The San Jose Blog Housekeeping

Today I started a long overdue cleanup of the links to other San Jose blogs and sites over on the right-hand side. Unfortunately, so many of them are now long gone. In fact, here's a list:

• Live & Local SJ: Music Spotlight
• What Up! Silicon Valley
• San Jose Silicon Valley Tours
• DTSJ.Events
• LiveSV
• San Jose Metblogs
• SoFASloane
• San Jose Food Blog
• Think Bigger San Jose

Rest in peace old friends🪦 

I did add a few new links and am looking for more. SJ Today has excellent content, especially around food. The San Jose History FB page is frequently updated and has many unique photos of Silicon Valley's past (including the one below). For Pro Sports, I added the San Jose Barracuda. 

If you can think of any others that should be added, please email me or post in the comments. Thanks to spammers I have to manually approve each comment, so it may take some time for comments to show up. Thanks for your patience as we get this blog rolling again.

Blum's Dept Store.
South First Street. San Jose.
Posted by Bob Emerson on the San Jose History Facebook Group

Long-vacant Market by Safeway space finally finds a tenant

The 88 high-rise is finally getting a new anchor tenant! When the condo tower was first built, there was a lot of excitement to have a Safeway in the middle of downtown San Jose, even though it was a scaled back "Market" concept. Safeway struggled with parking, which most Safeway customers in Silicon Valley were accustomed to getting for free. Once they started charging for parking it was game over.

Now, four years later, OneMedAll will be taking that vacant 24,000 SQFT space at the corner of 100 S. Second. This location will focus on oral and general medical care. You can learn more about the company at the OneMedAll website.

I would have loved to see another grocery store here on this key corner spot, but who couldn't use a bit more health and wellness.

Source: SVBJ

Urban Putt and Unofficial Logging coming to Paseo Project in Downtown San Jose

Paseo is getting more the super cool looking bar "Eos & Nyx" mentioned yesterday. Also planned is a 13,300 SQFT Urban Putt miniature golf course a 6,800 SQFT ax-throwing and restaurant space called Unofficial Logging.

Below is one of the first renders of Urban Putt. As far as I can remember, this will be the first miniature golf place in Downtown San Jose. As for Ax-throwing... well, that is starting to get pretty popular. We already have Axe-Men on 14 South Second and AxeVentures just outside Downtown. 

This will be Unofficial Logging's 2nd locations, with the first being in Bend, Oregon. Urban Putt has two other locations: San Francisco and Denver.

Source: Silicon Valley Joe from the San Jose Development Forum

New Downtown SJ bar "Eos & Nyx" looks stunning!

The proprietors behind Original Gravity, Paper Plane, and Miniboss have yet another Downtown San Jose project in the works and it may be their most ambitious one yet. They leased 3,800 SQFT in Paseo which is a mixed-use office, restaurant, and entertainment space in the former shell of Camera 12 Cinemas Downtown.

The two-story, indoor/outdoor bar and restaurant will serve brunch, lunch, dinner, and of course the craft cocktails this team is famous for. It will be a welcome addition to the area when it opens later this year!

Source: Dirk_Birkin from the San Jose Development Forum

San Jose Sticker Fest 2023

Love stickers? You won't want to miss Sticker Fest 2023, a two-day event that celebrates all things stickers. Sticker Fest 2023 will feature over 150 artists, makers and creators who will showcase their unique and amazing stickers, as well as other products. You'll also enjoy a special nostalgia themed photo booth, activities and activations that celebrate sticker culture, and free admission and parking. The first 1,000 attendees each day will receive a free Sticker Fest 2023 Sticker Pack.

Sticker Fest 2023 will take place this weekend, June 24-25 at Westgate Shopping Center in San Jose, CA. The event venue is located next to Tuxedo Warehouse at 1600 Saratoga Ave #403, San Jose, CA 95129. The event will run from 11 AM to 5 PM each day and is open to all ages. Service animals only.

Don't miss this opportunity to discover new stickers, support local artists and makers, and have fun with fellow sticker enthusiasts. For more information, visit https://www.sanjosemade.com/pages/sticker-fest-2023 or follow @sanjosemade on Instagram.

Pobladores Night Market kicks off today in the SoFA District

If you are looking for a fun and festive way to spend your Thursday nights this summer, look no further than the Pobladores Night Market at Parque de los Pobladores in the SoFA district. This new 10-week series of markets launches today and features artisan vendors, food trucks, live music, beer and wine garden, and more. 

The Pobladores Night Market is a collaboration between Filco Events and the San Jose Downtown Association, with the goal of celebrating the diverse cultures and history of San Jose. This week the Night Market will be super-sized by coinciding with a Block Party, a new initiative that will bring live music from multiple bands and highlight 30 businesses in the area.

The night market will showcase local artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs who reflect the spirit and creativity of San Jose. Whether you are looking for a unique gift, a delicious bite, or a lively atmosphere, you will find it at the Pobladores Night Market. The market runs every Thursday from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm until August 24th. Don't miss this opportunity to support local businesses and enjoy Downtown San Jose at its best!

What does AI think of Downtown San Jose?

As I delve more and more into AI for my day job, I thought it would be interesting to see what the latest algorithms think about Downtown San Jose. Remember these systems are trained by gathering the collective knowledge and sentiment from a wide range of sources with billions of virtual neurons reaggregating the data to form cohesive answers.

So I asked Google's Bard to write me a poem about Downtown San Jose and here is what I got:

Downtown San Jose

The streets are wide and open,

The buildings tall and proud.

The people come and go,

A never-ending crowd.

The sun shines down on all,

The rain falls soft and free.

The wind blows through the trees,

A gentle melody.

The city is alive,

A vibrant, beating heart.

It is a place of dreams,

A place of hope, a start.

Here, anything is possible,

The future is unwritten.

So come and join us now,

In Downtown San Jose.

Okay, that's not bad. Very debatable but at least there is no negative subtext. Well done Google. Now let's go to the market leader in this space, ChatGPT:

Here’s a poem about Downtown San Jose:

The heart of Silicon Valley, Downtown San Jose is the place to be, A tech cluster with a cultural vibe, It’s where the city comes alive.

The SoFA district is where it’s at, Arts, culture and entertainment that’s a fact, Located behind the Convention Center, It’s the perfect place to unwind and enter.

The Poetry Center San Jose is here, A place for poets and poetry lovers near, With events and workshops all year round, It’s where creativity can be found.

Love it! Especially since SoFA is one of my favorite places to hang out Downtown. Again, the sentiment is very positive. Nothing about empty streets or any other negative stereotypes that may or may not be true about Downtown. Now for the ultimate AI challenge... Midjourney, please draw me a picture of Downtown San Jose.

Okay, I'll give it an A for effort. It did capture the mountains in the background and our color scheme. Now let's step it up just one more notch. "What will Downtown San Jose look like in 50 years?"

Interesting--especially the autonomous pods and the extra height on that one tower. I think Downtown will actually look a look more interesting that this, but it still blows my mind that these types of requests can be answered in less than a minute and be drawn from scratch without repurposing or reusing any existing images. 

Petiscos and LeYou added to the Michelin Guide

Two San Jose restaurants were recently added to the Michelin Guide for the first time. Just being mentioned in the guide means the restaurants are worthy of a visit.

The first is none other than Petiscos in SoFA. This restaurant comes from a very special pedigree since the owners are the same as ADEGA, the first and only restaurant in San Jose to ever get a Michelin Star. Petiscos has a wide variety of Portuguese small plates designed for sharing with family and friends and some seriously delicious and unique cocktails you can't find anywhere else. The interior features a hand-painted mural of Five Wounds Portuguese National Church, a San Jose landmark off of Highway 101. It's well worth a visit and is reasonably priced given its background. At Petiscos I would highly recommend the flaming chouriço, shrimp turnovers, green bean tempura, duck rice (my favorite), octopus, peas & eggs, the pica pau, and the chocolate mouse. The Sangria and Gintuga won't disappoint if you're looking for a libation.

The second restaurant is LeYou Ethiopian off of First Street. While I haven't been there in person, it was one of the best Doordash meals I've had. With a newborn it's become a challenge to get out to new restaurants in person. I would recommend the platters and extra injera bread so you can try as many flavors as possible. I'm a total carnivore, but the vegetarian dishes blew me away. Definitely get the Four Vegetarian Sampler and the Beef Tibs. If you can handle some spice, the Katenga (toasted injera) was something I've never had before at an Ethiopian restaurant.

After a rough few years, it's great to see that the San Jose food scene is still alive and well! Bon Appétit.