Icebee Yogurt Now Open

If you're craving yogurt and you just happen to be in Downtown San Jose, you surely won't go hungry. There are now at least 5 yogurt shops downtown: Penguin Froyo, Cafe Yolicious, Swirls, Chillfactor, and now Icebee.

Located next to the Pita Pit on 2nd St., Icebee is a self-serve shop with 12 different flavors--including organic yogurt which you don't see very often--as well as the usual assortment of toppings. The atmosphere is modern and hip with a really slick booth in the middle of the store. Definitely a sweet addition to First St. which will one day provide contiguous retail between Santa Clara and SoFA Downtown.

Axis Art Gallery Opens Its Doors

We have yet another art gallery opening in Downtown San Jose, this time at the ground floor of Axis in one of the live/work units (#101). Axis Art Gallery features the work of photographer Deborah Mills Thackrey, painters Archil Pinchkhadze and Chris Elliman, as well as work by Tom Thackrey, Michael Buscemi, Julia Jacobson, Chris Sican, Phil Bongiorno, and Stefani Esta.

For more information, take a look at their website here.

Art work above by Archil Pichkhadze

First Friday (anti)Valentine Exhibition & Auction @ Works

The same gallery that brought you a crazy 24-hour ART-A-THON last First Friday (in December) is now brining you a "my Bloody Valentine" dance and (anti)Valentine auction for February's First Friday coming up... this week.

Here's a link if you're interested in either of these events or would like to donate your art: http://www.workssanjose.org/wordpress/.

If you haven't attended a First Friday yet, it's definitely a worthwhile experience. Great way to see the San Jose art scene. If you have attended a First Friday, have you walked all the way down to Market St.? There are 3-4 galleries and exhibits that people tend to miss, including friends of mine that have been to several of these. Make sure you go all the way down for the full experience ;)

Cinequest Coming Soon!

One of the top film festivals in the world is just a few weeks away from taking Downtown San Jose by storm! This year the festival has expanded to 5 different venues: Camera 12, Camera 3, The Rep, The California Theater, and even San Jose State University.

Over 200 screenings will take place, including 45 world and US premiers, forums with actors and directors, VIP parties at restaurants across downtown, and even a Mavericks award ceremony. Over 80,000 people are expected to attend. This year, I think everyone will be plenty impressed with how far downtown has come. With all of the beatification projects and Groundwerx, the "Cinequest zones" have never looked so good.

Mark your calendars for Feb 23 to Mar 7! To start selecting which screenings you want to attend, hit up this link for a full list of what's playing. Hope to see you there!

Lost San Jose Exhibit @ Santana Row

Feb 6th kicks off a photography exhibition of Lost San Jose in the Blues Jean Bar at the Row. If you happen to be there between 7-9pm, you can also grab some drinks and meet the photographer himself. He has some pretty amazing work, definitely worth checking out!

3 San Jose Companies make Fortunes Magazine's "100 Best Companies To Work For"

Fortune has just released this year's list of top companies to work for and San Jose snagged 3 spots:

• #16 - Cisco 
• #42 - Adobe 
• #61 - Brocade

Other Silicon Valley Companies on the list:

• #4 - Google (Mountain View)
• #7 - Netapp (Sunnyvale)
• #94 - Intuit (Mountain View)
• #98 - Intel (Santa Clara)

Despite only having 0.5% of the US population, 7% of the top 100 companies to work for are in Silicon Valley... not too shabby.

Tons of Discounts Downtown

I have to share a little secret to getting the best deals downtown. The San Jose Downtown Association has an affinity card called "Discover Downtown San Jose." What are the benefits? Show the card to participating restaurants and you can receive free appetizers, desserts, a straight discount up to 20%, or even a buy one entree get one free offer. There are a large number of participants including 19 Market, Arcadia, Bella Mia, The Brit, E&O, Eulipia, Fahrenheit, all Fairmont restaurants and their lounge, Hawgs, Habana Cuba, Maceio, Morton's, Penguin Froyo, PF Chang's, Scott's, Silk Road Bistro, and many more. There are even some non-restaurant offers like 20% off FedEX and UPS, free drinks at Camera Cinemas, and Comedy Sportz discounts. For the full list of benefits click here!

You can pick up a card for free at the SJDA offices at 28 N. First (10th Floor) or at the Friday Farmer's Markets in San Pedro Square.

Downtown Willow Glen project is a GO

Today the San Jose City Council unanimously approved a mixed-use project at Lincoln Ave and Willow Street. You guys know I love bullets, so here are the specifics:

• 41,000sqft 3-story building
• 18,000sqft retail (restaurants and boutique shops)
• 23,000sqft office space
• Plaza with a fountain and plenty of seating
• 108 parking spaces on the 2nd floor
• Willow Street Pizza will expand its bar and outdoor dining patio into this project
• Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt will be relocated into the new retail space (one of my favorite yogurt shops)
• Construction begins in June, Completion in Feb 2012
• $10m budget

For more information, have a gander at this San Jose Business Journal article.

Also, here is a little before and after: