Yesterday, The Local shared some ideas for cheap gifts around the neighborhood. If you’re up for spending a little bit more for the man of – or men in – your life, today’s your day.

Above:
1. “Walls Notebook,” $16.95 – Exit9 Gift Emporium (51 Avenue A)
2. Bear shoe horn, $32 – Odin (328 East 11th Street)
3. Raw leather belt, $90 – Oliver Spencer (330 East 11th Street)
4. “Hang Over” flask, $50 – Reason Clothing (436 East 9th Street)
5. 100% baby alpaca queen-sized quilt, $525 – Seyrig (305 East 9th Street)

Read more…

Photos: Noah Fecks

Over a month after a sign by “Mosaic Man” Jim Power was hoisted over the storefront at 165 Avenue A, near Tenth Street, Tompkins Square Bagels has finally opened. Yesterday, owner Chris Pugliese told The Local that he planned to soft-open this morning.

Mr. Pugliese said he planned to sell vegan and gluten-free muffins from LifeThyme Natural Market, coffee from Stumptown, pastries from Balthazar and Bread Alone, and bread from Amy’s Bread and Hudson Bread. Gradually, the shop will start making more of its own products – everything from cheesecake to muffins and cupcakes – but for now, the in-house bakers are focused mainly on bagels and bialys.
Read more…

Noah Fecks East 10th Street. Ben Shaoul’s building is one over from right.

The developer that spurred the Landmarks Preservation Commission to expedite a public hearing for a proposed historic district on East 10th Street said today that the designation would not affect his plans for a building on the block along Tompkins Square Park.

“It doesn’t make a difference if it’s landmarked or not — we’re going to comply with whatever is set forth by the governing parties,” said Ben Shaoul, who recently bought the building at 315 East 10th Street. “We intend to fully restore the façade to its original state, anyway.”

It was Mr. Shaoul’s application with the Department of Buildings to build a rooftop addition to the property that garnered the attention of the Commission, which is considering protecting the exteriors of the 26 buildings on the north side of Tompkins Square Park. By law, the Commission can fast-track the landmarks process if proposed renovations to a property would affect the historic aesthetic of a district up for consideration. Read more…

Haven’t started your holiday shopping yet? No worries. Everything that should be on your list can be found right here in the neighborhood. First up: The Local’s ten favorite gifts below the $50 mark, with more ideas to come.

1. Recycled-chain bottle opener, $9.95 – Sustainable NYC (139 Avenue A)
2. Mini coffee sampler, $24.99 – Porto Rico Importing Co. (40 St. Marks Place)
3. Flirt snap mittens (made local), $48.00 – Apartment 141 (141 East 13th Street)
4. Mobile Foodie Survival Kit, $32.95 –Lancelotti Housewares (66 Avenue A)
5. Brass & leather cuff, $27.00 – Soukou No.11 (320 East 11th Street)
Read more…

Noah Fecks

Our photographer Noah Fecks noticed a sign, as did EV Grieve, on the door of Affaire on Avenue B indicating that the lounge has been closed by the Department of Health for operating without a permit. We’ll let you know when we have more.

Foursquare isn’t the only tech start-up moving out of 36 Cooper Square. The Atlantic notes that Curbed and Hard Candy Shell are also leaving the building that was the birthplace of the Hartz Mountain pet supplies empire and is still home to the Village Voice. Kevin Kearney, the CEO of Hard Candy Shell, says, “I think that now the people are leaving there’s not gonna be anything left. I think we all would’ve stayed if we could’ve figured out how it worked. If The Village Voice had finally gone under, we could’ve taken over.”

A blog in the Curbed network, Racked, reminds us that later today, Bedlam Bar at 40 Avenue C will host the Bright Young Things Holiday Market: “Markdowns go up to 50% off, and participating designers include Bijules, Chrishabana, and Mary Meyer. There’s an open vodka bar from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Becka Diamond and Nicolette Santos of the Six Six Sick Girls will DJ.” Read more…

David Jarrett Details from a building within one of the two proposed districts.

A critical hearing regarding a proposed landmark district on East 10th Street has been expedited due to a controversial application for an addition to a building in the area, the Landmarks Preservation Commission revealed today.

Last week, the real estate magnate Ben Shaoul applied for an additional floor to 315 East 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park, which he had recently purchased. The rooftop addition, which would be a departure from the 26 buildings – most of which are four-story 19th- and 20th-century dwellings – that line the block, garnered the attention of the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“The reason we’re scheduling the date earlier than we planned is that the Department of Buildings notified the Commission’s staff this past Sunday that the owner of 315 East 10th Street had filed an application for a permit to construct a rooftop addition that could potentially affect the character of the proposed district,” wrote Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Commission. Read more…

Photos: Paul Wagtouicz

Since the Amato Opera closed in 2009, it has been one of the more notable vacant buildings on the Bowery. The opera’s founder died yesterday of cancer, and the building is still empty and on the market for $6.5 million.

The broker of the building at 319 Bowery, Lauren Muss, said she planned to show the property twice today. “It’s definitely interesting to people, it’s just about a price,” Ms. Muss said. “They make offers, then they disappear.” Read more…

Interior photos: Noah Fecks. Exterior: Stephen Rex Brown.

The tavernkeepers behind Bua on St. Marks Place, Wilfie & Nell in the West Village, and Sweet Afton in Astoria are set to add another bar to their portfolio. Mark Gibson said that he planned to open The Wren at 344 Bowery (the space at the corner of Great Jones Street that was formerly Sala) tonight at 5 p.m.

When The Local stopped in about an hour ago, the team was still putting the space together. Mr. Gibson, 37, said The Wren – named after the Wren Day festival in Ireland, where his parents still live – would be “primarily a bar with great food,” and he described the food, which will be served until at least 1 a.m. nightly, as “classic pub food but pushing it a little further.” Read more…

Michelle Rick

Billy Leroy is meeting with his landlord tomorrow to start planning a huge farewell party before he moves his tented antique shop on the Bowery indoors. The last hurrah, he said, would come at the end of January.

“We’re planning a week-long event of music, poetry, singers, songwriters, and films. There’s going to be a huge lineup. It’s the end of the old Bowery,” Mr. Leroy told The Local today. Billy’s Antiques and Props is moving inside a two-story building its landlord, Tony Goldman, is erecting on the spot in late winter.

Mr. Leroy plans to meet with Mr. Goldman tomorrow afternoon. “Tony’s all for it,” said Mr. Leroy. “He’s very positive about it.”

“There’s no one left from the old Bowery days. It’s been yuppified,” he said.

Daniel Maurer Seen on the Bowery.

Last month, Amber Tamblyn told The Local that she and her fiancée, comedian David Cross, planned to leave the East Village for Brooklyn at the end of this month. Mr. Cross has griped about changes in the neighborhood before: “A Subway Sandwich just opened up on Avenue B,” he told Bullett in August, “and a large frat/sports bar is coming to the old Café Charbon on Orchard and Stanton, so it’s truly time to go.”

Now he’s back at it, telling Gothamist:

I’ve been fed up with what’s going on for about five years. There are so many examples but let me just sum up. On Houston—I think between Second Avenue and Bowery, or maybe it’s Allen and Chrystie—there’s a big, huge 7-11 with big, beautiful 7-11 signs. [Ed: We think he’s referring to the one on Bowery.] There’s an IHOP on 14th Street, Subway sandwiches all over the place. The thing is, I left Atlanta a long time ago and I’m spending way too much money to live in Atlanta again, you know?
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Harold Schrader Anthony Amato

Anthony Amato, who founded the Amato Opera and trained generations of opera singers at his small theater on the Bowery, died yesterday morning on City Island. He was 91.

Rochelle Mancini, a former singer at the Amato Opera who helped Mr. Amato write his recently published memoir, said the cause was cancer.

From its founding in 1948, the Amato Opera served as a training grounds for young singers with grand ambitions. Mr. Amato was said to have a keen eye for talent, and the likes of Neil Shicoff, Mignon Dunn and George Shirley performed there before going on to play famous venues like the Metropolitan Opera and City Opera.

After stints in theaters around the city, the opera opened on the Bowery at East Second Street in 1964; a location that harkened back to the thoroughfare’s history as a poor man’s Broadway. Less than 10 years after its opening it would share the block with C.B.G.B.; a vivid example of the eclectic arts scene in the neighborhood. Read more…

In a YouTube video, musician and gaming enthusiast Jason C. Slaughter tours Video Games New York. You know! The store with the big Mario and Sonic in the display window? “As far as I know,” he says, “they have every PS2 game you could possibly want at this store.” Also for sale: a couple of N.S.F.W. “adult video game cartridges” by Atari.

Meagan Kirkpatrick

Good morning, East Village.

According to a letter sent to Bowery Boogie, Agata Olek, the crochet artist who yarn-bombed the Astor cube, has been arrested in London after what she describes as “an incident with a drunk and aggressive male who behaved reprehensibly.” Fans can contribute to her legal fees here.

Meanwhile, the Astor cube got another makeover today.

DNA Info reports that Shanna Spalding, the so-called “Cat Woman Burglar,” has been found guilty of robbing an Astor Place shoe store in June 2010 while disguised as, yes, Catwoman.

The Post reports that deliberations will begin tomorrow in the case in which Davawn Robinson is accused of strangling CUNY professor Edgard Mercado to death in his East Village apartment. Read more…

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation 285-287 East Third Street. Preservationists would like to see it landmarked, and a local poet would like to keep holding events in it.

It’s been 10 months since the building housing Gathering of the Tribes was put on the market, and the relationship between the artistic space’s founder, Steve Cannon, and his landlord is as tense as ever.

The latest dispute revolves around the regular art events organized by Mr. Cannon that take place at the federal-style townhouse on East Third Street.

“He’s made assurances that he wouldn’t do anything that would disturb other tenants in the building,” said Simon Chow, a partner of the building’s landlord. “If other people are complaining about noise, am I supposed to give him consideration over the tenants in the buildings?”

Mr. Cannon countered that only one person in a neighboring building had complained about the noise. Nevertheless, he said, the landlord, Lorraine Zhang, had threatened him with eviction. Read more…

Nick DeSantis

The first event at the former site of the BMW Guggenheim Lab got off to an unlucky start on Saturday.

Volunteers from First Street Green – the neighborhood organization that helped transform the park from a rat haven to a community event space – put together their “visioning wall” in the shape of a tall arch. Shortly afterward, the afternoon breeze brought the colorful sculpture crashing to the ground in a heap of foam tiles.

Undeterred and in good spirits, the group broke the sculpture apart and continued with the real business of Saturday’s gathering: soliciting ideas from neighbors about the park’s future, which remains in question since the Guggenheim Lab’s departure.

John Bowman, a member of First Street Green, said the two biggest hurdles facing the group are logistics and funding. They plan to use the wintertime, when the park is dormant, to work out permitting and scheduling details. The installation of a sculpture garden has been delayed till spring. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Dina Leor holds a statue of La Virgen de Guadalupe.

As devoted Catholics all over the world celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe, one local has a unique reason to rejoice. Dina Leor, the owner of the Mexican memorabilia store La Sirena, had a religious experience with the icon 19 years ago while traveling in Mexico City.

Stephen Rex Brown One of the many images of La Virgen inside La Sirena.

“I still feel the same connection that I did in Mexico City,” said Ms. Leor. “I’m getting goose bumps now telling it.”

It all began when Ms. Leor decided to drop into a church in the capital city. While sitting in the pews, a light at the end of a nearby hallway caught her eye. She followed it, and at the end of the hallway was a painting of La Virgen de Guadalupe. The rays of light around the figure began to radiate and then emerged from the picture to surround Ms. Leor. The experience happened in a flash, but it has never left her.
Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The poet at work.

A 20-year-old itinerant poet was offering up stanzas on the cheap today, and she even penned an ode to St. Marks for The Local.

Abigail Mott had set up at St. Marks Place and Third Avenue with a typewriter and a sign saying, “Name a price, pick a subject, get a poem.” A four-person film crew shot her every move. Read more…

Photos: Daniel Maurer

On Saturday, Michael “Bao” Huynh, the chef-owner of Baoguette as well as the short-lived D.O.B. 111 – both on St. Marks Place – was putting the finishing touches on his latest endeavor. The notoriously prolific restaurateur told The Local that BaoBQ would open at 229 First Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets, this Wednesday.

Mr. Huynh said he had designed his latest menu around three proteins – pork, beef, and chicken – that will be prepared in three ways. The Korean-style pork spare ribs, for instance, will be cooked in a smoker, as will the Laos-style beef jerky. The spicy Vietnamese-style chicken will be smoked over apple wood and then grilled over charcoal. The Thai-style rotisserie chicken will be grilled over wood. There will also be a few seafood dishes. Read more…