Now through December 24, 2010 Peet’s Coffee matches up to $1,000 of customer contributions collected in each store in support of non-profit organizations in their local community.

On Christmas Eve, Peet’s Coffee will be serving complimentary brewed coffee and tea all day.

Store Locator – find Peet’s in the Bay Area

San Jose – Camden Park
2035 Camden Avenue
(408) 371-9088

San Jose – Downtown
66 W. Santa Clara Street
(408) 213-4770

San Jose – El Paseo
1330 El Paseo De Saratoga
(408) 871-0907

San Jose – Rose Garden
1295 The Alameda
(408) 213-7285

San Jose – Santana Row
377 Santana Row, Suite 1130
(408) 213-1071

San Jose – Willow Glen
1140 Lincoln Avenue, Suite C
(408) 975-9281

One of the more unlikely diner locations is in the middle of the Nvidia parking lot in Santa Clara. That is where you will find

Moo-Chu’s American / Asian Restaurant
2772 San Tomas Expressway, Santa Clara, CA, 95050
(408) 919-2879

The food is good and the coffee is Peet’s! Moo-Chu’s started out for Nvidia staff but has doubled their business since opening to the public. At lunchtime, you can see employees from a variety of nearby high-tech companies cutting through the parking lots near San Tomas Expressway (Between Central and Walsh), headed for Moo-Chu’s.  Look for the big sign of the cow wearing an Asian hat.

Images by Katy Dickinson, Copyright 2010

I picked up some news this morning along with my Cerro Paldo pour-over at Barefoot this morning:

• Barefoot Coffee’s 7th anniversary in business is this Saturday. They will be offering free coffee at all of their locations (about which, more below). Possibly there will be even more bonus offerings if you bicycle to all three locations.
• Also, they will be opening a new location tomorrow, October 21. The “roll-up bar” will let you get a cup of fresh-poured or espresso coffee right at their roasting facility at 76 Sunol Street near downtown San Jose. Parking is limitted and they recommend visiting on your bike.
• Finally, on Friday they will be opening a third location inside Good Karma Vegan Cafe at 37 South First Street in downtown San Jose. One more reason I need to visit Good Karma again soon (the other being the rumors I hear about their beer selection — I might need to make two trips).

Correction (10/21/10): I stopped in at the roll-up bar this morning, and they told me they’d actually had it open for a few weeks already. It’s worth a stop — get your coffee fix while steeping in the scent of the roasters — but they really mean it about the parking.

Philz Coffee on the Paseo de San Antonio

The holiday today gave me and my girlfriend an excuse to check out some new places downtown we haven’t had a chance to get to yet.

Philz Coffee opened up several weeks (months already?) ago in the Paseo de San Antonio, with tons of rave reviews about how great the coffee is. At 10 am the downtown area was pretty quiet, until we got to Philz, where there was a little island of life. There were three or four occupied tables out front and a few inside as well. Gary Singh from the Metro was sitting in the back doing whatever it is real journalists do with their laptops at coffee shops.

Since its not really on my way to anywhere, I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. I like the fact that they serve every cup of coffee straight from the drip cone, so you know you’re getting the freshest possible cup. On the other hand, there’s no sugar and cream out for self-serve — you have to ask the barista to add what you want when you order. The amount of cream they added to my coffee totally killed the coffee flavor. My girlfriend had a similar experience ordering tea — she prefers her tea relatively mild, but her green tea was brewed so strong she thought they had made a mistake and given her black tea. I guess once you know exactly what you want, it would be a great system, and it keeps the shop cleaner. But for a first-timer, it was kind of a disappointment to get someone else’s idea of the right amount of cream, or the correct time to brew tea.

Ross Dress for Less on First Street

After coffee, we went over to the recently-opened Ross discount department store on First Street. I really like discount stores like Ross for basic clothing like sneakers, polo shirts, and khakis. The new Ross had a fine selection of those things, and has been kept clean and neat, unlike some of their other locations. My girlfriend’s verdict: “Best Ross store ever.”

It’s great to see new shops like these opening around downtown San Jose. I doubt if they really mean the recession is over. But they do show how slow economic times can encourage people and organizations to try something new, whether it’s a San Francisco coffee shop expanding into the South Bay, or the RDA taking a chance on a discount retailer instead of hoping vainly to get a high-end store into downtown.

I took Katy’s advice and picked up dinner to go at the Top Nosh Cafe. I took home two pies, an apricot tart, and a coffee (ground fresh).

I had intended to share some with my husband, but he didn’t make it home in time. I waited 30 minutes for him!

Yasmin, the owner of the Top Nosh Cafe, is such a joy. ;-)

Top Nosh Cafe

1167 Lincoln Ave. San Jose, CA (Willow Glen)

Mon. ~ Fri. 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Sat. ~ 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Sun. ~ 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Call: 408.995.NOSH (6674) for take-out & Catering

free wifi

While I have been working at the Diabetes Society on the top floor of the Garden Theater building in Willow Glen, I have also been waiting for the new Top Nosh Cafe on the ground floor.  Today it opened!  I was on my way across the street to Peet’s for some morning coffee when someone said that Top Nosh is now open and selling Espresso drinks for half off! The Peet’s on Lincoln Avenue usually has an all-day crowd inside and in front, complete with dogs and bikes. I have loved Peet’s coffee ever since I was at U.C. Berkeley, near where Peet’s was born.

Nonetheless, I went inside to see Willow Glen’s newest restaurant. The brown paper is indeed off the windows at last and Top Nosh is open.  I was delighted to find a friend behind the counter.  Yasmin Tyebjee is the CEO and Owner of the Top Nosh Cafe and a very good cook.  She is also the Mom of one of my daughter’s Middle School classmates.  Top Nosh serves breakfast and lunch and take out dinners.  Check it out!

Images 2010 Copyright Katy Dickinson

Red Berry Coffee Bar

About a year after we wrote that Backdoor Broken Door Espresso had closed up, San Jose city workers can once again get some high-octane fuel withing walking distance. Red Berry Coffee Bar has taken over the location where eMocha Cafe and Backdoor Broken Door Espresso once stood. They’ve been open since about 8 weeks ago.

Red Berry is brewing coffee from local favorite Barefoot Coffee Roasters. The coffee has some serious kick, and some complex flavors that aren’t revealed in the coffee at a Starbucks or even at Peet’s. Even the decaff has real flavor (and a very small amount of caffeine, so be warned if you’re extremely sensitive). I had a decaff americano and it was served with plenty of crema to give it the real espresso flavor.

I had read that Barefoot attributed their flavor to a less aggressive roast, but Chris, who was working at Red Berry Thursday morning, and previously worked at Barefoot’s cafe on Stevens Creek Blvd., told me it’s really more about the source of the beans.

Red Berry Coffee Bar is at 231 East Santa Clara Street.

Mondays from July 13 through August 3 2009, participating McDonald’s restaurants will hand out a free sample size of Iced Mocha (7 oz.) or Hot Mocha (8 oz.) between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. Limit one free sample per person, per visit, while supplies last.

Each drink is made with freshly ground espresso beans, real milk, rich chocolate syrup, and fresh whipped cream. The beverages are fully customizable, available with whole or non-fat milk, with or without whipped cream, and with fewer or additional shots of espresso or pumps of chocolate syrup.

McDonald’s Mocha Mondays
Various Locations

Mondays, July 13 through August 3, 2009
7:00 am through 7:00 pm

Anybody who’s ever been to the Portland temple of cult doughnuts known as Voodoo Doughnut will instantly recognize a twisted twin sister in Campbell’s Psycho Donuts. Ranging from donut fries with dipping sauces to light airy donuts rolled in Rice Krispies, crushed malt balls or Cocoa Puffs, More traditional Banana Creme Pie or even Key Lime Pie (my favorite) the donuts are weird and not surprisingly, good. They’re very good. Crraaaaazzy good.

So besides simply being the best at what you do, how do you market doughnuts in a city saturated (pun) with doughnut shops? With a little help from your friends. And–actually even more useful–your enemies. This morning, Twitter was all abuzz about a protest. Apparently just about every weekend since they’ve opened Psycho donuts sees a troop of protesters with placards protesting against their name.(They go home around 10) It offends them and all people who are clearly… well, how shall I say it? Maybe I better not. Let’s just call them sensitive. And really good marketers for Psycho Donuts.

Better yet, let’s roll the video. To the tune of “Crazy” by the fabulous Patsy Cline. Now WHAT would they have said to her?

Keep on top of the madness (did I really say that?) by following Psycho Donut’s Twitter stream, or just drop on by. The staff, BTW are super friendly and full of fun, if somewhat stunned by all the attention.

Roy's Station coffee shop

Roy’s Station, the much-awaited new coffee shop in Japantown, has been open since Monday. The new shop is located in a former filling station that has been in the owners’ family for three generations. They’ve restored the building meticulously, and documented their progress on Flickr over the past year.

I’ve stopped in twice now, and they still have a couple of things to work out, like how much water goes into an Americano (if they ask me, it’s about equal to the amount of espresso), but they seem to have things well under control for a place in their first week of business. Their coffee comes from Barefoot Coffee Roasters, and their tea from Teance, both local suppliers.

Roy’s Station is located at the corner of 5th and Jackson Streets, and is open 7 days a week, until 9 pm most of the week and until 10 pm Friday and Saturday.