Browsing Category News

Yesterday the Metro newspaper announced the winners of their 2013 “Best of Silicon Valley” competition, which consists of a reader poll and special recognition by their editors. This year’s list is testament to the recent resurgence of downtown Willow Glen, and the general awesomeness of our charming neighborhood.

Way to go, Downtown Willow Glen!

First and foremost, downtown Willow Glen was recognized as “Best Commercial Neighborhood Improvement.”
“While tons of public funds have transformed Mountain View, downtown San Jose, Sunnyvale, and King and Story, with mixed degrees of success, little Willow Glen plugged along with private capital. The result: an authentic business district that’s popping with owner-operated small retail stores and restaurants, including one of the valley’s last independent bookstores. The effort has been so well embraced by the public that the new threats are parking problems and rising rents that endanger smaller boutiques.”

Willow Glen’s Rockin’ Restaurants

Willow Glen did well in the restaurant category, especially the “Best New Restaurant” rankings where Willow Glen swept the top three spots! The corner of Lincoln and Willow has clearly emerged as a culinary hotspot as the home of 2 of the 3 winners: The Table and Lou’s Village. Dry Creek Grill on Hamilton rounded out the recognition.

In other news, Opa! took first place in the “Best Greek Restaurant” rankings, Giorgio’s on Foxworthy was named the second best place for “Moderately Priced Italian Food.” Readers decided Aqui on Lincoln has the area’s “Best Restaurant Patio.” Mojo Burger was recognized as one of the valley’s “Best Burger” spots.

• Our pizza places were well-represented, with Willow Street and Pizza My Heart occupying 2 of the top 3 spots in the “Best Pizza” category and Giorgio’s making another appearance in the sub-category for “Best Pizza (Independent).”
• Another strong suit is our sushi joints, with across-the-street neighbors Yuki and Kazoo both making the podium.
• Willow Glen was tops in the “Best Deli” rankings too, where La Villa and Zanotto’s were 2 of the top 3.
• For those focused on getting their money’s worth when they go out, Willow Glen has two of the Silicon Valley’s “Best Value” winners: Aqui and Bill’s. Bill’s was also recognized as one of the valley’s “Best Family Restaurants.”
• In one of the poll’s bigger “no duh” results, Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt (now known as Willow Glen Creamer in its new Town Square digs) was named the favorite Frozen Yogurt shop.
• Last but not least, The Grapevine was named a reader favorite in the voting for “Best Wine Bar.”

Shopping and Services

Willow Glen also did quite well in the area of shops and service providers:

• Hicklebee’s of course held on to its well-deserved place among the “Best Independent Bookstores.”
• Hyland Family Bicycles and Mike’s Bikes (which obviously has more than just the relatively new Willow Glen location) were named the best bike shops.
• Special congratulations to Curvy Girl lingerie on Meridian for being named by readers as the “Best Lingerie Shop” within a year of opening on Meridian right next to Rookie’s. Curvy Girl caters to plus size women and flaunts the charming tagline “Sexy is Not a Size.”
• Hijinx Comics on Lincoln was named one of the Best Comic Book Stores.
• Willow Glen Dentistry was named one of the top dentists, and Willow Glen Dental Care was recognized as a top place for teeth whitening.
• Ace at Curtner and Lincoln was recognized as a favorite Independent Hardware Store.
• Readers felt Three Sisters is one of the best places to buy a gift for a friend as one of the “Best Gift Shops.”
• Mann’s Jewelers was named, no surprise, one of silicon valley’s best jewelry stores.
• The survey saw Brooke Blecher, a good friend of Willow Glen Charm, named one of the best Family Lawyers.

Nightlife…not so much

As you might expect, Willow Glen didn’t exactly kill it in the nightlife categories. Our lone appearances were Aqui as “Best Margarita” and Rookie’s as one of the best sports bars. We also didn’t appear on the list of favorite Arts & Culture spots, but that’s not surprising given our lack of museums and live music venues.

By Chris Roth at March 20, 2013

Last night, a planning meeting was held at the Willow Glen Community Center to discuss the Three Creeks Trail master plan, specifically focusing on the Western Alignment portion of the trail that runs directly through Willow Glen. This was the first of three workshops intended to collect and utilize community feedback in the planning, landscaping, and construction of this trail.
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The 2012 edition of our map of Willow Glen’s most charming holiday decorations is now available!

• View the Interactive Map
• Download a PDF.

Books For Treats is the Willow Glen-based program that encourages you to give gently read books to your trick-or-treaters instead of candy.

The movement is spreading across the US and Canada, and they’d love to have more communities in Silicon Valley provide a Books For Treats event, as other communities have. If you have contacts in other book- and children-loving places, send them to www.BooksForTreats.org to download their free step-by-step guide.

Willow Glen’s own event is one of the larger giveaways, and it “takes a village” to pull it off with help in the areas listed below.

If you’re interested in helping, please contact Books for Treats founder and Willow Glenner Rebecca Morgan at Rebecca@RebeccaMorgan.com or 408/998-7977

• Collect gently read children’s books, especially from baby through second grade. If you are willing to run a book drive (at work, play groups, schools, churches), email me for a drop-off point. If you want to clear out your kids’ libraries, Comerica (on Lincoln), Willow Glen Yoga, Technology Credit Union and Cuchina Bambini take Books For Treats book donations.
• Transport 2 pallets of books from near Kelly Park to the Garden Theater the week before Halloween. This would be great for someone with a truck, van or large SUV and some strong-armed help to unload the book boxes. (Boy Scouts? Teenagers? College students? All-round good guys?) Our storage space is open until 4:00 weekdays.
• Help sort books on Friday, Oct. 26. Don’t worry if you know nothing about reading levels — we give you brief instruction. We need 12-25 volunteers. We’d love to have those with elementary teaching experience to help determine reading levels, but anyone can help.
• Hand out books on Oct. 31 (from 11:00-12:30, 3:00-4:30) to the Lincoln Ave. trick-or-treaters. We need 12-15 volunteers.
• Write and distribute press releases. Ideally, this person has experience in this area.
• Create video testimonials from parents and kids who’ve experienced Books For Treats. If you’re good with a video camera and are willing to gather some footage before and during the event, we’d love to have short clips on our website and YouTube.
• Give books to your own trick-or-treaters. There’s a thorough free kit on how to do this downloadable from www.BooksForTreats.org. You can buy gently read children’s books at the Oct. 6 Friends of the Willow Glen Library book sale, or garage sales and thrift shops.
• Tell your neighbors, friends and coworkers about Books For Treats and encourage them to go to www.BooksForTreats.org to download their free kit.
• If you’d like to make a monetary contribution to support our web hosting, label printing, etc. let us know and we’ll tell you where to send the check or there’s a PayPal link at www.BooksForTreats.org/donate. We’re now a 501c3 which means your donations are tax deductible!

Even if you can’t help with anything listed below, we’d love to have your support at the fundraiser on Oct. 24 at Willow Street Pizza (Willow Glen location only). They will donate 20% of the proceeds from any purchases for lunch or dinner if you show the flyer downloadable here: http://bit.ly/SnqsCK. Bring a group and have a fun time!

The latest Charming brain child is to do a CHARMING RACE…aka scavenger hunt through downtown Willow Glen.

A bunch of businesses have signed up to be part of the hunt and donating fun things (gift cards and swag) to participants. If you own or run a business on Lincoln between Willow and Minnesota and are interested in participating, or want more information, email holly@hollybarr.com.

Apply to be one of the 15 teams!

Super tasty food!
Self taught chef, Dave Weisner creates impressive flavors and now enters into competition against formally  trained chefs.

David (Dave) Weisner of Siena Bistro is one of the chefs going to be featured at the second annual Chefs of Compassion through West Valley Food Community Services.

The event draws 200+ people at $100 each to taste foods created by local chefs from selected ingredients found at the food bank. There are four courses and each chef is featured in a short film at the event held this year at Lexus of Steven Creek in San Jose.

Dave was filmed today (the one day a week Siena is closed- although we give him a hard time that he needs to be open on Mondays!) and the event is slated for September 14, 2012. Good food for a great cause!

For more information: http://www.chefsofcompassion.org/

Some people in my family think the house magically cleans itself and the clothes magically appear clean and folded in their drawers however, I know better…

Daniel Nunez is a Willow Glen native and attended Schallenberger and WG Middle School and is in his third year working FULL TIME to keep Lincoln Ave. clean and pristine.  I was shocked to learn that Daniel and/or his crew of two other people is there with his crew seven days a week from 6:00a to 2:00p. His ‘territory’ is from Minnesota to Cucino Bambino and says that mostly he picks up cigarette butts, gum and cleans up graffiti.

They are paid through the Willow Glen Business Association (through their fundraisers like DoTA and the Wine Walk) and are contracted through a company called San Jose General Building Maintenance.

If you see Daniel, be sure to say hello, he is a great guy!

Sunday morning around twenty volunteers began a cleanup of the north end of Lincoln Avenue from Coe to Parkmoor. They successfully cleaned the east side of Lincoln from Parkmoor to Paula, and the west side to Lonus. They collected eighty 55-gallon trash bags worth of trash and weeds, in addition to non-baggable junk like old tires, mattresses, clothing, motor oil and paint cans. The owner of Ranch Town Recycling was kind enough to provide a truck and driver to collect larger items and tree trimmings, and providing a large dumpster at no cost.
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The Kiwanis Club of Willow Glen (which is always looking for members, btw!) is bringing Willow Glen’s popular Music in the Glen summer concert series back to Willow Glen Elementary, every Thursday night at 6:30-8:30 p.m in the quad.
Food Sales Support Willow Glen Elementary and Turnaround Scholarships for SJUSD. Bring A Lawn Chair or Blankets for Seating. Please arrive before 6:25 p.m. to hear the National Anthem Sung by local Talent. Sorry, no pets allowed.
The first concert, featuring The Groove Kings, is June 21 and a perfect way to get in the mood for Dancin’ on the Avenue two days later on Saturday the 23rd. Here’s the complete schedule:
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The Willow Glen Neighborhood Association is hosting the first in a series of community cleanup days on June 9 from 9:30am to 12:30pm. This event seeks to highlight the importance of the growing residential communities to the north, along with the increased need for safe and clean areas to walk and bike. From Blight to Bright will include residents from the Elements Apartment Community along with participants in San Jose’s monthly Bike Party rides; helping to move tools and debris by bike. Organizers will serve breakfast and provide tools.
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