Japonica Will Move One Block

• USQ-14th Street Community Forum | Monday, January 28
• Union Square Sweat Fest | Thursday, February 7 – Tuesday, February 12
• USP Annual Meeting + Networking Reception | Monday, May 6
• It’s My Park! Day | Saturday, June 1
• Summer in the Square | Every Thursday, June 13 – August 8 (closed on July 4)
• Harvest in the Square | Thursday, September 19
• Happy Pawlidays Holiday Kick-Off | Sunday, November 24
• Holiday Market by Urbanspace | Thursday, November 21 – Tuesday, December 24

Over on East 12th St., it was Piola, the Brazilian pizza place, and now it’s Ribalta, the Italian pizza place. And it’s a pizza school, too. UrbanDaddy writes:

There are book smarts.

There are street smarts.

And then there are pizza smarts.

Today, we’re going to focus on that last one.

Also, we’re going to eat a bunch of pizza pies.

So let’s enroll at Ribalta, the only pizzeria in New York with three different types of ovens and its own university (but alas, no football team), now open.

Bottom line, this restaurant is really quite absurdly serious about pizza. The dough: imported from an Italian mill and aged 48 hours before baking (we’ll let you imagine what this does to a crust). The tomatoes: all San Marzano and all hand-crushed. The ovens: plentiful, varied and powerful.

Yes, these master pizzaiolos/fusspots felt it was necessary to install three different ovens in the place. Brick. Wood-burning. And stainless-steel convection. Reason #1: to bake your sausage-and-sage pie precisely the way God intended. Reason #2: the syllabus required it.

See, when this place is not standing in as the prototypical Friday night date spot, it’s doubling as the city’s first Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli—an esteemed pizza school that’s been around in Italy since the ’80s. So eventually you’ll be able to register here for classes, seminars and lectures on the science of the slice.

Assuming you scored high enough on the pizza SATs.

Looking ahead to the upcoming holidays, the New School construction site will be closed on Saturdays, December 24 and December 31st, also on Mondays, December 26th and January 2nd. Next week (December 26 to December 30), Superstructure and concrete work will continue at 2nd and 3rd floor levels. Sidewalk sheds will continue being erected around the perimeter of the site. The roof protection at USC Condo courtyard is finished.The following week (January 2 to January 6), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs on 2nd and 3rd floor levels.

So long, old friend.

The East 12th and 13th Street Block Association is fighting against the arrival of Caliente Cab Co. at University and 12th on the grounds that they expect it to be a noisy all-night boozefest. The owners had petitioned for 4AM closing 7 nights a week, open windows, and sidewalk cafe. They’ve backed off, but that’s still not good enough for those who are against it.

You can speak your mind at the licensing meeting on April 12th at 6PM at 268 Mulberry St.

The complete Community Board meeting is APril 21st at 6PM at 116 West 11th St.

The building that will replace the former D’Agostino’s supermarket (and later Agata and Valentina) at 64 University Place has been revealed.