Bhacon & Bheer?

[lsanderson]

"And in Bamberg, I would try the elusive rauchbier, a beer made with wood-smoked malt that is said to taste like liquid bacon." More

May 20, 2007
Next Stop | San Jose, Calif.
A Dot-Com City Comes Back After the Collapse
By JOSH SENS

ACRONYMS applied to up-and-coming urban neighborhoods often hint at grungy hipness, suggesting the presence of cutting-edge art galleries and underground nightclubs, with the promise of lattes and live-work lofts to come.

So it is with SoFA in San Jose. On a recent balmy evening, in the South First Street Area, throngs of moviegoers gathered at the California Theater, a renovated Art Deco building. Left for dead for decades, then brought back to life a few years ago with a computer mogul's millions, the theater is now the home of the local symphony and the opera. But on this March night, crowds had come for a screening of a small-budget Israeli feature, one of 450 entries in the Cinequest Film Festival, an annual event that draws independent movies from around the world. More

36 Hours in Baltimore
By DAVID G. ALLAN

BALTIMORE is sometimes the forgotten middle child among attention-getting Eastern cities like Washington and New York. But a civic revival, which began with the harbor's makeover 27 years ago, has given out-of-towners reason to visit. Yes, there are wonderful seafood restaurants, Colonial history, quaint waterfronts and other tourist-ready attractions. But Baltimore's renaissance has also cultivated cool restaurants with innovative cuisine, independent theaters that showcase emerging talent and galleries that specialize in contemporary art. In other words, Baltimore is all grown up, but it's still a big city with a small-town feel. More

Comments

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

G *made* rauchbeir once. You smoke the malt over a copper screen. I wouldn't say it was liquid bacon, but it was absolutely wonderful.

WoW

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

If he makes it again, ask him to save a bottle for me! They mention a fastenbier in the article that sounds wonderful too.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing about San José, and why it'll never take off as a great city.

The interests who run downtown have a vision of their ideal visitor. They are a couple who drop $300 on dinner, and another couple of hundred on a touring production of Cats at the theater. Or come to the artificial downtown of Santana Row to spend money.

They have encouraged the SJPD to be openly hostile to people who come to the clubs in the aforementioned South of First (SoFA) district.

And if you're Hispanic... well, back in December, cynthia1960 and I were leaving downtown after a Sharks game. We were headed down First to the 280 ramp. The traffic coming up first was held up for blocks. There was a police blockade stopping and searching every car and person coming downtown. First, south of 280 is a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.

San José is run by the developers, who will keep wondering why nobody comes to downtown except for Cinequest, Sharks games, and Cats.

Shocked, I'm just shocked...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

That idea seems endemic to those who plan. Cities should be clean places filled with ideal, Utopian visitors, shot in a gauzy, soft-focus white -- they forget that's often caused by a smear of oil-based lube over the lens.

Re: Shocked, I'm just shocked...

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the feeling nobody on the SJ city council ever read Jane Jacobs.

Re: Shocked, I'm just shocked...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

"Untidy" -- EEK!

Good Ol' San Jose, In Recovery

[magscanner.livejournal.com]

There are lots of interesting things in SJ, distributed as small pearls among the muck. With vast investments in Redevelopment the city has destroyed its downtown core (what there was left of it) and sent everyone but the club crowd out of the city after 5 pm. Yet there is hope! None of us will live to see it, but our putative children's children may find a city here, a metropolis of culture and vibrant economic life.

Meanwhile, here where I live on the fringe of the so-called downtown core, separated from the real downtown by a mile of The Alameda and a silvery Pavilion des Sharks, there is a small revival of local life. We're getting, within a two-block radius, in short order, a Thai restaurant, a wine bar, and a New York Style Pizza place, joining the Peet's and Starbucks, the Pasta Pomadoro, and the Indian (subcontinental) movie theater. Did I mention the best used bookstore in SJ is also half a block from my house? The NYT reporter didn't call me up for recommendations; but if he had, I would have had them.

San Jose: the city in spite of itself. Maybe. Ask me later.