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, with its baseball gloves brilliantly dyed to match gourmet sunflower seed cans.
We had some dazzlingly hot chicken at Scratch Cookery, ate pizza and meatball sliders while watching corporate team building exercises at Campo di Bocce of Los Gatos and had a surprisingly irresistible Mexi-Hound, a hot dog served with chili and wrapped in a tortilla, at the 54-year-old The Happy Hound.
We also visited El Bazar Azteca with its equally colorful selection of Mexican Talavera pottery, Recycle Bookstore with its promise of carrying every book you could imagine or want, and the Black Urban Barn, to help you shave off some of the calories from eating at all the above.
The year also saw some terrific places previously featured in Biz Beat articles close, like The Funny Farm, home to good humor and great poutine, and Mama Kin, with its exquisite Cajun menu and vibrant live music nights.
It’s a sobering reminder that it’s a tough time for small business, and a good time to revisit restaurants and stores you love and to seek out a few new places deserving of attention.
Brothers Tom and Jack Di Maggio had to close the family pizzeria, Tony Di Maggio’s Pizza in San Jose, after a fire. They reopened mid-June to long lines of loyal customers. Photo by Robert Eliason.
5. Tony Di Maggio’s Pizza
Reopening on June 13, just under a year since a fire destroyed the roof, Tony Di Maggio’s Pizza is a phoenix that keeps rising. Founded in 1977, this family-owned business is still going strong following that setback and a similar dark moment when Tony himself died in 2012.
Pizza is in the name, and they are epic, but the go-to dish here is the stromboli, a combination of ham, salami, American and mozzarella cheese, and a touch of yellow mustard, all wrapped in dough, baked and topped with a remarkable red sauce made fresh every day in a 20-gallon pot.
Adding to the old-fashioned charm of the place, Tony’s wife Anna, makes every one of the strombolis herself, going strong at 80 and creating up to 200 a day. Those strombolis, produced by her magic hands, account for around 50% of the restaurant’s sales. They are big enough to get lost in and the unique flavor might tempt you away from pizza forever.
Teske’s Germania Restaurant co-owner Greg Baumann. has been working at his family restaurant since he was 16 years old. Photo by Robert Eliason.
4. Teske’s Germania
For co-owner Greg Baumann, Teske’s Germania projects a feeling of gemütlichkeit, meaning “warmth and good cheer.” With it’s throw-back feeling of hospitality from the long wooden bar and dining room architecture dating back to the 1890sto the Bavarian outdoor beer garden in the back, it’s Oktoberfest every day.
Founded in 1980 by Ernst and Marianne Teske, it is still family owned and operated with a classic German menu that has varied little over the years. It’s as authentic as the bar’s full line of German beers and schnapps and includes Jägerschnitzel, a thin pork cutlet served with spätzle and mushroom gravy, and Rinderpaprikagulasch, a beef paprika goulash served with spätzle and red cabbage.
Practice your German accent on the signature dish, Schweinshaxe mit Kartoffelsalat, a massive boiled and baked pork shank, served with a tart vinegared potato salad and a mild but hearty sauerkraut. And save room for the Bee Sting Cake, an almond-topped brioche layered with honey liqueur-flavored pastry cream.
San Jose Auxiliary for Children President Kirsten Duggins said The Thrift Box gots its name when items were sold out of boxes in the 1960s. Photo by Robert Eliason.
The Thrift Box
The Thrift Box was a break from the restaurant articles: nothing to eat here, unless you count the herbal tea the volunteers served me while we were doing the interviews. The San Jose Auxiliary for Children volunteers are the heart of “The Box,” raising more than $1 million annually for the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Foundation.
If your only experience with thrift stores is Goodwill, you are in for a surprise at The Box. The number of customers grabbing incredible bargains, particularly on Wednesdays, when the shop opens after two days of restocking, is almost matched by the steady stream of people bringing in donations through the back door.
All donations are checked for quality, down to a volunteer who certifies every electronic item, and the range is astonishing, from designer clothes to fine china to a wall filled with Beanie Babies. Whether you are shopping or donating, The Box is the place to be.
Ubaldo Navarro-Castillo owner of San Jose’s Taqueria Tlaquepaque started learning about cooking from his mother when he was 6 years old . Photo by Robert Eliason.
2. Taqueria Tlaquepaque
To me, Mexican restaurants can be such a coin-toss, but a place like Taqueria Tlaquepaque that can trace its recipes to the owner’s mom is most likely going to be a winner. Ubaldo Navarro-Castillo started cooking with his mom at age 6 in her small, unassuming restaurant in Jalisco, Mexico.
The focus is on freshness: the rice, for example, is made fresh three times a day, seasoned with tomato juice, garlic, onion and yellow peppers, and is perfect down to every puffy grain. All of the complex and flavorful sauces are made fresh in-house daily. And Navarro-Castillo starts his day at 5 a.m., roasting his chicken, simmering his mole and preparing his beans.
Down from three locations, pre-COVID to just one, Tlaquepaque is a jewel, from simple dishes like the tacos one customer said he regularly drives from Gilroy to eat, to the more complex and hearty Bistec a la Mexicana, with tender cubed steak in a rich tomato sauce with jalapeno peppers. Worth the drive? Absolutely.
The Vietnamese Chicken Wings at Mommy’s Bánh Mì are prepared in a crispy, Korean-based batter and tossed in a vegan fish sauce that adds sweet, sour and savory notes. Photo by Robert Eliason.
1. Mommy’s Bánh Mì
Having taken a trip to Vietnam earlier this year, I was excited to have gained a better perspective on the bánh mì sandwiches and phở offered locally. Though both dishes were developed and popularized only in the last century, they are overwhelmingly unavoidable in the heart of Vietnam, offered by thousands of street vendors and tiny shops everywhere.
Mommy’s Bánh Mì, which started as a food truck, was a great place to start the journey. The infectious enthusiasm of owner Curtis Lai for his food and his down-to-earth restaurant made me even more interested in trying his dishes, which did not disappoint.
I actually preferred his take on the bánh mì itself—his bread, baked in-house, was a bit moister and the crust a bit less sharp than the ones I was served in Vietnam. The fillings I tried, shredded chicken, lemongrass pork patties and slow-roasted porchetta, were tender and full of flavor. And the house cilantro sauce, served with the sandwich but available for sale, was the perfect accent. Pro tip: order the Vietnamese Chicken Wings, maybe the best wings I’ve had.
As always, thank you for your suggestions. Keep them coming and have a great New Year exploring and supporting our local independent businesses and restaurants.
Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].
Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].