99 Rivington Street, past and present
Even though the Beastie Boys album will tell you Paul's Boutique is in Brooklyn, the cover image is all Lower East Side. As we noted in our NYC Album Art series, the shot was taken at 99 Rivington Street, where Rivington and Ludlow intersect. The storefront has had many incarnations, including a restaurant a few years ago called Paul's Boutique—an homage to the album. Well, currently it's a joint called Three Monkeys, and according to EV Grieve, last night eyewitness reports came in declaring, "it just burned down."
At 8:30 last night we received word from the newswire that "all hands working for fire on the 1st floor restaurant of a 6 story. Req for board of health and placed fire." No injuries have been reported, and it's unclear at this time how extensive the damages are. Locals, who have been complaining about the noise levels there, seem to be taking it in stride, one Tweeting, "I just learned that NYC's Three Monkeys (née Paul's Boutique) burned down. As long as it didn't spread to Verlaine, I'm ok."
