8 ms·

Ask HN: What do geeks in Palo Alto do on weekend nights?

65 points by vishaldpatel 16y ago

How do you (or do you) socialize? What do _most_ do? Yes I realize that geeks are normal people too. But lets not kid ourselves... they aren't.

garply 16y ago
Code. Sometimes under the influence.
nspiegelberg 16y ago
Despite the facade of University Avenue, Palo Alto is a pretty tame suburban atmosphere. I tend to drive or Caltrain out to San Fran if I want to do something on the weekend. Then again, if you have someone to hang with, all these awesome Open Space Preserves makes for great hiking/biking. My favorite is Astradero just because its a 5 min drive from my house.
neilk 16y ago
Beats me. I had to leave the South Bay because it was driving me insane. I worked on an acquired events-related startup, and when we lived in the South Bay, none of us went to any events. Although SF is tantalizingly close, it is always too much of a hassle when you factor in transportation or parking.
- rue 16y ago
  No specific knowledge of this area yet, but in a similar situation elsewhere I/we just grabbed a hotel room in the city for a night or two.
jacoblyles 16y ago
Go to tech parties where you stand around and drink with the same people you code with during the week.
daniel_levine 16y ago
Go to the city. Go out in Palo Alto. Work. Play board games with friends.
- mise 16y ago
  What's it like going out in Palo Alto?
  - _delirium 16y ago
    It depends on what you mean by going out. There isn't a lot of stuff, and sparse offerings of typical "nightlife" type destinations (clubbing, live music), but there are a decent number of bars if you're into sitting around drinking beer and chatting. Rose & Crown has a good craft-beer selection. Also, a bunch of random stuff happens at Stanford now and then, if you're into things like http://slork.stanford.edu/ http://slork.stanford.edu/
    - ssutch 16y ago
      2nded on the rose and crown.
sep 16y ago
I bet that in some startups, the following answer applies: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!"
acabal 16y ago
Nothing. That's why I left. Some folks like the SF nightlife scene but I wasn't a big fan of that either. Too many hipsters. Plus it's impossible at nights because of the lack of transport back to the south bay.
- vishaldpatel 16y ago
  Okay, so where are you now and what do you do on weekend nights?
  - acabal 16y ago
    I travel the world. Three months ago I was in Brussels, for the last two months I've been in Munich, now I'm in London, then I go to Chicago for Christmas with the family. Munich is one of my favorite cities and the atmosphere there soundly beats anything I've found in the states. London is, well, London--there's a reason it's been one of the cultural capitals of the western world for as long as it has been. That's one of the perks of being a young, single web entrepreneur living in a time of global English, wifi, and cheap airfare--I can live and work wherever I want :) Edit: for a map of some places I've been, check out my company's web site: http://turkeysandwichindustries.com http://turkeysandwichindustries.com
    - wilhelm 16y ago
      I'm currently staying two months in Tokyo to visit friends and work on my own software startup, and I think traveling around like like you do would be my ideal lifestyle. (c: May I ask how you're organizing the practicalities of accomodation and food, and how much you're spending compared to at home?
      - charlesdm 16y ago
        Interested in this as well. I'd like to do some travelling over the next year, and perhaps find a city where I'd like to stay a bit longer. How do you find a place to stay? Do you rent an apt for a set time, like a month and then book something else somewhere else at the end of your stay? What are your expenses on a monthly basis +-?
nostrademons 16y ago
Go play Starcraft or Rock Band with a bunch of friends from work.
jarin 16y ago
I'm glad you posted this, as I'm considering working at a startup in Palo Alto. If I end up moving up there, I can say with near-certainty that at least one geek in Palo Alto will be out drinking beers on weekend nights!
rflrob 16y ago
I'm a big fan of Friday Night Waltz (http://www.fridaynightwaltz.com/ http://www.fridaynightwaltz.com/), which is cheap, fun, social, and darn good exercise too.
- iloveyouocean 16y ago
  And for those people who feel their dancing skills are inadequate, one of the best dance instructors in the country (Richard Powers) gives two hours of introductory lessons before the dance. The atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming.
rcoder 16y ago
I lived in Palo Alto for a couple of years, and basically just didn't go out (weekend or otherwise) after 8pm unless one of my friends with a car wanted to drive to San Francisco for the night. Caltrain is fine during the day on weekends (e.g., for shopping and dinner outings) but shuts down far too early to really do bars/clubs/concerts in the city and still get home. (BART has similar issues, if you're trying to get in and out of east bay.) The upside is that the city is only 40 minutes away; the downside is that SF tends to be kind of a black hole for culture, sucking everything cool into the city limits and leaving the south bay with all the strip malls, supermarkets, and car dealerships. If you're going to school or working a startup, it can be survivable. There are enough coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants around downtown Palo Alto to let you pass a lazy Sunday afternoon pleasantly enough, and the occasional trip to SF by car (or by train, with a hotel stay in the middle) helps to alleviate the boredom.
- jaredsohn 16y ago
  >(BART has similar issues, if you're trying to get in and out of east bay.) Fortunately, the AC Transit 8xx bus lines run from the Transbay Terminal in the city along East Bay BART routes after BART shuts down and leave every hour (and every half hour for awhile on weekend nights.) There are SamTrans buses that take you between the city and Palo Alto after Caltrain shuts down but they leave every hour and take a couple of hours for the trip.
hunterjrj 16y ago
Reading these posts it seems to me that there is a huge opportunity for an entertainment-oriented entrepreneur in Palo Alto. For Heavens sake, someone open up a bar for these guys and don't charge a cover for women!
- dtrizzle 16y ago
  Assuming you do charge a cover for men, this is a really good way to get sued. See Angelucci v. Century Supper Club, 158 P.3d 718 (CA 2007) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_night#California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_night#California
  - leif 16y ago
    "Ladies' nights in Illinois have been upheld under the anti-discrimination provision of the Dram Shop Act.[11] The court determined that the discount was intended to encourage women to attend the bar in greater numbers, rather than to discourage attendance by males." Illinois gets it. California doesn't. Way to be the state with the stick up your butt again, CA.
    - ostso 16y ago
      > The court determined that the discount was intended to encourage women to attend the bar in greater numbers, rather than to discourage attendance by males. Regardless of whether it should be legal or not, "positive discrimination" is still discrimination.
      - ericd 16y ago
        Price discrimination is a very important part of marketing. It's everywhere, necessary, and not evil.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
- 16y ago
wicknicks 16y ago
Three are more restaurants in Palo Alto/Mountain View than you can imagine. I had a very good time trying different ones out (sometimes with people from work).
- updog 16y ago
  lol
timcederman 16y ago
On weekends on the peninsula there is still plenty to do. Catch up with folks at their houses, go to bars/restaurants like Town and The Refuge. Go to Rooster T Feathers in Mountain View for a comedy show. Pampas in downtown Palo Alto has a great Friday night happy hour. Other times I'll drive up to the city. When I lived in Mountain View I used to occasionally get a hotel room in the financial district - $70 on Priceline for a 4* hotel. Now I'm in San Carlos it's only a 20 minute drive to SOMA which is great, or otherwise 40 min by train.
neworbit 16y ago
Work out. Network if there's the right events. Fairly regularly play games of one sort or another (poker night, RPGs, and lately a reasonable amount of Starcraft 2). Watch really dumb movies and have a couple drinks. I like to take a day off a week and just do creative things; lately that's been composing, remixing, and nanowrimo sorts of nonsense.
dotBen 16y ago
Here's a different perspective to show the grass isn't greener on the other-side: I've lived in San Francisco for 4.5yrs and sometimes I feel lost for interesting places to hang out in the evenings here in The City. I'm not really interested in the pretentious hipster scene bars of Mission, I don't like the LA-wannabe scene of Marina and most of SoMa's clubs cater for East Bay bridge and tunnel crowd (before you think I'm being snobby I find the East Bay crowd unfriendly to city living folks, and all of the violet situations I've witnessed in clubs/bars have been from East Bay types. We're not talking Berkeley types but the more 'heavier' Oakland/Freemont/Hayward scene). And everything closes at 2am (although granted, that's a CA-wide policy). I guess I say all of the above with the disclosure that I'm a native of London, a 24/7 city with more bars and clubs than you could visit in a year.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- variety 16y ago
  If you need NYC/London/LA/Moscow/Mexico City/etc -style megacity sense of scale and/or civilized drinking hours to stay sane then you'll never be happy in SF. But if you can deal with its boutique dimensions (and the cold), then the problem may simply be that you're hanging out in the wrong neighborhoods. The "real" SF resides pretty much in the Tenderloin - Nob Bill - Chinatown - City Lights triangle these days, I find. There are also pockets of civilization out in the "lost" neighborhoods: Cafe Du Mond; the Rite Spot; Amnesia on Valencia; and (yes) the Utah Bar, as well as a few others too cool to name here. But the main thing is that wherever you go, there you, umm, are. Ultimately you have to decide to be happy with your surroundings -- or decide to change them. I think in SF/Oakland/Alameda it's pretty easy to concentrate on the positives. The South Bay and the Peninsula are pretty much lost causes, though.
- juiceandjuice 16y ago
  A violet situation sounds like code for a homosexuals.
nicelios 16y ago
I see geeks at Rudy's Pub in downtown Palo Alto every time I'm there.
citizenkeys 16y ago
palo alto doesnt even have a good movie theater. you gotta drive to mountain view. mountain view has the movie theater, which is basically next to google. mountain view also castro street, with the red rock cafe, lots of good little restaurants, and some night life.
- ratsbane 16y ago
  Maybe not in the usual sense, but the Stanford Theater on University Ave is a really neat place. They show old movies, mostly from the 30s and 40s, every night. http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/ http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/
kelnos 16y ago
After wasting 6 years living in the peninsula and south bay, mainly because I was afraid of the commute (I still work in Santa Clara), I moved up to SF a couple months ago. Best decision I've made in recent memory. I'm lucky in that my work schedule is flexible, so I get to/from the office in 35-45 minutes. Much better than the 2-hour train/light rail commute would be. I agree with one of the other posters that the best places to hang out seem to be in and around the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, etc. I do enjoy the Mission as well, but that's a little farther for me, and I prefer to walk places when I can. SoMa is kinda eh, North Beach is a wasteland, Marina... not so much.
zackattack 16y ago
I grew up in Palo Alto. There's 3 options that come to mind: * Happy Donuts on El Camino, which is open 24/7 and often is filled with geeks coding at all hours. Lots of people are happy to talk and socialize / be engaged in conversation. * The downtown PA bar scene: Rose and Crown & Rudy's are probably the most geek-friendly. Old Pro is ok if you're also into sports. Blue Chalk & Nola can be good hangout spots but I wouldn't label either of them first choices. * California Avenue has Antonio's Nut House. Lots of notable geeks can be seen there. I heard [redacted] was mobbed the last time he went in. Going to San Francisco sucks unless you already know where you can sleep. I recommend making friends with some local residents and crashing with them after going out (with them). I actually met a dude on HN and we've been out partying in SF a few times; I crashed on his couch a couple times and it's been real sweet. I also recommend Hacker Dojo, which is open late if you're a member, or 'til 10 if you're a guest, and they've been having some nighttime weekend talks recently. Finally, I recently moved back to the area after growing up here, and would like to make some more friends, especially tech & business minded people. Contact information is in my profile. I would love to buy you the drink of your choice at any of the above-mentioned venues and hear about what you're working on.
- internet_meme 16y ago
  Blue Chalk is closed. =(
internet_meme 16y ago
Antonio's Nut House on Cal Ave with friends.
wooster 16y ago
* House parties - at peak, I was throwing a house party once a month. * Hacker Dojo - almost always something interesting going on. Highly recommended. * Bars - Rose & Crown or the Nut House. * Watch a limited release film at Aquarius or CineArts. * A lazy afternoon drinking wine at Vino Locale followed by dinner out at a nice restaurant. * Board games, poker, or whatever with friends. * Chill out by the pool at a friend's apartment complex. etc.
dzlobin 16y ago
This is something that has bugging me for some time; why is there such a lack of nightlife in Palo Alto? Does anyone know what the latest allowed time for a bar to be open? Anyone interested in opening a hacker friendly bar that's open late and has coffee/wifi during the day? Edit: I'm actually quite serious. I have restaurant experience and it sure as shit seems like its in need. Anyone at all interested should drop me a line!
- ardit33 16y ago
  No girls. A bar full of dudes gets boring really fast. You go once, twice, then you don't go there anymore. Better just stay home and code and drink a beer. I meet my friends at coffee places (Red Rock in MV., or Coupa Cafe in PA).
  - dzlobin 16y ago
    a fair point, but where the hell do the ~6,500 female stanford students go every night/weekend?
juiceandjuice 16y ago
I just moved here in October and I don't really know anyone. The more I'm here the more I wish I lived in SF. The ridiculous thing is that it takes me 25 minutes to get to work from where I live (the Willows in Menlo Park) to SLAC because the intracity traffic is so SLOW. Basically though, I think the bar scene here blows. It's cool that a lot of the food places are open late on University though. That being said, while I think long commutes generally suck the life out of people, I'm seriously thinking about moving to Noe Valley or the Mission and commuting on the 280. Anyways, I'm up for doing stuff if anybody here wants to. I still don't really know anyone in this area.
- gnosis 16y ago
  25 minutes is not a long commute. I used to do 2 hour commutes, and knew people whose commutes were even longer.
  - juiceandjuice 16y ago
    Well, 25 minutes isn't bad. The thing that sucks is that it's 25 minutes over 5 miles. If I'm going to be in my car for half an hour and living in a place I don't really like, I might as well commute a bit longer and live in a place I like better. The fact that live music is pretty much non-existant in this area is sort of a bummer as well.
harlowja 16y ago
Join a club, go indoor rock climbing (see planet granite), do running, biking, find something you are interested in @ meetup.com and go to there events.
citizenkeys 16y ago
I got another good tip: Paul Graham's essay on "Where to See Silicon Valley" is a valuable primer for anyone not familiar with the area. A must-read for anyone that wants to "get" the area: http://www.paulgraham.com/seesv.html http://www.paulgraham.com/seesv.html The two tips I personally found the most useful: * Red Rock is a great place to meet other people working on start-ups. * Taking the 280 between Silicon Valley and San Francisco is infinitely more scenic than taking the 101. Plus, you can avoid the 101's frequent airport traffic.
billmcneale 16y ago
If you're single, you have flexible hours at your work and you want to meet girls, move to San Francisco. Period. Once you get married and have kid, move to the Peninsula and wonder how anyone could ever enjoy living in the City. All the single girls are either in SF or work for Google, so you know what to do.
tstyle 16y ago
I lived and worked on University ave for 2.5 years. Every so often we'd walk over to Nolas or Old pro, realize that it's still crowded and crappy, and go back to the office and code.
epo 16y ago
What do most geeks do? Most probably don't socialize at all.

65 points by vishaldpatel 16y ago

How do you (or do you) socialize? What do _most_ do? Yes I realize that geeks are normal people too. But lets not kid ourselves... they aren't.

garply 16y ago

Code. Sometimes under the influence.

nspiegelberg 16y ago

Despite the facade of University Avenue, Palo Alto is a pretty tame suburban atmosphere. I tend to drive or Caltrain out to San Fran if I want to do something on the weekend. Then again, if you have someone to hang with, all these awesome Open Space Preserves makes for great hiking/biking. My favorite is Astradero just because its a 5 min drive from my house.

neilk 16y ago

Beats me. I had to leave the South Bay because it was driving me insane. I worked on an acquired events-related startup, and when we lived in the South Bay, none of us went to any events. Although SF is tantalizingly close, it is always too much of a hassle when you factor in transportation or parking.

rue 16y ago
No specific knowledge of this area yet, but in a similar situation elsewhere I/we just grabbed a hotel room in the city for a night or two.

jacoblyles 16y ago

Go to tech parties where you stand around and drink with the same people you code with during the week.

daniel_levine 16y ago

Go to the city. Go out in Palo Alto. Work. Play board games with friends.

mise 16y ago
What's it like going out in Palo Alto?
- _delirium 16y ago
  It depends on what you mean by going out. There isn't a lot of stuff, and sparse offerings of typical "nightlife" type destinations (clubbing, live music), but there are a decent number of bars if you're into sitting around drinking beer and chatting. Rose & Crown has a good craft-beer selection. Also, a bunch of random stuff happens at Stanford now and then, if you're into things like http://slork.stanford.edu/ http://slork.stanford.edu/
  - ssutch 16y ago
    2nded on the rose and crown.

sep 16y ago

I bet that in some startups, the following answer applies: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!"

acabal 16y ago

Nothing. That's why I left. Some folks like the SF nightlife scene but I wasn't a big fan of that either. Too many hipsters. Plus it's impossible at nights because of the lack of transport back to the south bay.

vishaldpatel 16y ago
Okay, so where are you now and what do you do on weekend nights?
- acabal 16y ago
  I travel the world. Three months ago I was in Brussels, for the last two months I've been in Munich, now I'm in London, then I go to Chicago for Christmas with the family. Munich is one of my favorite cities and the atmosphere there soundly beats anything I've found in the states. London is, well, London--there's a reason it's been one of the cultural capitals of the western world for as long as it has been. That's one of the perks of being a young, single web entrepreneur living in a time of global English, wifi, and cheap airfare--I can live and work wherever I want :) Edit: for a map of some places I've been, check out my company's web site: http://turkeysandwichindustries.com http://turkeysandwichindustries.com
  - wilhelm 16y ago
    I'm currently staying two months in Tokyo to visit friends and work on my own software startup, and I think traveling around like like you do would be my ideal lifestyle. (c: May I ask how you're organizing the practicalities of accomodation and food, and how much you're spending compared to at home?
    - charlesdm 16y ago
      Interested in this as well. I'd like to do some travelling over the next year, and perhaps find a city where I'd like to stay a bit longer. How do you find a place to stay? Do you rent an apt for a set time, like a month and then book something else somewhere else at the end of your stay? What are your expenses on a monthly basis +-?

nostrademons 16y ago

Go play Starcraft or Rock Band with a bunch of friends from work.

jarin 16y ago

I'm glad you posted this, as I'm considering working at a startup in Palo Alto. If I end up moving up there, I can say with near-certainty that at least one geek in Palo Alto will be out drinking beers on weekend nights!

rflrob 16y ago

I'm a big fan of Friday Night Waltz (http://www.fridaynightwaltz.com/ http://www.fridaynightwaltz.com/), which is cheap, fun, social, and darn good exercise too.

iloveyouocean 16y ago
And for those people who feel their dancing skills are inadequate, one of the best dance instructors in the country (Richard Powers) gives two hours of introductory lessons before the dance. The atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming.

rcoder 16y ago

I lived in Palo Alto for a couple of years, and basically just didn't go out (weekend or otherwise) after 8pm unless one of my friends with a car wanted to drive to San Francisco for the night. Caltrain is fine during the day on weekends (e.g., for shopping and dinner outings) but shuts down far too early to really do bars/clubs/concerts in the city and still get home. (BART has similar issues, if you're trying to get in and out of east bay.) The upside is that the city is only 40 minutes away; the downside is that SF tends to be kind of a black hole for culture, sucking everything cool into the city limits and leaving the south bay with all the strip malls, supermarkets, and car dealerships. If you're going to school or working a startup, it can be survivable. There are enough coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants around downtown Palo Alto to let you pass a lazy Sunday afternoon pleasantly enough, and the occasional trip to SF by car (or by train, with a hotel stay in the middle) helps to alleviate the boredom.

jaredsohn 16y ago
>(BART has similar issues, if you're trying to get in and out of east bay.) Fortunately, the AC Transit 8xx bus lines run from the Transbay Terminal in the city along East Bay BART routes after BART shuts down and leave every hour (and every half hour for awhile on weekend nights.) There are SamTrans buses that take you between the city and Palo Alto after Caltrain shuts down but they leave every hour and take a couple of hours for the trip.

hunterjrj 16y ago

Reading these posts it seems to me that there is a huge opportunity for an entertainment-oriented entrepreneur in Palo Alto. For Heavens sake, someone open up a bar for these guys and don't charge a cover for women!

dtrizzle 16y ago
Assuming you do charge a cover for men, this is a really good way to get sued. See Angelucci v. Century Supper Club, 158 P.3d 718 (CA 2007) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_night#California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_night#California
- leif 16y ago
  "Ladies' nights in Illinois have been upheld under the anti-discrimination provision of the Dram Shop Act.[11] The court determined that the discount was intended to encourage women to attend the bar in greater numbers, rather than to discourage attendance by males." Illinois gets it. California doesn't. Way to be the state with the stick up your butt again, CA.
  - ostso 16y ago
    > The court determined that the discount was intended to encourage women to attend the bar in greater numbers, rather than to discourage attendance by males. Regardless of whether it should be legal or not, "positive discrimination" is still discrimination.
    - ericd 16y ago
      Price discrimination is a very important part of marketing. It's everywhere, necessary, and not evil.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
16y ago

wicknicks 16y ago

Three are more restaurants in Palo Alto/Mountain View than you can imagine. I had a very good time trying different ones out (sometimes with people from work).

updog 16y ago
lol

timcederman 16y ago

On weekends on the peninsula there is still plenty to do. Catch up with folks at their houses, go to bars/restaurants like Town and The Refuge. Go to Rooster T Feathers in Mountain View for a comedy show. Pampas in downtown Palo Alto has a great Friday night happy hour. Other times I'll drive up to the city. When I lived in Mountain View I used to occasionally get a hotel room in the financial district - $70 on Priceline for a 4* hotel. Now I'm in San Carlos it's only a 20 minute drive to SOMA which is great, or otherwise 40 min by train.

neworbit 16y ago

Work out. Network if there's the right events. Fairly regularly play games of one sort or another (poker night, RPGs, and lately a reasonable amount of Starcraft 2). Watch really dumb movies and have a couple drinks. I like to take a day off a week and just do creative things; lately that's been composing, remixing, and nanowrimo sorts of nonsense.

dotBen 16y ago

Here's a different perspective to show the grass isn't greener on the other-side: I've lived in San Francisco for 4.5yrs and sometimes I feel lost for interesting places to hang out in the evenings here in The City. I'm not really interested in the pretentious hipster scene bars of Mission, I don't like the LA-wannabe scene of Marina and most of SoMa's clubs cater for East Bay bridge and tunnel crowd (before you think I'm being snobby I find the East Bay crowd unfriendly to city living folks, and all of the violet situations I've witnessed in clubs/bars have been from East Bay types. We're not talking Berkeley types but the more 'heavier' Oakland/Freemont/Hayward scene). And everything closes at 2am (although granted, that's a CA-wide policy). I guess I say all of the above with the disclosure that I'm a native of London, a 24/7 city with more bars and clubs than you could visit in a year.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
variety 16y ago
If you need NYC/London/LA/Moscow/Mexico City/etc -style megacity sense of scale and/or civilized drinking hours to stay sane then you'll never be happy in SF. But if you can deal with its boutique dimensions (and the cold), then the problem may simply be that you're hanging out in the wrong neighborhoods. The "real" SF resides pretty much in the Tenderloin - Nob Bill - Chinatown - City Lights triangle these days, I find. There are also pockets of civilization out in the "lost" neighborhoods: Cafe Du Mond; the Rite Spot; Amnesia on Valencia; and (yes) the Utah Bar, as well as a few others too cool to name here. But the main thing is that wherever you go, there you, umm, are. Ultimately you have to decide to be happy with your surroundings -- or decide to change them. I think in SF/Oakland/Alameda it's pretty easy to concentrate on the positives. The South Bay and the Peninsula are pretty much lost causes, though.
juiceandjuice 16y ago
A violet situation sounds like code for a homosexuals.

nicelios 16y ago

I see geeks at Rudy's Pub in downtown Palo Alto every time I'm there.

citizenkeys 16y ago

palo alto doesnt even have a good movie theater. you gotta drive to mountain view. mountain view has the movie theater, which is basically next to google. mountain view also castro street, with the red rock cafe, lots of good little restaurants, and some night life.

ratsbane 16y ago
Maybe not in the usual sense, but the Stanford Theater on University Ave is a really neat place. They show old movies, mostly from the 30s and 40s, every night. http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/ http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/

kelnos 16y ago

After wasting 6 years living in the peninsula and south bay, mainly because I was afraid of the commute (I still work in Santa Clara), I moved up to SF a couple months ago. Best decision I've made in recent memory. I'm lucky in that my work schedule is flexible, so I get to/from the office in 35-45 minutes. Much better than the 2-hour train/light rail commute would be. I agree with one of the other posters that the best places to hang out seem to be in and around the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, etc. I do enjoy the Mission as well, but that's a little farther for me, and I prefer to walk places when I can. SoMa is kinda eh, North Beach is a wasteland, Marina... not so much.

zackattack 16y ago

I grew up in Palo Alto. There's 3 options that come to mind: * Happy Donuts on El Camino, which is open 24/7 and often is filled with geeks coding at all hours. Lots of people are happy to talk and socialize / be engaged in conversation. * The downtown PA bar scene: Rose and Crown & Rudy's are probably the most geek-friendly. Old Pro is ok if you're also into sports. Blue Chalk & Nola can be good hangout spots but I wouldn't label either of them first choices. * California Avenue has Antonio's Nut House. Lots of notable geeks can be seen there. I heard [redacted] was mobbed the last time he went in. Going to San Francisco sucks unless you already know where you can sleep. I recommend making friends with some local residents and crashing with them after going out (with them). I actually met a dude on HN and we've been out partying in SF a few times; I crashed on his couch a couple times and it's been real sweet. I also recommend Hacker Dojo, which is open late if you're a member, or 'til 10 if you're a guest, and they've been having some nighttime weekend talks recently. Finally, I recently moved back to the area after growing up here, and would like to make some more friends, especially tech & business minded people. Contact information is in my profile. I would love to buy you the drink of your choice at any of the above-mentioned venues and hear about what you're working on.

internet_meme 16y ago
Blue Chalk is closed. =(

internet_meme 16y ago

Antonio's Nut House on Cal Ave with friends.

wooster 16y ago

* House parties - at peak, I was throwing a house party once a month. * Hacker Dojo - almost always something interesting going on. Highly recommended. * Bars - Rose & Crown or the Nut House. * Watch a limited release film at Aquarius or CineArts. * A lazy afternoon drinking wine at Vino Locale followed by dinner out at a nice restaurant. * Board games, poker, or whatever with friends. * Chill out by the pool at a friend's apartment complex. etc.

dzlobin 16y ago

This is something that has bugging me for some time; why is there such a lack of nightlife in Palo Alto? Does anyone know what the latest allowed time for a bar to be open? Anyone interested in opening a hacker friendly bar that's open late and has coffee/wifi during the day? Edit: I'm actually quite serious. I have restaurant experience and it sure as shit seems like its in need. Anyone at all interested should drop me a line!

ardit33 16y ago
No girls. A bar full of dudes gets boring really fast. You go once, twice, then you don't go there anymore. Better just stay home and code and drink a beer. I meet my friends at coffee places (Red Rock in MV., or Coupa Cafe in PA).
- dzlobin 16y ago
  a fair point, but where the hell do the ~6,500 female stanford students go every night/weekend?

juiceandjuice 16y ago

I just moved here in October and I don't really know anyone. The more I'm here the more I wish I lived in SF. The ridiculous thing is that it takes me 25 minutes to get to work from where I live (the Willows in Menlo Park) to SLAC because the intracity traffic is so SLOW. Basically though, I think the bar scene here blows. It's cool that a lot of the food places are open late on University though. That being said, while I think long commutes generally suck the life out of people, I'm seriously thinking about moving to Noe Valley or the Mission and commuting on the 280. Anyways, I'm up for doing stuff if anybody here wants to. I still don't really know anyone in this area.

gnosis 16y ago
25 minutes is not a long commute. I used to do 2 hour commutes, and knew people whose commutes were even longer.
- juiceandjuice 16y ago
  Well, 25 minutes isn't bad. The thing that sucks is that it's 25 minutes over 5 miles. If I'm going to be in my car for half an hour and living in a place I don't really like, I might as well commute a bit longer and live in a place I like better. The fact that live music is pretty much non-existant in this area is sort of a bummer as well.

harlowja 16y ago

Join a club, go indoor rock climbing (see planet granite), do running, biking, find something you are interested in @ meetup.com and go to there events.

citizenkeys 16y ago

I got another good tip: Paul Graham's essay on "Where to See Silicon Valley" is a valuable primer for anyone not familiar with the area. A must-read for anyone that wants to "get" the area: http://www.paulgraham.com/seesv.html http://www.paulgraham.com/seesv.html The two tips I personally found the most useful: * Red Rock is a great place to meet other people working on start-ups. * Taking the 280 between Silicon Valley and San Francisco is infinitely more scenic than taking the 101. Plus, you can avoid the 101's frequent airport traffic.

billmcneale 16y ago

If you're single, you have flexible hours at your work and you want to meet girls, move to San Francisco. Period. Once you get married and have kid, move to the Peninsula and wonder how anyone could ever enjoy living in the City. All the single girls are either in SF or work for Google, so you know what to do.

tstyle 16y ago

I lived and worked on University ave for 2.5 years. Every so often we'd walk over to Nolas or Old pro, realize that it's still crowded and crappy, and go back to the office and code.

epo 16y ago

What do most geeks do? Most probably don't socialize at all.