Lower East Side (Brady Street Now

LOWER EAST SIDE

(Brady Street Now)

BY JOHN SCHNEIDER

Change is in the DNA of Brady Street but the pandemic quickened the pace. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for most of the last 50 years. Here are things I notice as I walk the street today.

The east part’s the heart, so let’s start at the five-point intersection of Brady, Farwell and Cambridge. CVS with its new Minute Clinic is a veritable medical center with indoor and drive-through services. Kitty corner, the huge windows of the long triangular building, formerly Fed Ex and Kinko’s, hold “For Lease” signs.

What might the future hold? The boarded-up corner building across Farwell, once a Starbucks, announces on an upper story window: Psychic Visions—Walk-ins Welcome.

The small mall beside our stalwart Walgreens has the new Taco Stop for Mexican take-out. A prominent wall-size poster in Supercuts hair salon next door reads “Thank you for not cutting your own hair today.” Sorry, Supercuts; that’s one of my pandemic money-savers. To boot, my longtime hair salon, Live Gallery, has relocated to the west end of Brady, so coming or going I feel a bit guilty.

Shocking losses: Brewed, the warm coffee shop that helped the street recover when its happy hippie days were past has closed. Likewise, Fazio’s Dry Cleaning, part of the street’s strong Italian heritage. The Up And Under nightclub is gone. A new club named Nashville North will take its place soon, says big letters across the façade. New food and drinking spots, all busy now: the roomy Pete’s Pub; the artful St. Bibiana’s with its naked angels; and the dazzling German-flavored Wurstbar with both indoor and outdoor video screens, mostly tuned to sports channels.

Walking Brady Street at night, in fact, I feel I’m in a (mostly sports-themed) movie. I’ve counted 77 sizable video screens in the three-block stretch from Warren to Franklin.

Also new: Mac Shack offers a variety of “wood oven mac and cheese” dishes. Black Ink is an intriguing tattoo parlor. Golden Grizzly Tattoo is a snazzy one. I’ll buy and sell used clothes at Bandit Vintage and Modern. I’ll outfit my feet at the Ground Up Sneaker Shop.

Nomadland: The Nomad World Pub is foundational to Brady Street, a must-see for visitors, and now in four parts. 1) the original bar; 2) the colorful, train-like compartments on the street along the curb; 3) the wide-open alleyway behind the original building with a bar, barstools and tables, tree stump seating, video screens, an outdoor sound system, a burger stand, restrooms; and 4) a brand-new indoor Coffee Bar in the next building down.

Last summer, and hopefully next, Nomad teamed with its neighbor Club Brady to create “Brady Beach.” They persuaded the city to close the intersection at Warren and Brady, filled it with tables and hosted a summer long street party. You could hear the music for blocks sometimes. I didn’t mind.

BRADY STREET

Photo by Michael Burmesch.

Actor, playwright and director John Schneider was a member of Theatre X and has lived on the Lower East Side for many years.