••• I was walking down Jay Street today when I saw that a Tribeca Film Festival movie called Challenging Impossibility has opened a pop-up gallery. This New York Times blurb was on its website: “Feats of Strength Pop-Up Museum (Friday through Thursday) World-famous athletes will attend screenings, hold lectures, sign books and give informal talks on fitness and health, strength training, meditation, the mind-body connection and the teachings of the fitness guru Sri Chinmoy at this museum. The events coincide with the premiere of ‘Challenging Impossibility’ at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday; meet the cast, including the Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis and the former New York Jet and bodybuilder Mike Katz, at the museum on Saturday. Hours: daily from noon to 8 p.m. 18 Jay, 212-380-8153; free.” The poster in the window says it’s open noon to 6 p.m., FYI, through May 2.

••• Nili Lotan has partnered with J. Crew. Not sure what the partnership entails beyond pretty photos on J. Crew’s website and the ability to purchase certain Nili Lotan pieces there.

••• From Soho Rep: “99¢ tickets will be back for this Sunday the 24th only! They’ll be up for sale at the box office at 7 p.m—but only 16 are available so come early!”

••• Get 20% off all designers at Edon Manor starting April 25. Use code spring20. (Not sure if this is valid in-store, too.) Free shipping for orders over $500, but once you’re buying this level of accessories, are you really worried about that?

by Rebecca McAlpin for The New York Times

••• The New York Times learns a bit more about Il Matto’s plans—including that the food will be American and cheaper, the room will be “more casual and less scary,” and the name will be changed to White Church. That’s chef Matteo Boglione at right.

••• “A group of institutional investors has helped delay a planned $1.3 billion bond sale meant to finance construction of the 4 World Trade Center over concerns about how the deal is structured.” (Wall Street Journal)

••• “The large, black-light-filled Tribeca loft of late graffiti vandal Rammellzee is recreated [in an exhibit on graffiti at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art], complete with shelves upon shelves of Transformer-like space invaders and weapons.” (City Journal)

••• 25 Broad is now leasing. (Curbed)

••• Manhattan Loft Guy takes a look at Alexander Wang’s loft, recently profiled in W. By the way, I neglected to mention at the time that the decorator was Edon Manor’s Ryan Korban.

••• Workers on Fulton Street found the well from the farmstead of Stephanus von Cortlandt, the city’s first native-born mayor: “And in this well, there were some artifacts. A smoking-pipe stem with a bore diameter of five sixty-fourths of an inch. A refined redware lid with a molded sprig decorative pattern. And, most significantly, a two-inch chunk of dark-blue 17th-century Rhenish salt-glazed stoneware that appeared to be decorated with the Arms of Amsterdam. [...] But perhaps the neatest piece was discovered inside the footprint of the foundation wall, when Roberto Prudencio, a laborer on the subway dig, noticed something poking out of the dirt. ‘It was a yellow thing,’ Mr. Prudencio said. He summoned Ms. Loorya, who unearthed it and cleaned it up [and took the photo below]. It was the head of a ceramic bird, dating from the 18th century.” (The New York Times)

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TRIBECA SPA OF TRANQUILITY
• Sixty-minute massages are $119, if you’re in the market for a gift card.

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OLY ATELIER
• Resin vases ($175–$250).
• Who knew that Oly also has sea-leather handbags and accessories, including this eyeglasses case ($150)?
• Neat and sweet: hearts made from petrified wood (set of four for $175).
• Round shell picture frames ($70 each).

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TRIBECA CITIZEN T-SHIRT
• ‘Tis the season to self-promote! There are two styles—including ones that say “Jay-Z is my neighbor”—starting at $25, or $15 for kids’ shirts.

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EDON MANOR
• Meli Melo bag ($580).
• Candles by Gilles Dewavrin ($65).

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DUDLEY’S PAW
• As if polar bears don’t have it hard enough, now they’re being thrown to the dogs ($12).

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KOH’S KIDS
• Dino e Lucia black party dress ($89).
• Owl T-shirt (I neglected to write down the price).
• Mod peacoats from Appaman ($99).

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WHOLE FOODS TRIBECA
• Whole Foods is carrying Brooklyn-based chocolate brands Mast Brothers ($9) and Fine & Raw ($9; this bar is mesquite-flavored, FYI). It’s by the cheese counter.
• Blue Q bag ($15). Someone owes a debt of gratitude to Charles Demuth.

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BIT’Z KIDS
• As a kid, I never liked getting clothes as a gift, but I might have felt differently about a tutu—if I were a girl, obviously. ($18).
• Skull hat ($17).
• I thought these earmuffs were great and then I noticed the pads on the ear part, which elevated them to fantastic. And then I saw the little claws. So cool ($23).

Previous installments in the 2010 Shop-Local Gift Guide:
• Broadway and Church
• Chambers and Reade
• Hudson
• Harrison and Worth
• Duane
• Warren and Murray

Courtesy Wedding-Scoops.com

••• “The people behind the 13,500-square-foot (plus a 1,500-square-foot kitchen and 18,000-square-foot outdoor space) Tribeca Rooftop are opening an even larger space in the same building come January, said Tracey Sarn, sales and events manager for Tribeca Rooftop and the new venue, called Three Sixty °. The new Desbrosses Street venue, which Wedding-Scoops.com recently toured, will seat 500 and have 360-degree views of Manhattan and New Jersey. The 22,000-square-foot event space on the 11th floor of the building, between Hudson and Greenwich streets, will be modern in design compared to the industrial feel of Tribeca Rooftop. The space, which is still under construction, includes a wavy wall and huge windows with wrap-around views. While the décor at Three Sixty ° has not been finalized, it may include venetian plaster on the walls, LED lights on the ceilings, white rope lights, brown carpeting, a teak bar, bamboo ledge and wood dance floor.” (Wedding-Scoops.com)

••• “Faulty equipment and unexpected challenges have delayed the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building yet again, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. announced Monday. The long-troubled building, most recently scheduled to come down by the end of this year, is now set to be gone by about Jan. 15, LMDC officials said at a Community Board 1 meeting Monday.” (DNAinfo)

••• “The Battery Park City Authority ought to be phased out after squandering more than $300,000 in public funds, the chairwoman of the local community board said Monday. ‘This was a complete breach of public trust,’ said Julie Menin, who leads Community Board 1. ‘It’s really shocking that taxpayer money was being spent on such frivolous and superfluous items.’” (DNAinfo)

••• Can’t tell if this is a recent post on Architizer or an old one, but still, take a peek at a nice apartment in what appears to be 101 Warren. (Favorite line: “The home accommodates a progressive lifestyle and leaves no room or place for unnecessary objects.”)

••• “Residents and workers on Pearl Street can expect to see the wooden deck and red seating of Pearl Street’s pop-up café again next May.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “Yesterday, Landmarks Preservation Commission big boss Bob Tierney was joined by three members of the city’s religious community in City Hall Park to reinter fragmentary remains that were found over the past 17 years during construction projects in the area. How they resisted punctuating that plaque with ‘Rest in pieces!’ we’ll never know.” (Curbed)

••• Fashionista interviews Ryan Korban and Davinia Wang of Edon Manor.

••• Century 21 is opening another Manhattan store at the Barnes & Noble space at Lincoln Square. That doesn’t seem like great news for this area: Fewer tourists means fewer dollars. (Crain’s)

••• Edon Manor is having a sale. (Refinery 29)

••• Eater checks out the early word (including mine and TC commenter Kellee’s) on Stuzzicheria.

••• Landmarc‘s Marc Murphy fake-shops for picnic supplies. (New York Times)

••• The James hotel—which still looks like a giant cheese grater to me—is open. (Curbed)

••• Gerry Beckley, of the band America, collects vintage eyeglass frames—which are now being sold at Steven Alan. (New York Times)

••• “When she gets the chance, Omayra Rivera slips out of her office at Trinity Church, grabs a flashlight, mask and gloves, and climbs into the dusty darkness of the steeple that rises above St. Paul’s Chapel, a few blocks up Broadway. There, in the 18th-century tower, she might peer into the hidden crevices beneath floorboards or examine graffiti from the time of James Monroe or pry open doors shut tight—maybe for a couple of centuries. [...] The 244-year-old chapel, the city’s oldest public building in continuous use, stands as one of Lower Manhattan’s most visited landmarks. But its 218-foot-high steeple, completed in 1794, had rarely if ever been seriously explored until earlier this year, when Rivera, Trinity Wall Street’s 37-year-old manager of business operations, got curious.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• “After an incubator year at Tweed Courthouse on Chambers Street, P.S. 276 is opening its very own doors this school year over at 55 Battery Place.” (Downtown Express)

••• Downtown Express profiles the Church Street School of Music and Art.

••• You can’t go wrong with a spa treatment; if you want to specify a treatment—and I’m not sure you should—stick with facials and massages. (This is so not the time to surprise her with the Botox she’s been wondering aloud about.) Several mothers suggested Euphoria Spa, and another mother said she’s heard that Jeff, a new massage therapist at Equinox, is superb.

••• Jessica at Petticoat Lane points out that buying lingerie for someone else can be tricky—you could be sending the wrong message, like you wish she’d try a little harder to be sexy or you just assumed she needed a size-large thong. “Pajamas are better  because they’re pretty-sexy, not slutty,” she says, “and you don’t have to buy by size.” (When she says “pajamas,” she means nighties like the ones above, which cost around $90.) Another good option is a clutch: “Women can be picky about their everyday bags. Clutches are easier. The funkier ones aren’t for everyday so there isn’t so much pressure for one to be perfect. And you can never have enough clutches.” The clutches at Petticoat Lane cost $150–$250.

••• This is an edgier idea, but if she complains that she’s not as sexy as she used to be, prove her wrong with help from Tribeca photographer Burke Heffner, who takes pin-up portraits. (What is it about the name Hefner/Heffner?) For $299, she’ll get two hours of studio time, with attention from a professional make-up artist, props, a disk of photos, and one 8″-by-12″ print.

••• The great thing about buying Cass Lilien‘s jewelry as a gift, says Cass Lilien, is that if something isn’t exactly to the recipient’s taste, “we can swap in a different stone, size it, or adapt it.” She’s currently excited about the bracelets above, made with sterling silver and semi-precious stones; they can be worn individually or joined end-to-end to form a necklace. One is $125, two are $200, and three are $250.

••• Several mothers said they’d love to be taken out for a nice lunch or dinner, “but not on Mother’s Day,” said one, and not with the kids (no one explicitly said so, but let’s just take it for granted). If my poll is any indication, you can’t go wrong at Locanda Verde (above) or Bouley. if it’s lunch, she might have a little wine, so be prepared to take care of the kids afterward; nothing harshes the buzz like having to parent.

••• Buying clothes can be tricky. One mother suggested that she’d like a summer dress ($150–$175) from Capucine, but to most dads, that won’t mean much of anything. Not to worry: Men come in all the time with only a vague idea, says Capucine, and they’re happy to help figure it out: “Look at what she wears. Is she bohemian? Does she like more of classic style? What does she tend to wear—straight, long, simple?” As for finding the right size, “You can always say, ‘she’s a little bustier than you, a little taller, whatever.’” Over at Otte, they tend to suggest men buy jewelry—such as the $335 hand-crocheted mixed-metal necklace above—”unless he knows that she wants a brand like Alexander Wang or Helmut Lang.” Finally, there’s shoe palace Edon Manor. These are shoes as worship objects; either you know going in that she likes shoes such as these—they average $700—or you shouldn’t bother going in at all. (Whether she ever wears them is not the point.)

••• There’s something to be said for a gift that the kids can appreciate, too—not that they can use it, but that they can see why Mom might want it. Adeline Adeline, the new stylish-bike shop on Reade, can help you pick out a bike that’ll look as good as it rides. “We’d probably suggest the Pashley Poppy,” says Julie Hirschfeld; it costs $995 and and is not pictured above. Or if she already has a bike, consider a chic basket—and maybe a guaranteed hour every weekend when she can take a ride on her own.

••• A little chocolate—perhaps one or ten dark-chocolate Nutella candy bars from Tribeca Treats—makes every gift go over better. (If you do buy that chic bike basket from Adeline Adeline, she’s pretty much guaranteed to look inside it.) I suppose most people would buy truffles as a gift, but I kind of wanted an excuse to pick up a Nutella bar….

••• The New York Times looks at the city’s coffee revolution, citing Kaffe 1668, La Colombe Torrefaction, Moomah in its top 30. RBC gets mentioned in the online map: Known for its Slayer machine, it “should be known for its Vietnamese coffee.”

••• Also in the NYT: Food writer Melissa Clark—love her column—tweaks Karen DeMasco‘s recipe for milk chocolate panna cotta.

••• When opportunity knocks: “Senator Daniel Squadron said he would introduce a new bill today that would force the Department of Education to give community leaders more information before they sit down to draw new zoning lines.” (GothamSchools)

••• According to the Niles Daily Star—I don’t know either—at one point in her life, Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow “lived in a tough Tribeca neighborhood and made money fixing loft spaces with Philip Glass, who drove cabs by day and performed by night.”

••• “City funding for the free after-school program that serves 200 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students at I.S. 89 has been eliminated, effective September of this year. If nothing changes, the program, which is operated by Manhattan Youth, will shut down this June and not re-open.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “Penthouse A at Tribeca’s 62 Beach Street wanted $12.1 million for its 5BR, 4BA, two-terrace duplexity when it first came on the market in June 2007, but there were no takers. When it left the market in August ’08, the price had been chopped all the way down to $8.95 million. The property returned just last month with a more photogenic listing and a 6 percent cut to $7.95 million, about 34 percent lower than the initial asking price. And somewhere out there was a buyer with the magic number, because the property is now listed as in contract.” (Curbed)

••• “Sebastian Ceria and Alicia Zorrilla Ceria bought a three-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo at 92 Warren St. from Thomas Laffont for $3.4 million on Feb. 2. The 2,845-square-foot Unit #6 (5E) is in the 92 Warren St. development, which was built in 1920. Dr. Ceria is the chief executive officer of Axioma Inc., a company that provides solutions to financial engineering problems, creating tools to help portfolio managers implement their investment strategies. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on optimization.” (Blockshopper)

COMING UP
••• The Tribeca Meet & Greet is tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Body & Mind Builders, on Reade just east of Church.
••• On Saturday, Poets House will screen The Red Balloon at 11 a.m., and afterward, kids will get a chance to make their own “poetic floating valentines” (free).

IN THE NEWS
••• The New York Times clarifies that the restaurant part of Fraunces Tavern is only closing for a week or so, to accommodate a change in management.
••• Battery Park City Authority chairman James Gill resigned unexpectedly yesterday: “Multiple sources within the Battery Park City Authority and other government agencies note that the timing of his exit coincides with the forthcoming release of a report by the office of the New York State Inspector General on the BPCA, which follows a 10-month investigation that focused on the Authority’s senior executives. A confidential draft version of that report has been circulated to the BPCA, and two sources who have seen it describe it as critical of the Authority. This draft is only a preliminary version of the final report, and has been circulated to the BPCA to give the Authority a chance to respond to its allegations and conclusions.” (Broadsheet Daily)
••• The New York Times‘s “Critical Shopper”—now there’s a job—drops in on fancy shoe store Edon Manor.