Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHING UPDATE: False alarm! Now they say they're just renovating . Back in 2013, the old Odessa closed . This Odessa was also known as the "dark" Odessa. It was the first Odessa and the one I loved best. Now the new Odessa, also known as a the "light" Odessa, is closing. Odessa in miniature by Nicholas Buffon When the old Odessa still existed, I didn't go much to the new Odessa because it felt redundant and too new when it opened back in 1990-whenever. Then, when the old Odessa closed, I went to the new Odessa (which was no longer new) because it was no longer redundant and, in fact, was one of the only places left in the East Village where you could get a simple diner meal and not be surrounded by the worst people. Now it's closing. Their last day will be July 19. You can't go inside to sit and eat because we're in a pandemic, remember? But you can order something to go and while you wait you can imagine that you're sitting i...

The dismantling of our dearly departed Gem Spa continues today. After yesterday's removal of the lighted signs and yellow awnings , workers are carefully removing another, more delicate sign. Previously hidden, the sign has GEM SPA painted on glass. Owner Parul Patel tells me it appeared in a number of movies, including 200 Cigarettes (which I recommend only for the scenes of the East Village in the 90s-- I wrote about it here ). 200 Cigarettes Parul told me the signs are safely in storage. She hopes that one day, on the other side of the pandemic, there might be another life for Gem Spa. Who knows? In the meantime, there is still merch .

It's happening. Right now. The Gem Spa sign has been removed from the building. The yellow awning is going with it. Thanks to Michael Quinn for sending in these sad shots of the wreckage: The word "iconic" gets thrown around quite a bit when it comes to New York's classic small businesses, but with Gem Spa, it fits. Earlier this month we learned that Gem would be closing for good , felled by greed and coronavirus crisis, after decades of standing sentinel on St. Mark's Place, and after a long battle in which many of us tried like hell to keep it alive. As long as the sign stood, it felt like Gem was still there, just waiting for the shutdown to lift, and maybe there was still a chance. This is truly the end. And into a U-Haul: Update: Parul tells me, "We will be auctioning the signs, the gates, the egg cream fountain, and old milkshake machine. We are also trying to get the egg cream counter out and will auction that too if we can get it...

If you miss going to the movies and enjoying a big bucket of popcorn, well, you can still enjoy one of those things. The wonderful Village East Cinema is selling movie popcorn to go -- including big, big bags of movie popcorn -- every day from 4:00 - 7:00pm. So why not get your buttery fix and support a historic and beloved East Village theater at the same time? Win win! (Get it at East 12th and Third Ave.)

VANISHED Another nail has been hammered into the coffin of St. Mark's Place, and the East Village, as Gem Spa has shuttered for good. The dearly beloved shop's owner, Parul Patel, confirmed the sad news. The landlord, she told me, would not reduce or freeze the rent during the pandemic shutdown, nor would he promise not to evict the business when they were late on rent at this difficult time. The debt just kept adding up and they could not go on. We all knew this was coming, though we hoped against hope. Many of us tried to save it-- converted it into a Schitibank , cash mobbed it , celebrated its bohemian history, raised money for it, even Quarantine Cash Mobbed it --but in the pandemic there is no bouncing back. "It is heartbreaking," Parul told me. "We truly have the best customers in the world. We consider our customers to be family. I don't think any other business has seen this amount of incredible support and love." Parul says she will...

Sunday is National Egg Cream Day. Up for venturing out? Visit Gem Spa--get an egg cream and (while supplies last) an egg cream mask, which won't protect you from the coronavirus, but will enable you to drink a delicious egg cream. Want to support this legendary East Village institution remotely? Donate to their Go Fund Me , just launched today, and help them stay in business. Gem Spa writes: "We will be giving Gem Spa merchandise to donors in return for their generosity. We understand that with the coronavirus scare many people are choosing to stay at home but would still like to support. As such, feel free to go on our website if you choose to buy merchandise... Thank you so much for all your love and support." The fight to save this Gem continues!

VANISHED Guest post by Larry Baumhor The owner of the first punk rock boutique in New York, Mariann Marlowe is packing her bags and ending decades of selling and designing clothes in NY city. Her current store Enz’s boutique in the East Village is closing after 14 years. Mariann knows the history of punk and the changing scenes of New York and London. photo: Larry Baumhor Mariann Marlowe: “My original store, Ian’s, opened in 1972 at 49 Grove Street in Greenwich Village. My rent was $100.00. I brought back mostly Vivienne Westwood stuff and a few other things. My influence was Vivienne. She would make anything out of anything. The neckline could be two inches off the shoulder. That was my inspiration. Also, living on the streets of London. We were poor and we used to eat beans on toast for ten days in a row. I lived with all artists and we all shared a house in Earl’s Court. I would go to the Sex Pistols rehearsals on Lots Road before Sid was in the band.” “I made a shirt fo...

Saturday's cash mob for Gem Spa was a great success. I can't tell you how many gallons of U-Bet were used, but the egg cream soda fountain never stopped flowing for three hours, as fans of Gem lined up out the door of the store to get a taste of what the place does best--and to keep them alive. photo: NationofNY The event turned into a "happening," as attendee Lolita Wolf put it in a conversation on the sidewalk, a scene of locals and former locals hanging out and socializing, while characters showed up to perform for the documentary and news cameras, or to just look interesting. One young man, barefoot and with a head of blue hair that looked like cake frosting spooned onto his head, shook a bottle of BBQ sauce and ranted, then settled down to play with Candy the Gem Spa cat. Devlin, a jewelry designer who you might see walking the East Village dressed in leopard print and strumming a guitar, sang an impromptu song about not wanting a bank to move in here. A...

Last night at midnight, all ready for Saturday's cash mob , Gem Spa was transformed -- into a vivid dystopian vision of the new St. Mark's Place. It is now Schitibank, a play on the rumor that Citibank wants to move into the corner space that has been Gem since 1957. As Gem began struggling earlier this summer, it looked shuttered and bare, especially with the newspapers and Zoltar removed from the front, the signs taken down. People thought it was closed--or closing. So I reached out to Tommy Noonan and Doug Cameron of the design firm DCX Accelerator . A few years ago, they staged what they called an “ Artisanal Landlord Price-Hike Sale " for Jesse's Deli in Brooklyn. It brought awareness and customers to Jesse's and I hoped they could do the same for Gem. Tommy and Doug said yes right away--DCX puts 20% of their profits toward "cultural activism" like this--and, with approval from Gem's Parul Patel, they created a (pro bono) full art ins...

This Saturday, September 14, at 12:00 noon, come spend some money at Gem Spa--and Instagram the shit out of it. At #SaveNYC , we are hosting a Cash Mob to help support this beloved and historic East Village business. Get some stuff--egg creams, pretzels, t-shirts, toothpaste!--and take your photo with a surprise work of guerrilla street art, as an acclaimed group of cultural activists and designers radically transform Gem into a dystopian vision for the new St. Mark’s Place. The event will take place from noon to about 2:00, rain or shine, but you can visit and spend your money any time. Gem Spa is located on St. Mark's Place at the corner of Second Avenue in the East Village. ( View the Facebook invite here .)

Support the great Gem Spa by buying a t-shirt! From Gem's Instagram : "T-shirts can be purchased at paypal.me/gemspa on PayPal and picked up next Thursday evening after 5 PM. Or they can be shipped worldwide at an extra cost. Be sure to include your size." Gem is struggling these days , so even if you can't buy a shirt, go by and grab a coffee, egg cream, Juul, anything and everything helps.

VANISHED When DeRobertis Pasticceria closed in 2014 , I was bereft. So much had gone with it. At least we had the old neon sign to remind us that it wasn't always Black Seed bagels . This week, I walked by to find the neon sign is gone. I don't know where it went or when. I don't know if it will miraculously return. I only know the building looks blank and sanitary, with nothing to catch the eye. What follows is my account of the pastry shop's last days, from my book " Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul ." One day in 2007, I sat down to chat with Annie DeRobertis, who first went to work for her grandfather at 11 years old, folding cake boxes and filling cannoli. I met her in the café on a quiet Friday afternoon. She was reading about corrupt city politics in the Post and wondering out loud if she should go back to Bari, her grandfather’s hometown. She wore her iron-gray hair short, with lavender eye shadow that matched her top. We...

NOT VANISHING YET You may have heard that the great and beloved Gem Spa on St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue is closing. Concerned about the fate of this landmark shop, I went in and spoke to Parul Patel, the owner's daughter. She assured me there is no plan to close any time soon. However, the shop is struggling. Recently, the rent went up. Then Gem lost their license to sell cigarettes and lottery tickets due to a former employee's negligence. As Patel explained, those sales are critical. People who come to buy those items also buy newspapers and magazines, which are expensive for the shop to carry.  At the same time, the landlord told Gem to clean up the historically and happily jumbled front exterior of the store--so away went the newspaper racks and Zoltar the fortune teller . Gone, too, are the magazines, at least for now. Once Gem gets their cigarette and lottery license back, the papers and magazines may return. But that is another four months away. Pa...

VANISHED This one hurts. In December I reported that Moishe's Bake Shop in the East Village was possibly closing. I went in and asked. The response: "Where'd you hear that?" asked the cashier. On the Internet. More laughter. "People put all kinds of stuff on the Internet," said the cashier. So everything's fine? "Yeah, yeah." As I noted then, "But you know how these things happen. If I were you, I'd go enjoy the great Moishe's while you can." I went in and got a last bag of hamentaschen. Today, E.V. Grieve reports that the bakery has closed without any further warning. He writes: "Storefront photographers James and Karla Murray first posted the news last night on Instagram : 'Sadly, we just heard from the owner, Moishe Perl, that today was its last day as the entire building has been sold.'" Perl, they say, decided to retire. And there's one less reason to live in the East Village.

In the East Village. This is depressing. Before: After: What else is there to say? Here's the story -- and the history -- of the International Bar . (And, yes, a variation of it lives on a couple blocks south on First Avenue. And, yes, this wasn't the original original . But this good old space? Gone to bubbles.)

VANISHING It's yet another nail in the coffin for the very dead St. Mark's Place. After 36 years, St. Mark's Comics will be closing at the end of February. They announced the news today on Twitter and explained why on their Facebook page: "There are lots of obstacles to running a retail storefront in NYC; too many of them at once to fight, and after 36 pretty intense years, not enough left to fight them." What remains? The Grassroots Tavern , shuttered last year after 42 years, sits empty. Trash & Vaudeville was kicked off the street. So was St. Mark's Bookshop--and then again. Kim's Video got the boot. A lot of record shops were lost. Dojo's is long gone. The comic book shop was one of the last of its kind, a dusty, idiosyncratic leftover from the old street, when it was still part and production of the counterculture. But there is little counterculture left in the broken East Village. A century of rebelliousness down the drain. ...

Earlier this year, I shared a real estate listing on Moishe's Kosher Bake Shop in the East Village. At the time, a call to Moishe Perl got a laugh and the statement, "People always put up these things." He said he wasn't closing. Now the reader who sent me that listing has sent in a report far more alarming. The Real Deal states : "Investor Jay Schwimmer just inked a 21-year lease for the entire three-story East Village property that’s anchored by neighborhood institution Moishe’s Bake Shop... The lease begins in March and includes an option for Schwimmer to buy the building." Moishe's owns the building and has been in the East Village since 1974. As the Times once reported, "he hasn’t changed his menu or his recipes one iota in 42 [now 44] years — everything kosher, no dairy except for the cheese Danish and strudel. His bread slicer, which was there when he bought the place, a former bakery that had been closed for a while, is 80 years ol...

The Strand Bookstore has just issued a plea against the landmarking of its building . I spoke to Leigh Altshuler, Communications Director for the Strand, who explained the unusual situation. "They're building these big, new tech hubs," she said, describing the tech building boom south of Union Square that is threatening the historic neighborhood, driving up speculation and demolition . "And in a trade-off, the Strand and a few other buildings along Broadway are now being calendared for landmarking." But the bookstore and building owner Nancy Bass has not been part of that decision. She didn't receive the LPC's draft designation report until after Thanksgiving, giving the Strand little time to prepare for the public hearing on December 4. Leigh explains that the building is already protected--by the Bass family. "The building is already overbuilt," she says, meaning it has no air rights to sell and it cannot be expanded upon. "There i...