101 South: San Jose, Hotel Valencia

update/p.194
Hotel Valencia .  

Ultra-hip Vbar sports metal-bead doorway curtains and is the place to be each evening when it serves up a Red Hot Mama (Bacardi silver, cranberry juice, club soda) that is especially delicious with salmon and caviar on corn blinis.  Cielo Wine Bar (On 7th floor.  M-Sat 5:30pm-9:30pm.) faces west for a great view of the Santa Cruz Mountains at sunset; cocktails, wine, and light food service are available.   Citrus restaurant (B-L-D daily.) serves creative tapas that include Vietnamese-style caramel ribs and pulled pork sliders, and grassfed beef from Uraguay makes for a super-tasty main course of dry-aged rib-eye that only gets better with Absinthe sauce and a topping of onion rings.  Sweet consclusions come from the in-house pastry chef in the form of delicious signature beer-battered donut balls with dipping sauces.  

image c2012 Carole Terwilliger Meyers