FIRST IMPRESSIONS: SCHILLING
Schilling feels like somewhere that could exist in another, livelier neighborhood. As for the food, both times it was far better than anyone who has eaten widely in FiDi would expect. (Yes, I’m grading on a curve.) The full report.

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A PHOTO SESSION MAKES A GREAT GIFT
This Valentine’s Day, try a different type of gift: a photo session with Claudine Williams Photography. Testimonials and portfolio samples are available at claudinewilliamsphotography.com. Sponsored.

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SEEN & HEARD
••• 1/23: Windblown scaffolding. Plus: Ice rink marriage proposal (above); residents reportedly upset by crown sculpture; Sleepy’s is now Mattress Firm; bollards crushed again; new Warren Street storefront; two more TV shoots.
••• 1/23: More windblown debris. Plus: Blueprint inside the former Dylan Prime space; Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” TV show is filming here; Antique Garage looks very close to opening; checking in on the new building at 70 Vestry; Da Mikele kids.
••• 1/24: Best Friends pet adoption center. Plus: Japanese restaurant pop-up at B Flat; Taryn Toomey’s fitness studio opens this week; misguided wayfaring signage; activity at the former Greenwich Grill space?; creamy façade on Walker.
••• 1/25: “Relentless Tenderness.” Plus: Schedule and tickets for the Roxy Hotel’s cinema; Houseman’s seven-course Chinese New Year feast; 111 Murray now as tall as 101 Warren; the forthcoming kids’ store on Greenwich; new 24-hour deli.

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SIMON’S HARDWARE & BATH HAS OPENED DOWNTOWN
The new store is on one of the sleepiest blocks in the area, but then the original Simon’s in Kips Bay—the oldest hardware store in the city—has always been more of a destination than somewhere you wander by and pop into.

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IN THE NEWS
••• 1/23: Novecento has closed after 25 years. Plus: Photos of the new Ichimura sushi bar; 3-D map shows the city’s forthcoming buildings; FiDi supermarket close to opening; Community Board 1 votes against newsstand outside Whole Foods; Tribeca couple’s art collection.
••• 1/24: El Chapo is staying nearby. Plus: New York Times gives Fowler & Wells two stars; more on Ichimura; the city’s dire retail situation; South Ferry subway station to reopen in June; growing up in Tribeca at the turn of the 20th century.
••• 1/25: Inside a Tribeca artist’s loft (above; photo by Harvey Wang). Plus: Taryn Toomey’s “intentional” new fitness studio; nic-fit theft; public art commemorating Little Syria in new FiDi park.

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MY OWN LITTLE METROPOLITAN DIARY
Excerpts from my journal of amusing interactions—akin to the New York Times’s “Metropolitan Diary,” but less fit for print.

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