"After 69 years in downtown San Jose, the Rocca family is still running the show at Original Joe’s. Joe’s Special — ground beef with eggs and spinach — remains a staple on the menu, at this American-Italian stalwart where zhuzhed up burgers, sauteed chicken liver with mushrooms, seafood fettuccini, and a 27-ounce Kansas City N.Y. strip steak. The clubby, brick and wood-paneled front room gives way to a U-shaped back bar where friends meeting for after-work drinks join families tucking into heaping plates of pasta and meatballs." - Christina Marie Mueller