For some downtown San Jose bars, the right name says a lot

Let’s play a little game. Of these six business names — Bitterbuck, BYLT, CB2, Alter Ego, Mejuri and Courage, Anyone — can you tell which are downtown San Jose bars and which are shops at Santana Row?

Back at the dawn of time, bars sounded like bars. Some were super plain like Joe’s Lounge, Patty’s Inn and Jack’s (which is still serving drinks on Taylor Street), others a little fancier like Bini’s, Cinebar, the Tower Saloon, the Place and Manny’s Cellar. But with names like that, there was a high likelihood you’d walk in the door and find bottles on a shelf.

If your business was called O’Flaherty’s, Rosie McCann’s or Katie Bloom’s and you weren’t an Irish pub, you should expect to turn away a lot of confused, thirsty people. Don’t get me started on how excited I was to see Scotch & Soda opening at Santana Row only to discover it was a clothing store.

But these days, bars need more than a neon sign with a cocktail glass to grab customers’ attention.

Bitterbuck, which opened this month in downtown San Jose’s 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).

Owner Cache Bouren told me the name comes from “The Green Mile,” 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.

“I liked the alliteration and the masculine feel, along with the fact it doesn’t really mean anything, so we can definite it with delivery of our concept,” he said.

“Bitter” pairs well with the Italian liqueurs and coffee drinks, and the “buck” is reflected in the decor, which includes a mounted deer’s head with antlers (there are also a ton of stuffed white mice doing adorable things, which could also be a nod to “The Green Mile.”).

Bitterbuck isn’t the only recent addition to downtown’s 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, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.” Bill Murray’s Dr. Peter Venkman offers a bottle of booze — aka “liquid courage” — to his fellow Ghostbusters, asking “Courage, anyone?”

There’s also a winged tiger in the Courage, Anyone logo that has nothing to do with the Ghostbusters, as far as I know.

There are plenty of other interesting origins to discover if you go cocktailing in downtown San Jose.

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’s named after Robert Louis Stevenson’s 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’s 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.)

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.

“My 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,” he said. “It’s more than ‘Joe’s’ will ever bring, in my opinion.”

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’s Friends, a nonprofit created to continue her daughter’s mission to help ensure the welfare of animals.

Jeannessa Lurie, 24, was one of three people killed in a shooting, along with her roommate Tarrah Taylor and friend Max Ryan on Sept. 16, 2025.

“Our goal was to reclaim 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,” Jeanna Lurie said. “I feel like we’re really off to a great start and we’re going to do a lot of good.”

Lurie said some of the goals of Jeannessa’s 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.

You can find out more about their mission and how to get involved at www.jeannessasfriends.org.

INSPIRING LINEUP: The nonprofit Dress for Success — which aims to help women achieve economic independence (even providing professional attire — has a stellar group of honorees for its Oct. 22 fundraiser, Women Who Inspire. At the top of the list is 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.

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’s one guy in the bunch, too: Nicholas Adams, founder of public relations/marketing firm Ninico, is receiving the Male Ally Award.

The dinner is taking place at the San Jose Woman’s Club, naturally, and you can get more details at www.sjdress.org.

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’s Dennis Nahat on the costumes and scenery for “Blue Suede Shoes,” which became a hit show featuring dozens of Elvis Presley songs.

Fashion always moves forward, though. And you can see its future Oct. 2 at the Santa Clara University Catalá Club’s upcoming fashion show luncheon, “Women in Motion, Empowering the Next Generation” 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, Mélodie and Title Nine, and proceeds will benefit the club’s endowed scholarship fund for Santa Clara undergrads. You can reserve a spot at mysantaclara.scu.edu/Catala/MonthlyReg.