Pop-Up Brow Bar Downtown

The pop-up sensation is again moving beyond standard retail and food and is headed towards services. This weekend Plan Be Salon on 2nd St. Downtown is hosting a pop-up brow bar from 2-6pm. It would be nice to see more service oriented pop-ups in the future, perhaps even utilizing some of our empty retails space.

Massive New Office Project on Coleman

The big projects just keep on rolling in. Hunter/Storm LLC, the same developer behind @First, is gearing up to build out 1.5 million sqft of office space, 2 hotels, and 50,000sqft of retail along Coleman right across the street from the new Earthquakes stadium. The icing on the cake is all this is going in a location near mass transit. The Caltrain station is right around the corner and one day BART will be there as well. SJC is right across the street.

Along with the new stadium, this will indeed be a great project leading people into Downtown from Coleman. Phase one should break ground early next year and be complete by Summer 2014.

Source: SJBJ


SJBJ


SJBJ

Dine Downtown San Jose – June 20-July 1

Restaurant week is back for 2012! This is a great way to experience an assortment of different foods at San Jose's top restaurants for a reasonable price. New to the list this year are Vino Vino, Myth, and Back A Yard Caribbean American Grill. Also for the first time, we have 2 Dishcrawls that will feature Restaurant Week eateries. Full details below!

Downtown restaurants combine value, service and quality into fourth annual event

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Take a culinary expedition through Downtown San Jose during Dine Downtown restaurant week, June 20-July 1. 

Some of downtown’s best restaurants provide gourmet three- and four-course prix-fixe specialty dishes and equally outstanding service at special price points ranging $20-$70, most $40 and under.

“This is a favorite promotion of the year for many San Jose foodies,” said Julie Carlson, SJDA Marketing Director.  “Dine Downtown allows people the opportunity to try new places and return to old favorites.”

Participating restaurants for this fourth annual Dine Downtown Restaurant Week include (committed as of today):

•  19Market Restaurant - 19 N. Market St.; 280-6111

•  71 Saint Peter Mediterranean Grill - 71 N. San Pedro St.; 971-8523

•  Azucar Latin Restaurant & Lounge - 71 E. San Fernando St.; 293-8482

•  Back A Yard Caribbean American Grill - 80 N. Market St.;294-8626

•  Bella Mia Restaurant & Bar - 58 S. First St.; 280-1993

•  Billy Berk's Restaurant - 99 S. First St.; 292-4300

•  Britannia Arms Downtown - 173 W. Santa Clara St.; 278-1400

•  Fahrenheit Restaurant & Lounge - 99 E. San Fernando St.; 998-9998

•  Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant - 33 E. San Fernando St.; 294-6785

•  The Grill on the Alley - in the Fairmont Hotel, 172 S. Market St.; 294-2244

•  Habana Cuba  Restaurant, 238 Race St. 998-2822   

•  Il Fornaio - in the Sainte Claire Hotel, 302 S. Market St.; 271-3366

•  La Pastaia Ristorante & Enoteca - in the Hotel De Anza - 233 W. Santa Clara St.; 286-8686

•  Loft Bar and Bistro - 90 S. 2nd St.; 291-0677

•  Los Gatos Brewing Company - 163 W. Santa Clara St.;292-9928

•  Mezcal Restaurant - 25 W. San Fernando St.; 283-9595

•  Morton's The Steakhouse - 177 Park Ave.; 947-7000

•  Myth Taverna & Lounge - 152 Post St.; 286-7678

•  Paolo’s Restaurant - 333 W. San Carlos St. # 150; 294-2558

•  San Pedro Square Bistro & Wine - 20 N. Almaden Ave.; 298-9463

•  Sonoma Chicken - 31 N. Market St.; 287-4098

•  Vino Vino - 87 N. San Pedro St. #105; 703-2333

Dishcrawl will host preview events June 12-13.  Check http://dishcrawl.com/dinedowntown

Dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. nightly.  Reservations are recommended, and many of the participating restaurants accept reservations through OpenTable.com.  Or, contact the restaurants by phone or use their websites.

All the info and links are at sjdowntown.com/dinedowntown.

More information can be found at Metro, NBC Bay Area, KCBS, Mix 106.5, 94.5 KBAY, Silicon Valley Community Newspapers and El Observador.

More background information

•  Restaurants present specially crafted menus that showcase their unique flavor and flare

•  Goals:  

• fun and entertaining evenings for customers  
• new and repeat customers for restaurants
•  improvedunderstanding of the quality and diversity of dining options of downtown San Jose, a true destination for quuality dining experiences

•  Reservations:  recommended.  Some reservations are accepted through OpenTable.com

•  Restaurant info and prix fixe menus available on sjdowntown.com/dinedowntown

•  Call (408) 279-1775

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Scenes from SubZERO

Did you go to the SubZERO Festival? If not, you totally missed out. It was packed with art, music, local vendors, street performers and more. My husband and I got there around 6pm and didn't leave until close to midnight. We roamed up and down the street about three times; checking out local vendors, the tech-art projects, watching a performance… there was always something going on.

We grouped up with Josh and his wife (of TSJB) and hit up a few of the art galleries, had some dessert from Treatbot, and tasted the locally brewed beer from Strike.

Plus! Yay for community - we ran into so many people there! It was definitely the place to be. Do not miss out next year.

Silicon Valley Roller Girls

Cielo Vertical Arts

Check out my video of part of the performance!

Art Alive Gallery

Corpus Callosum

A few more of my photos can be found in my SubZERO Flickr set.

SubZERO Festival [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter]

San Jose Trails update from City Trail Manager Yves Zuetty

from One Square Mile by noreply@blogger.com (Carlos)

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San Jose Trails Update - May 2012

Highway 237 Bikeway Construction

Construction of the bikeway project between Zanker Road and Coyote Creek (north side) continues. Asphalt paving, striping and fencing are in place. Opening of the trail is delayed until early June as final work items are completed – installation of bollards, new wheelchair ramps and restoration of a vehicle detection loop at the nearby freeway off-ramp traffic signal. Follow “SanJoseTrails” on Twitter for notification of the trail’s reopening and get more detailed updates and photos by following the Construction Updates.

Lower Guadalupe River Trail Construction

A construction contract has been awarded and the pre-construction meeting occurred on May 23. The City will provide a project schedule and details about phasing during the week of June 4. Weekly project updates are posted on the Construction Updates link found on the Trail Program homepage: www.sjparks.org/trails.

Lower Guadalupe River Trail – Tasman Under-Crossing

A grant has been secured to elevate the under-crossing at Tasman Drive so that it is flooded less frequently from seasonal rains and tidal flows from the Bay. The project is within the limits of the larger Lower Guadalupe River Trail project, however, the City has postponed construction until after the larger trail project is completed. In this way, the 6.4 mile trail project is not subject to a possible seasonal closure that would only occur due to flooding at the under-crossing. The California Transportation Commission approved a grant extension on May 23, 2012. Work on the under-crossing is to get underway immediately after completion of the Lower Guadalupe River Trail project.

Thompson Creek Trail (Tully-Quimby)

Preparation of construction documents is on-going. PG&E has issued a permit and the City has positively identified all utilities along the trail alignment. Funding is in place to construct the 0.65 mile trail (improving the existing interim gravel surface). A schedule for construction will be provided once construction documents are completed.

Doerr Parkway

Two community meetings have occurred for Doerr Parkway project. The west San Jose project will develop a landscaped trail along a short 500' parcel currently used as a utility corridor. Design work is now underway – you’ll find conceptual drawings of the future trail posted at: http://www.sjparks.org/Trails/TrailsMeetings.asp

Los Gatos Creek Trail Under-Crossing (San Carlos Street)

The City has secured $1.6M in grant funding to prepare environmental and construction documents for the under-crossing that will span beneath the West San Carlos Street bridge, active Caltrain/Amtrak railway bridge and future High Speed Rail alignment. A Request for Qualifications was issued on May 24 to hire a design consultant for the project. A schedule will provided at a later date when the project team is hired. A conceptual image of the under-crossing is available.

Don't miss Mary Poppins!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

As of this post (Saturday, June 9th.. 10ish-am), there are only four showings left of Mary Poppins at Broadway San Jose! So if you were on the fence about attending, now is the time to make up your mind!

If you are like the majority of us, your memory of Mary Poppins is the magical Disney musical movie staring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Sometimes when you go to see a show and you already have an image of what you expect to see you can sometimes be disappointed if it doesn't live up to those memories.

Let me say, this production was RIGHT THERE with the movie, of course including a few of its own characteristics and moments, but I felt the movie come alive!

So I'm not a professional critic - I'm Jen. I like movies, and musicals, and a play here and there. Let me break this down in a few points:

Set design & technical bits:

WOW. Oh my wow. Right away my jaw kind of dropped at what we were treated with and within a few short minutes you are left thinking, "What are they going to do next?!" I want to list the specifics but I don't want to give them away because they're just such fun, it adds a whole layer to the show. They did a great job adding the "magic" to the show for sure.

Song & Dance numbers:

I'd say 90% of them had me smiling and singing along, tapping my toes along with the cast as they danced. The Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious number alone had me in awe of the awesome memory skills the cast possess. It's CRAZY. Let's just say, I can manage a good YMCA, but this is just nuts. ('Nuts' in a totally awesome fantastical way, that is.)

Characters:

While the whole cast was wonderful, the powers that be certainly picked awesome actors for Mary and Bert. The Mary felt very "Julie Andrews" to me, and that's meant as a compliment to the actor - I wanted my take-away to feel like I just watched the movie LIVE, I didn't want to walk away thinking they changed too much or went off character too much -- and they didn't. The Bert character, had his own approach to the character but totally nailed a lot of the Dick Van Dyke mannerisms from the movie too. 

Overall it was one of those really heart-warming, wholesome, good fun musicals. Right away you're transformed into the Mary Poppins world and from beginning to end there are technical treats, colorful numbers (they treated the 'cartoon' parts perfectly!) and so much more. I love it when the show is over and you hear everyone immediately singing their favorite part or mentioning how amazing another part was… 

Now it's your turn - go see it before it's gone!

Broadway San Jose [Website] [Facebook]

Showing:

Saturday June 9th: 2pm & 8pm

Sunday June 10th: 1pm & 6:30pm

San Pedro Square Farmer's Market Today

My favorite Farmer's Market is happening today, and every Saturday year-round. Everything is local and organic, plus you couldn't ask for a better venue. Check out the video below courtesy of WMS Media.

Evergreen Village Square Music Series

I think Evergreen Village is one of South San Jose's hidden gems. It's like a little oasis in the middle of the most suburban part of San Jose that resembles a mini Downtown wrapped around a beautiful fountain and park. At one point they were even planning a small movie theater and a restaurant on the lake, but unfortunately that never came to fruition.

If you've never been there before, the music series below is a great reason to come and enjoy the village. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will one day build out the rest of the site and have even more community-centric events like these. 

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This year’s free Evergreen Village Square Music Series kicks off Friday June 8th with the amazing California Cowboys. There will be a total of six free outdoor concerts taking place at the beautiful Evergreen Village Square in San Jose. Enjoy the music every other Friday throughout the summer, from 6:00pm to 8:00, followed by a family-friendly movie.

Here is a list of the great bands coming to Evergreen Village Square:

June 8th- The California Cowboys (country music at its best!)
June 22nd- Macy Blackman and the Mighty Fines (Rock the house with classic New Orleans R&B)
July 6th- The Fabulous Cruisetones (Classic oldies from the fifties to the eighties)
July 20th- Alvon Johnson (Award-winning blues and R&B)
August 10th- The Hum (Rock ‘n Roll and Blues)
August 24th- The Road Dogs (Classic Rock)

Evergreen Village Square is located on Ruby Avenue, off Aborn Road East, in San Jose. Sponsored by Involved Evergreen.

Like Evergreen Village Square on Facebook!
www.evergreenvillagesquare.com