Nvidia has a special place in Dan Phan’s heart.
The San Jose native remembers saving up for months when he was a teenager to get a GeForce2 GPU for a computer he was building. And now — as part of the group that owns downtown hot spots Eos & Nyx, Paper Plane, Still O.G. and Miniboss — he’s looking forward to welcoming Nvidia’s big tech conference, GTC, and the 25,000 people it’ll bring to downtown San Jose in mid-March.
“Bringing thousands of visitors to San Jose isn’t just about filling convention halls. It’s about activating downtown,” Phan said. “When conference attendees walk out of the conference, they walk into our city. They grab coffee at our local cafes, they book tables at our restaurants and they unwind at our cocktail bars.”
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San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said last year’s GTC — the first one held in-person since the pandemic — brought in $15.5 million in economic impact, making it the city’s biggest post-pandemic conference. Bars and restaurant, he said, could make their entire month’s rent in a couple of days.
Mahan, City Councilmember Carl Salas, San Jose State University President Cynthia Teniente-Matson and Greg Estes, Nvidia’s vice president for corporate marketing and developer programs, joined Phan on Friday morning to talk about Nvidia’s “downtown takeover” at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, which along with the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, the Tech Interactive and the Montgomery Theatre will be the conference’s hubs of activity.
Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang’s keynote address is set for March 18 and will likely pack SAP Center, but it’s also being livestreamed, and Nvidia will have a watch party at SJSU for Bay Area college students. Like last year, City Hall and other buildings downtown are expected to be lit up in green, Nvidia’s signature color.
The mayor’s office is partnering with the Santa Clara tech giant — which got its start at a Denny’s in San Jose — to distribute 1,000 tickets to the conference exhibition hall March 21 to college students, downtown residents and neighborhood leaders.
It sounds like a great time — and it should be unless you’re a local resident looking to grab a drink or eat at your favorite bar or restaurant. The four places owned by Phan’s group have eight “buyouts” scheduled during the conference, and I’ve heard others like Il Fornaio and the Pressroom — which hasn’t even opened yet — have also been reserved for conference-related gatherings. And the nighttime activations at Plaza de Cesar Chavez also will be open only to conference attendees.
But if you want to look on the bright side, maybe the overflow crowd (and all the locals) will end up discovering new spots downtown.
Phan is definitely looking at the upside, and says GTC could have a lasting impact on the city.
“Conferences like GTC introduce people to San Jose, many for the first time,” he said. “They see that this city isn’t just where innovation happens, but it’s where you can live, work and experience great food, drinks and nightlife. For small business owners like myself, that exposure is invaluable.”
SUSHI THIEF GETS ROLLED: Sushi Confidential owner Randy Musterer is resting a little easier after a serial dine-and-dasher — whom he estimates has gotten away with nearly $1,000 in food — was caught this week after trying it again at their Campbell location.
The suspected thief tried to sneak out a back exit Monday night, but was caught by an alert table busser, so he doubled-back and high-tailed it out the front entrance. Musterer, who had been watching security camera feeds from home, started driving around and called Campbell police when he spotted him. He was caught within minutes.
“It was, surprisingly, a perfect end to the story,” Musterer said. “I had a couple other restaurant owners reach out that he did the same thing to them, so it was not just Sushi Confidential.”
PACT’S NEW SHEPHERD: People Acting in Community Together, the interfaith community-organizing nonprofit in San Jose, welcomed the Rev. Jon Pedigo as its new executive director at a reception held Thursday at Temple Emanu-El in San Jose.
Pedigo certainly seems the right person for the job, with decades of community work to his name with Catholic Charities and Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment, as well as working with PACT in different capacities since the late 1980s.
Currently the parochial vicar at St. Lucy Parish in Campbell, Rev. Pedigo formerly served as pastor at St. Julie Billiart and Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Jose. Some have called him a firebrand and others a rabble-rouser, and I’m sure he’d be fine with either description — except he wouldn’t appreciate the people he works to empower being referred to as “rabble.”
“I have learned that the power of this organization is in relationship, and that’s not just a throwaway line. It’s a reality that we are strong when we act together,” Pedigo said in an Instagram video. “When we act together, when we come together, when we recognize the power in each other, we recognize our collective wisdom, our collective critique and our collective action can make real changes.”
BEER RUN: There’s still time to register for the San Jose Shamrock Run, which will fill downtown San Jose with green-clad runners and walkers on March 15. The 5K and 10K races for the annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day event, which raises money for the San Jose-Dublin Sister City Program’s Patrick McMahon scholarship, will start at 8 a.m. in front of San Pedro Square (the kids’ Leprechaun run has a later start at 9:30). You can get more info at sanjoseshamrockrun.com.
O’Flaherty’s Pub in San Pedro Square is run central, and will host the finish-line party featuring Irish dancers, the San Jose Police Emerald Society pipe band and a free Guinness beer for all the runners. Oh, the things we’ll do for a free beer.
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