• CaVaLa Park—bordered by Canal, Varick, and Laight—has opened, notes Downtown Express. The centerpiece is “a fountain resembling a series of cascading waterfalls, which is meant to represent the former canal that used to occupy the area.” The newspaper also reports that the sculpture garden at the intersection of Canal and Sixth Avenue will be opening in late September. The owners, Trinity Real Estate, joined forces with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to create an interim park while they figure out what to do with the land (i.e., wait out the recession).

• The wine store half of Vino Vino, on West Broadway between Franklin and White, has new owners and is now known on Maslow 6. More than in a couple of days. Tribbles, on the same West Broadway block, is no longer a store and is insteadTribbles Studio, an event space, event planner, and interior design consultancy. A request for an explanation has so far not yielded a response.

• New Amsterdam Market (right) will be returning to South Street, at the site of the Fulton Fish Market, for four Sundays throughout the fall (Sept. 13, Oct. 25, Nov. 22, Dec. 20). Organizers, who hope to take over the former Fish Market permanently, are looking for volunteers to hand out postcards starting as soon as late August. For details, see newamsterdammarket.org.

• Downtown Express reports that Sazón, on Reade, is annoying its neighbors by having live music and dancing even though it holds permits for neither. One neighbor says the bar often blasts “Sweet Caroline,” of all songs, and patrons can occasionally even be seen dancing in the street.

• Former New York Times food editor Amanda Hesser kept a “food diary” of everything she ate for a week for New York magazine’s NYmag.com, and one of the highlights was cookies from Duane Park Patisserie: “Later in the afternoon, I had some blackberries and cookies from Duane Park Patisserie: a ginger cookie, a hazelnut biscotti, and two of their chocolate-leaf cookies, which is the real reason I go there. It’s like a paper-thin leaf-shaped cookie with chocolate on top, and I think the cookie itself has some almond extract in it. We went to dinner with some friends who live on Duane Street, they served them for dessert, and I have gone ever since.” Related: New York mag’s Adam Platt gave Locanda Verde a two-star review, citing the sliders, a rabbit terrine, and the chicken for two.

• The one-night charity shopping event being held at Housing Works Tribeca will be co-hosted by designers Charlotte Ronson and Shoshonna Guss; the two of them will also be donating items to the sale. It happens Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.