Because They Can't Leave Anything Alone

I was walking up Avenue A about a month ago when I notice a lot of scaffolded over the building that houses the Gracefully deli—apparently the future home of the New York Sports Club. I peered more closely behind the wood and metal and mesh and noticed that, in their refurbishment of the building, the vandals had taken down the distinctive, vertical, block sign that had for decades announced the address as the former home of Burger Klein.

Read more »

A Bit of Old St. Mark's

As undulating glass and metal towers rise on both sides of the western entrance of St. Mark's Place in the East Village, the four-story brick building at 23 Third Avenue looks more and more like a forlorn totem of the street's past. It is currently occupied by the eatery Archie & Sons (which has applied a very 19th-century-looking painted sign to the western wall) and King's Magazine, a shabby all-night newsstand that has been there for as long as I can remember.

Before Archie & Sons arrived, it was briefly St. Mark's Pizza, and prior to that Tahini (which also went in for painted wall ads). For some years before that, this was the home of a nice, cheap falafel joint called Chickpea.

The structure was likely built sometime in the 1850s. From 1852 to 1960—108 years!—is was owned by a single family, until a descendent of that clan, Marie O. Gregory, sold it to Sam Gabay and Louis Ameri. Gabay was a Turkish immigrant who came to America as a boy in 1905. He later entered the garment business. He opened his first store at 1 St. Mark's Place (the same building as 23 Third Avenue). So, essentially, Gregory sold the building to her tenant. Later, Sam moved his business to 225 First Avenue, where it still is. Today, its run by Sam's grandchildren.

Read more »

After 128 Years, Block Drugs Expanding

You can always depend on Block Drugs. No matter how much the East Village changes, no matter how many stores come and go and Second Avenue, the 128-year-old corner druggist with the huge neon sign is always there at the southwest corner of Second and 6th Street.

Until now. No, Block isn't going away. It's actually expanding. A sign behind the roller shutter of the building beside it tells us "Block's Vision Care" is "Coming Soon." What a pleasant surprise that one of the city's oldest small businesses is thriving and growing, rather than shrinking and disappearing.

The drug store is currently owned by Carmine Palermo, whose father bought the business in 1962. According to a past article, the business was supposed to open in April. Obviously, it's taking a little more time.

Blarney Cove Latest Manhattan Dive Bar to Shutter

They're dropping like flies, the old-school Manhattan dives. The Mars Bar, the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, the Emerald Inn. And now the Blarney Cove, a narrow slice of drunken darkness on 14th Street and Avenue A.

The property has been leased to another company, and the bar has posted a closing date of June 30. The bar has for some time been surrounded by vacant storefronts. Apparently, the whole stretch of street is now earmarked for developed. Lovely.

No idea on the age of this place. My guess, judging by the decor, is a birthdate sometime in the 1970s. But the space has probably been home to a bar far longer than that.

The Amazing Cool Past Life of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Well, this almost makes me glad that the Holiday Cocktail Lounge went out of business. Almost.

Barbara Sibley, the new owner of the storied old East Village dive (she owns La Palapa next door), was revamping the interior when she discovered an old mural beneath the mirror behind the horseshoe-shaped bar. The colorful, rather louche painting depicts a belly dancer being observed by two turbaned sultans and three harem girls.

Sibley suspects—correctly, I'm thinking—that the mural belongs to the Ali Baba Lounge, which occupied the space from the 1930s to the 1950s, at which time the Holiday took up residency.

Sibley seems to respect the joint's long history. The mural will be kept and restored. She will retain and refresh the old bar and keep the awning. She's going to rip up the plywood floor to get down to the original wood. She also found flocked wallpaper behind the current walls in the back.

(Photos are by Noah Fleck.)

That Haunted Looking Building

This is 84 Second Avenue in the East Village. I've always liked this building, mainly because it's one of those old-fashioned, two-story, glass storefronts that were once so common and are now increasingly rare. But also because it's never been renovated or gentrified (indeed, it hasn't been occupied by a going business in some time), and is thus very redolent of the area's workaday, immigrant, un-hip past.

I was curious was sort of businesses had inhabited the old place. I became curiouser when I spotted this incomplete name in riles just outside the left-hand door.

Read more »

The Strangest Building in the East Village—Still Strange, But Looking Great!

The Strangest Building in the East Village has gotten a makeover.

Back in 2008, I told the odd history 62 E. 4th Street, how it came to possess its odd figure in 1889, first as a two-story affair, then five stories, and how it thereafter went through tenures as a meeting hall, a German music hall, Astoria Hall, Manhattan Lyceum, the Astor Ballroom, a gay cinema, a hang out for Andy Warhol and Jim Carroll, and a performance space.

The picture above showed how the old girl was faring in 2008: plywood, rust and decay.

But last week I walked past the building and was pleased and dazzled to see this:

Read more »

A Last Look at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

A few images by which to remember the great dive, which shuttered on Saturday, Jan. 28, after 47 years of capably serving drunkards, film mavens, hipsters, visiting Ukrainians, journalists, bartenders, Beatniks and W.H. Auden.

Read more »

The Theatre Above the Deli

I've known for years that the building housing the deli East Village Farms in the East Village on Avenue A used to be an old theatre. The long snaking fire escape across its side gives it away. But I never knew that remnants of the theatre still existed in decaying form inside.

Recently photographer Kevin Adams Shea was granted access to the space about the deli and shot these amazing pictures. The proscenium and ceiling are in wonderful shape, given the decades of neglect. It's hard to believe how vibrants the colors still are. Apparently, East Village Farms used to use the space for storing surplus goods.

The building opened at Avenue A Theatre in 1926. It was operated by RKO, then Loew's, and closed in 1959 as the Hollywood Theatre.

Shea says the deli will close in a few weeks and there are plans to tear the theatre down. This is probably inevitable, but what a shame.

Not Everything Changes

A lot of space on this blog is devoted to bemoaning things that change, and not for the better. But, I must keep reminding myself, not everything changes. Some things—even some nondescript, ahistorical things—endure. Even in a hip, ever-morphing neighborhood like the East Village.

Take the block of First Avenue between 1st and 2nd. I used to live around here 20 years ago. This Laundry Center has been on the corner of 1st since then.

Read more »

How to Be Alone in McSorley's Ale House

How do you get the perpetually packed McSorley's Old Ale House all to yourself? Go between 11 AM and noon on Monday.

I walked in yesterday for a quick early lunch and a couple mugs of ale to find that I friggin' owned the joint! There was a bartender, a waiter, and me. No tourists, no frat boys, no NYU-ers, no locals, no drunks, no regular nice folk—just me. It stayed that way for a full half hour. I don't think, in 20 years of going to this place, I have ever seen it empty. It was nice, my view of everything on the walls and behind the bar unimpaired, the sawdust on the floor undisturbed by any shoes but my own. And I was free to have a friendly chat with the bartender and waiter without shouting or worrying I was slowing them down.

Read more »

Mars Bars, A Last Look

There's been a tidal wave of coverage about the recent closing of the East Village dive Mars Bar—more tears were shed over the beloved dump than were over Yankee and Shea stadiums combined. I hardly need to add to it. I actually paid my final respects to the place weeks ago. It was touch and go there for so many weeks; nobody knew exactly when it would shutter. So I just went in one night and pretended it was the last night.

Read more »

Moishe's Bake Shop Has Weirdest ATM in East Village

That Moishe's Bake Shop—the East Village relic that doesn't seem to care how much the kids use it as a graffiti canvas—should have something as modern as an ATM machine attached to it is weird enough. But, of course, it being Moishe's, it's the weirdest, most backward looking cash machine in the area.

This boxy, tiny thing looks like it was purchased from somewhere in the former republic of Yugoslavia, where it had been sitting in a warehouse since 1993. The buttons, the cash slot, they all look rudimentary and ready to break at any moment. I wouldn't be surprised if there was no machinery inside, but instead  some guy behind the wall, who pushes out money when required.

But here's the best part:

This is what you see before you use the ATM. I don't know. The contrast between old world name and new world technology—it's just funny to me.

Standings' Pose

Standings, the sports bar on E. 7th Street, kinda pisses me off. Only a few years old, they moved in, but left the "Est. 1886" sign that was above the door when they arrived. They even put up letters for "Standings" that rather matched the font of the "Est. 1886." False advertising, I say, designed to snare rubes.

Brewsky's used to be here. I doubt they were founded in 1886 either, but the sign was there then, too. So what bar was founded at this address in 1886? I don't know. But it wasn't Standings.

What's Under the Block Drugs Sign

The East Village's Block Drugs sign is familiar to all, a beautiful gleaming beacon of old-world, indy authenticity.

Those who have looked up before they entered may have noticed this engraving to above the door (Second Avenue Chemists is apparently the official name of the shop, Block Drugs being its dba)...

Read more »

Two Dark at McSorley's

Mars Bar Gets New Paint Job

For a grungy dive, the East Village's Mars Bar is certainly interested in exterior design. The Second Avenue joint changes it look about every six months or so. Recently it traded in its white paint job (blasted with the ominous slogan "After the Mars Bars, Then What?") for this brick-red look, and the more friendly tag lineof "Mars Bar NYC Welcome." Still white on top, though.

B & H Dairy Hangs New Sign, and It's Not Hatefull

Last week, we preservation geeks all gasped in horror when B&H Dairy in the East Village took down their classic old sign. Would it return? EV Grieve has been following the story closely, and Tuesday posted pictures of the new sign, which is exactly the same in font and style, except that it's, um, green. Kelly green. EV took a reader survey, and the result was 9 to 3: they don't hate.

I also don't hate it. But, what I want to know is: Is it the exact same sign, only spruced up and painted green? Or is it an amazin facsimile? The old sign is below.

Work Being Done on Strangest Building in the East Village

It's a brand new world for The Strangest Building in the East Village.

After years of rusting, being boarded up, being painted an awful shade of tan, and just being plain weird-looking, old No. 62 E. 4th Street is getting a new lease on life. The ugly paint has been scraped off and the brickface is being repointed.

Read more »

Terrible News in Signs

EV Grieve brings us the grieve-worthy news that East Village landmark restaurant B&H Dairy has traded in its classic, old-school sign and old awning, but a brand new awning and nothing else.

I don't give a damn about the awning—the old one was nothing special. But that "B & H Dairy Lunch" sign was a gem. They better be cleaning it up, not replacing it with some gaudy piece of modern crap.

The wave of cloth awnings, brought on by folks think a new awning is preferable to any old sign, is second only to crapitecture developments, in my opinion, in destroyed the character of this city.