I think this is the third year that you get to wake up to one of my columns from your tryptophan-induced coma (it is obligatory to use that line every year) and reach for your coffee in a daze.
I feel like I’m already in a daze recently with the elections, attending meetings for great things to come and celebrating people and accomplishments. In that daze, I swing back and forth between a dream and a nightmare; but I think it’s very much a net positive.
Sometimes I feel like I’m in a dream when I think about how the Granada Theater was saved and is being transformed. Honestly, I never thought there was even the slimmest chance it would ever open for business again. Not only is it going to be open, but soon it will be so cool that it sends the accomplishment needle off the dial.
It will have terraced dinner seating around a stage, like you see in those old movies where someone like Benny Goodman’s big band is playing and everybody’s dancing and enjoying fancy dining and drinks.
All this in our old theater that had succumbed to the smell of mold and tobacco smoke and probably not the best place to be in an earthquake.
Newly renovated, the smell of food and wine has replaced the mold and smoke and I’d rather be there than in one of my home’s doorways during a major temblor.
Many of us had dreamed of a boutique hotel downtown. “Long shot,” we mused. Now even that dream comes true.
We will have a new three-story hotel with lots of retail space. But get this—the building comes pre-loaded with shops! The owner/developer will base his wedding planning business there with supporting shops like a florist, as well as places to get your wine and dinner. Many of the key ingredients in these shops will come from packages with “Leal” on the label.
Frank Leal’s constellation of symbiotic businesses make the theater and boutique hotel feasible, where other developers crunched numbers and walked away shaking their heads.
I fully realize that this is not a dream and this is all happening. Two things never dreamed possible became reality; not only will I see them in my lifetime but I will see them soon.
Not only am I not dreaming, but I also don’t have to wait for the next nugget. Prova, the new restaurant headed up by Chef Sal Calisi (of Odeum), should be open as you read this.
For those familiar with Chef Calisi’s work at Odeum, Prova—located on Monterey Road where Slim’s used to be—will represent a journey down a slightly different path but with no change in creativity or quality at the destination.
The food will be of the small plate variety with interesting items from around the world, with unique beers and wines with craft cocktails the house specialty. Like so many other fine restaurants, most of what comes out of the kitchen will not be liberated from a package but made right there.
So wake up now and go out and do some shopping and more dining where we live.
Please shop and dine locally, and do it often.
John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.
