Vanishing New York Backup

I'm happy to add an unusual new addition to my ongoing Guide to Egg Creams . Julius' Bar has recently added the egg cream to their menu. Not your uncle Morty's egg creams, these are spiked with Bailey's, Kahlua, or vanilla vodka. I opted for the vanilla, which seemed more true to the form. Though my $10 vodka egg cream was made with the correct ingredients--Fox's U-Bet syrup and fountain seltzer-- it is obviously not for egg cream purists . Uncharacteristically served in a Bud Light pint glass, it's all foam and the taste takes some getting used to. After a few sips of this very strong, boozy mix, however, and you'll be too tipsy to taste it anyway. I recommend it just for the experience of drinking an egg cream at Julius' wonderful bar. Guide to Lower East Side Egg Creams More NYC Egg Creams

In May 2009, Mr. Brainwash bombed the Meatpacking District with paste-ups, including these large side-by-side portraits of Madonna and Angelina Jolie. May 2009, my flickr Not everybody in the graffiti/street art world cares for Mr. Brainwash. By September, the faces were faded and torn. They were also doodled on, mustached, and dickchickened. September 2009, my flickr Brainwash replaced them with fresh faces--this time double Madonnas. By December, the material girls were sprayed with splashes of pink paint and declared "FAKE." December 2009, my flickr Today, they serve as the foundation for a chaotic collage--a revolutionary clown, a starling , a quote from Elbow Toe... And the Brainwash bits were torn to shreds. And then?

Luxury real-estate developer hires Knitting Factory to "help attract affluent young tenants." [ NYT ] Behind the scenes of East Fifth Bliss . [ EVG ] No Longer Empty seeks an empty space on the LES. [ TLD ] How did I miss " Sewerama "? [ FIB ] Reading the history of 171 Ave. A . [ Blah ] Get your Cambridge Companion to the literature of NYC . [ P&W ] Brooklyn Bowl seeks interns. Bowling alley interns? [ GP ] 97-year-old Vaudevillian with great name, June Havoc, dies. [ NYT ]

I don't walk on East First Street very often, so it surprised me when, on a recent stroll, I found it has turned into an arm of the Hamptons , filled with precious cafes decorated with distressed wood, shabby-chic benches, and fresh flowers; along with a smattering of gleaming condo buildings. One new addition is 47 East First. Grieve wrote about it here and when I walked by the Open House, I saw smiling, fresh-faced young couples moseying in and out, inquiring about the marble baths, granite kitchens, etc. But something, I noticed, was missing. Namely, the painted food of Market Purveyor, Co., Inc. , a wholesale meat distributor that used to be, I later realized, in #47. It still exists in the ghost of Google Maps (above). And in these photos I took over a year ago, knowing these painted sausages and chickens would not last much longer. I like painted food on storefronts . Especially crudely painted food. It's a dying art. And these rare examples are now gone.

In Times Square, girls kiss, lick, pet, and stroke wax figure of movie star. How many do you think made a grab for the package? [ MTV ] "Times Square is representative of a basic dilemma New York (and many other cities) faced with de-industrialization--namely, what do you do after you stop making things? " [ COS ] Remembering when street art was " furtively spreading like some mysterious guerilla-styled phenomenon with the slight air of menace" and without tie-in merch. [ FP ] " High-end bikes " get slashed at StuyTown. [ STLL ] 1986: "a Beverly Hills person’s idea of what conceptual artists were doing in subterranean performance spaces in Manhattan’s East Village." [ DK ] On a Village street: " Not an Idol ."

Since the landlord raised the rent , what's coming to the landmark space once occupied by the Old Homestead's dining room ? A chain. Le Pain Quotidien is coming and offering "authenticity": You've got to love the way the no-cell policy is implemented at Soy Cafe on Greenwich Ave: Take two glorious rides on the Third Avenue El of the 1950s. [ Cyn ] Save our souls-- Martha is on the Bowery. [ BB ] Life above Cabin Down Below is pretty annoying. [ EVG ] Looking back at the Gas House District and its demolition for StuyTown. [ Blah ] Bedford Ave. businesses want the trendy food trucks gone. [ BP ] Is the Glove Factory loft building also a part-time hostel? [ NYS ] Meet the Characters of the Gowanus ! [ FIB ]

Why is Cafe Colonial closing? It's the McNally Effect . [ Grub ] Best bars for babies , aka, "some of the best places to raise a glass while you’re raising your kids." Really? [ Eater ] Shiny, happy, plastic people. [ NYT ] Faux traffic signs in the EV welcome you to Hell and watch out for golfers. [ EVG ] Record Store Day is almost upon us. [ Stupefaction ]

As Grieve pointed out , folks are wondering what will go into the former Tokio 7 spot at 64 East 7th St. What used to be there is an interesting story. In 1889, the building began serving as the parsonage for St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church , now the Community Synagogue on East 6th Street. Here lived the family of Reverend George Haas. Tragically, Haas' wife and daughter perished in 1904's General Slocum disaster , in the steamboat that Haas chartered to take his congregation on a church picnic. With 1,021 dead, it was known as the worst disaster in New York's history until 9/11. After the Slocum fire, many Germans left the East Village for Yorkville, unable to bear the sorrows the neighborhood brought to mind. 1904: Haas funeral procession at 64 E. 7th Sometime in the early 1900s, the newspaper Russky Golos ("Russian Voice") moved in to the first floor of #64. It's possible that this was the first business to occupy what had been purel...

Billy's Antiques is raided and Billy is taken away in handcuffs by the NYPD--for selling subway signs. This smells like the city wants some juicy property on Houston. So it begins. [ NYCB ] In the reality show Brighton Beach , Russki is "the Russian equivalent of ‘guido.’" [ NYer ] What if the whole country was Brooklyn ? [ JMG ] NYU plans to expand--a lot . "In its Washington Square neighborhood, the university will be creating the equivalent in square footage of a little more than the total floor area of the Empire State Building." [ NYT ] ...And: One of their architects is Grimshaw, creators of the glass-box newsstands . Will another church become another condo ? [ BB ] More glass and robots for Elizabeth Street. [ EVG ] MOMA declares they have acquired the @ sign for their collection. [ MOMA ] via Consumed Uncovering a lost tiki restaurant in Queens. [ LC ]

At Partners & Spade , where they sell " conceptual products " like a Harlem beach bag and exclusive $500 axes to Manhattanites, the window display asks East Village burglars to "please return our laptops and iPods to the 9th precinct." Thank you very much: A brawl erupts on Avenue A. [ NMNL ] Guss' Pickles leaves Orchard Street. [ BB ] Meet Brooklyn's new poet laureate . [ NYT ] More fratastic hijinks for the EV. [ EVG ] Discovering an old theater in Washington Heights. [ GLF ] The high crime of putting your feet on an empty subway seat. [ NYT ] See Patti Smith and Jonathan Lethem in conversation. [ Pen ] The old doorways of South Street Seaport. [ GVDP ] Another Saturday night of thumbing noses at CB3 stipulations. [ Blah ]

Shows like this make me wish I had cable , just so I could enjoy hating it. [ Curbed ] With High Line views, a historic rowhouse grows a $37,500-a-month rooftop tumor --and one blogger is not happy. [ AT ] Have your bookshelves, and your brain , analyzed by the New Yorker magazine. [ BBench ] Step inside Ideal Hosiery . [ Boogie ] John Strong's Freak Museum --home of pickled freaks --gets an unprecedented 3-year lease at Coney. [ ATZ ] Peeling paint at the 2nd Ave F station reveals a pair of ancient wheatpaste stickers from Adam Cost: Look back at the ruins of the East River bandshell . [ EVG ] Remembering the old Central Park zoo . [ FP ] Ray gets his identity back from the U.S. government. [ NMNL ] What to do with Hipster ? [ CR ] Gowanus Whole Foods site turns into a lake. [ FIB ]

I haven't really checked in much with One Jackson Square since armed guards took up posts in the park outside its doors. So thanks to the tipster who took the following photos at the undulating condo. One Jackson has gotten its first tags . Readers might recall the condo's billboard catch-phrase, "The Spirit of Greenwich Village Is Alive and Well." The anonymous tagger begs to differ, saying the condo is, " Destroying the Village ." The solution? " Eat the Rich Feed the Poor ."

Help Mosaic Man get to PBS. Vote today. [ EVG ] Marzipan lambs stuck with crucifixes and flags. [ LC ] Enjoy a Passover " Nosh and Stroll ." [ TLD ] It's also a good time to take a tour of Crown Heights , complete with matzoh factory . Two Hirams : Taped up around the East Village: Harlem's gutted 125th slow to become corporate mall . [ Curbed ] The story of Kensington Stables . [ Gothamist ] Irish bars watch the changing of their neighborhoods. [ CR ] A leprechaun in Yonkers. [ P&W ] Gay and Irish ? Forget those homophobic Hibernian paraders, Julius' Bar has some specials today:

Often, those of us who enjoy urban archaeology discover a building that used to be a movie theater, or we search out the ghosts of old cinemas. What happens when it's the other way around? Before the Loews Village 7 stood on the corner of 11th St. and 3rd Ave. (before the Village Pour House was across the street, giving refuge to East Village pub-crawling frat-kids), there was this odd and lovely structure: NY Times, via Microfilm It was demolished in 1989 and, according an article in the New York Times , it was built in 1869 for the headquarters of the New York City Department of Public Charities and Corrections. Wrote the Times , " The building was designed by James Renwick , of Renwick & Sands, already famous for his design of Grace Church of 1843 and St. Patrick's Cathedral of 1858... [It has] a typically ebullient, Parisian mansard roof. But the body of the structure, although richly ornamented, also has something of the restlessness of the neo-Grec style. It ha...

Somebody's running around town in a horse-drawn Hummer . [ ANY ] When hipster foodies use food stamps for gourmet grub, people get angry. [ Salon ] Meanwhile, one local lady sees her dream of weighing 1,000 pounds fizzle. [ Gothamist ] The Voice asks us all to stop using the word "hipster." [ VV ] Go inside New York’s “women only” Barbizon Hotel [ VF ] Getting some lentils at Dual Specialty . [ Blah ] Squat the Condos --most timely name for a band--stickers the EV:

Ginormous and disgusting bed bug billboard goes up in Times Square--directly over the Flash Dancers gentleman's club. There are so many "special" souvenirs you can take home from your trip to NYC. Tourists beware! from Wirehead's flickr Take a walking tour of Astoria with author Sam Lipsyte. [ FW ] Scary, outsized glass tower for 1st Ave and 5th halted. [ EVG ] Chasing the city's ghost signs . [ FNY ] Fox News revisits Ray's . [ NMNL ] "Pop pluralism," aka street art , in the gallery. [ NYT ] Who says the new Nouvel glass tower " conjures a downtown New York we once loved and can now barely remember "? [ Curbed ] The city gets a new library --with (some) real books in it. [ CR ] “ Do you still love New York ?...Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.” [ WIC ]

Victor Kerlow is an illustrator whose drawings have appeared in places like The New Yorker and the New York Times . He's also got a cool art blog . I like his stuff--it reminds me of Ben Katchor . Kerlow also spent some time drawing the meatpackers of the Meatpacking District. I asked him about that and here's what he said, along with some of his meatpacking pictures. When were these drawings done? Did you have a sense that the meatpackers would soon be vanishing? All the drawings were done from 2005 to 2007. At that point, the area had already changed significantly from the way it was when I grew up there, and there were a lot of signs that the meatpacking plants were not going to be around for much longer. The drawings were all done on location, in the early mornings, like 5 or 6 am, while the guys were doing their last few hours of work. I drew while standing in the refrigerated cutting rooms, directly from life. And all the plants are temperature controlled to be very, v...

The awning is up, the racks are packed, and the new Tokio 7 opens tonight in the 7th Street Tumor : Grieve grieves for the Blarney Stone . [ EVG ] Yesterday at the Atlantic Yards protest . [ Gothamist ] The Observer visits Ray's on Ave. A: "a symbol for local residents who feel they have seen every quirk of their neighborhood ironed out and turned into a Chase Bank ." [ NYO ] Lucy is back. [ NMNL ] When construction steals your sky. [ CR ] TrustoCorp says "Locals Only" on Ludlow . But who are the locals anyway? [ BB ]

* Live-blogging the AY protest . [ Curbed ] Today: Protest the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking. [ PMFA ] Warm up for the protest with the Battle of Brooklyn trailer. [ FIB ] In the Atlantic Yards footprint, residents and businesses have been given 30 days to get out . [ NYDN ] Sad news for those of us hoping Village Paper would reopen after the fire . A FOR RENT sign appears on the plywood: When Astor Place was wide open. [ FP ] First, Andre Breton quotes , now Diesel's Stupid ads get stuck with price stickers. [ BB ] Remembering the Night Owl Cafe . [ NYNS ] A scrubbing for the old Tin Palace . [ EVG ] The Save Ray's benefit nets $3,000. [ Villager ] Destroying Yankee Stadium . [ NYT ] Long Island City : Hacking up lungs, drinking OE with straws. [ NYS ]

Today's post was written by Stacy Torres, a Chelsea native and longtime customer of Les Desirs, who provides a report and photos of the beloved bakery's last day, February 25 . We sat huddled at a corner table on the final day at Les Desirs Patisserie, the last in a string of mom-and-pop bakeries that occupied the same Chelsea storefront since 1962 . As snow curtained the windows, we watched the flakes fall and the place disappear before our eyes. Under ordinary circumstances, most people probably would have stayed home that day. The heavy, wet snow coated the sidewalks with slick sludge, and many older customers can’t risk a fall. But neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night could keep us regulars away from the bakery on its last day of business . I found many of the familiar faces that had kept me company during the six years I went there. Our resident nutritionist, Frank, sat in the corner. At eighty-five, he continues to work as a writer and always entertains our medical ...

Tonight: Brooklyn Documentary Night at Freddy's Bar...go before it's gone. [ FIB ] Chelsea Hotel residents winning so far in battle against bars. [ Eater ] Breast-milk cheese mom defends herself. Murray's reviews her flavor: "It was slippery, slightly crunchy and tasted like pickles...thumbs down." [ NYP ] Avenue C in 1984 . [ EVG ] West 19th in 1997 . [ FP ] The "Vote for Burns" people attack the New Museum and "the platinum coast of downtown Manhattan, formerly known as the Bowery." [ LM ] & [ HyperA ] Check out the pics from Ray's benefit . [ SG ] A happy, post-benefit Ray opens shop for the day. [ NMNL ]

A tale of two cities is revealed by poking around a new website called Bundle that shows you the spending habits of neighborhoods by zip code. I compared the west East Village ( 10003 zip ) with Brownsville, Brooklyn, which seems like one place gentrification has yet to reach (there's no Starbucks there yet). Here's how East Villagers spend their money each month : And here's how Brownsville does it : As you can see, shopping and eating are high on East Villagers' priorities. Each month, the average East Villager consumes $2,639 worth of food, drink, and products . In Brownsville, most of their money goes to the house and home, health and family. They spend, on average, $326 a month on shopping, eating, and drinking. On Bundle, you can also click on the bubbles to look deeper and see how the spending breaks down and where it is being spent. Again, here's the East Village, where people spend $421 a month on clothing and shoes, at Barney's, J. Crew, and Zappos. ...