Sandwich shop by day and pizza parlor by night, The Last Round Tavern in San Jose manages its split personality exceptionally well. Owner Caleb Orozco uses his homemade sourdough bread and thin-crust pizza dough as a base for identical ingredients, such as in-house braised brisket and pulled pork, to create two distinct and delicious menus...
The Biz Beat: Still O.G. — A San Jose DJ-driven bar with an Alter Ego
Still O.G.’s bar, with its on-tap cocktails, wood paneled walls, cubby holes packed with records, DJ booth and state of the art sound system, has a warm, inviting hipster feel. But if you’re in the know, you can slip past the back-of-the-room gatekeeper and enter Alter Ego, a spot that seems miles away from downtown...
The Biz Beat: San Jose’s Flaming Ox mixes flavors of Taiwan
San Jose’s Flaming Ox restaurant specializes in a Taiwanese menu with food truck-like simplicity, offering a small selection of expertly prepared but versatile dishes. It’s no coincidence, after founder Eric Chung worked the Asian cafeteria station at Apple’s Cupertino campus. From there he launched the first of two high-volume catering trucks that grew to serve...
The Biz Beat: Paleta Planeta brings sweet treats to downtown San Jose
Paleta Planeta would not exist without the parents of Mauricio, Luis and Gabriel Salazar, who allowed their three sons to turn the family’s San Jose home into their first Mexican popsicle factory. “It is very Silicon Valley to start a company out of a garage,” Luis told San José Spotlight. “We just constantly made batches...
The Biz Beat: San Jose restaurant Trifecta serves more than sushi
While working at Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s restaurant Nobu in San Jose, Bradley Gallego learned some of the hard-edged discipline of making sushi. “He would come by and check out your knives,” Gallego told San José Spotlight. “He’d go up to a random station and chop some stuff to see if they were good. And...
The Biz Beat: San Jose restaurant serves Mexican food with halal twist
Chef Hisham Abdelfattah knows the test of a great restaurant is not how it prepares and plates its highest-end menu items, but the care it takes in its everyday foods and side dishes. And at El Halal Amigos, it all comes down to his magnificent rice and beans. “People ask me what is my best...
The Biz Beat: San Jose restaurant sells burgers for $1.99
There’s a new burger joint in downtown San Jose, with prices cheap enough to keep even the most hungry university student fed. Campus Burgers is one block from San Jose State University and will undoubtedly be a magnet for students look for a fast, affordable lunch or dinner. And the demand is there: the restaurant...
The Biz Beat: Desi in Campbell offers multicultural fusion of street delights
While Desi Contemporary Indian Casual in Campbell is grounded in classic ingredients, the owners have designed the dishes based on their study of food history and experiences sampling different cuisines while traveling. “It struck us how many dishes across the world are grounded in their similarities,” Mohit Nagrath, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife...
The Biz Beat: Tiki Pete is a tropical getaway in San Jose
Pete Be looks exactly like you’d hope Tiki Pete would look: distinctively Hawaiian, a shaved head, covered in ornate tattoos and wearing a shirt with bright, abstract designs. The downtown San Jose bar owner’s cheerful and self-confident demeanor might come from starting his first business, selling artwork, at an early age. “I was a 14-year-old...
The Biz Beat: Campbell Cambodian restaurant is a hidden gem
When Vila Pho emigrated from the Banteay Meanchey province in Cambodia to the U.S. in 2003, she knew no one and took a job as a computer technician. It wasn’t her ideal job, but it paid the bills. She took English classes while she dreamed of opening a Cambodian restaurant with dishes steeped in lemongrass...