Authentic and Eclectic: East 9th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue

Since I started writing this blog I have explored blocks in many neighborhoods, and I think the East Village has emerged as my favorite for its great mix of culture and art and generally very interesting and unique sights in every direction. Let's check out another great street in this area...

At 2nd Avenue there were two rows of bikes, neither of which was the Citi Bike program.

Nothing against Citi Bike, but it's nice to see lots of bikes without sponsorship. Also, I find many Citi Bike users to be rather aggressive riders, even by NYC bike-riding standards. 

The red and yellow restaurant in the photo above is a Ukrainian place called Veselka. Its signs say it was established in 1954. 

As mentioned in previous posts on this area in the East Village, there is a large Ukrainian presence around these parts. 

Going back to the bicycles in front of the restaurant, I also thought the flowers next to them were a nice touch:

At the opposite corner is a grocery store, and just next to that is some street art by Chico, who has several works around the East Village.

He also did the art on the outside of a nearby holistic pet care shop which I included in my post on Little Tokyo. 

On the sidewalk nearby was this message, which highlights the 'art' in 'heart.'

The person behind it is an artist called UncuttArt and these can be seen on many sidewalks around lower Manhattan, possibly beyond that as well.  

Nearby is a jewelry shop called Ambica next to a clothing store called Pinkyotto, which I don't know how to pronounce. 

There are many, many clothing stores on this block. 

There are also some nice small trees!

I noticed an interesting product at the base of this tree that was a watering bag.

Interesting product. I wonder how it would do on 'Shark Tank.'

When I was bending down to get a photo of that tag, a guy walked by and loudly muttered about people standing in the wrong freaking spots all the time. I guess I was taking up some space on the sidewalk but he was able to walk by so I wasn't exactly blocking the whole area. Even if I was, that's still a very aggressive thing to say. The East Village has lots of "characters." Quote unquote. 

Anyway, let's brush off the negativity and continue to an interesting shop called Honest Chops, which is a halal butcher.

Halal food is similar to the concept of kosher in terms of it meaning what is permissible for Muslims to eat. Muslims cannot eat pork, and generally speaking, whether other permissible meat is halal is based on the animal being killed in a humane manner.

 
Along with being halal, Honest Chops also gets meat from local sources in the northeast and only from animals that were ethically raised on farms and were fed a vegetarian diet, with no antibiotics, steroids, or growth hormones. All of these factors seem appealing to many people's meat-eating preferences these days, especially in a progressive area like the East Village and Manhattan generally.

They have also opened a burger place in Greenwich Village on Macdougal Street between Bleecker and West 3rd. It's called Burgers By Honest Chops.    

As a side note, one of the founders of Honest Chops is Imam Khalid Latif of the NYU Islamic Center. His friendship with NYU's Rabbi Yehuda Sarna was featured in a documentary produced by Chelsea Clinton that was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. It was called 'Of Many,' and here's an interesting trailer for it:


Moving along the block, here's a panorama of some beautiful old buildings, fire escapes and all:

There is some more art on the block, on a building at the 1st Avenue corner that has murals and mosaics.

Here is a look along the ground level, with the East Village Hotel to the left and a coffeehouse called The Bean to the right:

There are some hints in those photos to the artwork along the outside of The Bean, with mosaic coffee cups each having a different multi-colored painting coming out of the top. Here's one example:

I don't know who did the painted parts, but I believe the mosaics were done by Jim Power, aka The Mosaic Man, who has lots of great mosaic art throughout the East Village and has also been featured in previous posts. 

On the other side of the block is the St. Marks Veterinary Hospital, which has some nice animal art on its outside. That is, art of animals, not by animals... I'm assuming.

This vet practice started in 1986. It's nice that they make house calls, I've never heard of human doctors doing that in the city except for rich people in movies. Here's another look:

Here is just a random doorway on the block but I thought it had a definite East Village vibe:

 Overthrow is a boxing gym on Bleecker Street. 

Next to that doorway was a toy store called Dinosaur Hill that had a fun-looking window, which I guess is the look you're going for in a toy store:

There were also two colorful writings of "Dinosaur Hill" embedded in the sidewalk using marbles and/or beads:

I thought those were pretty cool. 

There was another store on the block for kids/families:

It happened to have another piece of 'Heart' art out front on the sidewalk.

East Village blocks are great for having so many local shops, and also because there aren't many tall buildings. Most of them are older, classic residential buildings and you can actually see the sky when you're walking around and feel like you're in an authentic neighborhood.  

 I noticed that 'Juliette' was written near the top of a building:

I did some internet searching but couldn't find out why it says Juliette. I came across the term 'Juliet balcony,' which was occasionally spelled (misspelled?) as Juliette balcony and is a very small balcony area named after Romeo and Juliet. That seems like an unlikely reason for the building saying 'Juliette.' Maybe it was the building's original owner or something like that. 

I guess there's just a few more odds and ends before we wrap up. There's a shop called Verameat but it isn't another meat store, it's a jewelry shop. 

And there was an old, cool-looking car parked in front of a wine bar called The Immigrant.

I'm not really a car person so I didn't know anything more about this car, but I was able to zoom in and read "Fairlane" along its side. After an internet search and consulting my Dad, I believe it's a Ford Fairlane 500 from the mid-1960's. It has a cool look, I can dig it. 

Here was another collection of bikes, plus a pizza place at 1st Avenue called East Village Pizza and Kebabs. 

I like pizza and kebabs though I don't know if I want them from the same place. But maybe they make both well. 

And here's a last look at some nice buildings at the 2nd Avenue corner:

I guess that's all from this really interesting block in the East Village that has a little something for everyone. Thanks for reading.