Next Up In City Tavern Space: All’Onda

Next week (February 11 to February 15), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building as well as roof work. Additionally we will begin work on the new sidewalks around the building.

The following week (February 18 to February 22), Material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors and roofs as well as sidewalk work. The site will be closed on Monday, February 18th, for the holiday.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, February 9th for interior, superstructure and sidewalk related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

The corner of 4th Ave. and 13th St. will soon be the home of the latest outpost of Sandwicherie, which makes…sandwiches. The fast casual dining revolution continues.

From Bedford + Bowery:

A Union Square institution, Coffee Shop, served its final brunch Sunday with one last samba performance by Maucha Adnet, her trio, and a pair of roving carnival dancers. Charles Milite and Eric Petterson– who own the restaurant with Karolyn Effer, wife of music producer Jellybean Benitez— were on hand for the farewell, and fondly remembered a New York magazine story about the Brazilian diner’s opening 28 years ago. It noted “the  late-nighters who’ve been thronging Coffee Shop and its secret room in the back–artists, actors and young models wearing black tights and gold medallions.” At the time, Patterson said he wanted the 23-hour diner to recreate the feeling of Brazil: “the sensuality, the music, the friendliness of the people.”

Since then, Coffee Shop has held on, despite never really being a foodie destination; its basement, once an after-hours party spot for ’90s cool kids, recently served as a chill-out zone for off-duty models during Fashion Week. And its outdoor tables were a dependable spot for leisurely people-watching. But back in July, it was announced that the restaurant would close. “The times have changed in our industry,” Milite, himself a former model, told the New York Post. “The rents are very high and now the minimum wage is going up and we have a huge number of employees.”

The flowers are back on sale at the corner deli on 13th. Problem solved.

The NYPD 6^th Precinct Community Council Meeting will take place in person Wednesday, September 25 at 7:00 PM

Our Lady of Pompeii’s Fr. Demo Hall – Lower Level at the corner of Bleecker and Carmine Streets

note: meeting will begin promptly at 7:00 pm 

Please sign in at the door early if you wish to speak or ask questions of the panel.

Join the leadership of the 6th Precinct, your neighbors and local businesses for an update on community affairs.  This is also your opportunity to advise Precinct Leadership of chronic or specific crime/safety/quality of life problems you see in our community so their actions are directed with your unique insights. Take this opportunity to listen or to voice your thoughts in an open and informative session.  We encourage you to tell/bring a neighbor and be a part of your Community’s voice.

As part of the planned 2024 enhancements we return to our regular monthly meeting program with our very important September 25^th meeting that will feature a comprehensive panel of our Community’s Elected Officials addressing Crime, Safety and Quality of Life in our community.

Scheduled Panelists:

-Brad Hoylman-Sigal – State Senator

-Brian Kavanagh – State Senator

-Erik Bottcher – City Council

-Carolina Rivera – City Council

-Deborah Glick – NY State Representative

Exciting new for the neighborhood that proves that the 14th St. shareholders live in an important building: our neighbor at number 22, namely the Duane Reade building, has been landmarked by the city for its historical significance. This action protects it in perpetuity. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation gives us this historical background:

“The Baumann Brothers Furniture and Carpets Store was built in 1880-81 for James McCreery (1826- 1903), a well-known textiles merchant of Scottish descent. It was designed by the architectural firm of D. & J. Jardine, whose principals, David and John Jardine, were brothers also of Scottish birth. One of the more prominent, prolific, and versatile New York firms in the late-nineteenth century, D. & J. Jardine executed designs for a wide variety of building types, including a number of notable cast-iron fronts, in contemporary styles. The wide cast-iron front facade of the Baumann Brothers store is one of the firm’s and one of the city’s most inventive, unusual, and ornamental. Built toward the end of the heyday of cast-iron fronts in New York and the flourishing creativity in that material, the Baumann Brothers store is also a signal achievement of Aesthetic Movement design. An amalgam of ornamental influences, including neo-Classical, neo-Grec, and Queen Anne styles, is embraced to achieve a decorative overall composition. Another designed, though simpler, facade on 13th Street is clad in brick and stone with a cast-iron ground story. The building’s prime location was in the midst of Manhattan’s primary retail shopping district, which included 14th Street, Union Square, and Ladies’ Mile. From 1881 to 1897, it housed Baumann Brothers, a furniture-manufacturing company established c. 1870 by Albert and Ludwig Baumann, Bohemian Jewish immigrants. By 1884, the firm occupied the entire structure and billed itself as “the largest and most complete furnishing establishment in America.” A painted sign advertising Baumann Brothers is still visible on the building’s western wall. For eight decades, the ground story contained 5-10-and-25-cent stores, beginning with the fourth Woolworth store in Manhattan (1900-28), acclaimed at its opening “the largest ten-cent store in the world.” This space was later a store for F. & W. Grand, H.L. Green, and McCrory. The upper stories were leased for over eight decades for show rooms and manufacturing by various firms related to the textile and sporting goods industries, as well as a gymnasium and classrooms for the Delehanty Institute (1930-63), which trained candidates of the Police and Fire Departments. The building currently contains a drugstore, while the upper stories are used as an annex to the Parsons School of Design.”