A Saturday with Mr. Pickle!

Our Saturday in San Jose started off unplanned. As everyone started waking up, watching football and getting some coffee into our system the unplanned day turned into a planned day 🙂

Lunch

I didn’t care what we did all day as long as I was able to get a sandwich from Mr. Pickle’s. He’s such a hip pickle, seriously, check out his website to watch him dance:

He also makes a pretty mean sandwich!

I had a ham, turkey, provolone sandwich on sourdough. I also ordered it with “everything” which includes mayo, mustard, garlic sauce, lettuce, pickles, peppers and onions.

Yum! I wish Mr. Pickles was available in Chicago!

After we relaxed and saw an exhibit (which I will blog about later) we headed out for drinks at a downtown hotel.

Me and my beautiful sister:

I ordered a flirtini which was very strong but still tasted good!

Downtown San Jose was jamin’ with tons of energy. In addition to the Christmas festival the city also had a carnival going on. I didn’t ride any rides but instead walked around and snapped some photos:

Dinner

I was excited for the dinner reservations we made at Valeriano’s. Valeriano’s is an Italian Restaurant that appeared to be very authentic. It reminded me of a place Tony Soprano might be seen, eating in a corner 😉

I started with a glass of champagne x2:

For the table we ordered the Grilled Vegetable Platter. The platter included marinated and grilled artichokes, portobello, eggplant, asparagus, red peppers & zucchini, with chile remoulade, basil pesto & crostini.

I had some of the asparagus, peppers and zucchini. Don’t you just love the plates.

When I saw the Housemade Gnocchi and Gorgonzola Cream with Aged Balsamic Reduction, I knew it would be mine!

Unfortunately, the flavor was very bland 🙁 I like my gnocchi with flavor! Wish I would have ordered the steak. I was able to try the steak my sister ordered and it was very good.