••• This just in from a local business owner: “Over the last few months we have had several incidences of people trying (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to pass counterfeit bills. Typically, they come in, only buy a beverage, make light conversation as a distraction, pay with a $20 and then walk out with the $18+ change. The fake $20s have been fairly easy to detect. Recently we were given a fake $100, though, that was much closer to the real thing—it even passed the counterfeit marker test. I’m not sure if other businesses have experienced the same problem, or if we’re being targeted for some reason, but I just thought maybe you could bring it up so people would be on guard.” Indeed! I’m guessing that’s why Grandaisy no longer accepts $100 bills…. (And now I have the B-52’s “Legal Tender” stick in my head….)

••• Canal Park Playhouse, which Kipp Osborne is set to soft-open this summer at 508 Canal, now has an attractive placeholder website….

••• I’ve been frustrated by the fact that I can’t seem to find a website for the Clocktower Gallery—where actor James Franco’s exhibit opens this week—so I asked Wicki Boyle, who I figured would know someone or someone who would know someone, and she poked around and found that this is where info will be posted: artonair.org. And then she emailed to say that she checked the website, and there’s no info, and the woman in charge said they’d get to it this week. All of which is to say: stay tuned. Also: Here’s an article that explains the space a bit.

••• Trattoria Cinque has announced its summer menus.

••• I was at Takahachi Bakery the other day, talking to Kimie the manager, when I overheard someone say to the owner, “I’ve been reading all about the bakery on Tribeca Citizen.” Obviously it made my day, and I wanted to go over and say hi/thanks, but she was gone before I could. So hi! And thanks! That goes for anyone who ever mentions the site to a local business—it really helps.