Oakridge is Going Country!

Well, it looks like a huge, HUGE, country-themed restaurant will be coming to Oakridge Mall. "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill" is going to take up a massive 17,594 SQFT, and I would be surprised if there wasn't a commensurate amount of outdoor seating to go along with it. This is a venue known for hosting country music events (hope our events are like the photo below), large guitar-shaped bars, and of course Southern food.

The new restaurant replaces at least five stores: Mainland Skate, Radio Shack, Merkerro Fashions, PacSun, and Cutegirl.com. I wonder if they are planning to go the Santana Row route and increase the ratio of restaurants to retail.

There also appears to be a rumor that the Apple Store will be moving to a newer larger space soon. This would be great news since the only Apple Store in San Jose-proper is also the smallest one I have ever seen (the Valley Fair store is technically in Santa Clara).

Source(s): Hat tip to Sergio Oliveri (shout out to Little Italy San Jose), JAB88, Kennethh

Silicon Valley Restaurant Week Goes Biannual

This is now Silicon Valley Restaurant Week's fifth year. Due to the success of the program, they have decided to expand the event to happen twice each year instead of only in October. Dozens of restaurants will be offering fixed-price three-course dinners, making it easy and less expensive to try out several items at new restaurants. I also have to mention that the Capital Club in Downtown San Jose is participating, which is a members-only club with a pretty slick bar and dining room on the 17th floor of the Knight Ridder building.

To see the full list of participating restaurants and learn more about Silicon Valley Restaurant Week, just head over to their website over here.

Al’s #1 Italian Beef Announces San Jose Opening!

The very first Al's #1 Italian Beef location in California is coming to The Plant in San Jose. I hear their sandwiches are pretty fantastic, so I'm looking forward to trying them out! It is also nice to have a new face in a local sandwich scene dominated by Subways, Togos, and Paneras. Their grand opening specials top even what Chick-Fil-A did when they opened their first Silicon Valley restaurant, so I wouldn't be surprised to see people lining up very early in the morning to get these promos. For all the details, keep on reading:

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San Jose, CA (April 8, 2013) - Al’s #1 Italian Beef is excited to announce its first restaurant opening in San Jose, California. Located at 71 Curtner Avenue, the location will feature grand opening festivities from Monday, April 15^th – Friday, April 19^th.

The week long grand opening festivities include:

• Monday, April 15^th: Starting at 11am, the first 100 customers of the day will win 52 Italian Beef sandwiches, totaling one Italian Beef sandwich every week for a year!
• Tuesday, April 16^th: Meet Chicago native and Al’s fanatic, UPDATE: LA Galaxy star, Mike Magee as he indulges in an Al’s Beef and signs autographs from 5pm-8pm. Also, starting at 11am, the first 50 customers will win one Italian Beef, fry and drink every week for 3 months.
• Wednesday, April 17^th: Starting at 11am, the first 50 customers to arrive to Al’s Beef will receive a free Vienna Chicago Hot Dog with fries once a week for the next 3 months.
• Thursday, April 18^th: Starting at 11am, the first 50 customers will receive a free Chicago Polish Sausage sandwich with fries once a week for the next 3 months.
• Friday, April 19^th: Starting at 11am, the first 50 customers will receive an Al’s Burger once a week for the next 3 months.

“We are so excited to be expanding to San Jose,” said Dave Howey, Chicago Franchise Systems, Inc.  “As Chicago’s #1 Italian Beef, we are looking forward to reaching a whole new audience of Italian Beef enthusiasts.”

The San Jose location’s menu will feature classics such as the Al’s Italian Beef, Italian Sausage, Chicago Polish with Fries, Hot Dogs, Burgers, Assorted Salads, Wraps and more. Guests can also have Al’s Beef to go with the Take Home menu featuring Italian Beef / LB, Italian Sausage / LB, French Bread Loaf, Quart of Hot or Sweet Peppers and more.

Al’s #1 Italian Beef is known as the number one Italian Beef sandwich destination in the U.S. and is consistently ranked as one of America’s best sandwiches by top media outlets such as Esquire magazine, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Food Network, Travel Channel and more. Al’s Beef has developed a loyal following and counts local and national celebrities, dignitaries and politicians as dedicated customers.

Location address: 71 Curtner Ave., Ste 80, San Jose, CA 95125

Phone Number: 408-380-4876

Hours of operation: Monday thru Thursday 11am to 11pm

Friday and Saturday 11am to 12am

Sunday 11am to 10pm

ABOUT AL’S BEEF

Al’s Beef, founded in 1938, and regarded as "Chicago's #1 Italian Beef Sandwich," by Chicago magazine, is one of America’s iconic sandwich destinations. 

The first official Al's Beef stand began as a small, curbside, outdoor, wooden neighborhood food stand with countertop service located in Chicago’s “Little Italy” neighborhood. The beef stand gradually grew and moved to its present location at 1079 W. Taylor Street, still in Chicago’s "Little Italy." Franchised in 1999, Al’s #1 Beef Restaurants has grown significantly in the Chicagoland area and beyond.

For more information about Al’s Beef, please visit www.alsbeef.com

Google Coming to SJC

This post is long over due, but a couple months ago Google announced that they are planning to move their fleet of jets from Moffett Field over to SJC. This new $82M facility would be built on the west side of the airport off Martin Avenue and would include an executive terminal, hangars, and ramp space that can handle planes as large as Boeing 767s. Over the term of the 50-year lease, it should bring in about $130M to SJC (which is owned by San Jose) as well as add over a hundred new jobs to our economy.

The project is a joint venture between Signature Flight Support and Blue City holdings San Jose (which manages Google's planes). The total square footage comes out to be just over a quarter million: 17,000 SQFT for the terminal, 24,000 SQFT for shops, and 240,000 SQFT of hangar space.

If this project is successful, it could mean more companies moving their aviation facilities to San Jose and the airport getting extra attention (may help us nab a few more international flights). Also, if Google execs are flying out of SJC, there is a good chance Google will be sending more of its lower-level employees through SJC as well instead of SFO. This could potentially be a very big win for the airport and the city.

Source: SVBJ

Amir Mediterranean Restaurant

Had to share the Yelp review below I just completed. Really, this has to be the best year ever for Downtown San Jose restaurants. Amir has a well deserved 4.5 star rating on Yelp right now. A worthy successor to Morocco's, highly recommended!

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Downtown San Jose's lucky streak of GREAT new restaurants continues. This one is really a gem and easily one of the best values for Mediterranean in San Jose. The owner is Greek and grew up in Egypt, and the menu reflects a nice variety of foods from all over the Mediterranean countries.

We had the hummus, tzatziki, and baba ghanoush for appetizers. All were good but the baba ghanoush was among the best I have ever had. Nicely pureed with a rich smokey flavor.

For the main course we tried falafels (outstanding), chicken kababs, and geef shawarma... for the price you're going to have a really hard time finding quality and authenticity than this.

For dessert we got almost all of the options available. The kunafa was the best I've tried so far. There was also an Egyptian dish topped with sweetened milk that was super unique and tasty. I can't remember the names of the other desserts we had but there wasn't a single bad or mediocre item among them, I would order all of them again.

Oh, almost forgot. They have a freshly squeezed mint lemonade that will blow you away if you are a lemonade fan. On a hot summer day I think I would be willing to make the trek just for that.

The customer service also rocked. I was very sad to see Morocco's go (moved to Mountain View), but am glad they were replaced with a worthy successor.

Two New Cinderella Shows

Playful People Productions is showing two different versions of Cinderella at the Historic Hoover Theater across the street from the Egyptian Museum. For more information, just keep reading or check out their website over here.



Playful People Productions Presents:
Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella

In the classic story of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, she is the strong heroine of a tale of true love with a twist! The Prince does not like being a Prince, and Cinderella is not sure she wants to go to a stuffy old ball, but wants to show her mean and cruel stepmother and stepsisters that she deserves to go.With the help of an unusual Godmother who happens to be a Faerie, she manages to go to the palace and see a familiar face. There is still a glass slipper and a pumpkin or two, and true love does conquer all!

All Shows at the Historic Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Ave  San Jose, CA 95126

Teen Cast Show times:
Friday, April 12th  7:00pm
Saturday, April 13th 2:00pm
Sunday, April 14th 1:00pm

Adult Cast Show Times
Saturday, April 13th 7:00pm

Tickets available at www.playfulpeople.net
$10 adults, $6 children 16 and under


Disney's Cinderella Kids

The timeless fairy tale of Cinderella meets the magic of Disney in this adaptation of the treasured animated film.  Poor Cinderella is endlessly mistreated by her wicked Stepmother and Stepsisters, and denied the chance to go to the Royal Ball.  With a little help from her mice friends, and a lot of help from her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella goes to the ball, and discovers that dreams really can come true!

All Shows at the Historic Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Ave  San Jose, CA 95126

Show Times:
Friday, April 19th  7:00pm
Saturday, April 20th 10:00am,  2:00pm and 6:00pm
Sunday, April 21st 10:00am and 2:00pm

Tickets available at www.playfulpeople.net
$10 adults, $6 children 16 and under

For questions: (408) 497-9983


Playful People Productions provides a quality, caring environment in which children, youth & their families have positive theatre experiences, while being involved in many aspects of on-stage/ back-stage theatre. Our company fills a need of providing beginning through advanced theatre for the whole family to the community. The founders have expanded the program to include classes & summer camps

Playful People Productions is run by mother-daughter team, Barbara Galiotto & Katie D' Arcey, who between them have approx 50 years experience in the musical theatre world. Both are Positive Discipline trained & worked as early Childhood Educators as well as in theatre. Both have worked as professional directors with children's theatre for many years.

For each production we employ professional designers, artists, choreographers and directors to guide our students. We also hire experienced college & high school students to do jobs in the production such as directors, stage managers, lighting, make-up, & set designers, choreographers and assistants. This allows students to gain work experiences in all aspects of theatre. The goals of Playful People Productions are to provide the community with a variety of performing opportunities for children, youth & families to experience. Playful People Productions will challenge young people in the community, provide a safe, caring environment, & involve parents in a wholesome, well-rounded activity. We believe that a good theatre experience will greatly improve the lives of the children, youth and families in our community.

Cancer Starts With C

Leticia Croft-Holguin has lived in San Jose nearly her whole life, and has decided to publish a book that addresses an incredibly challenging topic for parents. It is a children's book designed to help parents discuss cancer with their kids. The book was written when Leticia was undergoing cancer diagnosis in 2012 and has just been released a few weeks ago. It introduces cancer to kids in a way that is palatable and accessible, so they can grasp the concepts and prepare for changes that will happen as their parents undergo treatment. I can relate to some degree since both of my parents had cancer when I was growing up; albeit when I was older than the target audience for this book.

To learn more about Leticia's story, you can check out her blog over here. You can find the book available for purchase at Amazon.com (can click this link).

South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk Tonight!

22 venues are participating tonight in Sourth FIRST FRIDAYS, which happens in the SoFA district of Downtown San Jose. Last month was probably the best First Friday I have ever been to that was not tied into another event like SubZERO, and I'm expecting this event to get even better over time. Unfortunately the map below is not entirely accurate since SLG Art Boutiki has moved to make way for a new apartment project (more on that in a future post), and Cafe Stritch is joining the roster. To see a preview of what's going down tonight, just click here.