••• Saleya‘s upstairs bar area is open for happy hour: $6 drinks (beer, house wines, house cocktails) and $5 flatbread pizzas. It looks like a great spot of you have a group, especially before it gets discovered. By the way, I had been under the impression that upstairs would be more of a restaurant, but while there are some tables at the top of the stairs—such as the photo pictured at right—most of the second floor is devoted to the bar/lounge area.

••• Some good news about the Hudson Street Reconstruction project: If you’ve seen the flyers recently posted all over saying that the work will continue into 2016, fear not—I checked with the DDC, and the project is still on track to be completed early (sometime in 2014). Those flyers just reflect the contract’s end date.

COMMUNITY EVENING AT THE 9/11 MEMORIAL
This Sunday, Sept. 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (last entry at 7 p.m.)
In commemoration of the upcoming anniversary of 9/11, the 9/11 Memorial welcomes members of the lower Manhattan community to join together to honor and remember. Please note that space is limited and passes will be required for entry to the Memorial on the evening of September 8. Contact community@911memorial.org by Friday, September 6, to have passes emailed to you. When emailing to request passes, please include your address and the number of passes you would like to receive. Each individual can receive up to four passes. Sponsored.

••• Nobu Next Door has started serving brunch: “The brunch menu will include items such as our take on chicken & waffles—Chicken Karaage with Green Tea Waffles (miso lemon butter, maple)—Sobayaki ‘Oatmeal’ (oatmeal-style soba with all the fixins’), and Scrambled Egg Donburi (salmon, tomato, nori, sesame).” The hours: “Brunch service will be available on the weekends from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dinner service will start at 5 PM and continue to midnight on Saturday and 10 PM on Sunday.”

••• And another new brunch option: The Butterfly, starting this weekend, will serve brunch 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Menu at left.

••• The door to Racines NY—the French wine bar/bistro coming to Chambers, where Sunny one Chinese restaurant was—was open today, and I’m happy to report it’s in the demolition phase.

••• HST commented that World of Suits has indeed closed: “Building has been sold and he wasn’t able to stay. He had originally planned to leave at the end of July but then negotiated for end of August. When I spoke to him, he didn’t know what the new plans were for the building.  With all the development action on Warren, one has to wonder… They are currently doing facade work and bricking up the line of windows that open onto the elevator shaft. Perhaps so as to replace the elevator—currently opening onto street—as part of a larger interior renovation?” Funny, I would love to have an elevator that opens to the street. Anyway, if you thought a cleaning wouldn’t make much of a difference, check this photo out…. UPDATE: I just passed by again, and now that more is done, it appears to be getting a coat of primer (and not washed). Hmm….