A Portuguese Thong

Once upon a time, when old East Villagers were new East Villagers, there was a restaurant on St. Mark's Place called the beloved Yaffa Cafe.

Today, it is the soon-to-be-beloved Taberna Uma Tanga Portuguesa:

Taberna Uma Tanga Portuguesa, and a photographer.

I'm guessing this is going to be some kind of Greek/Portuguese fusion restaurant, because "Taberna" is Greek (and the color scheme is modern Cycladic-island) while "Uma Tanga Portuguesa" is Portuguese. It means "a Portuguese thong!*"

More evidence of its Greekiness is this array of vessels outside:

Array of vessels.

Finally, where once was the freaky mural, now there is a hearty mural:

Hearty mural.

Until now, I thought Hek Tad only pasted up photocopies of his name!

* * *

* When I look up "tanga" in translate.google.com, it says "moth", but when I look up "uma tanga" it says "a thong". It's obvious which translation I'm going to use — moths are scary!

#eastvillage #hektad #photographers #restaurants #stmarksplace #tabernaumatangaportuguesa #yaffacafe

Spring Painting

I was walking across St. Mark's Place — oh, about three days ago — when I saw this bit of fresh paint covering the beloved billboard for Yaffa Cafe, outside the formerly-beloved Yaffa Cafe:

Fresh paint.

Hopefully, this is just primer — hopefully, they'll paint the bare spot spruce green. As long-time readers of this blog know, there's nothing like a bit of paint to spruce up the East Village!

Sprucing up with spruce green.

This recess has been the focus of great coolness for decades — hopefully it will remain so for decades to come… in the East Village Today, and Beyond!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #yaffacafe #paint

The Reclamation

I'm not an expert in the graffiti arts, but it seems to me that graffitiers are a lot like dogs!

No, I don't mean that they're friendly, or howl when a firetruck goes by — I mean that they claim, and re-claim, their territory!

You may remember from such posts as The Same Coin, that the fence beside the formerly-beloved Yaffa Cafe, on St. Mark's Place, was claimed by the graffitier Cool.

But gaze upon this:

Formerly-beloved Yaffa Cafe, with construction fence.

Cool's territory-marker is gone!

Lucky for him, the boiler went kaput in the building next door, requiring an external heating source (called "donkey boilers!) be brought in:

External heating source.

Which is better: white with orange, or orange with white?

Vote for your favorite in the comments below!

#eastvillage #constructionsites #cool #graffiti #stmarksplace #yaffacafe

The Same Coin

East Village coolness is like the two sides of a coin.

One side is heads:

Heads.

and the other side is tails:

Tails.

If you look carefully, you'll see that this is the same spot, taken from two different angles!

Only one of these pictures would make it onto a brochure promoting East Village coolness — if you guess Tails, you're right!

East Villagers love squalor!

#eastvillage #cool #graffiti #squalor #stmarksplace #yaffacafe

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

Inside the Former Yaffa Cafe

Two weeks ago, I posted a picture of the beloved former Yaffa Cafe, on St. Mark's Place.

I passed by there again last week, and I had the idea to show what it looked like inside, for those inquiring readers who want to know!

Behold:

Inside the beloved former Yaffa Cafe.

It's very dark, as you can tell, and you can see through to the door that led to the beloved courtyard.

It's strange to think there are places so dark… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #yaffacafe #inside

Former Yaffa Cafe

 This is a picture of the former Yaffa Cafe, on St. Mark's Place:

Former Yaffa Cafe.

The Yaffa Cafe opened the same year I moved to New York. I went there a couple of times with friends of mine. It was new, we were new… it was the thing to do!

Eventually, we stopped. I mean, it was just a cafe. There was nothing special about it.

Now it's gone, and so are the people we were then. Fortunately, our shells don't remain behind, like cicadas, and like Yaffa Cafe!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #yaffacafe