News fl ash: Gem Spa is struggling
BY BILL WEINBERG
It was slightly traumatic for old-school East Village
residents when they last approached Gem
Spa to buy a paper at the newsstand that had
long stood outside the corner store. The newsstand,
a fi xture for generations, displaying a multilingual
selection refl ecting the neighborhood’s diversity,
was gone — not a scrap of printed matter was to be
found at Gem Spa.
Parul Patel is behind the counter every day now,
putting her “life on hold” to save the family business.
The newsstand was a necessary sacrifi ce, she
said.
“We don’t make money on newspapers,” she explained.
“Six or eight dollars each day — if nobody
steals any. My dad was doing it as a community
service.”
Her father, Ray Patel, now ailing with Parkinson’s
disease, purchased Gem Spa in 1986.
“My father loves newspapers, he’s from that generation,”
she said. “He carried the torch at his own
expense.”
Old-timers who still buy newspapers could be
accommodated — until a twist of fate plunged the
business into crisis.
Sales initially dropped 80 percent in April, when
the store’s cigarette license was suspended. Patel
said a “rogue employee” (subsequently fi red) sold
butts on two occasions to undercover snoops from
the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs.
“It’s not in line with our philosophy,” Patel said.
“We wouldn’t be here 33 years otherwise.”
She pointed out the pop-up sign on the register
that prompts cashiers to ask if tobacco purchasers
are 21 years old.
A city judge imposed no penalty on Gem Spa
after the rogue cigarette sales last year, noting the
store’s clean prior record. But word of the sales was
automatically shared with state authorities, who
imposed a six-month suspension in April.
The newsstand was removed in early June, partly
at the urging of the landlord’s management company,
which sought a cleaner look. Zoltar, the mechanical
fortune teller, was also removed.
The inside magazine racks were likewise removed.
Patel said the distributer, Hudson News,
“scooped up” the entire stock of magazines following
a fi nancial dispute. She said newspaper and
magazine sales took a plunge some 10 years ago, as
digital media became ubiquitous.
The loss of the newsstand exemplifi es a cultural
shift. Opinion differs on when Gem Spa
fi rst opened. Certainly, the store has been at the
corner of Second Ave. and St. Mark’s Place since
the 1950s. But sources maintain it had an earlier
incarnation at the location under a different name
in the ’20s. It is widely credited as the fi rst place
in New York to sell egg creams. It began selling
Yiddish newspapers, but became an outlet for the
underground press in the counterculture of the
’60s. Allen Ginsberg and Patti Smith invoked Gem
Spa in their writings, and the New York Dolls shot
the back-cover photo of their 1973 debut album in
front of the iconic store.
When the New Jersey-based Patel family bought
Did he even see it coming? Zoltar, the fortune teller, was removed from the front of Gem
Spa in June, allegedly to give the storefront a “cleaner” look.
the store, they learned how to make egg creams
from the previous owners.
“I’ve been making egg creams since I was a teenager,”
Parul Patel boasted.
What’s critical now is making it to October,
when the tobacco license will be restored, according
to Patel. She’s added CBD items to try to take
up the slack — and vegan egg creams with almond
milk. “We’re catering to new segments of the neighborhood,”
she said.
Patel anticipates eventually restoring magazines
and newspapers — although not the outdoor newsstand
— on a limited basis. But she said it would
just be the “main titles, not all the exotic stuff we
carried, in Chinese, Polish, Italian and Spanish.”
“I’m overwhelmed by how many people have
come forward to help us,” she said. But she was
quick to add, “I have to triple what I’m doing right
now. We’re just surviving, with no pay for myself. I
never see my kids.”
Harry Bubbins of Village Preservation notes rumors
that a Citibank is planned for the space. This
could be allowed under the terms of the East Village
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Historic District, as long as the exterior is not
changed. Village Preservation is pushing for a “special
commercial district” for the East Village, which
would restrict new chain outlets from opening between
E. 14th and E. Houston Sts. from Second
Ave. to Avenue D. Community Board 3 approved
the idea in June, but the plan must fi rst pass muster
with the City Planning Department before going to
the City Council for a deciding vote.
“St. Mark’s is not dead, and it’s because of businesses
like Gem Spa that have been in the neighborhood
for decades,” Bubbins declared. “It’s a
quintessential East Village corner store.”
Patel said supporters are planning a benefi t for
Gem Spa, and she’s promoting the store on social
media. She said that despite having been a successful
businessman, her father has little money. A devout
Hindu, originally from Gujarat, India, he gave
much of his earnings to charity.
“I need this business to take care of my dad’s
medical needs. And it meant so much to him,” Patel
said, wiping away a tear. “I want him to die with
dignity.”
Schneps Media TVG August 8, 2019 15