Food Trucks Coming to Plaza de Cesar Chavez Downtown!

Moveable Feast is planning to expand to its birthplace, Downtown San Jose. The goal is to have a weekly food truck event at Plaza de Cesar Chavez every Friday. It would be a mid-sized gathering of 5-6 trucks along with live music. Moveable Feast still needs to final approval from the city, but they are confident their plan will be approved.

Ryan Sebastian, the founder of Moveable Feast, believes that these events are key to bringing more people to Downtown San Jose and making it a destination. He believes there are still many San Joseans that are afraid of Downtown, and events like this will help change that brand perception.

The best case scenario would place Moveable Feast in the park beginning this February.

Personally, I would love to see this taken a step further and have a permanent area dedicated to food trucks (and retail trucks) with daily events. There would have to be enough demand, but that could really become an anchor for one of the best urban parks in San Jose.

Source: SVBJ

Lou's Beach Shack Coming to San Pedro Square Market!

A direct descendant of the famous Lou's Village Restaurant, Lou's Beach Shack will offer fresh seafood in a scaled down venue. The new eatery will be in the "Garage" area of the San Pedro Square Market next to B2 Coffee and will be open from 11am-10pm, 7 days a week.

The menu looks impressive and will give the Market several food options not provided by any of the other vendors today. You'll find everything from Clam Chowder, Calamari, Oysters, Lobster Sliders, Artichoke Hearts, and Cioppino. Check out the full tentative menu below.

For more information, head over to the Lou's Beach Shack website.

REAL FAST FOOD
Served 11am-10pm 7 Days

Our Famous Deep Fried Calamari    8.95
Fish 'n Chips   8.95
Boston Style Clam Chowder 5.95  Quart 13.95
Bay Calamari Steak Sandwich 8.95
Walkaway Shrimpy    7.95
Today's Oysters on the Half 2.00 ea..
Little Lobster Sliders 14.95
Caesar Salad   8.95     With Shrimp 13.95
Top Loaded Grilled Cheese Sandwich   7.95
Oh. My. Cod Fries  7.95
Deep Fried Castroville Artichoke Hearts  7.95
Capitola Fries a la Babe   5.95
Chickie's Cold Slaw  5.95

Chocolate Dipped Frozen Banana  5.95
with nuts add .75

Snow Ball
Raspberry, Blue Berry, Egg Custard
4.95

Orange Freeze  5.95

Iced Tea, Lemonade
16 oz  3.95     32 Oz  5.95

Fridays 5PM-9PM feature oysters of the day on the half @1.75 ea
(until gone)
Sunday is Family Poor Man's Cioppino Day 15.95/person while it lasts
(no nut crackers required)
Remember Tuesday is Red's Shrimp Tamale Day 8.95 ea

Dice.com is Moving to Downtown San Jose!

One of the leaders in tech-related recruiting is finding its way Downtown. Dice.com has just leased 16,000 SQFT at 225 W. Santa Clara St., which is quadruple the amount of space they currently have in Santa Clara. They will be taking over the 11th floor of the building which also houses Deloitte. The new space will give them the ability to hire about 50 more employees in addition to their current Bay Area headcount.

To top off the good news, Slashdot.org will also be bringing its headquarters to the same location. Currently Slashdot (which is owned by the same parent company as Dice) is headquartered in San Francisco.

Office locations all up and down 101 were evaluated, and access to Caltrain and amenities such as the San Pedro Square Market were key drivers in the final decision. I'm sure it also helped that they will be able to put Dice signage somewhere on the building.

It's great to see tech tenants continuing to come Downtown!

Source: SVBJ

San Jose Lands GX3 - Everyone Games

GX3 is an eclectic video game convention that was started a few years ago. It was previously called GaymerX and targeted at the LGBT community, but now the event is being marketed to all gamers. This year they are going by GX3 with the tagline "Everyone Games." The past two events have been held in San Francisco, but the San Jose Marriott will claim this event for 2015 (Dec 11-13).

For more details, check out this Kickstarter page or hit the source link below.

Source: Joystiq

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 City For Median Pay

Payscale looked at the US cities that took home the largest (and smallest) paychecks and its no secret who is sitting at the top of the list. Payscale looked at early career, mid-career, and overall median pay for employees with at least a bachelor's degree.

In the San Jose metro, the median salary is an astronomical $103,500 with mid-career pay hitting $142,600. San Francisco came in at a distant second with median pay clocking $82,200. New York was surprisingly in 8th place with a median pay of $70,700.

To see the full list and a slideshow, just head over to the link below.

Source: Forbes

Women's Olympic Gymnastic Trials Coming Back to San Jose!

San Jose will once again host the Olympic Trials for Women's Gymnastics. This event will determine who will represent the US in the 2016 Olympic Games (Rio de Janeiro). The trials will bring tens of thousands of visitors to Downtown San Jose and have a significant impact on the local economy that weekend.

Tickets range from $115 to $875 and you can be placed on the priority list with a 25% deposit over here.

As a side-note, check out the awesome banner they created below with several iconic San Jose buildings.

Source: SVBJ

Downtown San Pedro Square Market #3?

The San Pedro Square Market set off a chain reaction in the Downtown San Jose food scene unlike any other I can remember. Not only is the original SPSM looking to capitalize on its success and substantially expand over the next few years, but it seems like everyone is now jumping on the market concept to try to be the next SPSM. A few months ago, the second Downtown market officially opened its doors with two great vendors. By the end of next year, the SoFA Market should be completely leased out and act as a key anchor in the neighborhood.

Now, get this... there are plans for a THIRD market near San Jose State University called Metro Public Eatery and Bar. This will be next to the Grocery Outlet on the corner of Sixth and Santa Clara. The size of the space is 10,000 SQFT and it can support up to 10 eateries! There will also be a full-service speakeasy-style cocktail bar and a special events area for private parties.

Like the other Downtown markets, there will be no chains. Some of the planned eateries are a kabob-style restaurant with exotic meats like bison and alligator, a fish taco stand, a Japanese burger bar, tapas, and a pastry shop. You can also expect live music and entertainment on the weekends.

The new market will also try to differentiate itself with a modern industrial design targeted to students and office workers Downtown. Currently the Metro Public Eatery is in permitting and scheduled to open by the end of 2015. I can't wait!

Source: Spartan Daily

Wednesday Wishlist: Interactive Pedestrian Games

Some innovative Germans have come up with a pretty creative way to entertain pedestrians that are waiting at a crosswalk. Instead of just hitting a button and waiting for the walk sign, you can play a game of Pong with someone across the street. It's a slick idea that is being used in at least two different intersections in Germany and I think it would fit well in Silicon Valley's culture.

I think the urbanists that read this blog would agree that ideally there would be no crosswalk buttons and all the streetlights would be optimized for pedestrians. However, there are several intersections where that just won't work such as Market and San Carlos... which also happens to be in front of the Marriott, St. Claire, Plaza de Cesar Chavez, and a stones-throw away from the Convention Center. With so many visitors coming to this intersection, what better place to show a little digital creativity in our public infrastructure?

Source: Autoblog


STREETPONG from HAWK Hildesheim on Vimeo.