A Little Festival Every Sunday on Broome

The BID will revive the tradition of LES pushcarts

roome Street will be taking a fresh approach to old-time pushcart vending this summer. On Sundays beginning in July, local restaurants will take turns selling seasonal foods from a pushcart. The block between Orchard and Allen on Broome will be closed off to vehicles, and local performers and artists will display their talents.

Meanwhile, the Lower East Side Greenmarket will relocate from Orchard Street to the sidewalk on the busy corner of Essex and Grand Streets. It’s a better location for the market, offering a wide sidewalk with lots of traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian.

With the market transported, the LES BID is planning the Broome Street Sundays as a summer-long festival of food and entertainment. Restaurants will be using produce from the farmers’ market to make foods they’ll sell from a pushcart. Arts organizations will provide music and arts. Guides will conduct neighborhood tours.

“We’re calling it The Lower Feast Side,” says BID Director Roberto Ragone. Subtitled L.E.S. a la cart, the block-long Sunday series will offer “a little bit of everything.”

The BID, established 15 years ago, fosters community and economic development around Orchard Street. Programs range from graffiti cleaning to a free neighborhood tour (a no-reservation, two-hour walk every Sunday, starting at Katz’s Delicatessen, 11:00 AM). Help for BID projects comes from the offices of State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez and the Cornell University Cooperative Extension.

The BID office is on Broome Street, on the block of the summer’s Lower Feast Side. The block also includes a portion of the Tenement Museum, a tailor shop and the boutique Hello Sari. “The merchants were in favor,” says Ragone. “It’s a small block, a great block to experiment with something new.”

The street will be closed from 10 AM to 4 PM, July through September.

LowerEastSideNY.com.

Pat Arnow

UJC Celebrates 35 Years

Mrs. Fran Shulman receiving the Meyer Nochlin Chesed Award with (from the left) her Husband the Hon. Martin Shulman, UJC Executive Director Joel Kaplan and UJC President and Rabbi of the Bilaystoker Synagogue Rabbi Zvi Romm. (Photo by Boris Berenshteyn)

he United Jewish Council of the East Side held its 35th annual dinner on April 29. Couple of the Year Yosef and Tova Peretz were the guests of honor; Frances A. Shulman received the Meyer Nochlin Chesed Award, and Dr. David J. Shulkin received the Community Service Award.

The dinner was chaired by Hy Medows and honorary co-chairs William E. Rapfogel and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Yosef Peretz is president of the Bialystoker Synagogue. His wife Tova is treasurer of the shul’s sisterhood and active in Jewish matchmaking circles, helping bring potential couples together. David J. Shulkin, M.D. is President and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center. Frances A. Shulman is the Student Services Coordinator at the Lower East Side Bais Yaakov Elementary School and is active in the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools and many other community organizations.

According to Executive Director Joel Kaplan, the United Jewish Council represents more than 60 community service groups, schools and synagogues. Lower East Siders of every age, ethnic and religious group benefit from the programs and services the Council provides every day, from home attendant and home health care services to immigration counseling, career assistance, computer training and senior luncheon programs.

212-233-6037, www.ujces.org

David Weinberger

Mr. Weinberger is the UJC Community Coordiantor

Grand Opening for Grand Street’s Two Boots

Teddy Tenenhaus, who lives across the street from the new Two Boots on Grand Street, had a slice during the grand opening May 17

t the corner, there’s that familiar charred scent. Inside, among the pandemonium of everyone in the neighborhood grabbing slices of free pizza and musicians playing, there is the familiar flavor of Two Boots pizza. Which is very good. Two Boots—for the three of you who have never eaten it in the East Village, Greenwich Village or Grand Central Terminal—has a thinnish crust, crunchy, with cornmeal on the bottom. The two boots refer to the shape of Italy and Louisiana and the flavors that come from both places. Andouille (Cajun hot sausage) on your pizza, yum.

Owner Phil Hartman stands near the door greeting the throngs of hungry neighbors. He says he opened this place on Grand Street after living on East Broadway and Clinton for years. He raised his kids here—they’re now 17, 13, and 12.

The new place on the corner of Grand and Suffolk is a fresh face in what was a shabby old storefront. “You should have seen this place,” says Hartman, rolling his eyes. It was a fixer-upper. “We like being pioneers.”

PA

Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival

unique slice of Lower Manhattan – where Chinatown meets the Jewish Lower East Side – comes to life at the Eldridge Street Project’s annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival on Sunday, June 3 from 12 to 4 PM. Chinese and Jewish musicians, dancers, storytellers and folk artists present their traditions and art forms at the festival, on Eldridge Street between Canal and Division, with the National Historic Landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue as its centerpiece. The Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival celebrates the two cultural groups that have lived and worked on the block, from the East European Jewish immigrants of a century ago to the Chinese community of today. A Hebrew and a Chinese scribe sit side by side in the synagogue sanctuary while outside on the street a Chinese Opera singer performs, followed by a klezmer ensemble. Adults and children alike relish a good old-fashioned egg cream while watching a mesmerizing performance of Chinese acrobatics. A free event, the Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival draws hundreds of visitors from the neighborhood and around the city.

Sunday, June 3, 12-4 PM, 12 Eldridge Street

Amy Stein Milford

Ms. Milford is Marketing Director for the Eldridge Street Project

Free Sleep-Away Camp for Lower East Side Youth

enry Street Settlement is offering full camp scholarships to children from the Lower East Side to attend its sleep-away Camp Ralph and Rose Hittman, located an hour north of the city in Harriman State Park.

Children ages 8 to 13 can escape the city heat this summer and spend their days swimming, boating and canoeing on a beautiful lake; creating art projects; playing basketball, soccer, softball and archery; and enjoying other fun activities. Camp Hittman has three two-week sessions, although campers, especially those new to sleep-away camp, have the option to attend for just one week.

Camp sessions are: Session One, July 1st – July 14th, ages 8 to 10; Session Two, July 17th – July 30th, ages 10 to 12; and Session Three, August 4th –August 17th, ages 11 to 13.

Contact Sonia Allen, 212.254.3100 ext. 214.