How long have you lived in the area?
Since 1994—we moved from Hell’s Kitchen. At the time, our friends were against the move—they repeatedly told us how there were bums making fires in garbage cans down here and there were no trains and it just wasn’t safe. Our block was full of abandoned buildings at the time but we had an unobstructed view of the Hudson—something we enjoyed until last year.

Which restaurants do you frequent most often?
Takahachi—seriously, we eat there too much. My husband had mercury poisoning from eating too much raw fish—no joke. Nobu Next Door, another mercury contributor, but soooo worth it. Wolfgang’s Steakhouse (above)—we adore it! Last time we ate there, Wolfgang himself made the rounds past our table.

Which restaurants do you tend to go to for special occasions?
Bouley! And we used to go to Chanterelle. I am still mourning the loss.

Where do you order in (or get take-out) from? Are there dishes you always order?
Sophie’s Cuban for lunch—my kids love the ropa vieja, I like the spicy chicken. Columbine—we order lunch for the studio all the time from there. Max—I love the chicken capriccioso. Mmmmm….

Which shops do you find it hard to resist popping into when you pass by?
Capucine has hands-down the most interesting blend of clothes, bags, and jewelry! Petticoat Lane for my once-a-year everyday purse and my all-year-long undergarments. The gift shop at Lance Lappin is a holiday addiction for me. And Torly Kid—Carol (right) has impeccable taste.

What was the last non-essential item you bought in Tribeca?
I bought a black sequined tote bag from the Gap in the World Financial Center on a whim while with my kids.

Are there any services (salon, fitness, etc.) that you’re particularly glad are in the neighborhood?
Tortola Salon, which my family has frequented for years. Tom and Joe are the best. And Unique Shape Threading Salon. I’m a regular!

What’s the area’s best-kept secret?
1. The awesome craft section at Manhattan Books (left)—keeps the kids busy for a while.
2. The Cornerstone Grill makes the best “strips over salad” (grilled chicken breast over a green salad—such a healthy option for a BBQ joint, and no one knows about it).
3. The fact that you can see “Boardwalk Empire” on Sunday nights at the Tribeca Grand Hotel.
4. That Columbine offers half-off after hours.

Where do you always take out-of-towners?
Sunday brunch at the Tribeca Grand—just for brunch. Century 21—just for the experience. Bubby’s—just for pie.

Which neighborhood building do you wish you lived in and/or owned?
I have a soft spot for 8 Thomas Street (right). I love that unique little castle in the middle of an area devoted to government offices. Also, the brick building at Hudson and Beach—with the archways on the ground floor. Love that! Have never been inside….

What’s your favorite part of the area (street, park, whatever)?
The Promenade. After-dinner walks are something my family enjoys when the weather permits.

Your most memorable celebrity sighting?
Well, most of the celebrities I’ve seen have actually been taking sessions or classes at Real Pilates, but walking with Amanda Peet and her family across the street while a speeding cabdriver almost took us all down was pretty memorable. Particularly when the driver got cussed out in classic New York style.

If you could change one thing about the neighborhood, what would it be?
A light on Duane Street crossing into the park would be great. I want Bouley Bakery back. And a decent frozen yogurt place. I mean, seriously. And a closer post office!

What’s changed around here that you like? That you don’t?
I like the added stores, services, businesses. But the fact that the neighborhood often doesn’t “know” each other anymore is a bit sad. Relationships with locals and businesses are tough to maintain now that the population is teeming. Sometimes I feel we all get lost in the midst.

What’s your best Tribeca story?
When my oldest daughter was about 5 years old, she was given a hand-knit top from overseas. It came unraveled and she was very attached to it. I brought it into Koh’s Kids (left) to ask if they knew anyone who did this type of handiwork and could possibly repair it. Grace, the owner, took it home, fixed it herself, and brought it back to me at no charge. I had barely shopped there before that point, and she was so wonderful and generous, I never forgot it. I became a devotee.

Recent TCQ&As:
• Marla Mase: “I Can Be Naughty at Times So Let’s Skip That Question”
• Elisa Casas: “Jenny McCarthy Had Phone Sex in My Bed”
• Connie Connors: “I’ve Always Loved the Chicken from Cornerstone Grill”
• Tania Anthony: “Tribeca Needs a Good Chinese Restaurant”
• Loretta Thomas: “Harvey Keitel Always Smiles Back”

Such hair! And back in October, Nicholas Lander wrote in the Financial Times: “Jung Sik Dang was, however, an exciting experience, most memorably for a fried grasshopper salad; a dish of rice, anchovy and turnip; pork belly with pickled chili; and ginseng macaroons. Jung Sik Yim, the chef, has plans to open in New York. If the roots of exciting modern Korean cooking are to be nurtured successfully, I hope his passport is confiscated, forcing him to focus on one restaurant only.”

Jung Sik Dang certainly looks like quite the culinary experience, exclusively serving set menus at lunch and dinner. I tried calling for more info but that didn’t work out; I also emailed, so we’ll see…. In the meantime, here are some photos of his food.

••• “The entrance to the Battery Park City Regal Cinema is undergoing a facelift—literally. ‘The box office and entrance to the theater are being moved upward to the second story,’ explained a Regal employee who asked not to be identified. ‘The space where customers currently buy tickets and then board the elevators and escalator is going to be absorbed back into the hotel,’ this staffer explained. [...] A second Regal insider said that the theater is expected to remain open through the renovation of the hotel, and that the reconstruction work to the box office and lobby should be finished before the end of December.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “[Landmarc's Marc] Murphy, whom NYP Home profiled in his 5,000-square-foot Tribeca loft in 2007, is looking to upgrade his personal real estate. He’s recently paid several visits, with wife Pamela Schein Murphy, to trophy apartments in the new 535 West End Ave. condo building. While a six-bedroom, 6,637-square-foot, $18.9 million unit on the 19th floor that he saw multiple times is now in contract with a mystery foreign family, a five-bedroom, 4,396-square-foot, fifth-floor unit he visited is still on the market for $9.9 million.” (New York Post)

••• “At the annual sale at Room, Dec. 7 to 11, new orders will be 15 percent off, most floor samples will be discounted up to 60 percent, and other items will be up to 70 percent off.” (New York Times)

••• Police Chief Ray Kelly “wrote” an op-ed about security at the World Trade Center. (New York Post)

••• “Even as [Bob] Townley and Manhattan Youth prepare to take over the pier’s minigolf course, volleyball court and food concession, due to open in the spring, he is visualizing the kinds of loose gatherings and events that made the old pier popular before it was torn down. ‘We will have room for parties and school gatherings and dances and outdoor community life.’ [...] Two sections make up that area: a new over-water paved platform and the original platform, now covered with dirt. While Townley already envisions cartloads of hot dogs being wheeled from the snack bar to birthday parties in the yet to be completed section, it remains unclear just when that space—all 11,000 square feet of it—will be ready.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• The Tribeca Trib hangs out with Trinity Church historian Gwynedd Cannan.

••• Here’s the Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot with Iman mentioned in the New York Times’s recent article about 5 Beekman.

••• “Still hankering for some food from Chanterelle? Chef David Waltuck is serving food from his shuttered restaurant during a set of pop up dinners at The Grill Room. The dinners run $100 excluding drinks.” (Eater)

••• “A strong wind gust snapped the trunk of the South Street Christmas tree on Wednesday morning.” (DNAinfo)

••• DNAinfo finds out more about Carmine’s Italian Seafood’s plans to reopen on Peck Slip, as mentioned here.

••• David Bouley’s Brushstroke—planned for the Danube space—is said to be opening in February. (Eater)

••• “A middle school opened on lower Broadway in September. [...] This freshly minted two-floor complex at 26 Broadway is called Lower Manhattan Community Middle School. But whether the Lower Manhattan community will embrace it remains to be seen.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• “Uday Durg, the MTA’s program executive for all Lower Manhattan projects, told a Community Board 1 committee last month that all 11 contracts on the [Fulton Transit Center]—now more than halfway into a 10-year construction schedule—have been awarded, and the labyrinthine complex is still expected to open in 2014.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• “Downtown is going to the dogs. That’s what restaurateur Harry Poulakakos is betting on with his newest Stone Street establishment, which will cater to both humans and their four-legged friends. The bar and restaurant, opening in March, will feature an outdoor corral so dogs have a place to frolic while their owners enjoy a menu of boutique hot dogs and craft beers inside.” (DNAinfo)

••• Word on the street is that the old Grimshaw Architects space on Reade—they moved out yesterday—is going to become a “family fitness center” (as in families work out together). Reade Street is officially the family-friendliest street in the city.

••• The New Museum is replacing its iconic “Hell, Yes!” sculpture with a 28-foot rose.

••• From J&R: “We loaned Lady Gaga our white piano for her show in NYC and she was kind enough to return it with her signature! So next time you are browsing for music, stop by and check it out!”

••• I spotted two people checking out Chanterelle the other day, and I think they were the same people I saw before. Is something brewing? Could this be where a certain restaurant is going?

••• A Jeff Koons sculpture like the one outside 7 World Trade—but in blue—is being sold at Christie’s on Nov. 10. (Estimated price: $12,000,000 to $16,000,000.) It’s on display outside Christie’s Rockefeller Center outpost; I noticed it when I was on MSNBC this week. Seriously!

•••John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders will be at City Winery on Dec. 17. John Hodgman and Gary Shteyngart are among the performers. (Have you ever heard Harding’s cover of the Chills’ “Heavenly Pop Hit”?)

•• This is only “Seen & Heard” in that I saw something today and heard myself think it, but…. Every time I walk through Peck Slip, I wonder when the lease on the parking concessions is up, and whether the city will make the most of the opportunity. There aren’t a lot of chances to create a public plaza in Manhattan anymore, and it could be so beautiful—if nothing else, it would distract from the grotesque decision to elevate the FDR. UPDATE: Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo kindly pointed out on Twitter that the city has a plan to put a plaza there. Construction, however, is expected to start in late 2011.

Photo by Hagen (courtesy New York Daily News)

••• The New York Daily News interviews director Ed Burns about his new movie, Nice Guy Johnny—which “is set in the Hamptons and at Puffy’s in Tribeca”—at a Tribeca pub.

••• “Despite total amenity overdrive in the form of an in-house sommelier and room for 300 bottles of wine in each apartment, the 16-unit co-op conversion had a hard time ramping up sales. Then the building fell into foreclosure. And now Crain’s reports, it’s headed for auction on May 5. Developer R Squared defaulted on a $37.5 million loan for the property. But, in a bit of good news for potential buyers, the building, which was on the market for around $1,600/square foot, was actually completed. Bets on how much it’ll go for? We’re guessing the offer for a free case of house-warming wine no longer applies.” (Curbed)

••• “David Waltuck, the acclaimed chef who manned the stoves at his 30 year-old restaurant Chanterelle until it sadly closed last year, is joining the team at Robert restaurant at the Museum of Arts and Design as a consultant.” (Eater)