••• Frenchette, the new restaurant in the old Cercle Rouge space from Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, who had been executive chefs for Keith McNally’s restaurants, opens Monday, and Grub Street got the first gander. “They took inspiration from Paris’s flourishing bistronomy movement, a modern approach to dining that is looser and more improvisatory, unfussy and often bare-bones. With dark-wood panels as sleek and luminous as a vintage Chris Craft cruiser, creamy wainscoting, and expanses of red-leather banquettes and booths, Frenchette isn’t exactly the Corner Bistro. But the tabletops are bare, the wine will be poured into the squat stemmed water glasses that are so popular in many of Paris’s buzzing bars à vin, and the menu will be printed daily to indicate the co-chefs’ desire to wing it like a couple of post-bop jazzbos rather than play their greatest hits the same way night after night.” Click the link above to see a few photos of the space and the food. No word yet on how to reserve. UPDATE: And here’s more on Frenchette from the New York Times. UPDATE: “Reservations can be made online at frenchettenyc.com, and are also available through the app Resy,” according to a press release. (The website isn’t live yet.)

••• Last month, the liquor-license transfer application for the former Ritz-Carlton Battery Park at 2 West St. said the new name would be The Wagner Place Hotel. The new operator Highgate Hotels has shortened it to just The Wagner Hotel at the Battery, possibly because (as I pointed out) there’s a Robert F. Wagner Place on the north side of the Brooklyn Bridge. —Broadsheet

••• Two sculptural works are coming to Foley Square and Thomas Paine Park: a man-dog holding an apple by Gillie sand Marc, and Judith Modrak’s “Our Memories”: “The artist asks participants to choose among six colored acrylic stones, a different color for a different emotion—joy, anger, love, sadness, fear and surprise—that is tied to a strong memory. Those ‘memories’ are dropped into a translucent, fiberglass vessel of Modrak’s design and, when filled, is permanently sealed.” —Tribeca Trib

••• The condo conversion of 15 Jay will launch sales in June. The first rendering to be released is below. Kind of a funky choice…. —City Realty