New Year's resolutions in San Jose

It's almost that time and SJ Today has some great food for thought on how to achieve your New Year's resolutions in San Jose. They list out ideas for everything from spending more quality time with your family to getting active and nurturing creativity. Check it out at the source link below.

Source: SJ Today

Noon Year's Eve at Happy Hollow

There are not a lot of kid-friendly options for New Year's Eve, but there is one great one at San Jose's Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. They are doing a "Noon Year's Eve" with a countdown to noon instead of midnight on December 31st.

The early New Year celebrations runs from 11am to 1:30pm and includes games, crafts, activities, a ventriloquist magic show, and scavenger hunt. As expected, the countdown and ball drop happen at just before noon. It's a great family-friendly event that everyone can participate in.

For more info, head over here.

San Jose is getting another unique cocktail bar - BitterBuck!

A couple legends from the San Jose craft cocktail scene are opening up a new bar in Downtown San Jose with a very unique menu. Cache Bouren and Tomoyo Yoshinaga come from Single Barrel (which I still think is the best bar to ever exist in the Bay Area), it's spiritual successor Haberdasher, and Cash Only.

The new bar will be called BitterBuck and it's going to be unique in several different ways. First, the menu will be focused on amaro-centric drinks. Amaro is a bitter Italian herbal liquor that is used in complex and interesting drinks. There won't be any lemon and lime juice, forcing people to order different kinds of drinks than their usual favorites. Hopefully this will let them discover new drinks in this highly-specialized bar.

BitterBuck's second interesting twist is that will be open at 7am every single day. They will also specialize in pour-over coffee and cold brew and then transition to alcohol later in the day. This is common in Europe where the same space can serve as both a cafe and bar. It makes a lot of sense, many coffee shops open and close early while bars stay open late. This helps distribute sunk costs like rent across more hours of operation.

Thirdly, and this is where it gets crazy, the bar will have "whimsical taxidermy" incorporated into the ambiance. The interior will feature weathered brick, dark wood, green booths, historical photos and artwork, and yes--taxidermy. The vibe will be unique for sure.

BitterBuck will also have a small kitchen with a limited menu similar to a wine bar. Food will be seasonal and chef-driven.

The goal is to open by February at 30 Fountain Alley #170, which is next to the excellent Goodtime Bar and Scratch Cookery. I can't wait!

Source: SVBJ

STEM job growth in San Jose outpaces other cities

San Jose already has more STEM jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) than most other cities in the world, both in terms of quantity and percentage of jobs. For the United States, San Jose has the highest concentration of STEM jobs by far. Now in the STEMdex, San Jose has further grown the number of STEM jobs by 2% between 2019 and 2023.

Salaries for STEM jobs average $112,800, nearly double non-STEM jobs. Part of the growth driver is AI (and yes the image below was created by AI, thanks Grok!), which is significantly increasing labor productivity and demand for employees with AI experience. Within the subset of STEM, generative AI jobs rose 750% between April 2022 and April 2024.

Source: SVBJ

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

We hope that you and your family have the best holidays this year!

If you feel like driving through neighborhoods to find the best decorated homes in San Jose, there is a handy website for that over here. Some of the homes have been featured on TV shows and even have light shows synced to music.

Happy Holidays! 🎄🎅

Nvidia will partner with San Jose on AI as well as expand office presence in our city

As a nice little Christmas present, one of the largest and fastest growing AI companies in the world has signed a MOU to partner with the city of San Jose and SJSU. 

Nvidia will work with San Jose State University to create school programs to prepare San Jose students to enter the workforce with AI skills. Nvidia already has AI training programs at every skill level, and they would provide these to educators along with a certification path.

The city of San Jose is also looking to Nvidia for help in streamlining regulatory approvals for AI initiatives. They will offer city facilities to support AI research and development. In return, Nvidia will provide some of it's training resources related to AI to San Jose.

By leaning into the future, this is an excellent strategy to ensure San Jose will stay at the forefront of tech in years to come.

However, there is more. The icing on the cake is that Nvidia has also leased 100,000 SQFT in North San Jose (300 Holger Way). This will bring more high-paying tech jobs and tax dollars to our city. Nvidia is on a roll right now with a market cap of $3.3 trillion (with a "T") and are finding themselves in desperate need for more office space. This is an area where San Jose can gladly help out.

Source: SVBJ, The Mercury News

Google is giving San Jose $5 million for community benefits

Even thought Google's multi-million SQFT megaproject is still on hold, they are holding true to several of the commitments they made to the city of San Jose. 

Google will give $5 million to San Jose as part of its community benefits agreement for the Downtown West Project. $4.25 million will be put into the Community Stabilization and Opportunity Pathways Fund.  This aims to support under-resourced communities in San Jose due to rising costs and increase job opportunities.

If the project comes to fruition, then Google will invest a total of $155 million into public benefits for the San Jose community. However, that will be a rounding error compared to value of having 10,000 or so high-paying tech jobs that would be added to Downtown San Jose along with the ecosystem to support those workers.

Source: San Jose Spotlight

San Jose is getting a new signature cocktail

Rollati Ristorante, one of Downtown San Jose's top restaurants, is introducing San Jose's first signature drink. It's called the San Jose Sour and includes not one, but two local products.

The main spirit is 10th St. Distillery's triple cask single malt whiskey called Dragon Plus. This is a local San Jose company with several award winning products and the spirit is even distilled in San Jose.

The second ingredient is Alamitos Vineyard's award-winning estate Hawk Eye Syrah, which is grown and produced in South San Jose.

The drink also has lemon juice, simple syrup, egg whites and a few dashes of Angostura bitters. You can enjoy it at Rollati right now and hopefully it will be available at some of their sister restaurants like Left Bank, LB Steak, or Meso. If you want to try to make this cocktail at home, below are the ingredients and directions.

THE SAN JOSÉ SOUR

Ingredients

1 ½ ounces 10th Street Distillery, American Whiskey, Triple Cask, STR Single Malt, San Jose, CA

¾ ounces Alamitos Vineyards, Syrah, Hawk Eye Estate Grown, Santa Clara County, CA

1 ounce lemon juice

¾ ounces simple syrup

1 egg white

4 dashes Angostura bitters, “Aromatic,” Trinidad & Tobago

Directions

1. Add whiskey, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white into shaker

2. Shake with ice and strain back into tin

3. Reverse dry shake

4. Double strain over coupe glass

5. Float Hawk Eye Syrah

6. Garnish with Filthy Black Cherry and Angostura bitters