New Sushi Confidential sign gives a nod to the San Jose Sharks

Sushi Confidential is a popular Japanese restaurant in San Pedro Square. They have a new sign with an arrow saying "Sushi" pointing to the restaurant and another arrow saying "Sharks" pointing at the SAP Center a few blocks away.

Many people park in the San Pedro Square parking garage before walking to games and hang out in the area both before and after games. It's a subtle but thoughtful addition to the street honoring San Jose's most famous sports team.

Source: SharksJosh95

Symphony San Jose presents THE FIREBIRD SUITE January 25 and 26, 2025

With music as enchanting and lavishly colorful as the title character, The Firebird is the perfect way to celebrate the new year. This suite comes from the 1910 ballet that launched Stravinsky’s international career. Opening the program is Sibelius’ most-famous composition, Finlandia, evoking the struggles of his native homeland with equal parts ominousness, pride, and festivity. Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn is one of the famed Romantic composer’s most popular works. Argentinian conductor Carlos Vieu brings Sonia Possetti’s spirited Bullanguera from his homeland to complete this program.

 

Who: Symphony San Jose presents

 

What: The Firebird

When: Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 7:30pm and Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 2:30pm

Where: The California Theatre, 345 South First Street, downtown San Jose, 95113. Convenient, inexpensive parking is available at a city-owned garage one-and-a-half blocks from the theater at San Carlos Street with entrances on Second and Third streets.

SINGLE TICKET PRICES: $24 to $121.50 (Ticket prices include $2.50 City Fee and Order Fee of $4.00.)

Special Youth Ticket price: A ticket for concert goers, age 17 and under, can be discounted up to 50% when purchased along with a full-price ticket.

TICKETS: Phone: 408.286.2600 

Website: www.symphonysanjose.org 

Email: jmeyers@symphonysanjose.org

Walk-Up Box Office: 325 South First Street, San Jose, 95113. Located between San Carlos and San Salvador Street next to the California Theatre. Ticket Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 10am to 5pm.
THE PROGRAM:

Jean Sibelius: Finlandia

Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn

Sonia Possetti: Bullanguera

Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite

 

ARTISTS

Conductor: Carlos Vieu

Biography: http://www.lombardoassociates.org/carlos-vieu

 

Symphony San Jose

www.symphonysanjose.org/

 

ArtWork: Courtesy of Symphony San Jose.

Photos of the artist courtesy of Symphony San Jose.

Books written by San Jose authors

SJ Today has a new post listing dozens and dozens of books with ties to San Jose. They are broken into categories of fiction, worldview, local interest, personal stories, family, and poetry. I'll have to check out Haunted San Jose, Silicon Valleys, and Secret San Jose from the local interest section! See the full list of books over here.

Source: SJ Today

Bay Area Michelin Star Restaurants - 2024 Edition (Part 2) + 2025 preview

It has been a long while since doing a post about Michelin recommended/starred restaurants--2019 in fact.

The Michelin guide is the most renowned rubric in the world for measuring culinary success. Unfortunately, we have some bad news this year. San Jose's first and only Michelin Star restaurant ever, Adega in Little Portugal, is now permanently closed. The silver lining is that it will be replaced with a second Petiscos restaurant. The original Petiscos is in Downtown San Jose's SoFA District and is not only featured in the guide but is one of San Jose's first two Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurants (a step below a Star and signifying a restaurant is of outstanding value for the quality).

Michelin has three different star categories:

• One Star - A very good restaurant in its category with cuisine prepared to a consistently high standard. A good place to stop on your journey.
• Two Stars - Excellent cuisine, skillfully and carefully crafted dishes of outstanding quality. Worth a detour.
• Three Stars - Exceptional cuisine with distinctive dishes and superlative ingredients. Worth a special journey.

New last year were "Green Stars" for restaurants that are at the forefront of sustainable, environmental, and ethical standards.

There are also restaurants in the Michelin guide that do not get a star, but are considered "Michelin Recommended." This is already a significant honor that a very small percentage of restaurants achieve. This distinction has gotten more rare since the guide now covers all of California instead of just the Bay Area. San Jose has a total of 4 Michelin Recommended restaurants (they already added Adega back).  It's the same list as a year ago.


San Jose Michelin Recommended Restaurants:

• Downtown
• Petiscos $$ (Bib Gourmand)
• East San Jose
• Adega $$$$ 
• Midtown
• Luna Mexican Kitchen $$ (Bib Gourmand)
• North San Jose
• LeYou $$

I also created a Google doc listing all of the star recipients for 2024, along with tabs for all previous years and some general statistics. 2020-2022 have finally been updated. There is no longer a physical book for California, but Michelin will update their site after new stars are awarded.

Below is an image capture from the doc. This year there were a total of 44 Bay Area restaurants that were awarded Michelin stars. 66% of the restaurants are locating in SF, 14% in Silicon Valley (9% in the South Bay, 5% in the Peninsula), 16% in Wine Country, 2% in the East Bay, and 2% in Marin. There are three new restaurants on the list for 2024 and four that no longer made the cut or were closed down. There were no new Silicon Valley restaurants on the list from last year, but I'm feeling optimistic about 2025.

Michelin will announce updates to the guide for Bay Area restaurants this summer and I'll make the 2025 updates faster than I did in 2024. It will be interesting if San Jose can earn back its star with Adega. There are also some new hopefuls that might be able to get a star in 2025. I have my eye on Alter Ego, Eos & Nyx, and Augustine. I also think Le Papillion and Rollati certainly deserve a shot and should at least be "Michelin Recommended."

Welcome to 2025!

We're officially in the future! 2025 sounds like a year where we should be driving flying cars and vacationing on Mars. It seems like we are well on our way to that kind of future, even if it's later than we expected decades ago.

We hope you all have a great start to the New Year with your family and friends!

Now let's have a quick look to see what AI think San Jose will look like in 2050.