From Italian to Bagels

Reps announce that Tortaria, the new Mexican sandwich shop and tequila bar at 94 University place and 12th Street, will open on Monday. The 65-seat space will serve tortas, taquitos, made-to-order guacamole, homemade salsas, hand-pressed tortillas, and a range of margaritas in a space that is the owners’ “reimagined take on the bodega.”

From the Observer:

Jason Scherr, owner of the cafe that the New York Press named best new coffee shop in 2008, has signed a lease for about 1,600 square feet at 123 Fourth Avenue, between 12th and 13th streets, in which he will open his third Think Coffee by the end of the summer, according to Jason Turner, his broker at Zelnik & Company Real Estate. Think is taking the space of the closed Panorama Galleries on an otherwise rather shoddy block that just happens to be steps away from N.Y.U.’s Third Avenue North dorms and its soon-to-be-completed new dorm on 12th Street.

Think Coffee’s two other cafes are at One Bleecker Street and 248 Mercer Street.

“Think Coffee thought it was an emerging street that had some upside,” Mr. Turner said. “Rents are significantly lower than on Broadway or University, so he can be within the Union Square submarket without having to pay Union Square rents.”

Community Board #3 has voted overwhelmingly to support designation of the proposed East Village/Lower East Side and East 10th Street Historic Districts. This is a major step towards preservation of the irreplaceable and increasingly threatened historic resources and character of the East Village. However, the Landmarks Preservation Committee must still approve the move.

A lovely 1922 photo of the southeast corner of Union Square Park looking north. Check out the guy getting his shoes shined. The “wireless” store later became the famous S. Klein department store and is now Zeckendorf Towers.

Next week (November 25th to November 29th ), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on the academic floors inside the building.

The following week (December 2nd to December 6th), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on academic floors

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday and Sunday, November 23rd and 24th for interior activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

Be sure to check out Num Pang, the tiny new Cambodian sandwich shop on 12th St. just around the corner from University Place. The sandwiches, prices around $7.50 are fresh, spicy, and unusual, very much like Vietnamese banh mi. Crowds have overwhelmed the place in its early days, and it’s been sold out a few times. Still, very much worth a visit, even if the prices are more than double what you would pay for something similar down in Chinatown.