “I smell a huge lawsuit against that cop and the N.Y.P.D. for not helping Star and his owner.”
The Ex-Villagers: they loved the East Village and left it.
Shira Levine
I moved to New York when I was 17. I didn’t end up there on purpose. I was on my way to Europe to backpack with my friend. We drove across the country and when I arrived I had only $189 to my name: I wouldn’t be able to backpack around Europe for three months. My friend left and I stayed.
New York was crazy intense. I never thought I’d live there. The day I arrived I walked down Thompson Street in SoHo to Girl Meets Boy salon, a kind of punk place with chemical haircuts. Grace Jones would go and a lot of Madonna’s friends. It was a whole rock n roll scene. I come from a salon family and was already cutting hair back west, but I went in and said I would do anything. So I shampooed hair and swept floors.
I was introduced to the whole East Village world of subletting and got a cockroach-infested place on East Third between B and C. You could see rats between the floorboards. I had to pile chloric acid around my bed to protect me. I was living out of a little box then – from sublet to sublet I’d carry around my few things and my chloric acid.
I lived in one studio where the bathtub had a dripping faucet, which was where the roaches would hang around. It was basically like squatting, but we were all actually chipping in to pay rent. Read more…
Over the weekend Rosie Gray, a former staffer at The Village Voice, shared her thoughts regarding the alt weekly’s latest round of layoffs. Writing on Buzzfeed, she said many people share the blame for the paper’s current state. “The Voice suffered from the same ailments that afflict print media organizations everywhere, but it proved less adept than most at adapting to the changing media. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that it adapted to the Internet in the entirely wrong way, figuring out only the web’s seamiest edge.” A skeleton crew now runs the paper and it will soon be moving out of its offices at Cooper Square.
The Voice is still churning out blog posts, though. Robert Sietsema reports that the ice cream cart outside of The Standard, East Village is “some of the best tasting stuff” in the neighborhood.
Bowery Boogie continues the Intermix rumor mongering, this time reporting through an unnamed source that the high-end boutique is bound for the Steve’s On The Bowery space. Read more…
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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Melvin Felix
