Lunar New Year Celebrations at Valley Fair in San Jose

Celebrate the Year of the Snake at Valley Fair with a community day that is free and open to the public. They welcome all to come enjoy the family-friendly performances today from 12pm-4pm.

• Enjoy performances of Traditional Lion Dances, Ribbon Dancers, Folk Dance, and so much more. Traditional red envelopes containing chocolate coins and retailer promotions will be passed out during the Lunar New Year performances.
• The traditional lion dance will open the celebration at Grand Court, on Level 1 near Gucci.
• The dragon dance and main stage performances will be held from 1pm-4:15pm at Grand Court.
• Plus, shop the Luxury Collection on Saturday, February 1, 2025 then stop by the redemption lounge from 11am-6pm with your receipts to receive an American Express gift card up to $800. 

SCHEDULE OF MAIN STAGE EVENTS (Located near Gucci, Level 1) *schedule of events subject to change

• LION DANCE | 12:00PM - 12:20PM | by Rising Phoenix
• DJ/MC + ambient performers | 12:20PM – 12:30PM
• CHINESE FAN DANCE | 12:30PM – 12:40PM | by Fengye Dance Studio
• CHINESE OPERA | 12:45PM – 12:50PM | by Cathy Pan
• DRAGON DANCE | 1:00PM - 1:20PM | by Rising Phoenix
• DJ/MC + ambient performers | 1:20PM – 1:30PM
• VIETNAMESE DANCE GROUP | 1:30PM – 1:40PM | by Viet Steps
• DJ/MC + ambient performers | 1:45PM – 2:00PM
• BLESSED SNAKE WELCOMES SPRING | 2:00PM – 2:10PM | Full Ensemble
• DJ/MC + ambient performers | 2:15PM – 2:30PM
• GUZHENG SOLOIST | 2:30PM – 2:40PM | by Bei Bei
• TAEKWONDO | 2:45PM – 3:00PM | by Team M
• KOREAN DRUMMING ENSEMBLE | 3:00PM – 3:20PM | by Urisawe
• DJ/MC + ambient performers | 3:15PM – 3:30PM
• MONGOLIAN DANCE | 3:30PM – 3:35PM | by Fengye Dance Studio
• FASHION SHOWCASE | 3:45PM – 3:55PM 
• BLESSED SNAKE WELCOMES SPRING | 4:00PM – 4:10PM | Full Ensembl

DJ & MC: Tigermom Toy

TIGERMOM TOY, Allyson Toy, is a Bay Area born DJ and music tech professional who came of age between NYC and Shanghai. Toy is a classically trained pianist and has been DJing for 15 years, lending her skills to brands including W Hotels, Alexander McQueen, Nobu, and Samsung and performing globally in Tokyo, Paris, Bangkok, Shanghai, and many more. Toy is the co-founder of LIONS SHARE, a creative community and music podcast on a mission to empower emerging Asian artists, and by day works at Twitch leading music community initiatives and the company’s Asian employee resource group. Toy’s greatest passion is bringing people of different backgrounds together through music. 

Source: Westfield Valley Fair

Move & Groove Day at the San Pedro Square

San Pedro Square is beginning to host new events on Saturdays. Today is "Move & Groove" Day, featuring free dance classes throughout the afternoon. It starts with a Downtown 5K Run led by Goodtime Bar Run Club at 11am followed by four different dance classes. All of these are free and you can participate in as many as you want.

You can park for 90 minutes for free at the Market & San Pedro Garage right in front of the event.

Source: SJDA

Lunar New Year in Japantown

San Jose's Japantown is celebrating Lunar New Year this Saturday, February 1st from 11am to 3pm. The party will feature lion dancers, vendors, lucky bags (fukubukuro), mochi making, and live performances. The lucky bags contain mystery items and are sold at a discount. You'll be able to find these at a variety of stores listed below.

Lunar New Year at Santana Row

This year, Santana Row will welcome the Year of the Snake on Saturday, February 1st from 11am-1pm in Santana Row Park. The family-friendly event will be hosted by NBC Bay Area and feature a large number of performances. You can find the list of performers below along with dining and shopping specials.

New San Jose mural honors the Vietnamese community

Completed in time for Tet, Vietnamese Lunar New Year, there is a massive new mural in East San Jose honoring the Vietnamese community. The three panels of the mural represent the Vietnamese people fleeing their homeland, traditional dress, and the beauty of Vietnam.

San Jose has the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam, so it's fitting that this is the largest Vietnamese mural in the Bay Area. Also 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the great migration away from Vietnam after the Vietnam war.

The mural was painted by the 1Culture Gallery team and it is located at 1737 Alum Rock Avenue on the side of Wash America.

Source: San Jose Spotlight

Happy Lunar New Year! 🐍

Today is officially Lunar New Year and there are multiple festivities planned throughout San Jose in the coming week at Santana Row, Valley Fair, and Eastridge. More on those in future posts.

During Christmas Paper Plane and Miniboss got the award for the most Christmassy bars in town. For Lunar New Year, it appears that 55 South is the bar to beat. In addition to the beautiful decorations, they also have special cocktails for the year of the snake.

55 South is located at 55 South 1st St. and is open from 4pm to midnight from Tuesday to Thursday, and 4pm to 2am on Friday and Saturday.

Eos & Nyx - the new king of Downtown San Jose restaurants

The bar has just been raised for fine dining in Downtown San Jose. Eos & Nyx is an upscale Mediterranean restaurant in the Paseo building at 201 S. Second Street. The restaurant spans two stunning floors in a 4,000 SQFT space filled with unique furniture, Instagram-worthy decorations, and an open kitchen. There is also a large outdoor dining area on the paseo itself.

This restaurant is brought to you by the same team as Miniboss, Paper Plane, Still OG, and Alter Ego. However, it is less bar and more restaurant than their previous ventures. Don't worry though, it still has all of the amazing craft cocktails you would expect from this team and they are severed across two different bars connected with a pully system. It's really cool to see the bottles move from bar to bar, which you can even see outside from the street.

This was the restaurant I was most eagerly anticipating throughout 2024. I wanted to visit earlier, but couldn't get a reservation =). I booked way in advance to visit on my birthday in mid January, with a nearly two-year old toddler in tow. The only time slot I was able to get on a cold Wednesday was late in the evening. It's a very popular restaurant.

After I got over the wow-factor of the space, my first impression was not great. Despite having a reservation (and it being a birthday), we still had to wait 30 minutes and we were getting dangerously close to our daughter's bedtime. There is not an ideal waiting area for the restaurant if it's cold outside. Usually it would be the bar, but that's a challenge with a kid. Speaking of which, the vibe did not seem ideal for kids, especially for dinner. I was getting a little apprehensive. Did we make a mistake?

No, we didn't. After being seated we were able to get the food expedited and everyone was extremely friendly and apologetic for the wait. There was a high-chair for our daughter, and despite it being a little loud she loved hanging out and munching on multiple courses as much as we did. Also, there was a beautiful birthday card on the table with a drawing of the restaurant and it was signed by the staff.

The food was exceptional from start to finish. It started with an amuse bouche of beef tartar and caviar in a mini waffle cone. My mom who doesn't eat any raw fish or meat loved it (we didn't have the heart to tell her what it was).

For appetizers we had the "everything" carrots (carrots many different ways, including fennel, truffle, and hazelnuts), raw seafood (hamachi for the night and it was spectacular), bruschetta, and the dip trio (cacik, baba ghanoush, ataramas, and pita). I would recommend all of it. Next time we'll try the octopus which looked really good.

We tried a variety of cocktails. I wanted to go for items that we could not easily get anywhere else. So we tried "Licensed to Dill" which featured Greek yogurt, apricot eau de vie, aquavit, dill, and lime. It was really interesting and was perfect for Mediterranean appetizers. We also tried a "Crimson & Clover" with gin, strawberry, lychee, basil, lemon, and honey as well as a "Smooth Operator" with rye, blackberry, vanilla, and bitters. Honestly you can't go wrong with anything on their bar menu, that is their wheelhouse.

After the apps came a palate cleanser, a thoughtful second comp that everyone eating dinner gets to enjoy. Then were all the main courses. We got pappardelle duck pasta, tagliatelle lobster pasta with beurre blanc sauce, the house burger (with harissa, eggplant, and piquillo), and a half chicken. Again, everything was excellent. The biggest surprise was that the burger was my favorite course. I love a good burger and this might have been my favorite of all time Downtown.

Dessert was Loukoumades, followed by bite-sized chocolates that came with the artfully presented bill. We were also delighted that the appetizers were comped to apologize for the wait. Great customer service and that gesture ensured we will be back many times in the future.

In conclusion, it was worth the wait... both for the restaurant to open in San Jose and on the day of my birthday meal. It's the new ultimate date-night restaurant for Downtown San Jose and has Michelin Guide written all over it. Just make a reservation way in advance and give yourself plenty of time to enjoy this amazing restaurant!

List of New San Jose Restaurants

The Silicon Valley Business Journal has a full list of notable South Bay restaurants, both those recently opened in late 2024 and coming soon this year. Below is the list for San Jose, but you can check out the source link for all of Silicon Valley.

Tomorrow I'll have a full review of Eos & Nyx, San Jose's most highly anticipated restaurant opening in the past several months. From the list below, I'm super excited about the return of Adega as well as Augustine in Santana Row (their other restaurants are excellent). Campus Burgers gets the award for biggest surprise of 2024 for me. Who would have thought $2 smashburgers could be so good?

New San Jose Restaurants

Adega: San Jose's only Michelin-starred restaurant reopened in October after closing in December 2023. Serving Portuguese cuisine, owners Carlos and Fernanda Carreira had planned to turn the 1614 Alum Rock Ave. location into a second location for their Petiscos restaurant but had a most welcome change of heart. 

Augustine: The Bacchus Management Group's second restaurant in Santana Row will offer Mediterranean cuisine in two dining rooms across 8,000 square feet as well as a 3,000-square-foot patio space. The site, formerly a dim sum restaurant, will also have a reservations-only cocktail bar. 

Campus Burgers: Home of the $2 smash burger, this family-run burger stand opened in July offering students and locals an inexpensive alternative to the larger chains. Located across the street from San Jose State University at 108 Paseo de San Antonio, this little burger joint has become a student staple. 

California Fish Grill: Coming soon to the Evergreen Circle shopping center at 2394 Evergreen Place, this will make three Silicon Valley locations of the healthy fast-food chain. 

Caminos de Michoacán: Offering up authentic Mexican cuisine like goat birria tacos, menudo and enchiladas michoacanas at 5138 Monterey Road in San Jose. 

Dough Burger: Big burgers, shakes and fries at 1721 Old Bayshore Highway. "All meat is Hand-Slaughtered Halal," they brag on their website. 

El Amigo: Family-style Mexican food and beverages located in Santa Teresa Village, in South San Jose. Regulars love the wet burrito as well as breakfast favorites like huevos rancheros and machaca. 

Eos & Nyx: This Mediterranean-inspired two-story dining complex comes from MO Hospitality Group, the folks driving Downtown San Jose's revival with MiniBoss, PaperPlane, Still O.G., and Alter Ego. The restaurant opened this past November as part of Urban Catalyst’s Paseo project. 

Hey Chicken: This fried chicken fast-food joint opened at 670 River Oaks Pkwy. last year. 

La Korita Restaurant: Offering up a combination of traditional Mexican street foods like tacos and quesa birrias in what was formerly Tony P's Park Ave Bar & Grill, La Korita also offers a Mexican seafood menu. 

La Más Querida Cantina & Cocina: Located at King and Story Road, this Mexican bar and restaurant that aims for a festive, fiesta feel. 

Los Arcos Restaurant: Traditional Mexican food and entertainment that's been open for more than a year on Tully Road. Live entertainment, big portions, and plenty of parking.  

Mendocino Farms: The sandwich shop opened its fourth location in San Jose at the Westgate Center offering up its trademark "fast-casual" fare of gourmet sandwiches and salads. 

Moonwake Coffee Roasters: What began as a pop-up cafe out of the back of a Tesla Cybertruck, husband and wife team of Ming Wood and Mabel Yeung opened a cafe proper at 1412 Saratoga Ave. in West San Jose this past fall bringing a little Apple Store atmosphere to coffee culture. 

Mylapore South Indian Restaurant: Opened in April in the Westgate Mall, Mylapore offers quick, easy, and inexpensive vegetarian dishes like dals, dosas, and jaggeries. 

Pizza Guys: The Sacramento-based chain opened its fourth San Jose location at 2471 Berryessa Road, Suite 2 in September as part of its plan to open eight more franchises in the state. 

The Pressroom: Located at the intersection of Santa Clara and North Almaden Ave., this upscale restaurant and bar will be the latest addition to restaurateur David Mulvehill's San Jose mainstays, Five Points craft cocktail bar, O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub, Dr. Funk Rum House, and Hella Good Burger. Done in partnership with Nuvo Hospitality Group, it's expected to open in early 2025. 

Pho King Restaurant: Celebrating chicken noodle pho, this Vietnamese restaurant at 385 Kiely Blvd. also celebrates traditional pork chops and spicy beef noodle soup. 

Raising Cane's: The fried chicken finger chain, founded in Louisiana in 1996, plans to open later this year at the Evergreen Circle shopping center. 

Shake Shack: The New York-based gourmet burger chain opened a third location in San Jose at the Westgate Center at 1640 Saratoga Ave. with a rumored fourth location to be on the way in 2025. 

Taelynn Cafe: A modern Vietnamese coffee shop located in the Sun Plaza offers a variety of teas and coffees with some small bites like beef and rice and banh mi sandwiches. 

Tang's Asian Vegetarian Restaurant: A Vietnamese specialty restaurant — an all-vegetarian menu — opened on the site of Champa Kitchen, a halal-style Vietnamese restaurant. Foodies on social media praise Tang's use of meat alternatives like mushrooms and bean curd as well as being one of the more sensibly priced veggie restaurants in the area. 

Wowmia Pizza: Recently opened pizza joint that offers an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet as well as its signature pizzas at 2951 Monterey Rd. 

Source: SVBJ