••• Bar Artisanal is now a Spanish restaurant. Grub Street has the new menu.

••• Several area bars made it to New York mag’s best-of roundup. Ward III (its owners are pictured at left) is the city’s premiere “cocktail den”: “…Choose a desired spice, texture, and spirit from a mster list, and the bartenders will mix up a (usually) winning combination.” Terroir Tribeca nabs best wine scene: “…You can also order a delectable sandwich, like the veal-and-peppers on Italian bread ($11), to go along with a similarly informal drink presentation….” And Bar Seven Five at Andaz Wall Street Hotel is top hotel lounge: “The drinks are poured tableside, in a Benihana-meets-Sasha Petraske sort of way.”

••• Also in New York: An in-depth article about the construction at the World Trade Center. I didn’t read it. I feel about the WTC the way I do about space travel: Call me when it’s real.

••• “A survey released yesterday by the Alliance for Downtown New York paints a detailed picture of the residential population south of Chambers Street. […] An estimated 55,000 people live in Lower Manhattan (up 14 percent from three years ago), with almost two-thirds having lived in the area for five or more years. […] On average, 85 percent have a college degree and 42 percent have done post-graduate work. The average household income is $188,000 and the median household income is $143,000. […] Around a third of the survey respondents were childless couples in their early forties, working in financial services or creative services and earning $228,000 a year.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• The James hotel (the new-build at Grand and Sixth) is opening September 1. (HotelChatter)

••• Terroir‘s Paul Grieco—the hardest-working man in New York wine bars?—pops up in a New York Times piece on Bordeaux.