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.
This street in the East Village has a lot to offer, so let's jump right in. Midway up the block are two theaters, each in a historic building. Here's a look facing uptown towards Astor Place:
To the left is Colonnade Row, built in 1831.
These four houses are what remain of the original nine that were built here. They were made in the Greek Revival style.
To the far right of Colonnade Row is the Astor Place Theater, which has been showing the Blue Man Group since 1991.
The theater opened in January 1968 with a play called The Indian Wants the Bronx. It starred a young actor named Al Pacino. As far as I know that is his only acting credit.
The Blue Man Group bought the theater in 2001. They now have shows throughout the country and internationally. The group formed in 1991 on the Lower East Side based on the work of 3 friends. I haven't seen the Blue Man Group perform in person but I've seen them on YouTube and enjoyed it. I've also seen Arrested Development:
I admit that if I saw the Blue Man Group just starting out in the Lower East Side in 1991 I never would have predicted mainstream success for them around the country. It just seems like a quirky downtown type of thing. But they do it well, and that's awesome for them.
Directly across the street is the Public Theater:
It was renamed the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1991, after the death of the man who founded the organization in 1954 as The Shakespeare Workshop. It opened in this building in 1967 with the world premiere of Hair, and has always been about featuring new and emerging talent and productions.
Inside the building are actually 5 separate theaters plus Joe's Pub, which is a music space and restaurant that opened in 1998. Many famous artists have performed there, including Lou Reed and Pete Townshend together, and the U.S. debuts of Adele and Amy Winehouse.
The building's lobby is beautiful with a nice old-fashioned vibe:
Near the entrance to Joe's Pub was a big wall of photos that I assumed to be from performances at the Public Theater.
There were many famous actors on the wall, but here's just a couple of photos, first Philip Seymour Hoffman and Natalie Portman:
And Meryl Streep with... is that Sam Waterston? I think it is.
The building's history actually goes back to the mid-1800's when it was the Astor Library. A plaque on the outside gives more info:
Here is a photo from about 1870 which not only shows the building but some more of the block as well:
And here are some present-day looks facing downtown:
Some of today's buildings on the block are taller but at least none of them are big skyscrapers. It would be nice to still have those trees, but overall the vibe isn't as different as I might have expected. Especially compared to how much other blocks have probably changed in the last 145 or so years.
Random note: Here's a cartoon about the Astor Library from a January 1892 Life magazine. The artist's name is Chip and apparently there were some complaints about the library:
I guess you couldn't take out an e-book back then.
After the building's use as a library, it housed for several decades the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has been doing important work since the 19th century:
I never realized all of the history to this building. I'm glad it's still around and continuing to have cultural relevance.
Also on the block are two parking lots! One on each side of the block! Yes!
Enough parking excitement, I need to calm down. Let's look at the Astor Place intersection and get back to the real New York.
Of course, by 'real New York' I mean a Chase bank, a Kmart, and a Starbucks. Oh yeah, and just out of the photo to the left is a Walgreens:
At least it's in a beautiful red and white building.
Next to the modern glass building on the other side of the street is a small patch of green where you can see through to Cooper Square, if you're into that sort of thing.
Back towards East 4th is a restaurant called Asia de Cuba. It's in a section with scaffolding but here's a wide shot that also shows some other nice buildings on this street:
I was confused by the name Asia de Cuba but apparently it's a fusion place that mixes Asian and Cuban influences. I'm intrigued by what that would be, and now the name makes a lot more sense.
Next to Asia de Cuba is Colors, a gluten-free restaurant. I was going to joke about the trendiness of fusion and gluten-free restaurants being next to each other, but I learned that Colors was founded by survivors of 9/11 and today is operated by a nonprofit group called Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United.
ROC originally helped displaced restaurant workers after the World Trade Center 9/11 attacks, and now advocates nationally for the rights of restaurant workers. So that's pretty great. The restaurant also uses local, non-GMO products.
Here's a look at the front of Colors under the scaffolding, on the left:
To the right is a company selling hand-made rugs. Even though the front says Tibet Home, I believe it is actually called Dolma. I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy, maybe they changed the name.
Across the street is a building that houses some NYU Athletics. I guess that's not surprising since NYU is rather ubiquitous in this general area.
On the same side of the street I saw this old sign for a fallout shelter:
Even if it's from a past era, it's still a bit disconcerting.
There are a lot of gyms in this area. There was a David Barton Gym above the Walgreens on the Astor Place corner. There is also Barry's Bootcamp just next to the mid-block restaurants, complete with its own 'Fuel Bar' which seems to offer juices and smoothies and such.
Then there's more exercising at the East 4th Street corner, with a Blink Fitness and Soul Cycle. They're just across from a cafe called La Colombe. Here's a look at that area, facing downtown:
I guess this block really has it all. Check out some history, then go to the gym and have a post-workout smoothie. Then get ready for a night at the theater by going to Kmart to make sure you look your best. And after taking in a live production, wrap things up at a cafe.
A pretty full day on just one block. Enjoy! And thanks for reading. Here's one last view from East 4th Street:
