I had a little Downtown "Staycation" over the weekend and thought it might be neat to share.
Friday
The Zero1 Street Festival started at 6pm and as always it featured all sorts of off the wall exhibits throughout SoFA like a silent rave and an interactive pipe-music-thingy. My wife and I were pretty impressed with the LED webbing they hung past William Street and I hope they keep it up year-round. The Zero1 Garage was definitely a highlight and will be open all the way up until December. Great addition to SoFA and worth checking out.
We had a snack at one of the food trucks, enjoyed some beers at the Gordon Biersch Beer Garden, then hit up Tanq with friends for dinner and drinks.
Then we did a second round at the festival and made it to the new Parque de los Pobladores, which turned out really well! It seems much, much larger and even hosted one of the music stages and a bright pink carpeted iLounge.
Some requests for the next biennial: participation from more galleries (Anno Domini, Higher Fire, SLG, etc.) and more food trucks.
After midnight, we all headed to Singlebarrel for some cocktails and stayed there until closing. After that we said goodbye to our friends and leisurely walked to the Four Points for the night, no need to deal with a car when you're staycationing Downtown.
Saturday
Woke up late, grabbed lunch at Mosaic which has reinvented itself as an Asian Fusion restaurant. The menu is definitely better than what it was before, still could use a little work. We then went for a really long walk Downtown.
Swung by the San Jose Museum of Art, check out all of the new exhibits including one specifically for Zero1. Then we went to Ross for a bit to look for some clothes (you can buy clothes Downtown!).
I was hoping to go to Original Gravity Public House since they were having their belated Grand Opening party, but there were so many people there we didn't end up getting anything.
We then walked down Paseo de San Antonio to find that San Jose's newest wine bar--"Wyne"--is coming along and looks like it is just a month or so away from opening. At this point it is Saturday mid afternoon and La Lune Sucre and Philz are both completely packed. This is turning into a pretty active district.
Next stop is Cafe Bonne Terre, which used to be Whipps. They have all the same menu items with the addition of crepes, both savory and sweet. My wife and I shared some gelato and a nutella/banana crepe.
Then we took another long walk. There are plenty of people on the streets including a surprising amount of families. Two or three years ago, you wouldn't really see this Downtown. I think the new high rise condos/apartments are really helping to change the dynamic.
Later that day, a few friends from SF were in town. I decided to gamble and take them to a restaurant I haven't been to yet, but was on my high-priority to check out list: Back A Yard. Wow, just wow. The food blew us away. The Jamaican jerk combo had some of the most flavorful chicken I've ever had, the beans/rice were amazing, the plantains were delicious, and the corn festival which is some sort of corn fritter thing was completely addicting. The 4.5 Yelp rating is definitely justified on this one.
After that we headed over to the San Pedro Square Market, and I gave them a thorough tour. Last time I took them here only Vino Vino and Pizza Boca Luppo were open. What a difference a year makes. Lots of people, live music in 3 different areas, tons of great food (which we could smell but were too stuffed to try)... it showed really well and they were impressed. "San Jose has come a long way" and "I may come here more often now" were some of their comments. We hung out for a while and then ended with some Treatbot. That's pretty much a wrap for the night.
Conclusion
When people ask "what's there to do Downtown?" the answer is a whole lot. Even just walking around on a sunny day and going to a bunch of random places was good times. I hope in the future more people that don't live Downtown will be willing to think of it as a destination and make a day (or two) out of going there.
