On a recent Saturday afternoon in downtown Mountain View, groups of people filled the outdoor seating at restaurants along Castro Street, dogs and their owners strolled the sidewalks and minutes after the Don’t Eat Me storefront opened its doors, people shuffled inside. The pop-up shop recently opened in a previously vacant space on Castro Street,...
Beloved Silicon Valley costume store takes final bow
The clustered racks of Natasha’s Attic were bustling with Victorian noblemen and Renaissance fairies looking for their evening gowns for the last time. The building where the retail-rental costume store in San Jose is located has been sold, and owner Kathy Bell has until the end of February to liquidate everything. While the eviction came...
New brewery coming to The Pruneyard in Campbell
A new watering hole is moving into The Pruneyard six months after Rock Bottom Brewery closed. Laughing Monk Brewing will open its fifth location in Campbell, where Rock Bottom Brewery was housed for 30 years. Unlike its national chain predecessor, Laughing Monk is a local brewery with four locations in the Bay Area — Sunnyvale,...
Mountain View’s Nob Hill Foods slated to close in May
After decades serving the Mountain View community, Nob Hill Foods in the Grant Park Plaza shopping center is slated to close in late May. The upscale grocery store is owned by The Raley’s Companies, which acquired the Nob Hill Foods chain in 1998. “The Raley’s Companies leadership team has made the difficult decision to close...
West San Jose to get Costco after judge tosses lawsuit
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has tossed a lawsuit seeking to block plans to bring a new Costco to a West San Jose shopping center. The decision clears the way for the hotly contested development project to move forward. The suit, backed by a resident group known as West Valley Citizens for Responsible...
Silicon Valley workers struggle amid minimum wage increase
The new year brings new resolutions — and a slight increase in pay for minimum wage workers in California. Eight cities in Santa Clara County already pay workers above the hourly rate, which in 2026 is $16.90, up 40 cents from the state’s 2025 minimum wage. Business owners are bracing for an uptick in costs and...
San Jose Vietnam Town management shrugs at complaints
San Jose officials are cracking down on alleged mismanagement in Vietnam Town. But the plaza’s landlords aren’t budging. City code enforcers last month ordered the managers of Little Saigon’s iconic commercial center to address multiple building violations that vexed business owners. That included the removal of a haphazard dumpster barricade that kept cars from parking...
San Jose businesses seek economic strength in numbers
San Jose’s local businesses have faced a whirlwind of economic shocks in recent years. A growing number of small business owners want to find their footing by banding together through the formation of new business improvement districts. The City Council on Dec. 16 advanced proposals for two such districts — one covering the Alum Rock-Santa...
2025 in review: The top 5 Biz Beat stories
This year was an interesting one for Biz Beat, with a greater mix of unusual businesses, in addition to its usual focus on restaurants and food. It started at Santana Row’s Fitoor, with fantastic Indian dishes presented in ways that reflected the chef’s cruise ship experience, and ended with the revival of Charlie Rose Baseball,...
Silicon Valley grocery prices rank as No. 1 rising cost, residents say
Supermarket sticker shock is top of mind for Bay Area residents, according to a report by think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. It takes first place, ahead of other categories hit hard by inflation including housing costs and utility bills. In response to a survey asking, “Which of the following do you think have increased...