••• The New York Times reports that North End Grill is opening Tuesday for lunch, with dinner to follow later in the month: “The black-stained wood that covers the walls is not from some New England barn; recycled Wyoming snow fences were used. The entryway leads into a spacious bar with more than 99 bottles of Scotch on the wall; to get to the dining room, you pass an open kitchen, a pastry area and a seafood station.” Oddly, Blue Smoke doesn’t get a mention.

••• [Item about Harry’s Italian possibly being stalled removed at the request of the “news source,” perhaps because it proved to be wrong.]

••• Related: I just popped over to check it all out, and I was underwhelmed by the look of Beans & Greens and Wei West (clearly opening soon, if not already), which [redacted] says are from the same folks who own Pick A Bagel. That sounds about right; they struck me as suitable for people working nearby, but no one else would care. The arcade looks better now that the construction plywood is down, but maybe someone could put up a sculpture or something?

••• Theater Bar “has been closed for several weeks without anyone noticing. Co-owner Nicole Stillings tells Eater that the bar closed over the holidays to make some ‘minor renovations,’ which she says are primarily soundproofing upgrades needed in response to a new soundsystem. Stillings says the work is ongoing but they plan to open sometime in early to mid January and that Trummer is still completely involved in the bar.” Hmm.

••• “Police are searching for a man suspected of breaking a woman’s jaw while robbing a Tribeca office the day after Christmas […]. The man entered the Downtown building armed with a knife about 3:15 p.m. Monday and forced his way into an office on the 10th floor […]. He then assaulted a 23-year-old woman, tied her up and stole an undetermined amount of cash, a backpack and a laptop computer before fleeing.” The report in the Daily News says the police won’t release the address of the building, but there’s video if you recognize the lobby. —DNAinfo UPDATE: Reader Alan says it’s 401 Broadway.

••• The Los Angeles Times has a long profile of the Fountain Pen Hospital.

••• A guy tried robbing two FiDi banks and failed, but he succeeded at the third one. Did no one call the police? —DNAinfo

••• Curbed‘s battle of the neighborhoods has the Seaport against FiDi in the quarterfinals, which is sort of like your nose vs. your face.