Grand Opening

Regular readers of East Village Today are familiar with the tradition of leaving doors open.

However, there are some doors that have not been opened since before the bad old days. This door, on Avenue B, is one of them — until this past Tuesday afternoon:

Open for the first time.

It turns out there were people inside.

People inside.

I didn't venture in — I didn't want to alarm them. Who knows how long it's been since they've seen the light of day?

#eastvillage #avenueb #opendoors

Adventure Awaits

Open doors are so inviting — if I wasn't always on my way somewhere else when I'm outside, I would go into everyone one of them!

Including this one, on East 5th Street:

This one.

Every hallway is a call to adventure!

#eastvillage #opendoors #5thstreet #adventure

Open Doors

Remember when I first started this blog, how I had so many pictures of open doors?

Here is another, on East 7th Street, from eight days ago:

Come on in!

Those were the good old days!

#eastvillage #opendoors #7thstreet #reminiscing

Next To Starbucks

With all the hubbub going on next door, and the soon-to-be-beloved Starbucks, it's easy to forget that some other new, soon-to-be-beloved store is opening up on St. Mark's Place!

On the day I passed by (two weeks ago), they had just received their new cellar stairs and base:

Cellar stairs and base.

The door was open:

Open door.

…so I took a look inside:

Inside.

It looks like they still have a long way to go!

It's hard to say what it will be, but being next to Starbucks, it's bound to be popular!

#eastvillage #st.marksplace #starbucks #cellarstairs #orangecones #opendoors

Retail Space For Lease

This place, on Avenue C, used to be called (the beloved) Babel. After that, it was called (the beloved) Jolie's NYC.

Today, it's called Retail Space For Lease. (Look at the name in the email address: apicken. I wonder who his partner is: agrinnin?)

Retail Space For Lease.

This is what it looks like inside:

Inside.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of taking pictures inside open doors!

#eastvillage #avenuec #joliesnyc #opendoors #retailspaceforlease

Memory Alley

Remember when this blog first started, how I posted so many pictures of open doors in the East Village?

Even though this is not a reminiscing blog, I decided to take a brief trip down memory lane, but because this is the East Village, and because the trip will be so short, I call it… Memory Alley!

Here it is: an open door, on East 7 Street:

Open door.

Thank you.

#eastvillage #7thstreet #opendoors

Refilling McDonald's

Saturday morning is the best time to walk around the East Village — not only is it quiet, but it's the time when deliveries are being made to all the local, beloved shopping establishments!

I was walking up First Avenue this past Saturday morning, when I happened upon this scene, at the local McDonald's:

Delivering something good!

Where is it going?

Down the hallway.

What is it?

What it is.

I'm not sure what it is, but it sure comes in a large canister!

There's always something going on… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #firstavenue #mcdonalds #delivery #opendoors

Safety Message

If you're walking down the street at night, and you see an open gate, leading into a dimly-lit garden or vacant lot, don't go in! It's not safe!

Do not enter.

This message was brought to you by East Village Today — keeping East Villagers safe since 2014!

#eastvillage #opendoors #communitygardens

What Next For Yaffa?

There hasn't been much work done lately to the former, once-beloved Yaffa Cafe, on St. Mark's Place, so these pictures from this past August aren't too far out of date:

Former Yaffa Cafe door, open.

Inside the former Yaffa Cafe.

East Villagers are still waiting to find out what exciting new venue will open up here!

Another fashionable place to go… in the fashionable East Village Today!

#eastvillage #yaffacafe #stmarksplace #constructionsites #opendoors

Robot Trash Can Open

Back in October of 2014, I wrote about new arrivals to Tompkins Square Park: the Robot Trash Cans!

East Villagers love technological innovations, and this was no exception!

I passed through the park recently, when I saw the door to one of them open:

Is that a beloved Mud Coffee cup?!

As you can see, the trash can is considerably smaller than the non-robotic variety.

This should go a long way to help to reduce the amount of trash produced… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #robottrashcans #mudcoffee #tompkinssquarepark #trashcans #opendoors

Eerie Cellar Doors

One of the benefits of shooting video over still photography, is that people can come to understand why things like open doors are so appealing.

These are the open cellar doors at the beloved Cafe Mocha, on Second Avenue and East 7th Street:


Eerie, no?!

There's a lot of eerie-ness… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #cafemocha #secondavenue #7thstreet #opendoors

The Long Hallway

As you know, East Villagers love to leave their doors open. Now that I'm shooting videos, you get to see what some of these the way I see them!

Here's one, on First Avenue:



It's such a long, narrow hallway — it's almost like the one in The Wizard of Oz!

#eastvillage #opendoors #firstavenue

Gaping, Wide-Open Door

I was walking across East 6th Street this past Tuesday, when I saw this gaping, wide-open door:

Gaping, wide-open door.

It dwarfs the smaller, open door beside it — you might not even notice it!

Pretty soon I think I'm going to have a picture of every open door there is… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #6thstreet #opendoors

Deja Vu All Over Again

It seems like it was only early-March that I posted a picture of this gate, chained to a post, with a car behind it:

Gate, post, car, trunk open.

Do you remember what else there was? An open door, you say?

An open door.

As regular as clockwork… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #chains #mamakshop #opendoors #secondavenue

Tenement Basements

I was walking across East 4th Street this morning, when I saw these rickety cellar doors, guarded by a tall orange cone:

Rickety cellar doors, open.

Peering downstairs, to see if there was anything interesting down there, I saw something really interesting! There was a wooden wall at the bottom of the stairs, with concrete blocks behind it:

Wooden wall.

The concrete blocks were not interesting; it was the wooden wall that was interesting. This was probably a load-bearing wall until recently.

No one ever said that tenements were pretty. In fact, they're kind of gritty!

And that's the end of my little ditty.

#eastvillage #cellardoors #opendoors #basements #orangecones #4thstreet

A Perfect Storm of Love

I may have mentioned that East Villagers love eating outside, and graffiti, and open doors, and dogs!

So when you add all these things together, you get this, that I saw on East 7th Street the other evening:

A perfect storm of East Village love.

It just doesn't get any better… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #7thstreet #dogs #opendoors #graffiti #outdoorseating

Double Header

I have 21 posts in my Drafts folder! Yikes! I have to start posting these.

Back in early March, I was walking up Second Avenue, when I saw this fence-piece chained to this signpost:

Fence-piece chained to signpost.

Directly behind where I stood when taking this picture was this open door:

Open door.

It was a double-header!

I miss the snow… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #chains #mamakshop #opendoors #secondavenue #snow

Sugo the Vegetable Bar

I was walking across East 3rd Street this morning when I saw this door open:

Open door on East 3rd Street.

You can't see from the picture, but the name of the place is Sugo.

It's been a while since I've posted an open door picture, hasn't it?! Yes, it has! So I took a closer look:

Closer look at open door.

By this time, I was so close I decided I had to take a look inside:

A look inside.

It looks like it will be a bar, but that stack of boxes looks like vegetables, and while I was in the doorway taking this picture, a delivery man said "Excuse me" and passed by with a dolly full of more boxes of vegetables.

Maybe it's celery for bloody marys! East Villagers love vegetable cocktails!

#eastvillage #3rdstreet #opendoors #sagu

A Long Way Down

I was walking across St. Mark's Place this past Sunday, when I saw this cellar door open, just below a set of stairs:

Long way down.

It's really a wonder more people don't fall down these things, the way they're just left open like this.

#eastvillage #open #doors #stmarksplace

Inside the Door to Nowhere

I haven't posted too many "open doors" lately. They still intrigue me, but when you put them into a blog, they begin to all look the same.

Anyway, next to Horus Cafe, on East 6th Street and Avenue B, I saw this open door, which seems to go nowhere:

Door to nowhere.

And in fact, it does!

A stack of doors, inside the door to nowhere.

This room can only be entered through the door shown at top — there is no other means of entry! What is the point of this?!

Just another one of the mysteries of the East Village!

#eastvillage #7thstreet #horuscafe #avenueb #mysteries #opendoors #inside