We're leaving afterworks
If we have learned anything with The Social Network, The Scholars or Silicon Valley, it is that in the San Francisco Bay area it is normal to work a lot. We've also seen that the average office worker is often actually a techie who wears sneakers and a sweatshirt to work. His office usually consists of either a gigantic compound with a soccer field, free restaurants and the possibility of taking a nap in the afternoon or in the typical business incubator full of start-ups whose mission is to change the world.
At the end of a working day, where the schedule can be set by the worker himself, there is no lack of options to go out for a drink. These are the afterworks of Silicon Valley.
IN THE CITY
Arnau Tibau , an engineer from Barcelona at one of the _start-ups in Silicon Valley and an adopted Californian for more than four years, has two very clear recommendations regarding places to go for a drink in San Francisco with co-workers: Mission Bowling Club and Southern Pacific Brewing.
Good craft beers
The first is the perfect place to order a gimlet with green tea syrup, rent some shoes and go bowling . In the second you have to ask for a craft beer of indigenous production. Both are in the trendy San Francisco neighborhood par excellence, Mission , and in both the same informal uniform prevails as in the rest of the area. Although Arnau explains to us that there is an essential complement among tech workers: “If you are in a well-listed company (on the stock market) you have to wear the logo (laughs). If not, the more unnoticed you go, the better.”
Arnau also recommends Smuggler's Cove in the equally very hip Hayes Valley. “ It is a kind of den decorated as if it were a pirate refuge . And the cocktails are great”, he tells us. And it is that in his menu they have a selection of more than 400 types of rum and at least four types of daiquiris.
For those who are more about beer than rum, Biergarten , just a few blocks away, is a beer garden in the most Bavarian tradition . The perfect place to accompany the beer with a bratwurst and roast potatoes with curry. The hoodie thing here is more of a must than anywhere else because nights on the town can get decidedly chilly.
A bowling?
IN THE VALLEY
To get lost in the heart of Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, we have the help of Eduardo, a man from San Sebastian and a scientist at Stanford who has lived in the area for almost three years. His first recommendation is Wine Room, in Palo Alto. “They have sofas, they have a lot of wine. People catch something and chat for a while.” The selection is wide enough to include Italian, German, French, Galician wines... and especially Californian , Sure.
To have a beer and soak up the atmosphere of a typical American sports bar with televisions, draft beer and not necessarily healthy food, Eduardo recommends The Old Pro, also in Palo Alto. It's so typically Yankee that they even have a mechanical bull for the most daring.
Rose and Crown is the place to go to try and keep an eye on celebrities in the tech industry. “The atmosphere is of an English pub and they have a good selection of beers. The site is a bit dirty but there are usually business people who sign pretty big contracts or famous people from the tech world”, explains Eduardo.
Delicious California food
Dirt seems to be the common ingredient between Rose and Crown and Antonio's Nut House, another of the more or less well-known meeting places for techie industry workers (Mark Zuckerberg among them). “ They give free peanuts and the shells are everywhere ”, says Eduardo, who highlights the billiards in this place. His other suggestion is Dutch Goose, in Menlo Park. “It's more venture capitalist type people. It is one more area for investors . It's a classic, quite old and quite dirty too."
The only place we've found where unwinding after work doesn't seem to include vips (Zuckerberg again) and dirt is ** Lure + Till , the bar and restaurant at The Epiphany hotel in Palo Alto.** Not for nothing at Lure + Till are dedicated to native Northern California cuisine and have a cocktail menu that requires a smartphone with quick access to the dictionary and Wikipedia to interpret.
ON BOTH SITES
While there's no shortage of options to wind down with a little booze and chat after work, whether in San Francisco or just outside, this isn't actually the most typically Californian activity to end the day. Eduardo tells us that he doesn't go out that much either, especially during the week. . "I'm one of those who go to the gym," he tells us between laughs.
And it is that, if there is something more intrinsically Californian than comfortable clothes and good humor, it is seeking the perfect balance between body and mind and basically giving in to sports. Arnau agrees and says that here people favor physical exercise over going to drink. "Yes, sometimes you go out for a drink with your co-workers, but it's not like in England."
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cocktails everywhere