Billy’s Antiques has gotten a lot of coverage around these parts as of late, but when the man himself sends videos our way of the prep for the party, the bash on Friday, and then the funeral procession, we can’t resist. The two other short videos are after the jump.
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Noah Fecks The neighborhood’s most controversial burger — at least for today.

Here’s a pair of quick follow-ups to stories we posted yesterday: Josh “Mr. Cutlets” Ozersky’s tough review of the bagel burger at Tompkins Square Bagels resulted in an equally tough response from the shop’s owner, who said the burger was nothing more than a lark.

“I probably put more thought into what color chalk to use on the special board than to that burger,” wrote owner Christopher Pugliese. “The fact that you actually found this whole thing interesting enough to come, take pictures of the burger, and dedicate a headline to it had all of us laughing our [faces] off.” Check out the story to chime in on this delicious controversy.
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Sunday afternoon the Third Street Crew of the New York City Hells Angels transformed Jamaica, Queens into a scene straight out of a post-apocalyptic motorcycle movie. Roaring in on low-slung chrome-plated Harleys, roughly 500 tattooed riders seemed right at home in the desolate industrial terrain that hosted the 13th annual St. Patrick’s Day Bash.

All the ingredients were in place for a great time: corned beef, cabbage, a comely brunette serving $4 drinks, a rock and roll band and not a police car in sight. But Angels run a tight ship and there were no orgiastic drunken brawls observed by The Local. In fact, when a female reporter dropped her fountain pen, three muscular bikers scrambled to retrieve it. Perfect gents for at least one moment in time.

By 2 p.m. U.S. military veterans and iron workers on hogs were still arriving in a steady stream to the Portuguese recreational club on Liberty Avenue near 148th Street, greeting fellow wheelers with brotherly hugs and man-talk. They paid $20 a piece for admission to the club, lining up for the hearty catered lunch and taking in music by Hugh Pool and Buddy Cage from New Riders of the Purple Sage.

It was hard to hear and maneuver amid the crush of hulking alpha males in leather and denim, but it was clear that union members with their own motorcycle clubs vastly outnumbered the Angels at the event. These included bikers belonging to Locals 46 and 580 of the New York Iron Workers (currently working on the new World Trade Center) and to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, New York City Council District. “We ride with our own clubs but we have respect for the Angels,” said the carpenters’ motorcycle club president Joe Urbano.

Of course, any public event with the cultural cache of the Hells Angels is going to have a merchandising component behind it. Angels clothing, including some items for women, was for sale along with copies of the club’s 2012 calendar (you’ll have to decide for yourself how it stacks up against the Fire Department’s calendar).

Kathie Gimino of Staten Island hawked black t-shirts and assorted “badass embroidery.”
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Scott Lynch What to like better? The necklace celebrating Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, or the Marvel Comics bag?

Good morning, East Village.

Our friends at Arts Beat got wind of a new record label put together by the owners of Other Music. Other Music Recording Co. will showcase lesser-known musicians in the city while also reissuing foreign recordings. “Despite everything happening in the music industry, we are always getting excited about new bands,” an owner of the record store said. The first release is slated for April 24.

The Lower East Side Preservation Initiative urges its supporters to attend tonight’s meeting of the Community Board 3 landmarks subcommittee, which will consider issuing a letter in support of preserving the Bialystoker Senior Center in the Lower East Side. “Unprotected by landmark status, the building is threatened by demolition or drastic alteration,” the group writes. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at Campos Plaza Community Center, 611 East 13th Street.

In other development news, check back later this afternoon for our coverage of a rally at City Hall in support of N.Y.U.’s expansion plan.

Bowery Boogie unearths a cool trove of photos of the Lower East Side from 1997.
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Suzanne Rozdeba The sign from last week, alongside this week’s new name.

First it was Bea’s Cafe, now it’s La Betola. On Thursday The Local noted that Bea’s Cafe was coming to 514 East Sixth Street, a building with a controversial rooftop extension that is owned by Benjamin Shaoul. Now, a new sign in the window says that the cafe will be called La Betola. The concept hasn’t changed, apparently: the sign still advertises “an espresso bar and more.” Anyone have a clue to the story behind this cafe crisis that’s piqued our interest almost as much as the mysterious messages on East Seventh Street?

Today EV Grieve shared a photo of two men and a minivan inside the lot at 35 Cooper Square. Naturally, the prospect of a surveying crew prepping for construction at the high profile site led us to ask its owner, Arun Bhatia, what was going on. His spokeswoman’s response only added to the intrigue: “I spoke to Arun and we do not know who those men were. We are trying to find out. We are not doing anything on the site.”

Racked opens its citywide survey of bodegas in the East Village, and an employee of First and First Finest Deli shares a funny story about a regular customer with bipolar tendencies. “It’s the weirdest thing,” the unnamed worker says. “Like in the morning she will come in and yell at everyone and then later that afternoon she will come in and be very peaceful and sweet, saying things like ‘Jesus is good.'” Oh, and he says customers are always trying to convince him to order fancy juices that end up sitting on the shelves.

Noah Fecks The bagel burger at Tompkins Square Bagels did not get a warm reception from our local expert.

When we got wind of the bagel burger at Tompkins Square Bagels, we knew just the person to try it. So we called Josh “Mr. Cutlets” Ozersky, the East Villager who wrote “The Hamburger: A History.” Would the bagel burger replace the one at Veselka as his favorite? Or would it be too sacrilegious for a burger purist?

The Bagel Burger at Tompkins Square Bagels has the distinction of combining the worst hamburger in the East Village with one of the most disappointing bagels; but that’s not why I hate it so much. At first, it struck me that the clownishly oversized bagels, as puffy and bloated as parade floats, would actually serve a burger well.

A traditional bagel, which is what I had hoped for, would have been far too dense and chewy for any form of ground beef: a single bite would have sent the meat squishing out to the sides, or swallowed up all its juices entirely.

But one of these augmented, airy confections might be OK. And so they might have been, had not the place chosen to cheap out and serve a gray, pasty puck of meat that woudn’t look out of place in a convenience store refrigerator. Thin as a cat’s ear, without even a hint of taste or moisture, this thing would have been overwhelmed by a slice of wonder bread.
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The Local is following progress at the soon-to-open NoHo outpost of Mile End with an eager appetite. Today we spotted a sign noting that the Montreal smoked meat Mecca is hiring cooks and servers. A co-owner of the restaurant, Noah Bernamoff, recently told Grub Street that he was hoping to open this month. One thing is for certain: Katz’s will be facing some of its stiffest competition since the days of the Second Avenue Deli once Mile End does open.

Suzanne Rozdeba The Cut, at 120 East Seventh Street.

A new barbershop, The Cut, is opening up at 120 East Seventh Street, next door to the Turntable Lab and across the street from Butter Lane and the Big Gay Ice Cream shop.

The shop was still closed at 1 p.m. today, with no word yet on when its touted grand opening will occur. But shiny new chairs, barber’s tools and mirrors could be seen neatly in place inside the store.

There’s also no indication whether pricey cuts and Sweeney Todd cocktails — a la the Blind Barber on East 10th Street — will be on the menu, or whether it’ll be as social of a spot as Perfection on Avenue C, where co-owner Hubert Phillip said it best: “A haircut is 80 percent of where the night will take you.”

Following the recent gun battle near the Baruch Houses and the arrest of an alleged armed member of the Money Boys gang, The Lo-Down reports that State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is calling for a gun buy-back program in the Lower East Side. “Far too many of my constituents live in fear of violence. We must take proactive steps to take guns out of the hands of criminals so that our streets are safer,” Mr. Silver wrote in a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. A recent buy-back program in Crown Heights netted 29 semi-automatics.

Suzanne RozdebaPolice officers at the scene of a bank robbery this morning.

While taking photos for an upcoming story about the loss of parking spaces that will result from N.Y.U.’s proposed expansion (check back soon!), The Local was alerted to a robbery at CitiBank on Laguardia Place near West Third Street.

A police officer at the scene said that at around 9:30 a.m. a white male wearing a black hat, sunglasses and a black jacket flashed a gun at the bank and then fled. A police spokesman did not yet have information regarding whether the suspect escaped with any money.

An hour after the incident officers were still lingering at the scene and barring any customers from entering the bank.

Heather Hollland These little dogs may be romping, but one local found that they, and their owners, are generally a sensitive bunch.

Tompkins Square Park has two dog runs: one for large dogs and another for small and timid ones. And it’s not just the dogs that are different – their owners seem to make up two distinct communities.

I recently took my friend’s Boston terrier, Chuck, to the small dog run (Chuck is not a big dog. I’ve seen bigger cats). It’s a serene place where most of the owners sit on a deck under a beautiful old American Elm. A man wearing white jeans and pink sunglasses spoke into a pink cell phone with a Hello Kitty bauble hanging from it. A woman sang a song about “all the little animals” (it’s refrain was about veganism) and handed out fliers depicting animal abuse at slaughterhouses.

Michael Clemens The gate that separates the big dogs from the toys.

The dogs in this area are precious. The Yorkies, Maltese and Chihuahuas don’t pick up toys as much as gently lick them. Some have coats more brilliantly white than the bleached teeth of their owners. Occasionally they play or wrestle with each other in the sand, but it’s a pretty civil affair.

Chuck didn’t exactly fit in this environment. He tore into the park like a kamikaze pilot, blazed around it twice, and tackled a Yorkie. As he held the dog’s paw in his mouth and forced it into submission the vegan stopped singing, Hello Kitty looked at Chuck in disgust and the Yorkie’s owner began yelling at me.
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As we noted on Saturday, Billy Leroy planned to fold up his tent following a late night funeral bash and place it in a casket. Tim Schreier, a community contributor for The Local, was there to snap photos of the somber scene. According to him, the casket was on loan from a friend, which raises the obvious question: what lucky stiff will be laid to rest in the box that once held Mr. Leroy’s storied tent?

Tim Schreier

Top of the morning to you, East Village.

Our community contributor Tim Schreier snapped the above photo while attending a Code Pink protest that culminated in Union Square on Saturday. The group of under 100 protesters marched from Zuccotti Park in recognition of International Women’s Day. To see more photos from the scene check out Mr. Schreier’s photostream.

A tipster tells EV Grieve that Artichoke Pizza has expanded into the neighboring storefront that was occupied by Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch only two weeks ago. Grieve also notes that a tile bearing the “R” from the long gone Ratner’s restaurant has finally been removed thanks to renovations in Met Foods. If you’re feeling nostalgic you can still buy buttons from the waiters’ uniforms.

Following up on our coverage of Billy Leroy’s goodbye bash on Friday night, The Times attended the funeral procession for the tent “that had been patched so many times it was now more plastic than canvas.” Check back shortly for some more photos from the solemn ceremony.
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The hand in formaldehyde, the dusty Styrofoam mannequins and the subway signs for sale were long gone. But last night Billy Leroy and around 200 friends celebrated the now-closed antique shop on the Bowery a final time, raising their beers inside the iconic tent that will soon be six feet under.

“It’s sad, but it’s a new beginning,” said Mr. Leroy, patting the coffin like an old friend as neighborhood characters like Clayton Patterson, director Jim Jarmusch and writer Anthony Haden-Guest mingled with the crowd. “It’s an outpouring of love. All of my friends are here. It’s really amazing. I didn’t realize how much people love this place.”

The love was not in short supply because Mr. Leroy’s eponymous shop on East Houston Street at Bowery, which he ran for 10 years, had to close on Jan. 1. In the place of the store will go a two-story development, though the story isn’t entirely tragic. The tent will be gone, but the landlord, Tony Goldman, has assured Mr. Leroy his store will have a space in the building when complete.

By 8 p.m. the tent was at capacity as old friends and the crew from Mr. Leroy’s upcoming film rocked out to the bands The Naked Heroes and The Virgins. Two hours later the funeral bash had spilled out to the sidewalk.

At one point Mr. Leroy — a raconteur if there ever was one — grabbed the mic and shared a tale from his tent’s glory days. “A homeless dude came into the store and he brought me some pieces of junk. I said, ‘Dude, I don’t want this crap. Bring me like a human head or something,’” he recalled. “The next week, he was on 12th Street and saw a beautiful trunk. He was going to bring me the trunk, but it smelled funny. Inside the trunk was a young lady, dead. He was going to bring her to me, but he freaked out, and the cops took the trunk. His name is Spider, and he’s probably slithering around here somewhere.”

Not surprisingly, that wasn’t the only example of gallows humor last night.
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If you’re looking to take in some art this weekend, head uptown to The Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory, where admission goes towards the Lower East Side-based Henry Street Settlement.

And if the Upper East Side isn’t your thing, the Brucennial is on Bleecker Street at Thompson Street. Tim Schreier, a community contributor for The Local, recently snapped some photos of that show as well.

Would you like to shoot photos for The Local? Join our Flickr group.

OK dear readers, what the heck are these blind items all about? A fourth intriguing message has appeared in the window of the law office of Zenon B. Masnyj on East Seventh Street that hints at questionable goings-on at a credit union. Mr. Masnyj has told us in the past that he prefers to let the notes speak for themselves — the most recent one, pictured to the left, vaguely hints at “our money, their secrets.” Any East Village gumshoes have an idea what’s going on? Let us know in the comments or E-mail us.