IN THE NEWS
••• Downtown Express‘s new edition has a bunch of interesting stuff, including a rundown of the construction set for Hudson Street and four side streets (“Two lanes of Hudson St. are expected to be closed on and off over the next five and a half years”); Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s call for “a new bridge at W. Thames St. and pedestrian managers at key intersections [Albany, Vesey, and Murray]”; an update that there will, in fact, be free kayaking at Pier 40 this summer; and, finally, if you have eight hours and $249 you can learn to ride the Zamboni at the Battery Park City Ice Rink.
••• CB1’s Executive Committee “endorsed a resolution to be sent to Attorney General Holder and to President Obama asking for a meeting with a representative of the attorney general’s office to discuss moving the trials.” (Broadsheet Daily)

AROUND THE WEB
••• Pearline Soap Factory is now sold out, says the Real Deal, but Justin Timberlake appears to have bought too early, says Curbed. Meanwhile, in other “celebrity” real-estate “news,” E! Online reports that actress Mischa Barton (she was in The O.C.) is being sued by her landlord, “who claims she’s a deadbeat renter, failing to keep the checks coming on her $7,000-a-month Tribeca apartment.”
••• Playing Mantis makes Mommy Poppins‘s list of the best green toy stores: “Imelda McCain knows the provenance of every item in the store and often she’s forged her own special relationships with the craftswomen and men making these toys especially for her shop. Kids will delight in these play-worthy wonders crafted from sustainable woods or hand-woven wools, always honoring fair trade and community support in the originating country. Plus they’re easy on the eyes.”
••• I can’t tell if this is new or not, but it did just shop up in my Google alert…. National Geographic has a walking tour of Tribeca on its site that’s a bit out of date: Baranzelli is on Third Ave now, Chanterelle and Danube are closed…. This is a good example of why you should be wary of online content that’s (a) not dated, and (b) has no field for comments, where some kind soul might’ve suggested an update or three.
••• Babesta has slick new car toys from the U.K. (above); a yellow-taxi version is due in March. But are they enough to stave off a mid-life crisis?

Megu New York

RESTAURANTS
••• “This year’s Restaurant Week Truck will be serving soups from 20 of the city’s participating restaurants in Midtown next week, Flatiron from Feb. 1–3 and Tribeca from Feb. 4–5. Soups are $6 with $1 going to Haiti relief.” (Eater)
••• I met Megu‘s marketing manager, Holly Moritz, at last week’s fun Tribeca Meet and Greet, and she passed along some updates about the restaurant. 1) On Tuesday nights, 50 bottles are half off and there’s no corkage fee; on Sundays, the 35-plus artisanal beers are half off. 2) On Wednesday nights—a.k.a. Hot Iron Kobe Night—$55 gets you three cuts of Kobe beef. 3) Megu’s Restaurant Week and Valentine’s Day menus can be found at megurestaurants.com. The latter is an eight-course prix fixe for $125.
••• For Valentine’s Day, Landmarc is accepting reservations for parties of any size—and not just six and up, as per the norm. Plus, you can use OpenTable!

SPEAKING OF VALENTINE’S DAY…
Here’s a cute reminder of how the Balloon Saloon can help you impress your loved one’s co-workers, and that’s what the holiday is all about, right? No?