Halloween event options are super limited this year, but there is at least one event going on at the San Pedro Square Market. Costumes, music, food specials, and some "Halloween Fun" are in order. Spooktacular Saturday runs from 11am - 6pm and all the proper COVID protocols will be in place.
Art Boutiki is a comic book publisher, store, cafe, and music venue for up-and-coming artists. They are the type of local treasure that would be impacted the most by COVID. However, they are making the most of a bad situation are are livestreaming concerts almost every Wednesday and Saturday. It's a great way to support the local arts scene and many of the concerts are free.
While going through there events I also came across Dine and Draw and Drink and Draw in-person events. For these you listen to music on the outdoor patio, grab some wine or brews, and draw. It is a comic book publisher after all.
I used to love visiting Art Boutiki as part of South First Fridays and was sad when they had to shut down and move to Midtown (44 Race Street). While I haven't visited the new venue yet, it looks like they have kept all of the soul and character of their previous location and may have even taken things up a notch!
For their full list of events, head over here.
Hat tip to Ryan Mann for sending this in.
Peter Gorman has created an interesting mashup of art and transportation. He designs minimalist maps that were inspired by a one-year, 11,000-mile, solo bicycle trip around the United States. As part of that he spent about a month exploring the Bay Area and turned some of our most popular intersections into the contemporary interpretations below. It's a neat project and you can view the high resolution image and accompanying comments over here.
A massive transit village has been proposed for the San Jose Flea Market right next to our new BART station. This is already the site of our largest project that is currently under construction. How massive you ask? The developers are looking to build 3,450 residential units and 3.4 MILLION square feet of commercial space. To put that in perspective that is roughly half of all the office space the exists in Downtown San Jose today.
The commercial component would be spread across seven buildings and three parking structures. The residential piece could utilize high-rises as tall as 200 feet, would would be very noticeable for the area. Other nearby amenities would include a plaza, pop-up retail space, an urban garden, a 1.4-acre rec area, tennis course, and a mini baseball field.
The bad news is that the Flea Market would be demolished to make way for the 61.5-acre project. There would be 150,000 SQFT of ground-floor retail and restaurants in the transit village, but it would not quite make up for losing a San Jose icon. However, given the vast increase in jobs, tax dollars, and density near transit--this project should be an easy approval by the city.
Source: SVBJ
Gillynova from the San Jose Development Forum has posted a few photos of Miro, which will feature San Jose's two tallest towers when construction is complete across from City Hall sometime next year. The project appears to be coming along nicely despite all of the COVID restrictions.
Yesterday we officially went from a Covid tier status of red to orange, which means indoor dining is coming back! The scale goes from purple, to red, to orange, and finally to yellow which has the fewest restrictions. Technically we could have resumed indoor dining in red status but Santa Clara County has chosen to enforce stricter rules than what California mandates.
Restaurants will be able to open their indoor dining rooms again effective immediately. However, they will be limited to 25% of their maximum capacity or 100 guests, whichever number is lower. A few other restrictions may be lifted as well on religious gatherings and movie theaters.
Slowly we're headed back toward some level of normalcy.
Source: SVBJ
Last week, Google released additional renders and details about their plan for Downtown San Jose. The project is one of the largest and most ambitious in the Bay Area's history. It would involve 7.3 million SQFT of office space, 4,000 new homes, half a million SQFT of retail and art space, 15 acres of parks and open space, and zero net CO2 emissions.
One of the most exciting components is that 65% of the campus will be accessible to the public. Instead of being a fortress that only Googlers can access, many of the amenities will be open for everyone to enjoy, including those 15 acres of new parks and open space.
The scale is unlike anything we have ever seen. Google is planning to build 30 new buildings! Eventually it could support up to 25,000 employees. You can get an idea below of what this might look like below. If you have the time, it's worth watching the full 40 minute video that Google put together to showcase the latest version of the project (also below).
Source: Engadget
Once again, San Jose is the top metro in the United States for tech productivity. In 2019 San Jose brought in $30 billion more than the runner up, San Francisco.
This statistic is even more impressive considering we now only have the 5th highest count of tech workers. New York, LA, Washington, and the San Francisco metros all have between double and quadruple our population and in the case of New York nearly double the number of tech workers. Despite this, we still have a greater economic output in the tech industry. The death of Silicon Valley has been severely exaggerated.
Source: SVBJ
The Dine Downtown program is back and better than ever despite COVID19. Not only will more eateries be included but the event has been extended to 6 weeks, running all the way to November 15th. Each participating restaurant will have a multi-course special just for the event. This time around even cafes are included with food and coffee pairings, which is a fantastic idea!
The list of participants includes many local favorites like 71 Saint Peter, District, Enoteca La Storia, Habana Cuba, Mezcal, Pastelaria Adega, and Farmer's Union. There is one notable addition, which for me is the most highly anticipated restaurant opening in Downtown for all of 2020... Petiscos by Adega. This is a new casual restaurant by the same owners of Adega (the first and only San Jose restaurant to ever get a Michelin Star) and Pastelaria Adega on Santa Clara Street. Petiscos by Adega will offer Portugal's version of tapas at the corner of First and San Salvador (above Haberdasher). It's inclusion on the list hopefully means it will be open by November.
The Dine Downtown press release is below and a list of participating restaurants and menus can be found here.
Dine Downtown San Jose returns for 12th year, Oct. 1-Nov. 15
SAN JOSE – Dine Downtown, version 2.020, celebrates all Downtown San Jose restaurants currently open during the COVID-19 crisis.
“This is our most popular dining event because it highlights downtown’s unique food cultures,” said Julie Carlson, marketing director for the San Jose Downtown Association, which produces the event. “This year, we stretched Dine Downtown to include more restaurants over a longer period of time to make sure customers have plenty of time to explore new dining experiences AND revisit a favorite.”
Downtown restaurants are eager to see their customers return for the extended promotion Oct. 1-Nov. 15 – that’s 46 days covering seven weekends to celebrate and support all the downtown San Jose eateries that have remained open for business during the strict pandemic protocols.
“Our restaurants are struggling because of the pandemic,” said Autumn Young, SJDA’s interim managing director. “We wanted to bring attention to those businesses making their way through these difficult times so they can focus on what they do best – which is making delicious food!”
Cafes are joining in the program this year with creative food and coffee pairings. Dine Downtown in past years focused on white tablecloth dining with chef specials, prix fixe menus and wine/cocktail tastings.
More than 100 food establishments are open downtown offering take out, delivery and Al Fresco outdoor dining. Of those, more than 20 will feature a Dine Downtown offer.
SJDA is still gathering offers from regular Dine Downtown participants, including 71 Saint Peter, Farmers Union, District, Enoteca la Storia, Habana Cuba and Hawaiian Poke Bowl. One newcomer this year is the Petiscos by Adega Portuguese restaurant at 399 S. First St., which is scheduled to open during Dine Downtown’s run.
Examples of specials for this 12th year of Dine Downtown:
· Tiki Pete, 23 N. Market St. offers a food-and-drink pairing of Mai Tai and Shoyu Chicken ($20) and a Chef Special of ahi poke nachos ($10). The Prix Fixe for two includes Cajun fries appetizer, seafood combo of shrimp, green mussels from New Zealand, dark clams in shell, plus choice of Dungeness crab, king crab legs or whole lobster, plus Hawaiian sausages, corn and red potatoes, and haupia for dessert ($90).
· The Farmers Union on San Pedro Square brings back its offer from previous years of three courses for $30 of choice of creamy tomato soup or Caesar’s salad appetizer, entrée choice of Farmers veggie bowl, grilled flat iron steak, half-rack smoked ribs or salmon, and warm brownie and salted caramel bread pudding for dessert.
Many of the cafes, delis and coffee houses are excited to participate in Dine Downtown:
· The Nest Asian Bistro, 312 S. Third St., offers 77-cent boneless chicken wings and $5 beer on Monday and Wednesday.
· Cubamex, 325 S. First St., will add chips and salsa and soda to any sandwich order for $2 more.
· MakiBQ on Fountain Alley has three chef specials: Kimbap & Inari Combo with House Sauce ($6); Chicken Katsu Musubi with Cucumbers & Teriyaki Sauce ($6); Volcano - Fire Fries, Fried Chicken & Crispy Noodles Spicy ($8)
Other participants include Academic Coffee, Voyager Craft Coffee, Voltaire Coffee Roasters, Paper Moon Café and Pastelaria Adega.