Friday, July 19, 2013

Original Gravity Public House Celebrates One Year Anniversary

Original Gravity Public House opened a year ago and has certainly helped to add further legitimacy to the burgeoning San Jose craft beer scene. Tomorrow starting at 12:30 p.m., they're throwing a party in honor of their one-year anniversary. Among the festivities is an impressive tap lineup. Co-owner Dan Phan recently told me that he is particularly excited about the very limited West Ashley ale from Capitola's Sainte Adairius Rustic Ales, which is scheduled to be tapped at 2 p.m.

And for those that sometimes wished that Original Gravity had more space, your wish will come true as the owners have told me that they are working on expanding by a thousand square feet. Very cool news!

You can check out the details of the one-year celebration event on their website or their Facebook event page.

Original Gravity 1 year anniversary. Credits: Andy Lee

Die Hard Company Now Featuring Earthquakes Shirts!

Last time I plugged Die Hard Company, people asked where the Quakes gear was. Well, they are finally here! Die Hard Company is releasing their very first shirt design honoring the San Jose Earthquakes and they are on sale for 20% off until July 20th. For more information click here.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Valley Fair's New Dining Terrace

I could have sworn that Valley Fair remodeled their food court not long ago. Either way, they are stepping it up again with a 23,000 SQFT dining terrace that will ad 10 new food choices into the mix. The aesthetic seems very modern and high-end and is said to feel much more open than the current food court.

They are also beefing up their luxury collection of stores with 14 new retailers and announcements for a dozen more in the next few months. I'm still waiting for that 650,000 SQFT expansion with Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales to kick off.

Source: SVBJ

An artist's rendering of what the new dining terrace at Westfield Valley Fair will look like.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Photos of One South Market Barricades

The One South Market residential high-rise continues to move forward! There are now perimeter barricades all the way around the development site and they created a staging area on northbound San Pedro Street between Santa Clara and Post. I can't wait to see this building start to rise later this year.

Hat tip to Jeffrey Arko for sending in the photos!




Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Meridian Mixed-Use Retail Tenants

It looks like some of the retail for the Meridian Mixed-Use project in Midtown San Jose is already spoken for. Based on the image below the project will have:
  • Chase Bank
  • Chipotle
  • Five Guys
  • Subway
  • A Yogurt Shop
  • A Day Spa

Not too shabby for a five story apartment building. In the past a project like this would have likely not received any retail at all.

Source: credit goes to an anonymous poster, speak up in the comments if you want the credit =)


Monday, July 15, 2013

Bike Sharing is Coming Soon to Downtown San Jose!

About 15 bike-sharing stations are coming to Downtown San Jose in August. The program will be available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. The bikes themselves seem a lot better than other bike-sharing programs around the world with LED lights, a 7-speed grip shift, and drum brakes. In fact, they cost over $1,000 per bike.

The pricing for membership in the program is only $88/year. You can also get a 24 hour membership for $9 or pay $22 for a 3 day membership. Membership give you unlimited rentals up to 30 minutes, and you can pay more if you need extra time. Whenever you go to a station, it resets the 30 minutes timer, allowing you to use the same bike for a longer period of time without have to pay any extra fees.

You can click on the images below to learn more about the bike and see the exact locations of the Downtown stations (there will also be a Japantown station). For more information and to register for membership, head over to the Bay Area BikeShare website over here. They are accepting memberships starting today!



Sunday, July 14, 2013

San Jose Bacon Festival!

The Garlic Festival in Gilroy is one of the largest food festivals in California and is a huge draw for from all around the Bay Area. What could possibly be better than Garlic? BACON. Lots and lots of bacon! I'm all over this. Hopefully this will one day grow to the same scale as the Garlic Festival. They are off to a good start with food trucks all offering bacon dishes, a bacon cooking competition, a bacon beauty pageant (???), a bacon parade, bacon games, and even a bacon square dance. 

Right now they are looking for vendors (more info below), but I'm sure more info will be revealed closer to the event on Saturday, August 31st.

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San Jose Bacon Festival
 
Saturday, August 31st
11:00 am to 10:00 pm
 
San Jose Flea Market
1411 Mabury Road
San Jose, California 95133


What's more All-American than the SJ Bacon Festival on Labor Day weekend?!

During the day, the festival runs alongside the bustling SJ Flea Market at Berryessa. And at night, the festival runs alongside the popular  The Night Market.

At the festival, there are lots of food trucks--all offering special bacon dishes for $5 or less! There is a Bacon Cooking Competition, a Bacon Beauty Pageant, a Bacon Parade, a Bacon Square Dance, bacon games and more!
  Learn about vending at the Bacon Festival > 

 Vendor Submissions are open until Tuesday, August 13th.
  
If you have a questions regarding this application process, contact Stephanie at sanjosemade.steph@gmail.com.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks as the #10 Best City of Same-Sex Weddings

With the demise of the Defense of Marriage Act, California cities can now be included as the best places for gay weddings. Those cities will benefit from increased dollars being pumped into the economy for ceremonies and receptions, as well as happier residents that are no longer discriminated against.

San Jose ranked #10 on the list of best cities for same-sex weddings in the country. San Francisco ranked #1, and I will say that is well deserved (there, I paid a rare compliment to SF =).

The rankings are based on 12 different pieces of criteria including the HRC Equality Index, % of gay population, gay bars per capita, florists per capita, bridal shops per capita, hotels per capita, wedding planners per capita (SJ ranked #3), DJs per capita (SJ ranked #4), catering companies per capita, bakeries per capita, and photographers per capita (SJ ranked #3). See the full top 10 list below:

Top 10 List

1.) San Francisco, CA
2.) Seattle, WA
3.) Boston, MA
4.) Minneapolis, MN
5.) Riverside, CA
6.) Washington, D.C.
7.) San D9iego, CA
8.) Rochester, NY
9.) Los Angeles, CA
10.) San Jose, CA

Same Sex Wedding Big Deal list

Source: Movoto Blog