••• “Sources say that Brookfield has asked SouthWest restaurant [left], Boomerang Toys, the Runners Shop, Ciao Bella Gelato, Add Accessories and Cobbler Express to leave at the end of September.” Another rumor panned out. (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “Downtown residents”—that’s DNAinfoese for Community Board 1—”who say they are still healing from the trauma of 9/11 are furious that the city is excluding them from a commemoration ceremony on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.” (DNAinfo)

••• 523 Greenwich (north of Spring) will be a 20-story hotel—because only tourists won’t mind being across from the Sanitation Department garage. (Curbed)

••• In the fall, Downtown Dance Factory will take over the entire fifth floor at 291 Broadway (at Reade) for its new complex—which will have three studios, changing rooms for boys and girls, a retail space, and more. Reade Street is now officially the epicenter of young Tribeca.

••• Deals o’ the day: At Groupon, you can get an eyebrow threading and Brazilian bikini wax for $20 (regularly $48) at Thread on Nassau Street. And via Scoop St., pay $10 now for a Ciao Bella punchcard good for six scoops of gelato until November 20 (you don’t have to eat them all at once). It’s valid at the WFC location but not on the Lower East Side (Mott Street, right?). You save $11.90, which is nice, but I don’t know….

••• From Calypso St. Barth: “Come to any Calypso St. Barth store this Wednesday [until 7 p.m.] for a refreshing cocktail and 20% off your purchase!!!”

••• Tribeca Wine Merchants is now having a big sale on red Burgundy.

••• From City Winery: Folk singer, activist, and avowed environmentalist Pete Seeger will be debuting a new protest song at City Winery on Friday, July 23.” Also: “We invite you to come down and enjoy the first Urban Farm-to-Table event to be held in the Hudson Square Courtyard behind City Winery. This intimate white tablecloth dining experience is brought to you by Great Performances and City Winery. Featuring a Latin-American inspired menu, all of the produce is procured from within 100 miles of New York City and brought to the table for your enjoyment. Great Performances will be supplying and preparing produce from their own farm Katchkie as well as other local producers, to offer some the brightest and freshest dishes imaginable.” Tickets, $75, are here.

Adults who want real ice cream aren’t entirely without options, of course. In recent summers, the Odeon has wheeled out an ice-cream cart and Duane Park has opened a stand, Griff’s Gelato. Wichcraft and Tribeca Treats sell ice-cream sandwiches (Wichcraft’s are only available in summer). The sole year-round cone/cup option* is Ciao Bella, in the World Financial Center.

I took it upon myself to try them all.

Griff's frozen-pie-on-a-stick

First, I went to Griff’s because I was obsessed with tasting the new frozen pie-on-a-stick. The pie flavor was coconut cream, and because the ice cream was coated with graham-cracker crumbs, I felt as if I were eating frozen cheesecake. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn’t what I wanted on a hot afternoon. I’ll need more research before I can reach a verdict. At $5, it was definitely a better deal than the $3 cup of gelato, which held a scoop the size of a golf ball. The next day, my partner tried Griff’s cookies-and-cream gelato; he was underwhelmed, but he ate it. Then we walked over to the Odeon, where I bought a veritable half-pint for $4. The ice cream itself was fine—not so fine that I remember which flavors I got—but considering that I felt sort of sick after eating so much, I began to see the appeal of a daintier portion. (Not really!)

Next up: the ice-cream sandwiches. When I hear that phrase my first thought is of those crappy ones you buy at the supermarket, with ice milk and chocolate “cookie” that sticks to your fingers. I love those! As trashy as they are, I used to prefer them more gourmet versions, especially after I had a run-in with a bad Chipwich. (I will never buy ice cream from a deli freezer again.) Wichcraft’s ice-cream sandwiches($4) changed my mind, but there’s usually only one cookie/ice cream combo per day. If the cookie is peanut butter or chocolate, I’m onboard; if not…. It’s not that I’ve ever had a bad one, but I do believe that part of the fun of going out for ice cream is choosing a flavor. Tribeca Treats has a variety of ice-cream sandwiches ($3.50), made with Ronnybrook Farms ice cream. I bought one with mint ice cream and a chocolate cookie—the same type of cookie they frost for their delicious special-occasion cookies. If Tribeca Treats will make a version with peppermint ice cream at Christmas—the only time peppermint ice cream is sold, maddeningly—I’ll be their dog.

You probably already know how you feel about Ciao Bella. I think the gelato is good, and the range of flavors is impressive, but as at many chains, the staff doesn’t want to be there. I only buy ice cream when I decide that I deserve it, when I’m happy, and I’d like the occasion to be joyous. The portion size is ideal, though, and $4 feels right. The fact that the store is a schlep from my apartment is both a boon—I don’t need to eat it all the time—and a problem. When I do crave ice cream I tend to crave it right now.

* Or is it? I keep thinking I’m forgetting something. Bazzini and the Soda Shop are gone, and I don’t really consider the Baskin-Robbins on Chambers to be anywhere I want to go ever again, and not just because I worked at a Baskin-Robbins one summer in high school and was forced to wear brown pants and a pink-and-orange striped shirt.

••• “As community groups and residents in Tribeca renew their push for a safer crossing at Duane and Greenwich Streets, high-ranking officials from the city’s Department of Transportation said this week that installing “inappropriate” traffic controls [such as a stop sign or stoplight] at the intersection would likely make it more dangerous for pedestrians.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• The Broadsheet Daily looks at the work about to begin on the Brooklyn Bridge.

••• The Ciao Bella gelateria in the World Financial Center has reopened after closing for a few weeks because of a lease dispute. (Broadsheet Daily)

••• Ed Burns says he and Christy Turlington love to eat out every night, and Max‘s lasagna is “the best in the city.” Stars, they’re just like us. (OK)

Aaron Sanchez (courtesy Food Network)

••• “According to a Publishers Marketplace notice, Aaron Sanchez has sold his second cookbook: “Restaurateur (Paladar and Centrico) and Food Network star (‘Chef vs. City’) Aaron Sanchez’s Kitchen on Fire: 10 Recipes, 100 Dishes, and Lots of Hot Tips from the World’s Spiciest Chef.” (Grub Street)

••• The New York Times says that Plein Sud, the brasserie in the Smyth I wrote about here, will open next month.

There’s one kind of deal I’m on the fence about—loyalty cards. I currently have three. I keep Kaffe 1668‘s in my wallet; I bring a Wichcraft one whenever I eat there; and in a drawer somewhere I have a Ciao Bella card with two stamps on it, dating from a summer when I frequently used to walk my dog to the World Financial Center, rewarding myself for his efforts.

Kaffe 1668′s coffee and Ciao Bella’s gelato are a bit pricey, so the card helps me justify the splurge. If I spend $3 per coffee, then buying 10 gets me a retroactive 30¢ discount on each cup. It’s not much, but somehow it’s enough to get me over the shame of asking for my card (which might as well have “Hello, my name is Cheap Bastard” printed on it) to be stamped. On the other hand, if 30¢ means that much to me, I have no business buying coffee at Kaffe 1668 in the first place.

I actually have four Wichcraft cards in my apartment right now, because I usually forget to bring one, forcing me to grab a new one each time. When I reach 12 sandwiches—the magic number—I’ll hand over all the cards, succeeding at looking cheap and disorganized. But the savings are a little more substantial: Spending $108 (12 sandwiches at $9 each) earns me a $9 rebate (in the form of a sandwich). Today, I got a bit of a buyback in that the clerk stamped my card an extra time, perhaps because I also bought soup, or perhaps because I was nice.

Naturally, when it comes time to order that free sandwich—or coffee at Kaffe 1668—I’ll go to the more expensive items on the menu. That’s called maximizing one’s value.

But if I’m stingy enough to order something expensive as my free sandwich, then I should probably enlist for the loyalty programs at Duane Reade and the Food Emporium. But like most people, I hate shopping at Duane Reade, and I’m convinced that I’m never going to go there again (alas, Kings Pharmacy doesn’t always have everything I need). As for Food Emporium, I have no excuse, other than theirs is a club I don’t want to join. Besides, both programs want personal information in exchange for a discount, and only certain items are on sale any given week, making it hard to tell if signing up would be worth it.

All of this is a long way of wondering whether there are other loyalty programs you’d recommend. Which do you carry with you? Where do you wish had one? Am I the only person who dreads asking for it to be stamped?

P.S. I just noticed on Kings Pharmacy’s website that Monday is “vitamin day,” and certain brands are buy one, get one half off. And I need vitamins! I’ll be seeing Kings tomorrow….