Two Games To Go

The regular season is about to end for the Sharks in two short games, both against the Phoenix Coyotes: today in Phoenix, and tomorrow in San Jose.

Two things we know for certain: the Sharks are in the playoffs and Sharks have again won the Pacific Division title.

What we, as Sharks fans, must do now is to hope for a successful post-season campaign. If the playoffs started today, the Sharks would face the Ducks, the same team that defeated them last game 6-2. Many would argue, however, that Coach Todd McLellan used that opportunity to give the Sharks added practice time and to give goaltender Antero Niittymaki some time in the net, due to the certainty of the Sharks qualifying for playoffs and the Division title.

Fortunately, the Sharks are also anticipating the return of both Ryane Clowe and Scott Nichol. Clowe had missed the last game due to a lower body injury, while Nichol had missed nearly twenty games due to an upper body injury. Both players will be vital to the Sharks’ success in the postseason.

For the Western Conference, only the Vancouver Canucks, the Sharks, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Los Angeles Kings have already qualified for postseason, meaning there is a close fight between five other teams scrambling to fill in four spots – one of those teams being the Phoenix Coyotes.

Fortunately for the Sharks, they have had relative success against the Coyotes this year, outscoring them 17-7 so far this season. The next few days will determine rather quickly just how the Western Conference teams will fill out.

The Sharks play the Coyotes tonight at 7:00pm PST in the first of their last two games of the regular season.

National Empanada Day at the Mmoon!

The Mmoon is celebrating National Empanada Day by giving away a FREE empanada to all customers between 8am-8pm today! They also just added 2 new empanadas I'm anxious to try, the Chicken Enchilada Empanada and the Tri-Berry Dessert Empanada. If you still haven't tried out The Mmoon, today is the day to do it.

Click the image below for more info!

Island Grill & Bamboo Lounge

New San Jose Froyo Truck - Twisted Chill

Well... it's about time. Finally someone in Norcal figured out a way to package self serve Frozen Yogurt into a food truck, and they just happen to be based out of San Jose.

The truck is called Twisted Chill and below are some mock ups, including one rough one of what the self serve section will look like. They are already planning to participate in SJ EATS!

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Wednesday Wishlist: One of THESE up to Lick Observatory

April 2011 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• Business Improvement District fees are being slightly raised to help offset the loss of funds from the RDA.
• The convention center is a go and will include 125k sqft of new construction, new chillers, new boilers, new cooling towers, new fire alarm and building management systems, and a $20m renovation of existing "front-of-house" public spaces.
• Cinequest rakes in a record 91,000 attendees!
• Liquid Agency is doubling their office space in SoFA.
• Works moved to a new SoFA location at 365 Market.
• MACLA is adding 3700sqft of gallery space.
• Touchstone climbing is coming back Downtown in what used to be WET Nightclub.
• Groundwerx has added multiple new machines to better clean the streets of Downtown San Jose.

To read the full newsletter, click here!

Convention Center Bonds Sold

The long overdue convention center expansion project is finally going to happen. $138.4 million in bonds were sold last Friday, which means the city has the cash in hand needed to start construction immediately.

The expansion will require demolishing the old MLK Main Library and adding 125,000sqft of convention and meeting space that will front San Carlos Street. Also in the plans are a general face-lift and modernization for the rest of the center. For more info, click here.

SJMADE + SJEATS

I have never been more proud to be a San Josean. Yesterday the SJMADE and SJEATS events took place and both were completely packed with people coming to support local vendors. SJMADE was entirely comprised of local store owners, artists, and purveyors of San Jose made and inspired goods. The two locations where this took place were entirely filled to capacity throughout the event. To give you an idea of how many people were there, it took me 10 minutes to walk from one side of the old Tied House building to the other. Half way through, all vendors selling food were completely sold out and by the end of the night many of the most popular products were entirely gone.

Going on at the same time was SJEATS. This was the very first event of it's kind in the South Bay and was run by Ryan Sebastian, the proprietor behind San Jose's famous Treatbot Karaoke Ice Cream Truck. It shares some similarities to Off the Grid in SF, featuring multiple gourmet food trucks. The difference was in the number of people. Just about every truck has a 1-2 hour line. Chairman Bao I think hit a 3 hour wait at one point. By the time I got there for lunch, 4 trucks were completely sold out of all food. Dinner was just as crazy with people lining up an hour before the trucks even got there. Despite the long waits, people were smiling, laughing, and having a great time. I went with a pretty large group, so we split up and went to 4 different trucks and then shared everything (and yes, the food was obscenely good). Also, several of the food trucks said this was the busiest they have ever been, period. Some claimed to sell twice as much product as they ever have at any event int the past, including Off the Grid.

What happened to the people tired of waiting for the food trucks? They cleaned house across the San Pedro Square restaurants, which were the busiest I have seen them... ever. By 2pm, The Mmoon was entirely sold out of empanadas. They had to close down for 2 hours and even after reopening they were down to only vegetarian options. La Pinata had a one hour wait. Satori was full, as were Peggie Su's, Los Cubanos, and San Pedro Bistro and Wine Bar.

For those who still fail to see Downtown San Jose's potential, these two events were pretty much proof that the surface hasn't even been scratched on what Downtown can become. One of the highlights for me was getting a glimpse of what San Pedro Square could become after the urban market opens up. When high-quality and unique products and services come together, the people will surely follow.