Rockabilly business owner hopes
to help rebuild the East Village
BY DEAN MOSES
After almost a year of economic
despair and devastation brought
on by COVID-19, a new business
hopes to help rebuild the East Village.
The East Village is primarily populated
by small, independent businesses. Since the
onset of the pandemic, the outbreak has
caused the closure of countless, beloved
storefronts such as Big Gay Ice Cream and
the looming end of Halloween Adventure.
Without the fi nancial backing of larger
corporations, the battle to stay open amidst
the hardships of 2020 to 2021 life has been
immense.
One business owner has taken the
plunge and actually opened her doors
amidst the onslaught of the novel coronavirus.
Mariann Marlowe is not new to the
East Village, in fact she previously ran a
unique clothing outlet on 125 2nd Avenue
before being forced to close due to rising
rent prices. However, after witnessing the
destruction of the community she decided
to reopen on 76 East 7th Street between 1st
and 2nd Avenue with the aspiration to help
restore the area’s fading charm.
Enz’s is a clothing boutique brimming
with custom-made dresses, jackets, and
shirts, many of which are designed by
Marlowe herself. Marlowe, a self-described
rockabilly—an early style of rock and
FILE PHOTO Mariann Marlowe points to a 1970s issue of The Villager.
roll—garnered much of her inspiration during
the 1970s while hanging out with rock
bands such as the Sex Pistols in London.
Using what she saw from the U.K. rock
scene, Marlowe helped open a punk-rock
store in 1978. Since that time, she has
moved around stores and locations before
fi nally ending up here.
“England was really fun in the ’70s,
everybody went over there. I hung out with
the New York Dolls and did photoshoots;
the Ramones went over there. The thing
that amazed me about London was that
you would go in a pub and there would
be a little old lady drinking right next to a
crazy punk-rocker with a six-inch mohawk
and that always fascinated me because you
don’t get that in New York—maybe in the
East Village but not as much anymore,”
Marlowe said, reminiscing back to the
heyday of rock and roll. Her nostalgia is
very much apparent with a framed photo
of Marlowe’s store featured in a 1970s issue
of the Villager.
For decades—dating back to the
1960s—the East Village became known
as the stomping grounds for artists, writers,
and musicians, yet in recent years this
subset of individuals seems to have fallen
away, retreating to the outer boroughs like
Williamsburg and Bushwick.
“London is the same way. When I went
back four years ago, I was like ‘oh my God,
everybody looks American,’ I literally had
to go into a tattoo parlor to see some cool
kids,” Marlowe joked.
By reopening Enz’s—named after her
pet dog—she yearns to bring back some of
the old-school fl air the area was known for
years prior. But with the COVID-19 virus
still raging and tourism a non-existent
commodity, Marlowe admits that business
has been slow since opening her doors in
December. However, with the vaccine now
being distributed, she is optimistic customers
will return in the months to come once
the word of her store gets around.
Moving in on East 7th Street comes
with another personal issue. Locals have
taken to calling it a “Cursed Street” after
multiple fi res and water main breaks have
run rampant over the last few years. This
is not news to Marlowe, in fact, she experienced
this “curse” fi rsthand at her previous
location.
Enz’s opened mere weeks after another
fi re hit the area, destroying Middle Collegiate
Church, leaving behind a skeletal
structure with ashen remains standing
mere feet away from where Marlowe’s
new store now stands. Despite setbacks
such as fi res and the COVID-19 pandemic,
Marlowe is positive others will follow in her
footsteps and begin returning to the barren
neighborhood.
Indoor dining back just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend
BY MARK HALLUM
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced
Monday that his administration
would help eateries in New
York City prepare for Valentine’s Day by
allowing indoor dining at 25% capacity a
couple of days prior.
With infection rates on a continuous
downward trend from the holidays, Cuomo
said indoor service could come back on
Friday, Feb. 12 after a widely unpopular
hiatus that has been in place since early
December in preparation for a spike.
“They have made the point that they’d like
to open a couple of days earlier so they can
be ready for Valentine’s Day. Get the staff
oriented get supplies into the restaurant. And
that’s a reasonable request. So we’ll start
indoor dining on Friday at 25%,” Cuomo
said. “It should be a big restaurant day.”
“We commend Governor Cuomo for
permitting indoor dining to resume in New
York City on Friday, instead of Sunday the
originally scheduled date,” Andrew Rigie,
executive director of the NYC Hospitality
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that indoor dining at New York City
restaurants will be implemented ahead of Valentine’s Day weekend.
Alliance, said. “This will allow restaurants
to generate much needed revenue from the
Valentine’s Day weekend business, much
of which they would have lost because the
holiday falls on a Sunday this year. The
PHOTO BY REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY
advanced opening and better health metrics
are welcome news to the city’s decimated
restaurant industry and to lovers alike.”
The governor spoke about taking an aggressive
attitude toward the reopening of
the economy through a return of the arts
industry such as Broadway theater, which
generates billions for the New York City
economy, partly through tourism.
Cuomo is planning a new program called
New York Pops Up for live entertainment
with social distancing and avoiding large
gatherings. Many of the 300 events will be
spontaneous, according to the governor,
and will start at the Javits Center on Feb.
20. It will last up to 100 days.
It’s the fi rst initiative in the nation. That
will accelerate the restoration of the arts
and performances and creative energy, you
have an entire sector of the economy that
has been out of work,” Cuomo said. “We
talk about the restaurant workers and, and
people who’ve been hurt at work. When you
shut down Broadway, when you shut down
movie theaters, you stop an entire industry.
Everybody understands why, but we have to
now nurture that industry to bring it back.
And again, it is vital for our cities to survive.”
The program will reach a “crescendo,”
according to Cuomo, over the summer at
Pier 55 with a special event.
4 February 11, 2021 Schneps Media