Sunday, October 4, 2026 · No. 52 · Mostly Clear, low 58°F
Good Sunday morning. Fifth-grade families, the middle-school tour calendar is filling in: East Side Middle School has posted three admissions sessions this month. Also in the paper: Pepe & Vera on First Avenue now has an opening target, a four-bedroom at The Harper on East 86th asks just under $6 million, and a German butcher that has been on Second Avenue since 1937.
Schools & Kids
Middle-school tour season: East Side Middle School posts three October sessions
With the middle-school application opening Oct. 14, East Side Middle School (MS 114) lists three admissions events for families of students entering sixth grade in fall 2027: Friday, Oct. 9 and Wednesday, Oct. 14, both at 8:30 a.m., and an evening session Thursday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. Families register through the school's admissions-events page. Yorkville East Middle School (MS 177), just south of our line on York Avenue, posts its own tour schedule and sign-up on its admissions page — check there for current dates. Via East Side Middle School and Yorkville East Middle School.
via East Side Middle School
Openings & Closings
Pepe & Vera is aiming for Thanksgiving week on First Avenue
The Southern Italian restaurant we previewed last week at 1712 First Avenue, in the former Hollybrook Lane space near East 89th Street, now has a target: the owners are aiming to open Thanksgiving week, though the timing is tentative, according to local coverage. Chef Caterina Pepe, who comes from Italy's Amalfi Coast and ran the bakery Cerasella, is partnering with a co-owner who previously co-owned Vespa on Second Avenue. Via Patch; Hoodline also covered the plans.
via Patch
Around the Neighborhood
Listing of note: a four-bedroom at The Harper asks $5.975 million
Residence 11C at The Harper, the ODA-designed condominium at 310 East 86th Street, is listed at $5,975,000 for four bedrooms and four and a half baths across 2,650 square feet, with a private terrace and a full-time doorman, per the StreetEasy and Compass listings. Via StreetEasy.
via StreetEasy
Yorkville, Remembered
A German butcher still on Second Avenue since 1937
Ferdinand Schaller and Tony Weber opened their butcher shop at 1654 Second Avenue, between East 85th and 86th Streets, in 1937, selling cured meats and handmade wursts to the German immigrants filling Yorkville's 'German Broadway.' Pork was the specialty from the start. The meats are no longer smoked beneath the store — the family-owned business now makes them at a plant in Astoria, Queens — but Schaller & Weber still stands on the same stretch of Second Avenue.
A Sunday assignment for fifth-grade parents: put the open-house dates in the family calendar now, before the October weeks fill up. See you tomorrow.