DREW NIEPORENT LOOKS BACK ON A TRIBECA CAREER
The Times has a review of Drew Nieporent’s book, “I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories From the Restaurant Trenches,” which came out in September. Drew (above on left with his brother, Tracy) is of course the co-creator of Nobu, Tribeca Grill, Corton and Montrachet, “all influential restaurants that changed New York City and helped make TriBeCa the affluent, alluring neighborhood it is today.” It continues: “Mr. Nieporent, 70, makes the case that his skills, experience and taste have as much to do with a restaurant’s success as those of a chef. He claims to have been the first restaurateur to accept credit cards, employ food runners and limit diners to a fixed amount of time at the table.”

THE BATTLE OF/FOR THE BENCH
The Trib has the backstory on the bench outside Whole Foods, which Tribecan Lee Katcher fought to replace for the past decade. “I started calling my community board and they told me I had to call 311. I called 311 and they said I had to talk to the Department of Transportation,” she told the Trib. It went on like that for years until finally, she reached out to City Councilman Christopher Marte, who sent a letter to the DOT. That did it.

STILL WAITING ON PEDESTRIAN STUDY OF FIDI
The Broadsheet reports that City Councilmember Christopher Marte is pushing the City’s Department of Transportation “either to complete a long overdue pedestrian study of the Financial District, or else return the $500,000 in funding that his predecessor earmarked for this project.” Margaret Chin allocated the funds in 2016 to study mobility and pedestrian safety, but nothing was ever produced, Marte said. Plus, The Broadsheet noted, similar studies were conducted by DOT in 1997 and 2010 and were never implemented.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL UNLOADS TRIBECA APARTMENT
Old news, but just so it’s on my record, Jake Gyllenhaal sold his Tribeca apartment at 443 Greenwich for $14 million, according to The Real Deal.