THOR

For the past five or so years I've kept a wary eye on the Hotel on Rivington (THOR). I can't remember when they started building it, but it seems like ages ago. I'm thinking it was mid-to-late 2002. Because I have a picture I took in early 2003 where the structure had already topped out. Then from what I recall, it seems like construction halted for a long period of time, creating an eyesore of uncovered rusty steel beams. According to wikipedia, the building was completed in 2005, around the same time I moved to an apartment about four blocks away. But before I even moved to New York I was aware that the corner of Ludlow and Rivington was the location of the famous panoramic image featured on the cover of the Beastie Boys album Paul's Boutique. I even edited the album's wikipedia page when a new bar opened up this summer that seemingly paid homage to another store in the photo, Spitzer's Corner Shop. Then at some point it became Spitzer's Dress Shop (see photo above, which I took summer of 2004) and the bar now it its place is just known as Spitzer's Corner. THOR, known as a "trademark of gentrification in the Lower East Side," has since gone on to host countless rooftop/penthouse parties. Walking on nearby Delancey, I've often looked up in envy and seen people taking in the views at sunset. Indeed, I came across a photo several weeks ago, taken by Jake Dobkin, who had the opportunity to photograph one of said parties up top. One of the many things I love about the photo is that it shows the back of my building, on its Orchard Street side (it's the building that's next to the building that touches the taller building with the white columns. Click on photo, left, to enlarge). A couple weeks ago Yvonne and I snuck into THOR and took the elevator to the top floor, naively thinking we'd find access to the rooftop. After getting off on the 20th floor we were confronted with the oddness of one of the luxury suite's doors being wide open. We concluded there was a housekeeper inside cleaning. We found a stairwell and went up one more story on the very sticky stairs (too many spilled drinks) but alas were turned away by the ubiquitous orange roof door alarm. Not wanting to go all the way back down to the ground floor, we got off on the second floor. That's when we came across something that surprised me greatly: a nice Brunswick pool table (not coin-operated). After not being able to find any pool balls and feeling a bit like we were about to get kicked out, a friendly concierge-type person came in and asked if we wanted to play pool. All I had to do was give them my ID in exchange for the balls and a rack. So it was a very unexpected surprise. We played for a half hour or so while drinking juice drinks from tall glasses.The pool table is reserved primarily for guests of the hotel and patrons of the bar. So it's not like they encourage people to come in off the street and practice their pool for free. But the second floor bar is open Thursday through Saturdays and anybody can go to the bar at that point. The table had black felt and played very nicely. But the dark felt combined with somewhat uneven overhead lighting made it a little more difficult to see the pockets (cloudy Sunday around 5pm didn't help much).It's doubtful I'll go there with any regularity simply to practice, especially considering I have to buy something from the bar. But I do think it's really classy to have a pool table that's free for hotel guests. Part of me wonders if there's every any high-stakes action with twenty dollar bills being thrown around (I sort of doubt it). Or if it's just young urban professionals sipping $12 martinis playing 20-minute games of doubles (more likely). Regardless, there's definitely some sort of potential there. Next time I'm walking back from the East Village on a weekend night I see people upstairs playing I'm definitely stopping in.