Gothamist: RIP Two Boots Pioneer Theater, East Village's Funky Den of Cin

NannyState

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:56:31 -0500

Hmmm, since the rents just keep going up, up, up, the city really needs to reassess these properties. We wouldn't want to think that these greedy landlords are skimping on their property taxes.

chimera

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:02:58 -0500

Seriously, Brooklyn?!?!? I would never trade my EV location for Williamsburg. I agree with missnake, people are thinking of EV as being the ultimate hotspot of gentrification when, although gentrification is happening all over ny, williamsburg is definitely the place I would think of over the EV. Things change. Find your place in ny. Note: I live right by the Two Boots theater, but never went.

r1b2

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:14:50 -0500

Ahh, time. When I first moved to the East Village in the 80s, I lived on East 4th between A and B. I lived just downstairs from Bobby Steele, ex- of Misfits. I ate at the Odessa and drank at the Horseshoe Bar (Vazak's?) on 7th and B because they were cheap and I could afford them. I was at the riots by the Park. And I remember when the fancier restaurants began to move in, and friends and I could sense the coming death of the East Village. Some places are still there. Benny's Burritos, with that same fellow waiting tables. But what it was, what made it great back then, the accessability of the place, the ease of entry, is gone.

missnake

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:34:19 -0500

Brooklyn kids can shut it. All the hipsters have long abandoned the E Vill, and - with the exception of Friday & Saturday late nights - the neighborhood is charming, fun, and totally free of the overly-entitled doucheholes you see running around Park Slope, Greenpoint, & Wburg. My neighborhood is full of families, old people, and people of all sorts. Anyone who writes off the E Vill is clinging to an idea from 10 years ago.

ANGRYGOD11

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:07:05 -0500

I have to know: If it's just a pizza place, how much service do you need? And how bad was the service to qualify for suckiness?

Ronkonkoma Ondinnonk

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:04:40 -0500

I did like the Mel Cooley pizza. It's awesome. Will still be getting it at the other locations. Alas, what was the East Village died with the closing of "Downtown Beirut" Bar in 1994.

charshiu

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:48:22 -0500

Sad. I've screened a couple of films that I worked on at the theater. And I proposed to my wife there as well.

ihateregistering

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:38:46 -0500

I love Two Boots pizza but my experiences at that location have found the service to be awful. Sucks that high rents have claimed yet another business, but I personally won't miss it.

dreamking

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:12:09 -0500

If anything happens to Mona's on 13th and B, those responsible will burn for it in recompense.

mir777

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:40:54 -0500

There are plenty of kids and families in the EV. They're fun and nice. The idiots who stand in grinning touristy knots on the sidewalk waiting for crappy coffee and brunch on Avenue A and First Avenue, yakking on their phones and just taking up my oxygen, deserve to be splattered in hollandaise and cheap mimosas. But that's just me. And I've always hated Veselka.

goyogago

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:14:43 -0500

donnie darko over-rated? please. now you're just hating to hate.

sinisterteashop

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:10:32 -0500

Time to move to Brooklyn, Queens or Hoboken if you want to do anything but service the rich. Brooklyn's gotten pretty bratty recently... and I mean the parents not the kids. The one positive thing about the East Village/LES is that it's still a single person's neighborhood compared to Brooklyn which has become a nursery.

starrygordon

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:01:57 -0500

Time to move to Brooklyn, Queens or Hoboken if you want to do anything but service the rich. The EV has long been a desert. Let it rest.

mir777

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:35:55 -0500

I'm sorry, fans, but Two Boots Pioneer Theatre was criminally overrated in terms of its films, theatre and overall attitude. Moreover, the video store was half-assed and the pizza, last time I had it, had a fine layer of black mold on the bottom. I'm not kidding. I do miss Den of Cin as a venue. Two Boots has been moribund for years. Sorry. And for real, Mo Pitkin's should've survived for years. There's no excuse for poor management and moldy pizza, in any economy. Full disclosure - I've lived in the neighborhood for many, many years and my family's been down here, within a 10 block radius, since 1915. So I can rant about gentrification with the best of them, but I have no tolerance for suckage. I'm glad the Essex Stationery is still here. I deeply miss Limbo coffee house, but am glad the bagel place is still operating at capacity. 90% of the restaurants on and about Avenue B should be destroyed, or will be in six months when they go under from the crushing weight of $20 pasta plates. The last time I went to Two Boots "video" it was ineffectually crammed into the corner of the pizza place, and someone was being trained (?) on the register. Farewell. I did like the Mel Cooley pizza. When it wasn't moldy.

babyhitler

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:30:47 -0500

I was there on the last night and it was bittersweet. Donnie Darko is over rated just because it's like THE emo movie of century. You know it's over-rated because the director's cut is fucking awful. The dude just lucked out.

hungryghoast

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:25:53 -0500

the EVill goes the way of the dodo, pretty much official at this point as another one bites the dust... I wonder who/what will replace that space and the one at Mo Pitkins. Who wants to bet that with the current economy and the ridiculous rents we just wind up with boarded up, dilapidated and unused storefronts? 'Course, maybe that's the sort of thing that will bring back the OLD old East Village a lot of people on Gothamist seem to wish would come back.