San Jose’s Poor House Bistro prepares for its big move
If you’re a fan of San Jose’s Poor House Bistro, you should make plans to get there soon. Jay Meduri, who owns the New Orleans-style restaurant and music venue, says preparations are starting to move Poor House from its current home on Barack Obama Boulevard to Little Italy in mid-November.
This Sunday’s eighth annual Lil’ Easy Backyard Party will kick off a winding down of live music at the current location, which will shut down its stage after a big jam session on Sept. 30. Poor House Bistro opened in 2005, but the land was sold to Google to be part of its Downtown West development. The internet giant agreed to help move the historic house — the same house Meduri’s mother lived in — a few blocks to West St. John Street, where it’ll be between Henry’s Hi-Life and the under-construction Italian Heritage Museum.
“This will be the end of a chapter here,” Meduri said. “We won’t have live music right away at the new place. We want to be conscious of the residents and the other restaurants that are our neighbors there. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have musical events sometimes, and most people don’t remember that we didn’t have live music here for the first year, either.”
The Lil’ Easy Backyard Party runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will open with a tribute to Allen Toussaint with Eamonn Flynn, followed by the Aki Kumar band, “Guitars Kill Covid” with Mighty Mike Schermer, Gino Matteo and Volker Strifler, and closing with Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings. Tickets are available for $60 at poorhousebistro.com, with proceeds benefitting the Stroke Awareness Foundation. All guests must show proof of vaccination to attend.
After the patio closes Sept. 30, Meduri says that’ll turn into a staging area to prep the house for its move. He’s applied to be part of San Jose’s “Al Fresco” program to use the parking lot for dining space. The menu will also get shorter once the kitchen is no longer accessible and food prep moves to a nearby ghost kitchen. But he hopes that people looking for the classic “Poor House” experience with jambalaya, beignets and great blues music find their way over in the next couple of weeks.
RPM BAND ANNIVERSARY SHOW: The RPM Band, a San Jose favorite that got its start in 1981, originally had hoped for a 40th anniversary event in February. But COVID-19 got in the way, so the erstwhile garage band settled for the next best thing: A farewell to summer show at Santana Row on Sept. 17.
Steve Block, who formed the band with Willow Glen High classmates, says they’ll play some original tunes as well as songs they haven’t played in a few decades while sharing some stories about the band’s heyday. There will also be plenty of dance music. The party starts at 5:30 p.m. and runs until 9.
“We’ll be spending the first two sets playing some original tunes as well as songs we haven’t played in several decades all while telling stories about the band’s history,” Block said.” We’ll finish the night with a third set of fun music that will be sure to fill the dance floor.”
LEAVING SV@HOME: Led by Kelly Snider and Janikke Klem, the board of SV@Home hosted a “no crying allowed” farewell in Willow Glen for Leslye Corsiglia, who has stepped down after six years as the nonprofit housing advocacy group’s founding executive director. Corsiglia started working on housing issues while she was a student at UC-Davis and went onto a 24-year career with the City of San Jose, including 14 years as director of housing.
Corsiglia quickly points out that while she’s stepping down, she’s not retiring and has already started work as a consultant on affordable housing issues. But she says the free time afforded her by not leading an organization will allow her to pursue other passions, including sports.