Results tagged “lowereastside”

When they're not shooting themselves in the groin, threatening to kill the president, or trying to blow up Starbucks, the city's rebellious youngsters continue to commit the less sensational crime of burglary. Cops arrested two teenagers suspected of ransacking dozens of lower Manhattan apartments in separate burglary sprees.

When courting a young maiden, it is acceptable to formally introduce oneself through a mutual acquaintance in society, or by sending a virtual "wink" through the social networking website of your choice. Other methods, such as honking one's horn or pretending to be a Rockefeller, are generally considered unacceptable. But what about breaking into a woman's apartment, stripping naked, getting into bed with her and licking her neck?

After two entertaining yet vicious slams on Hotel Griffou and Gus & Gabriel, interim Times dining heavy Pete Wells throws a one-star bone to The Standard Grill, which has been winning over critics despite the grotesquely exclusive velvet rope scene at the door. Wells declares that "it is not the place I would send friends who want to study the latest contortions of the yoga masters of haute cuisine. But it is exactly where I would direct anybody who needs to recharge by plugging straight into the abundant, renewable energy source that is downtown Manhattan." And yet! "The tiled, barrel-vaulted ceiling makes for treacherous acoustics. At times conversations across the room are beamed directly to your table. Sitting by the open kitchen one night, we heard an expediter shouting out orders as if he were communicating with cooks in Jersey City." Still, "with 100 seats in this room, another 100 in an even noisier antechamber, and 85 more on the sidewalk, it is a marvel that the kitchen reliably bangs out solid, flavorful food."

You don't have to browse the Craigslist "Rooms for Rent" section very long before realizing that there are many tenants out there looking for "not just a roommate, but a FRIEND." This weekend's Times Real Estate section follows the journey of one 3BR LES apartment trying to figure out the right balance between being friendly roommies, but not BFFs. One tells them of a horrific summer she had where a roommate was seldom home, “and I got really lonely,”

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney met with the NYC postmaster to discuss the possibility of closing the Pitt Station post office as part of much-needed budget cuts. The USPS points out that Knickerbocker Station is only three-tenths of a mile away. But LES seniors point out that that can be really far for some people, as well as the fact that Knickerbocker has stairs. And old people hate stairs. [The Lo-Down]

An ex-con who is suspected of robbing over a dozen homes throughout the East Village and Lower East Side was feeling so cocky while hanging out inside the East 10th Street apartment he was hitting up that he decided to have a little shirts-off time and take a snooze. When the super of the building found his cellphone and t-shirt behind, cops were able to use DNA testing on the shirt to nail 45-year-old Ramon Pacheco. One police source said Pacheco would use acrobatics to get inside hard-to-reach spots in apartments, taking "laptops, iPods and cameras," telling the Post, "He's kind of like a Spider-Man. Sometimes he's kicking in windows. Sometimes he's going through skylights. One time, he kicked in an air conditioner and crawled inside the apartment."

Relatives, friends, teachers, and students gathered last night to mourn the tragic death of Glen Wright, who was stabbed to death outside his grandmother's East Village building because gang members mistook him for someone else. (We noted this devastating story yesterday, and like many, we're still profoundly saddened.) Wright, who died at age 21, was taking a break from helping his grandmother wash windows at the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side when a group of men approached him. Suspect Joel Herrera, 20, is accused of stabbing Wright repeatedly in the neck; he told detectives he confused Wright with someone who assaulted one of his friends. Cops are searching for the other assailants.

Devastating: Police have told the family of a 21-year-old East Harlem man that he was fatally stabbed in the neck Saturday evening at the Lower East Side Baruch Houses because of mistaken identity. Glen Wright, who by all accounts was a beloved young man enrolled at Borough of Manhattan Community College, was there helping his grandmother clean her windows. He was getting a breath of fresh air when a gang looking for revenge for an earlier attack approached from behind, and one man plunged a knife into the back of his neck. His grandmother, Lummie Wright, tells the Daily News, "He was running for his life. He made it all the way to the front door and they chased him [and] they stabbed him once more."

Malta: Okay, this unappreciated Williamsburg restaurant isn't new—it opened some six months ago—but this little gem hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, and seems to be struggling in the shadow of the neighborhood's newer cool kids, such as Brooklyn Star, Vutera, and Walter Foods. Part of that may also have to do with the rather uninspired interior design, but tucked away in the back is Malta's hidden strength: a serene backyard garden that's often shockingly deserted. You might think the emptiness portends lackluster food, but Malta, open for dinner daily and brunch on weekends, is high quality at reasonable prices.

Bia Garden: The latest addition to Michael "Bao" Huynh's empire is this Vietnamese beer garden, tucked away out of sight behind a nondescript take-out joint on the Lower East Side. After passing through what looks like a walk-in refrigerator, you'll find yourself in a 50-seat garden oasis, complimented by 10 seats of indoor dining. Huynh, the man behind BarBao, Pho Sure, and Baoguette, has put together a beverage list consisting of only Asian beers by the can or bottle, served in coolers and left for each table. A circulating pushcart dispenses $5 bites, and the Vietnamese street-food menu is divided into Small Dishes, Medium Dishes, Big Dishes and Side Dishes. These include Duck Nem Sausage with pine nut and anchovy sauce; BBQ Rib on Lamb Belly; and Crispy Whole Sole, which is prepared with king mushroom, lily bulb, and ginger sauces, and served wrapped in newspaper. (Though Bia Garden was expected to open this week, we're now told that next week is more likely.) 154 Orchard Street, (212) 780-0010

While you were schlepping home via mass transit yesterday, a matzo ball received a police escort from Teaneck, N.J. to the Lower East Side. Some say it was the biggest matzo ball on earth, and this video documents its vastness with a matter-of-fact style usually reserved for footage of beached whales:

Not only will pickle purveyor Guss' Pickles be moving from its longtime Lower East Side home to Brooklyn, but it'll be losing its name, too! Co-owner Pat Fairhurst has revealed that according to the terms of a prior lawsuit settlement, she's required to relinquish the name if she does pickle business anywhere else. It's a little complicated, but in 2006 Fairhurst got into a legal fight over the Guss' name with Steve and Andrew Leibowitz, a father-son team who run United Pickle in the Bronx and tried to open up a pickle shop named Guss' on Long Island. Lawsuits and counter-lawsuits ensued, with both parties asserting their right to the Guss' legacy—which stretches back to Isidor Guss, a Polish immigrant who sold pushcart pickles and later opened up the LES shop. But Fairhurst, who has owned Guss' since 2004, doesn't seem worried about dropping the historic name; she tells the Daily News, "It doesn't matter what our name is. People are going to know where I'm going. I'll put whatever I want on the sign, and they'll still come because it's our pickles they want."

Recently a Starbucks customer witnessed a scuffle outside the store between an older gentleman and a bike messenger. The witness described the incident, on the the corner of Allen and Delancey, as such: "they ran into each other at the intersection. the old guy just wouldn't leave the bike dude alone, so the bike dude totally let him have it, POW! KRYPTONITE LOCK TO THE FACE LIKE 3 OR 4 TIMES!" Lucky for us, he filmed it:

School's out—here comes trouble. Two teenagers have been arrested after they went on "an anti-Semitic spree" on Thursday afternoon in Manhattan. Two boys, 15 and 16 respectively, drew swastikas in black Sharpie on walls at both the Bialystoker Synagogue and the United Hebrew Center on the Lower East Side. At the Hebrew Center, they also lit off smoke bombs; at the synagogue, they hurled eggs and also wrote an anti-Semitic slur on the wall. The synagogue happens to be the East Broadway temple where Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has worshiped since he was four years old. Silver told NY1, "This is a crime, not against the synagogue; this is a crime against society. When people choose to desecrate a house of worship, it doesn't matter whether it's a church, a synagogue. It is just a despicable act that really should tug at the heartstrings of all of us." It's believed that a nearby surveillance camera led police to the two teens.

In what appears to be another strike in the ongoing silent war between New York and New Jersey, someone in Hoboken played Pied Piper with some of NYC's bravest: the unemployed. While voters were going to the polls in a mayoral runoff election yesterday, Hoboken police had to be called in because job seekers from the Big Apple showed up in response to an ad for campaign workers placed around the LES that turned out to be a fake. The flyers offered $200 to anyone wiling to take the PATH out and work for mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano. But when respondents arrived, they were sent down the block to the headquarters of Dawn Zimmer, Cammarano's opponent. (Neither had any actual jobs.) Both sides pointed the finger, but neither admitted responsibility for the hoax. As the confused New Yorkers wandered down Washington Street, one man sadly told a reporter, "We were just looking for work," finding himself aimless once again in the town known for having "a bar on every corner."

Storefronts on the Lower East Side are constantly changing. What used to be a cobbler's shop might now be a high-end boutique that later might become a pre-prohibition cocktail bar with an special "cobbler" concoction as a nod to the olden days. Anyway, tonight a new store is opening, but it's also closing! Yes, a comment on instability by a collective of artists. Stop by 55 Delancey Street from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight where 31 artists will be hosting an exhibition in a vacant store front. Read more about the project here.

Seven police officers had to be treated for injuries after a home invasion robbery led to cops on a chase throughout the Lower East Side that would land three of them in the East River (yet again) while trying to apprehend a fleeing suspect. Three gunmen held up a group of residents inside an elevator of the Smith Houses, a housing project in between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, not far from the East River. After forcing the group (one of whom was a pregnant woman) into one of their apartments, the thugs duct taped them together and robbed them of guns, cash and cell phones. When one of the victims broke free and got out of the building, the chase quickly became an affair of cops versus robbers. One of the suspects tried to get away by jumping in the East River, as one witness describes it, "All I saw was a dude in the water. He was all nervous, scared. He was just trying to get away from the police." At one point, two housing officers tried to become part of the nautical apprehension late in the game as another witness tells the News, "He jumped in and the guy was already surrendering." Four other offices were injured when two squad cars crashed during the mayhem.

Around 4:30 p.m., a shooting was reported on East Houston near Clinton Street. According to police radio, two men fled the scene and one of the perps went into a building on Clinton. We received two tips from readers: "Shooting on Clinton St. - block between Houston and Stanton shut down. Residents can't enter their apartments" and "Gun shot through the window of banco popular on Houston & D. Swat teams moving in, dogs, crazy!"

There's nothing like a post-robbery attempt dip in the East River! The Post reports that a man suspected of trying to steal an ATM—by knocking it over with his van— on the Lower East Side early Tuesday morning had managed to put the ATM into his vehicle, but then the cops came. Valentin Garcia "ran out of room as he sprinted two blocks down Rutgers Street, running smack into the river... But that didn't stop him -- he jumped into the cold, dark waters and tried to swim for it." He was fished out and apparently told cops, "I was not in the van. I don't know anything about ATM machines." Garcia was also allegedly overheard using his alloted phone call to tell someone, "911! Get all of the cash out from my mattress!" Garcia is being held on $50,000 bail; he is suspected in a number of knocked-over ATM robberies.

DJ Honda is known for giving famous rappers a mean scratch, but apparently his pitbulls have a reputation of possessing a nasty bite. The Japanese turntablist and Lower East Side resident is accused of letting one of his unleashed pit bulls eat the face off of a fluffy Yorkshire terrier named Bebe—an injury that required $4,000 in surgery to repair. Bebe's owner, Christine Chin, a celebrity facialist whose clients include Kate Moss and Penelope Cruz, told the Post, "I feel so bullied and so helpless. I said to my husband, 'Should we get a gun now?'" Neighbors of Honda's say that this wasn't an isolated incident, one couple recounting one of the DJ's three pitbulls biting their dog on the neck as he trailed "in pajama trousers with no shirt on." Honda's dog walker denies that the pooches are violent and gives her own account of the Bebe skirmish claiming, "(Bebe's owner) said, 'Is it OK if Bebe says hello to the dogs?' One of my babies said hello and then Bebe snapped and started growling. Then my baby bit her. If Bebe didn't start growling, my dog wouldn't have bit her."

An East Village hookah bar encouraged teens to get their dates drunk and repair to a private loft bed, police sources tell the Post in a salacious article headlined "Hookah by Crooks." The details sound too outrageous to be true, but the story goes that Hade Bade hookah bar on East 2nd Street was busted last Monday by police, who found "20 underage teens" imbibing alcohol. According to the Post, Hade Bade doesn't have a liquor license, but the menu featured options like the $35 "Hot Date," which was a hookah filled "straight alcohol." (The latest DOH inspection record cited a lack of "Alcohol and Pregnancy" warning signs, which implies that Hade Bade does have a liquor license.) The anonymous police source says the menu also suggested, unbelievably, that patrons "Get her drunk and pay extra to go upstairs," where a private bed awaited. There was also, allegedly, a $65 option that came with non-alcoholic beer for the man, a glass of wine for the lady, and complimentary condoms. "I've never seen anything like it," says the Post's source, "It seemed like the bar was set up to cater to kids and they were encouraged to use the bed—that's not a good thing."

When the owners of dark and seductive Lower East Side restaurant Allen & Delancey announced they'd be filling the position abandoned by chef Neil Ferguson with one Kyle Bailey, the general reaction was, "Who?" But the 28-year-old chef hasn't shown any hesitation about stepping into Ferguson's big shoes; or, rather, replacing them with his own inventive kicks, which emphasize the good olde farm-to-table approach. The restaurant's new menu is almost entirely Bailey's creation, and includes such winners as Arctic Char with Spinach Purée, Baby Leeks, and Barigoule Fingerlings; and a surprisingly spectacular beet risotto with whipped goat cheese. (Peruse the full menu.)

It's been nearly two years since the rumor-mongering surrounding Mercury Lounge's future began. Back then, word was spreading that the 217 E. Houston Street venue would soon lose out to real estate development, but the rumors lasted about as long as Tapes n' Tapes hype.

Second Stop: Gimme Coffee might want to give you a price break; seems there's now a bit of competition nearby. Located on Lorimer Street near the L station, Second Stop (pictured) brews Portland's acclaimed Stumptown Coffee and serves pastries (including vegan varieties) prepared by former Le Bernardin baker Merrin Frazier. Grub Street has photos and says the décor "elevates Second Stop above your standard coffeehouse. Lamps are from JP Morgan's Wall Street office; table bases are from the Oak Room of the Plaza Hotel, tile work was done with century-old tile from vestibules and foyers in brownstones around NYC, and the fireplace mantel was salvaged from Johnny Depp's townhouse in the West Village." 24 Lorimer Street, (718) 486-6850

Sorella: Chef Emma Hearst (pictured), formerly of Union Square Café, opened her first restaurant over a week ago, but it didn't really catch our eye until the Feedbag's mouth-watering photo essay on Sorella's "ultimate english muffin," which is house-made with duck fat and served with chicken liver mousse, fried egg, and bacon. According to Strongbuzz, Sorella's cuisine is "an ode to [Hearst's] travels throughout Northern Italy." The Allen Street location, formally occupied by the Mexican joint El Portal, has been transformed into a candlelit den of romantic dining, with a bar serving small plates and a second room for dinner. Soon, there will be brunch. 95 Allen Street, between Delancey and Broome; (212) 274-9595

OH: Don't expect the Times's Frank Bruni to review it—Portfolio theorizes he HATES going to Harlem—but for everyone else, this three story restaurant/bar seems worth a try. Well, maybe not everyone; the top floor is a member's only club where $500 gets you "top notch service" and discount food and drinks. ($1000 gets you "full VIP access" to the cigar terrace.) Greasy Guide has a full review and reports that the menu features mini catfish sliders, mini turkey burgers with bbq sauce, gourmet pizza, and champagne sauteed shrimp: "It was also a great place to network. I gave out all of my business cards that I brought with me and everyone was super nice and talkative. So thank God that Harlem has all of these new places…Harlem is the place to be in NYC right now." Sure, he said the N word, but he's got a point about Harlem. 458 West 145th Street

Photograph of the corner of Essex and Delancey, with the Blue Condominium in the distance, by Betty Blade on Flickr

    

Earlier this month, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was one of ten museums and libraries awarded the 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the country's "highest honor for institutions that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities." The Institute of Museum and Library Services honors these institutions for "reach[ing] out to people of all ages and backgrounds and invite them to explore our wonderfully diverse history, culture, and literature."

Milk and Honey, the dimly lit railroad bar on Eldridge Street with the fastidiously-prepared cocktails, "reservation only" policy, and unlisted number, blazed the trail for the city's current wildfire cocktail craze and speakeasy-style bars. In recent years, as owner Sasha Petraske has expanded his footprint with Little Branch, The East Side Company, new absinthe-centric White Star and that Community Board pariah Mercury Dime, Milk and Honey has also only gotten more popular, with the secret phone number posted on message boards and blogs as fast as Petraske can change it.

Kampuchea was one of two Cambodian restaurants recently profiled in the Times, where it was accurately pointed out that there is a dearth of Cambodian cuisine in New York. Chef/Owner Ratha Chau and Co-Executive Chef and Partner Scott Burnett are attempting to rectify that. Veering from a more traditional route, they base their menu on Cambodian street food, but add their own creative twists. Ratha and Scott took a break between lunch and dinner service to discuss Kampuchea and Num Pang, their upcoming sandwich shop.