It’s troubling to hear that San Jose restaurants, including Capers Loft in downtown and Jack Holder’s in Willow Glen, have been recently burglarized during the coronavirus pandemic.
Restaurants and bars all over the city and the state have been absolutely pummeled economically by the shelter-in-place orders. Some have closed, we hope temporarily, while others have slashed hours and staff, trying to eke out an existence by offering takeout or delivery service. Can you imagine going through that and then finding out that someone robbed you overnight?
Kam Razavi, who own’s Cape’s Loft downtown and Capers in Campbell, said his San Jose restaurant and lounge was broken into early Friday morning. The thieves smashed through a door and stole liquor and probably electronics items. “With everything going on, it’s a kick in the gut when you’re already down,” said Razavi, who captured images of the burglars on security camera and shared those with San Jose Police. “I’m confident the police will catch them. We have the best police force in the country.”
Razavi papered over the windows of the South Second Street restaurant after the burglary and put up a sign that he’s closed until further notice.
At Jack Holder’s on Meridian Avenue, the thieves who broke in made off with the tablet the restaurant uses for its DoorDash deliveries, hindering one of its few options for serving customers. With fewer eyes on the streets at night, restaurant and bar owners would be well served to invest in added security. Some have taken even more drastic measures.
Both the Continental Bar and Original Joe’s on South First Street boarded up their windows when they closed down for the shelter-in-place order. On its front door, Original Joe’s has a sign that says it will reopen “when it’s safe.” It certainly doesn’t seem to be right now.
MARTHA’S KITCHEN SCRAPING BY: There is no shortage of nonprofits that have been hit with a double-whammy during the coronavirus pandemic: Greater need for their services and a drop in both donations and volunteers. Bill Lee, the executive director at Martha’s Kitchen in San Jose, explained his nonprofit’s urgent need in terms that even a fifth-grade math student would understand.
The community kitchen, which sends meals to 60 other venues in six counties as well as serving its own clients, is providing nearly 1,000 extra meals beyond its normal output of 1,800 meals every day. At an estimated cost of $2.50 a meal, that means Martha’s Kitchen is going through $2,500 more each day — and that’ll add up to a $75,000 shortfall at the end of the month.
“We do all this free of charge, but the increase in demand as a result of COVID-19 is staggering,” Lee said. “Our costs have risen significantly too, as during this time our regular food supply chain has been disrupted. At times we have struggled to obtain the ingredients needed to meet our commitments, and when we have found the needed items, they have come at substantially higher costs.”
Donations are gratefully accepted at www.marthas-kitchen.org, and don’t forget you can help out even more people by donating to the valleywide effort at www.siliconvalleystrong.org.
H-P EMPLOYEE NO. 8 TURNS 100: Birthday parties are just less fun during shelter-in-place, but that didn’t stop Vivian Phillips from having a 100th birthday celebration last weekend at the San Jose nursing home where she lives. The staff threw her a small celebration, which her family couldn’t attend, unfortunately.
“The care home is on lockdown to keep everyone safe, so we are trying to celebrate with her virtually,” granddaughter Barbara Arena says. Phillips — an avid gardener her entire life with a penchant for bright red nail polish — has one daughter, nine grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, with one more on the way.
And while that sounds like a great life on its own, she’s also part of the Santa Clara Valley’s tech history. Phillips joined Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto back in 1947 — her employee badge number was 8 — and worked there for 35 years. She worked fabricating transformers and soldering resistors onto transformer boards for computers. She told HP Continuum, the company’s retiree network, that founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard nicknamed her “Powerhouse” after she broke a machine from overuse once.
