••• “Bike lanes, walking area now open on east side of Brookfield Place between Murray and Liberty,” reports J. I’ll get a photo on the way back from Asphalt Green. UPDATE: Here are a couple of photos. It’s nice that Gucci and Ermenegildo Zegna got to customize their façades. But why is the crosswalk on the south side of Vesey (across West) still closed? UPDATE #2: “They also opened the bike path in The Battery yesterday,” adds Eric.

••• You may have noticed that the McDonald’s at Greenwich and Chambers recently underwent renovations. Here’s what you can expect now. (I took a photo of the touchscreen—”A bold new experience awaits”—but I didn’t linger beyond that.)

••• The Bennett‘s website says it’ll take reservations one day—handy in a bar. And how lovely if they do it for outside tables, too.

••• In the absence of any visible progress, I’ve removed Martin Auer Bakehouse from the Future Openings list in the left column. Let’s hope it still happens!

••• The Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center is having a Tribeca Holiday Craft Fair on Dec. 11: “A whimsical marketplace to promote the talents and resources within our community. Manhattan Youth would love to invite you to be one of our vendors. Jewelry, Ceramics, Bags, T-shirts, Toys, Novelty Items, etc. 30% of all sales will be donated to support children around the world. ” Contact zebi@manhattanyouth.org for more info.

••• I came across this electronic book titled Tribeca on Amazon. It’s erotica! But the passage I read—I clicked on “Look inside,” just to be sure—wasn’t Tribeca-specific, nor was the main character’s name Rebecca. “This book is dedicated to lovers of backdoor chicken,” begins the dedication. In an effort to always be learning, I Googled the phrase and all I came across was an off-menu situation at the Velvet Taco (!) in Houston.