Three Vietnamese restaurants planned for Uptown

St. Charles Avenue could be home to le Viet café (near Jackson Avenue) in less than two weeks, while Magazine Street is slated for openings soon afterward of Magasin Vietnamese Café near Napoleon Avenue and Pho Noi Viet in the Lower Garden District, reports Gambit’s Ian McNulty.

Controversial home demolition on St. Charles, restaurant on Magazine and nightclub on Freret all headed to City Council

Three Uptown land-use projects that have each generated a fair amount of controversy — the proposed demolition of a historic home on St. Charles Avenue, permission for a restaurant to open in spite of unpermitted additions and a new nightclub on Freret Street — are all slated for New Orleans City Council hearing on Thursday, according to the agenda. The most pressing issue will be a decision on the proposed Johnny V’s restaurant next to Monkey Hill bar on Magazine Street, which City Council rules prohibit from being delayed any longer. At issue is whether to modify the property’s land-use restrictions to incorporate additions to the building that were added without permission during a recent renovation. The Audubon Riverside Neighborhood Association has been tentatively in favor of a good-neighbor agreement with the restaurant for several months, and met again about the issue Tuesday night.

Magazine Street business robbed Sunday morning

A business in the 4900 block of Magazine Street was robbed early Sunday morning, police said. The business, which was not named in an NOPD alert about the robbery, had just opened at 10 a.m. Sunday when a man clad in a black hooded sweatshirt came in and asked for a product. As the clerk turned around, the man came behind the counter, implied he had a gun, and demanded that the safe be opened, the alert said. When the clerk complied, the suspect took its contents and left. The suspect was a 6-foot-tall, clean-shaven black man in his 20s, dressed all in dark clothing and wearing black gloves, police said.

Man, 82, killed in hit-and-run on Magazine Street

Chun Nin Chan was attempting to cross Magazine Street at Milan around 7 a.m. Monday when he was hit by a car that didn’t stop, and he died that evening, according to our reporting partners at WWL-TV. The vehicle is described as a four-door, white Nissan, and anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.

Former Nine Inch Nails recording studio slated for redevelopment into doctor’s office, shops

For six years, the brooding former funeral home on Magazine Street that served for nearly a decade as a recording studio for musician Trent Reznor has sat vacant. Now, its new owners are taking the first steps to give it new life as a mix of office and retail space, but are hampered by one of the most common obstacles to development in Uptown New Orleans: parking. Called “Nothing Studios” during its tenure serving Nine Inch Nails and their labelmates, Reznor abandoned the building in 2004 when he moved away from New Orleans. Hurricane damage was minimal, but it remained unused until Feburary of 2010, when it was purchased by Metairie-based cosmetic surgeon Kamran Khoobehi for $900,000 from “Hot Snakes LLC” of Cleveland, its owner since 1995, property records show. On Monday, Khoobehi’s wife, Jila, appeared before the Board of Zoning Adjustments to request permission to redevelop the building with only 16 available parking spaces, compared to the 59 that would technically be required for a building of its size.

“Art for Art’s Sake” celebration returns to Magazine Street

Magazine Street will become a four-mile-long art exhibition Saturday evening, when dozens of galleries and other businesses hold the annual “Art for Art’s Sake” celebration. Art will be on display at not only galleries, but also restaurants, salons, new and vintage clothing boutiques, yoga studios and a chocolatier. The participating businesses have promised wine and champagne, beer and cocktails, cheese, cupcakes, popcorn and other hors d’oeuvres, and DJs and musicians will be present up and down the street. Free shuttle buses will be running the length of Magazine Street from 5 to 9 p.m. A full list of participating Magazine Street galleries has been compiled by the Magazine Street Merchants Association. Two other Uptown art spaces participating in the evening’s festivities are Du Mois gallery on Freret Street and the Big Top at 1638 Clio.

Walgreens opts for a traditional look on Magazine

With some encouragement from City Hall, the developers of the Walgreens store planned for Magazine Street have settled on a historic-style design intended to blend with the existing streetscape, abandoning a more modern look they had previously considered. When Stirling Properties last met with the neighborhoods surrounding the old American Legion hall in the 5500 block of Magazine, they offered three options, each of which blended a contemporary look similar to Whole Foods with varying historic features. Feedback from the neighbors led to no clear consensus in favor of any of the designs, said Stirling vice president Peter Aamodt, so the developers and Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office went back to the drawing board with a new architect, John Williams.

The end result, Aamodt told a group of neighbors Wednesday evening, is an Italianate, turn-of-the-century style building that “fits more contextually with Magazine Street.” “It’s a drastic change from the way we were going, and we hope it’s widely accepted,” Aamodt said. The natural brick facade will still have large windows to give the interior a transparent feeling, and much of the interior structure will be exposed, Williams said.

Neighborhoods to see new design for Walgreens on Magazine

The developers of the Walgreens pharmacy proposed for the old American Legion building on Magazine Street will share a new design for the store with neighbors tonight (Wednesday, Sept. 28). Previous renovation plans called for a modern-style glass façade to the building that some neighbors complained did not fit the streetscape on the Magazine. “Walgreen’s has changed architects since the last public meeting, and its new design reflects a more ‘traditional’ approach,” according to the nearby Hurstville Security and Neighborhood Improvement District. The meeting, deemed a “briefing” on the latest design by City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, will be from 5:30 to 6 p.m. at the American Legion hall at 5518 Magazine Street.

Johnny V’s request splits City Planning Commission, heads to City Council without recommendation

A request by the proposed Johnny V’s restaurant to be allowed to open in spite of unauthorized expansions divided the City Planning Commission on Tuesday, sending it to the City Council for a decision with no formal recommendation either way. The commission had postponed its decision on Johnny V’s presentation last month, awaiting the outcome of negotiations over a contract to use the parking lot of nearby Perlis as a way of compensating for the added space in the restaurant. (The surrounding neighborhood association’s support for the project is contingent on that contract as well.) Stephen Kroll, a member of the planning commission staff, told the commission Tuesday that “no formal agreement” had been reached with Perlis, but that the staff continues to recommend approval of the changes. Johnny V’s has five spaces of its own, and has agreements with a nearby doctor’s office for six more and with the Shell station for 12, Kroll said, far more than the City Council had previously approved even if negotiations with Perlis fail — even though the restaurant will increase demand for on-street parking nearby regardless. “You’d probably need at least 50 spaces to ensure that every vehicle associated with both of those uses is off the street,” Kroll said, referring to Johnny V’s and the adjoining Monkey Hill Bar.