History San Jose

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Auto-Generated Transcript   SiliGoneValley-TapPlastics Tue, 8/16 10:34AM • 3:46 SUMMARY KEYWORDS plastics, cray, tap, display, clientele, measurements, replaced, computer history museum, stores, alameda, supercomputer, mountain view, unevenly, cut, work, plexi, trimming, individual, shrunk, task SPEAKERS Christopher Garcia   Christopher Garcia  Come with me. We're going to Silicon Valley   Christopher Garcia  TAP plastics, the fantastic plastic place. TAP plastics was a chain of stores that specialized in providing plastics for pretty much everything. They built. trophy cases they did. Replacement Windows, it was everything you needed. That was plastic or Plexiglas you would go to tap plastics for I only ever use two of them one in just outside of downtown San Jose, on the Alameda, or Yeah, the Alameda. Or maybe it was San Carlos, no, the Alameda. Stop questioning yourself, Chris. And the other one in downtown Mountain View. And what's impressive about places like tap plastics, is how thoroughly they have been replaced by online services. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It does make it a little harder when you have something in hand that you want to get replaced. And you don't have the tools to actually do the measurements, for example. But I used that plastics a lot when I worked at the Computer History Museum, most notably for the Cray one. So I was given a task more busy work than anything of putting new side panels on to the Cray one supercomputer so that we could display it and actually have people sit on it. This was a fun task. I did all the measurements and sent it in, went and picked it up and none of them fit. And I couldn't figure out why. And we brought it back again, and they cut a little slice, little off, they put it in. And again, it didn't fit out four or five different back and forth. We did until I realized what had happened. The original plates have actually shrunk. And we're actually almost completely loose of their side aluminum holdings. But when you measured them, you couldn't actually get them to be right in because they had unevenly warped. So some were much narrower than others. This was annoying. But that plastics bless them. They went back and they read cut and they retrained four or five times without annoyance, which is amazing, because I wasn't thinking about TAP plastics was it was a drop off and pickup sort of situation most of the time. Yeah, they had things on the shelves, things like Plexi, cleaner, all that sort of thing. Individual pieces, like if you wanted the display piece, you could almost always get it from the floor. But for the most part two was about trimming and cutting. And that's what I used it for excessively and I wished today, I have a display case I want to get a new panel for but there's no easy way to do that. And that's what tap plastics and other stores like that, that did things like plastic and wood cut paneling and so forth that were local, made possible was to not necessarily do it yourself, but to interact directly and to go back and forth with an individual spot. And I think we need more of that. I think losing that has been hard. I think TAP plastics is what I think of when I think of a store that recognized its customers and customer base and focused on them as their clientele so that they could keep a loyal audience and you know what, to this day me they have

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SiliGoneValley-HoldersOnDeAnza

Wed, 8/3 2:03PM • 5:45

SUMMARY KEYWORDS holders, places, saratoga, boulevard, breakfast, country, pancakes, wonderful, couple, family, original, santana row, denny, country inn, many great memories, pancake, business, holder, silicon valley, trader SPEAKERS Christopher Garcia   Christopher Garcia  Come with me. We're going to Silicon Valley   Christopher Garcia  On July 27 2022, Holder's country inn on Saratoga, Sunnyvale or deAnza Boulevard, or whatever it's called at that moment, burned down. Well, it didn't burn down the fire gutted, the interior damage the roof, and it will likely have to be raised. Holders is an interesting story that, in a way, inhabit several points in Silicon Valley.   Christopher Garcia  From their website in 1957, Jack and Anne holder sold their Dairy Queen business in Roseburg, Oregon, and moved their family to the Valley of heart's delight. And open Uncle John's Pancake House in Santa Clara. I seem to remember that vaguely. And I do remember a coffee shop on, I believe, Scott, that seemed to be in that same realm. It was a wonderful, wonderful place.   Christopher Garcia  But what I'm actually more connected to was the holders country in at the Old Town and Country village. And that was across the street from Valleyfair. And what is now today, Santana row. And I only went there a few times, there were usually long lines, particularly on the weekends, but from 1967 through 1999. Holders country inn was one of the primary places you would go for breakfast in the morning. Places like mini gourmet was sort of in a different realm. And just a little later, it informed how places like Stacks would do their breakfasts. The portions were large and delicious, particularly the pancakes were fantastic. I usually get pancakes and sausage and do pigs in a blanket. Of course, the biscuits and gravy were also phenomenal. What's wonderful is that even when they were forced to move to relocate the destruction of the town and country to be replaced by Santana row in 1989, meant that a number of places had to leave. And they found the spot on DeAnza Boulevard in a prime location. And at that point, it wasn't quite as prime. I believe the Home Depot was already there. I think what is now a Japanese sushi place at that point might have still been the Carl's Jr. There was another Japanese restaurant, I believe a couple of plant stores where they're still the Trader Joe's was not there yet for sure. Nor the Popeyes for that matter. You had the Taco Bell. Couple of other places, I think there was a KFC. And you had to pretend your arms just a little bit further down. It was a solid part of town. And that part was definitely going to be growing and growing rather quickly. And what ended up happening was it became the breakfast spot once we lost the original Pancake House, which is just on the other side of 85. And again, even more of a following when Clark's closed. These were all replaced mostly by new businesses that were drawing in sort of the family get the Trader Joe's is an excellent example. But you also had the CVS, the things up and down there. I think in 99, probably through about 2007. Maybe less than that. You had diddums, for example. And you had the new library that in the same ish neighborhood. It was turning that area into more and more of a not necessarily destination, but a place where you would stop when you're doing a dozen other things. And holders was phenomenal. There's still one on Saratoga Avenue, which opened in 1995, which was at the original hole the holders was in the Paseo and when they knocked down the original to build the new one, which now has the AMC and all that move down which is a good thing. Actually. That one still active, still wonderful. Lots of outdoor seating very important. It's places like these that we lost when we lost the original Pancake House that a lot of them have been going away lately. They're a step up from Denny's. But the most important thing about them is they are dependable family type restaurants but are a level above your Applebee's your Denny's your things like that because they are serving. I don't want to say more genuine food but it's it's hearty. It has a authenticity towards this idea of what an American   Christopher Garcia  breakfast is. I think one of the things that I really enjoy is that they very Are you pointedly note that their family of six sons and a daughter are all still in the business that their parents founded? That's wonderful to see. Because that sort of continuity leads to the traditions of reasonable prices of good food of great dishes that need to continue on down the line. I'm sad to see this one go to Silicon Valley. Hopefully they'll rebuild. But honestly, even if they don't, I'll have many many great memories of stuffing my face full of pancakes at holders country and on data Boulevard.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS places, gourmet, restaurant, fact, type, denny, mini, closing, town, growing, redefinition, local restaurant, sad, eat, diner, street, idea, visualized, exponentially, grahame SPEAKERS Christopher Garcia   Christopher Garcia  Come with me, we're going to Silicon Valley   Christopher Garcia  restaurants like mini gourmet have been squeezed out over the years. And that hurts because I loved mini gourmet. And it's not that what they're being replaced with is fundamentally inferior. In fact, a lot of the sort of family restaurants that have been blooming up your Applebee's, the slight expansion and contraction of Denny's places like Cheesecake Factory, that's sort of the new range that are growing still to this day, even with COVID-19, putting her on a lot of stuff. It's this idea of a differentiated diner type experience. And that's really what mini gourmet was, it was an old school type diner, the type of place we visualized from the 1960s. I'm not 100% Sure, when it opened, I think it was in the late 60s, possibly the 70s. But I remember in the very early 80s, the food was dependably decent, I would go there, I would get corned beef hash thing a toast is great. For a guy who doesn't eat eggs, it's always hard for breakfast. But it's this idea that we have places that are different. And right now more than any other time in the world, it is harder to be a different restaurant than ever before. And when you look at the list of places that are closing, because of COVID-19, it's not your Denny's your cheesecake factories, even though some of them did use this chance to close in fact, to at least to Wendy's, I know I've have closed because they just didn't get business anymore. It's this idea that they have less to lean back on that they're closing at a much greater rate. If you look at the list, you see places like Clark's how Capones all those sort of places that were identifiable by specific menu concept that weren't really themed, as much as they were just places to go eat. And mini gourmet was one of those. And again, it's another thing of the area losing its uniqueness. So let's be honest, no one came from out of town to go to mini gourmet. In fact, meaning remains two main sort of drawing points, I would say were people who were visiting the hospital across the street and wanted to go get food right after, or local folks, families in particular. And of course, you cross the street, you also had Saturday City College, which probably led to a fair bit of people to go and eat there. But this idea of a restaurant that is a local restaurant, it's slowly going away. And that makes me sad. And I wouldn't be doing a podcast like this if it didn't. But it does help realize that we either don't want these type of places, and I don't think that's the case. Or we just don't care enough to make sure they stay. The big problem with a lot of them, of course, is rent costs are growing exponentially. And the classic person that these type of things appeal to is on the lower side of the economic spectrum, while the upper side of the economic spectrum can help a restaurant survive. So in fact, the high price of a place like original Joe's is actually helping them stay alive. We're gonna see that it's just going to get worse, I think. And there are places that I will be incredibly sad to see go away. I'm sad to see many Grahame go away. But that whole part of town needs a redefinition. And the dream would be that that site would grow something that was local life. But I think we all know that's unlikely to be the case.

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SiliGoneValley-LaPaloma

SUMMARY KEYWORDS la paloma, santa clara, mexican food, pedro, restaurant, version, special occasions, drink, mexican, love, personal favorites, rehana, milpitas, authentic, great, islamophobe, guests, pandemic, comfort food, food SPEAKERS Christopher Garcia   Christopher Garcia  Come with me. We're going to Silicon Valley   Christopher Garcia  to our loyal guests since 1977 La Paloma restaurant has been a Santa Clara staple of delicious Mexican food in a warm and friendly environment. Thanks to our great team and loyal guests, we've had the opportunity to be the home of special occasions and general dining. We have made the extremely sad decision to close our doors may 1 2022. Due to the economic impact of the COVID 19 pandemic, and not being able to come to an agreement with our landlord. We thank you for your continued support all these years sincerely, La Paloma restaurant. My idea of what Mexican food is was not defined by my grandmother, who while Mexican was not exactly a great cook, but more by two restaurants both in Santa Clara aka poco sadly gone as well. La Paloma and this gave me a twisted version. Of course, one crispy taco shells, which took years for me to get into the soft taco mode, the thick layers of cheese on top of everything which I love to this day. But most importantly, this idea of mixing up rice and beans. But there's more to it. It's this idea that Mexican food can be a sit down food instead of just a grab and go food because of course I was eating Taco Bell from the age of like three, but the amazing, beautiful. La Paloma, a restaurant I still love to last time I went there probably 10 years ago. Now sadly, no less than that probably seven or eight. It's this idea of a warm, accommodating Mexican sit down place with all the sort of faux trappings of the location, you know, carved chairs for example, knickknacks, we've lost a lot of that type of Mexican food lately. We've still got Pedro's Okay, that's great. But Boyle Del Mar has gone to Acapulco, La Paloma and Luis addley looks to be a victim of COVID-19 just like so many other places. The best thing there of course were the drinks and I want to read to you actually, this is a rare occasion I read my own writing from Yelp, August 15 2008. If you toss Milpitas islamophobe endless goddesses Pedro in a blender with little ice, the frosty daiquiri that would result would be La Paloma. It's been around forever, and the food has gone up and down over the years and seems to be slightly above average. It does tend to be a little breezy, but you'll never notice because the bar does such a great job and just about every drink. I've even had an old fashioned there once and they did a really good job. Some of the food that has come and gone the boil come crema is one of my personal favorites. I don't think they made it towards the end and I I used to get it all the time. And when I stopped to make my own, it was based off of the memory of that version. I did notice that the service ranged from really good to really bad and goes back and forth like anywhere. But one of the things about La Paloma was it felt like a restaurant of the town. It felt like the Santa Clara version of Mexican food. I know it's not authentic. I know it doesn't have that sort of Christmas that freshness. But it was what Santa Clara can provide a not necessarily authentic but real and filling. And considering it lasted for 45 years. That's a pretty good run. And I I hope that my kids will get that experience this sort of comfort food version of Mexican food because they know taka Rita's because we have a taco Rehana in Boulder Creek that they love. But there's something special about this too, and I hope they get to experience it. Maybe I'll take them to Pedro's

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Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers

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If you've got anythign Rooh's Cafe Salsa related, drop me a line!

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Eulipia - 1977 to 2012 Cafe Stritch - 2013 to 2022

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A wonderful collection at History San Jose

Auto-Generated Transcript   SiliGoneValley-WrestlingInSanJose

SUMMARY KEYWORDS san jose, major, cow palace, wrestling, professional wrestling, territory, localized, call, ray stevens, location, cogan, draw, stars, legend, locally, matches, san francisco, milpitas, gomez, mid atlantic SPEAKERS Christopher Garcia   Christopher Garcia  Come with me, we're going to Silicon Valley   Christopher Garcia  there used to be wrestling in San Jose. Yes, I know people still they do have wrestling at the shark tank or whatever they're calling it now. And there's occasional small time. Bits going on things like All Pro Wrestling locally, could slam up in Oakland. But San Jose used to be, I believe it was Wednesday nights as a part of the Shire territory, and that was Roy Shire, up in San Francisco, usually around the Cow Palace, his most famous thing had TV on KTVU in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose. It was a territory and how the territories worked at that point was you would have a main location in this case was San Francisco's Cow Palace, where the big shows happened. But then there were smaller shows every week or every other week, sometimes once a month, all around the same area. There's still a few of these in existence today. But they've really gone away. But every major metropolitan area had one back in the day. Famously, Dallas had world class Championship Wrestling. You had Chicago back in the day, you had all sorts of them up in the Northeast, the South, Raleigh, North Carolina, there was a thing called Mid Atlantic, which major tour Memphis is also an incredibly famous one that's long lasting, there's still sort of a version of it left. But San Jose was a very important stop on the path. And usually the shows that happen, that aren't the big ones. They're not super notable. But they were a way for the companies to make money. This is really key. Because at that point, you weren't getting major rights deals and such. And, you know, there wasn't an overall thing. You had a small area where you were getting all of your money. So every time every different city you go to had to bring in money. But the stars who came through those things were the same stars you would see on TV. And locally, that was Pat Patterson, Ray Stevens pepper Gomez. Rocky. So man Johnson, I love I loved Rocky Johnson, very nice guy like my dad. But all the stars would do the tour. And that was key. Because to bring the people to the smaller locations where you don't have the major production values, it's not a superstar show. And in a lot of places, they were just in national armory building sometimes they were in high school gyms most often they were usually in gyms like high school or something. And it would just be a way to bring in little extra money for the company, but also to give a personal connection because at that point, TV was seen as one thing and you usually didn't give away your big matches on TV. And you usually didn't give away your big your initial big matches in the smaller cities. So for example, you might have pepper Gomez versus Ray Stevens. The classic feud, would their first match would be in San Francisco in the Cow Palace drawing 10s of 1000s of people. But then the rematches might happen in each of those little cities again. San Jose is top draw ever I asked us if Dave Meltzer who is the leader, San Jose boy, a legend in professional wrestling journalism. asked him who the biggest draw in the history of San Jose was in his simple answer and I hate to admit I agree with him his whole Cogan II, there's a lot of ways you could look at that he was never a regular in the territory. And I didn't quite get an answer of who was the biggest actually in San Jose when San Jose was a part of the territory realm. But the sort of demonstrates a change in professional wrestling. It went from being something that is very localized something that is I don't want to say personal but you identify with the wrestlers of your location because you don't have any other choice to something national. And the National names drop bigger, even if they draw less often. Those also has a history of producing professional wrestlers many writing Bo Fernandez a legend absolutely fantastic worker back in the day. Currently you have two local folk. First Bailey San Jose zone as I always refer to her major star injured right now. One of the best women Wrestler of the past ever. She's fantastic. And her current run as a bad guy. He'll as we call them, is fantastic. Another one is Shotzi Blackheart. got her start out here up in hood slam. She's from the beautiful city of Milpitas. So yet, localized wrestling has made its way to Silicon Valley. There's no question   Christopher Garcia  but it's still here with us. And we're still a major stop for at least WWE until aw decides to get their butt over here.

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THe San Jose Flea Market, also known as the Berryessa Flea Market, is closing after a 60 year run. Hear Chris wax nostalgic about it, and somehow focus on the slides.

LATE BREAKING NEWS!!! The San Jose Flea Market released a statement saying they are not closing! Episode will stay up, but it looks like this one is a win for the good guys!

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Another casualty of the COVID-19 Restaurant Mass Extinction Event!

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Founded in Menlo Park, with a direct connection to one of the greatest Art Collectors in US history, The Velvet Turtle taught me a lot about what Dinner could be!

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SiliGoneValley-VelvetTurtle

Tue, 7/5 12:34PM • 5:54

SUMMARY KEYWORDS velvet, turtle, remember, fine dining, sonoma, anderson, chain, hunk, places, zaman, seafood, food, salad, eating, chicken nuggets, roast, prime rib, silverware, 70s, lobster     Come with me, we're going to Silicon Valley you always remember how you enter into something that really changes your life. And for me, this is a chain restaurant. And when introduced me to his the concept of fine dining. That may seem antithetical, but it's true. The stick around, hold on, you'll figure this out. In the 70s, there was a rise of the chain restaurant, we always had things like Denny's for example, Samos exploring avenues in which the food could be of a higher quality of a different tenor became important. And that was definitely shown by the chain the velvet turtle     until the turtle was I don't want to say cutting it because it definitely wasn't cutting edge.     But it was different. So different that it it was. I don't want to say magical because it wasn't like super fine dining. But it was something that was close. And there were a whole bunch of different founders, three primary, one of which was Wally Botello, who came up with a chain concept, and I believe was one of the first real people to push this out there. That was hunk Anderson. And if you listen to three minute modernist at all, I talk a lot about the Anderson collection. That's the dude, a hunk and his wife were the real stars. The menu for the velvet turtle was incredible. That thing you don't see so much anymore. You know, roast rack of lamb, beef wellington, roasted duckling on our own wash, the prime rib, which is what I got. Abalone medallions of seafood is another one, of course, filet mignon, all the things that you would expect. But the thing that really changed it was how it was presented, of course, heavy silverware, white tablecloth, kids were I don't want to say they were banned, but they were not encouraged. But I was probably eight or 10. When we went the first time. I remember the salad. They did it the classic way where they brought the salad in, they put the dressing on, they toss it your table, then they gave you your bowl. And I definitely remember the prime rib. And I think that was the first time I ever had lobster, my family didn't do a lot of seafood. tickly my mom. But that was definitely the first time I can remember eating a piece of lobster. And I remember it being kind of dark. But every time I would see a film that had someone at a fine dining restaurant and couldn't just say, I can remember the film Adventure Land, and where they go to the velvet touch, which I 100% believe was based on the velvet turtle. It had that air to it. And other other places that sort of get into this realm. For me, it to in particular, Stewart Anderson's Black Angus, had that sort of vibe to it, it was a step up, and I loved it. I still love it. If I get a chance to go I will. But then there was Oh Jays original Joe's downtown. Still, they're still one of my favorite places. That gave off a feeling that you were being there for an experience that included food, not just going there to eat in an environment. And the little touches like the table side, salad preparation. Perfect. When I really got into food again, on a higher level, I spent most of my 20s eating chicken nuggets we could afford. Everything had to fit into initially that mold of what I had experienced at the velvet turtle. Cookie. I went to shape honey, I went to the French Laundry. I started to branch out you know did a lot of stuff in Sonoma, a lot of stuff in Napa. My favorite place Sonoma, sadly, is gone. of the generals daughter, an amazing place. But you can see a lot of the sort of the smaller independent places that were being created in the 80s and 90s by chefs who were young in the 70s and 80s really showed an influence of that. And sometimes the influence was they were breaking away from it. But it's weird because the velvet turtle felt like it was branded fine dining. And, you know around here in Silicon Valley, you had some great fine dining places in particular, a lot patio, which I'll have to talk about at some point. Love for him. And of course he Lippia but it was the velvet turtle that for my generation will always have sort of a mark on it as what we had. And I went to the one in Sunnyvale and went to the one in San Jose, I think we might have gone to the one in Menlo Park and I was still young, but they always have a deep impact on how I Zaman food and I really wish I knew they'd be willing to ask because I was so good.

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The Re-Boilding of SiliGone Valley starts here, with one of the few surviving episodes, this one on Weird Stuff, the wonderful tech re-seller in Sunnyvale that closed in 2018!

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