![\"Patrons](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SJM-L-PIZARRO-COL-0920-01.jpeg\")
Patrons sit at the bar at Bitterbuck in downtown San Jose\u2019s Fountain Alley on Sept. 2, 2026. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\nLet\u2019s play a little game. Of these six business names \u2014 Bitterbuck, BYLT, CB2, Alter Ego, Mejuri and Courage, Anyone \u2014 can you tell which are downtown San Jose bars and which are shops at Santana Row?<\/p>\n
Back at the dawn of time, bars sounded like bars. Some were super plain like Joe\u2019s Lounge, Patty\u2019s Inn and Jack\u2019s (which is still serving drinks on Taylor Street), others a little fancier like Bini\u2019s, Cinebar, the Tower Saloon, the Place and Manny\u2019s Cellar. But with names like that, there was a high likelihood you\u2019d walk in the door and find bottles on a shelf.<\/p>\n
If your business was called O\u2019Flaherty\u2019s, Rosie McCann\u2019s or Katie Bloom\u2019s and you weren\u2019t an Irish pub, you should expect to turn away a lot of confused, thirsty people. Don\u2019t get me started on how excited I was to see Scotch & Soda opening at Santana Row only to discover it was a clothing store.<\/p>\n
But these days, bars need more than a neon sign with a cocktail glass to grab customers\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n
Bitterbuck, which opened this month in downtown San Jose\u2019s Fountain Alley is the latest to enter the fray. The bar and eatery emphasizes coffee drinks in the morning and in the afternoon switches over to amaros and bubbles (and craft cocktails involving either).<\/p>\n
Patrons sit at the bar at Bitterbuck in downtown San Jose\u2019s Fountain Alley on Sept. 2, 2026. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Owner Cache Bouren told me the name comes from \u201cThe Green Mile,\u201d the Tom Hanks movie based on the book by Stephen King. In the movie, which Bouren says is one of his favorites, Arlen Bitterbuck is a death row prisoner played by Graham Greene, the late Canadian First Nations actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked the alliteration and the masculine feel, along with the fact it doesn\u2019t really mean anything, so we can definite it with delivery of our concept,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBitter\u201d pairs well with the Italian liqueurs and coffee drinks, and the \u201cbuck\u201d is reflected in the decor, which includes a mounted deer\u2019s head with antlers (there are also a ton of stuffed white mice doing adorable things, which could also be a nod to \u201cThe Green Mile.\u201d).<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SJM-L-PIZARRO-COL-0920-02.jpeg\")
The sign for Courage, Anyone, which opened in downtown San Jose\u2019s SoFA district in December 2025. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bitterbuck isn\u2019t the only recent addition to downtown\u2019s social scene with a movie reference for a name. When Courage, Anyone opened above Petiscos in the SoFA district last December, co-owner Eric Nielsen told me the name came from the 2024 movie, \u201cGhostbusters: Frozen Empire.\u201d Bill Murray\u2019s Dr. Peter Venkman offers a bottle of booze \u2014 aka \u201cliquid courage\u201d \u2014 to his fellow Ghostbusters, asking \u201cCourage, anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a winged tiger in the Courage, Anyone logo that has nothing to do with the Ghostbusters, as far as I know.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of other interesting origins to discover if you go cocktailing in downtown San Jose.<\/p>\n
Miniboss on Santa Clara and Second is named for the lower-level antagonist in a video game, understandable for the arcade bar on Santa Clara and Second Streets. Dr. Funk in San Pedro Square takes its name from a tiki drink that\u2019s named after Robert Louis Stevenson\u2019s doctor. Five Points serves excellent cocktails on West Santa Clara Street, but shares a name with a 19th-century, crime-infested slum in Manhattan. Swanky South First Street cocktail lounge Alter Ego got its name because it\u2019s hidden behind a curtain at the rear of smooth vinyl-influenced Still O.G. (its own name referring Original Gravity, a beer bar formerly on the site whose name is a brewing term.)<\/p>\n
Bouren, the Bitterbuck owner who also has a stake in two other bars with catchy monikers, Cash Only on Santa Clara Street and Haberdasher in SoFA, believes an interesting name is another potential way to engage with customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy naming scheme for a bar is meant to create a thread that when pulled on, unravels to inform the depth of imagination that a concept starts with,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more than \u2018Joe\u2019s\u2019 will ever bring, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
MOVING FORWARD: Jeanna Lurie welcomed hundreds of people to Paul Moore Park in San Jose on Wednesday to celebrate the life of her daughter and officially launch Jeannessa\u2019s Friends, a nonprofit created to continue her daughter\u2019s mission to help ensure the welfare of animals.<\/p>\n
Jeannessa Lurie, 24, was one of three people killed in a shooting<\/a>, along with her roommate Tarrah Taylor and friend Max Ryan on Sept. 16, 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal was to\u00a0reclaim the day, instead of it being one of tragedy and trauma to being one of action and joy and the love she brought to the world in her short time here,\u201d Jeanna Lurie said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re really off to a great start and we\u2019re going to do a lot of good.\u201d<\/p>\n Lurie said some of the goals of Jeannessa\u2019s Friends are to grant scholarships to college students studying veterinary medicine, to help lower cost of care for low-income pet owners and to provide grants to pet rescue organizations. On Wednesday, the nonprofit delivered its first grant of $500 to Spay and Neuter Action Project (SNAP), which helped with the rescue of 12 Rottweiler\/German Shepherd puppies recently.<\/p>\n You can find out more about their mission and how to get involved at www.jeannessasfriends.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n INSPIRING LINEUP: The nonprofit Dress for Success \u2014 which aims to help women achieve economic independence (even providing professional attire \u2014 has a stellar group of honorees for its Oct. 22 fundraiser, Women Who Inspire. At the top of the list is\u00a0 Trailblazer Award recipient Kerri Walsh Jennings, the Olympian and Stanford grad who is working to bring professional volleyball to the Bay Area with MLV NorCal.<\/p>\n The others are Philanthropy and Leadership Award recipient Helen Marchese Owen; Builder Award honoree Voahangy Rasetarinera, founder of The Giving Pies; and Spark Award winner Sonia Arteaga, who is a client ambassador for dress for success. And yes, there\u2019s one guy in the bunch, too: Nicholas Adams, founder of public relations\/marketing firm Ninico, is receiving the Male Ally Award.<\/p>\n The dinner is taking place at the San Jose Woman\u2019s Club, naturally, and you can get more details at www.sjdress.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n FEELING FASHIONABLE: The recent death of legendary fashion designer Bob Mackie brought back memories for Lina Broydo, the former public relations director for what used to be the Fairmont hotel in downtown San Jose. Broydo remembers Mackie staying at the hotel for about a month in the mid-1990s when he was working with Ballet San Jose\u2019s Dennis Nahat on the costumes and scenery for \u201cBlue Suede Shoes,\u201d which became a hit show featuring dozens of Elvis Presley songs.<\/p>\n Fashion always moves forward, though. And you can see its future Oct. 2 at the Santa Clara University Catal\u00e1 Club\u2019s upcoming fashion show luncheon, \u201cWomen in Motion, Empowering the Next Generation\u201d at the DoubleTree by Hilton in San Jose. The show will feature outfits from Bloomingdales, Chicos, Eli Thomas Menswear, In the Olde Manner, J. McLaughlin, M\u00e9lodie and Title Nine, and proceeds will benefit the club\u2019s endowed scholarship fund for Santa Clara undergrads. You can reserve a spot at mysantaclara.scu.edu\/Catala\/MonthlyReg<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s play a little game. Of these six business names \u2014 Bitterbuck, BYLT, CB2, Alter Ego, Mejuri and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184646,416,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-469019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bitterbuck","tag-cocktails","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}