The Blackbird Tavern Opens Today!

The official opening date of the Blackbird Tavern has arrived. Perched at the corner of 200 South 1st Street across from MUJI and the Fairmont Hotel, this is one of the most highly anticipated restaurants coming Downtown this year. Brought to you by the same guys as the Naglee Park Garage, the food is likely going to please. Top it off with an impressive bar and live music, and folks I think we're going to have a real hit here. Go check it out and let us know what you think in the comments!

Downtown San Jose Bitter Beer Crawl Tonight

In a sign of the burgeoning better beer scene in downtown San Jose, there’s a bar hop taking place tonight starting at 7 p.m. at Market Beer Co. inside San Pedro Square Market.

With stops at O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub, The Brit, and Good Karma Vegan Café, this beer crawl is organized to showcase some of the downtown spots serving good beer as well as to help your favorite, local beer bar participate in this year’s Stone Bitter Beer challenge. More information can be found here.

Market Beer Company - first stop on the Bitter Beer Crawl in downtown San Jose. Credits: Andy Lee

San Jose Earthquakes' Stadium is Making Progress

With a $1.4 billion stadium rising in Santa Clara, it is easy to forget about the Earthquakes' new stadium. The total cost of this project is going to be $60 million, which is almost a rounding error compared to what the 49ers are spending (they recently announced an extra $75 million on tech upgrades alone). However, having a soccer-specific stadium for the Earthquakes will energize both the team and fans and help take the world's favorite sport to the next level in the Bay Area. Now that ground has been broken and construction is getting into full swing, I think you'll be seeing the Quakes' stadium a lot more in the news. The final product will seat 18,000 people and be home to the largest outdoor bar in North America. Frankly, I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

Source: The Merc

Earthlink is Returning to San Jose!

Talk about a blast from the past. Earthlink was one of the key players in the early days of the internet, back when dial-up was the norm and anything above 56k was considered "high-speed." Back then they competed with companies like AOL and Compuserve. Earthlink used to have a presence in Downtown San Jose, and one of the high-rises even donned the company insignia for several years. After the bubble burst, they ended up consolidating offices.

Now Earthlink is coming back to San Jose, and they are doing so in style. The company is planning to open a huge new data center for its cloud-hosting platform along with a sales office. To top it off they are even acquiring a Sunnyvale-based company called CenterBeam. They are making a big investment in Silicon Valley, so it looks like they are planning to stick around for quite a while this time.

Source: SVBJ

Discover San Jose Retail Store Opens Today!

If this isn't a sign of the times I don't know what is. Yet another retail store is opening up Downtown, and this one is all about San Jose pride! The Discover San Jose store will be located at 150 South 1st Street across from the Fairmont Plaza and will carry souvenirs, historic artifacts, San Jose art, and more. They picked a really good central location and I'm sure store will do wonders in getting the San Jose brand out there more.

The ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening are both happening this afternoon and will feature free food, drinks, and gifts. For more information click here!

New (Non-Downtown) San Jose Restaurants!

There have been a ton of anonymous posts on the blog mentioning new restaurants that are opening all around San Jose. I am conveniently grouping all of the non-Downtown ones into this post. Again most of the posts were anonymous, so feel free to take credit in the comments if you submitted these =).

• Santana Row
• Fogo de Chao (replacing Chili's) - epic win for San Jose... this is a world-renowned and highly-rated Brazilian steakhouse. The only other location in California is in Beverly Hills.
• Nicholson Plaza (N. First, center with Round Table and Subway)
• EatViet - this looks like a Vietnamese version of Chipotle, pretty interesting concept
• Crescent Village
• Wahoo's Fish Tacos
• 2-3 other leases pending
• Brokaw Commons
• Bonchon
• Pieology
• @First
• Sajj - Falafels, Shawarmas, and other Mediterranean fare
• San Jose Market Center (Coleman, on Downtown's border)
• Chick-Fil-A (second in San Jose)
• Smashburger (first in Silicon Valley)

San Jose - Century of Hospitality at the MLK Library

San Jose - Century of Hospitality - MLK Library June 24 - Oct. 25, 2013 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Throughout its history, San Jose’s hospitality was world famous, accommodating everyone, from gold prospectors and tourists to the captains of industry.

As the gold rush ended, miners settled and took up farming. San Jose expanded its role as a supply center and became a transportation hub. Local hotels expanded their rooms, including new amenities such as entertainment, saloons, restaurants and retail shops. Tourism flourished with as famous visitors like Thomas Edison and President McKinley came to the city.

Experience the beautiful photos and compelling memorabilia from a century of change in San Jose’s hospitality industry. Presented by the Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History at the downtown Martin Luther King Library.

You’ll see and witness how life dramatically changed from a sleepy Pueblo population to the first State Capital to a modern metropolis.

Content Magazine - Issue 5.2 Pick-up Party

The best magazine in San Jose is hosting yet another pick-up party for it's readers, contributors, and featured personalities tomorrow. What makes this one even more special than its predecessors is the location... Blackbird Tavern! You'll get an exclusive sneak peak into Downtown San Jose's latest watering hole and bistro, and I think it's going to be awesome. To top it off, you will even get a free drink just for showing up. Seriously, what other magazine would do this kind of stuff for its readers?