San Francisco Financial District: quiet place for a phone screen

February 25, 2010 8:24 AM

San Francisco Financial District: quiet place for a phone screen

I need to find a quiet place somewhere near the Financial District in San Francisco to do a phone screen/job interview. I need no other amenities than not a lot of noise, cell phone reception, and preferably somewhere inside. If it matters, it will probably run for about an hour.

Can anyone recommend a good place to do this?

posted by anonymous to work & money (10 answers total)

There are many parts of Metreon that seem deserted during the day, including the food court area if it's not lunch time.
posted by jasper411 at 8:42 AM on February 25, 2010

The Metreon isn't really in the Financial District, thought it might be close enough for the OP's purposes.

Depending on the time of day, somewhere that sells breakfast & lunch but stays open all day might be a good place; lots of places are very quiet until 11am or so. There's a San Francisco Soup Company at 1 California Street with an upstairs that is very quiet all morning - you could buy a coffee or oatmeal and sit their undisturbed for an hour. No idea about cellphone signal, I'd check in advance. It would probably also be fairly quiet after 2pm or so.

If you're okay with outside, and it's NOT during the lunch hour or close to it, the upper floor of the Crocker Galleria might work. There are lots of chairs upstairs by all the food places, and it's relatively quiet in the mornings and later afternoon.
posted by insectosaurus at 8:59 AM on February 25, 2010

Go and scout few of high-end hotel lobbies before hand if you can. Nobody will bother you if you dress half-decent as they are used to people conducting business on cellphones and just ignoring everyone else. Done this myself in the past.
posted by zeikka at 9:50 AM on February 25, 2010

Also the glass atrium at 2nd/Mission.
posted by rhizome at 9:51 AM on February 25, 2010

I liked to make all my personal calls while out and about, so I have some idea of where you might want to go.

There are tons of quiet spaces all over the Embarcadero Hyatt, and the Four Seasons has quite a few as well. There are some nooks and crannies at the Sheraton, but it can get busy. The Omni has a couple of places to hide, but might be busy on some days. The Mandarin doesn't have much of a lobby, but it may be usable for your purposes.

Upstairs at the Boudin on Market is a decent place to make a phone call if it's not the lunch hour, but it's a total zoo come lunch. The Holding Company at Embacadero 2 is usually pretty low key, although you occasionally run the risk of getting a table next to enthusiastic sports fans if there's a game on the TVs.

Outdoors along Leidesdorff between, say, Pine and Clay has no traffic and a bunch of nooks and crannies you can duck into to make a call, but it's outdoors.

There's an actual phone booth in the lobby of that building with the Napa Ranch on California & Montgomery, but cell reception isn't always perfect there.

The Fidelity at Market & Montgomery used to have some semiprivate spaces for people to do their business in, but I don't know if they've still got them.

There used to be phone booths in my old building at 455 Market, at First Street, but they remodeled the lobby since I've been in there. I'm not sure if the booths are still there.

I'd avoid the Crocker, it's super echoey in there and all it takes is one screaming baby or other noise source to render the whole place unusable.
posted by majick at 10:04 AM on February 25, 2010

On the corner of Sansome and California is the Union Bank of California. If you go into the building next to it, you can actually access the roof which has a nice landscaped area. It's almost always empty, none of the sounds really carry up and it gets good cell reception. I've found it to be a great space for private phone calls.

If you just ask someone in the building, security/etc, they can point you in the right direction.
posted by phelixshu at 10:58 AM on February 25, 2010

I would check out the open spaces near you. You'll probably want to actually go and make sure you get reception as it varies wildly downtown.
posted by grapesaresour at 12:57 PM on February 25, 2010

Here's a similar run-down to what grapesaresour offered up:

Secrets of San Francisco
A guide to our city's privately owned public open spaces

Many are within walking distance, or situated inside FiDi.
posted by cior at 3:33 PM on February 25, 2010

Here's a more informative map and follow-up to the above report.
posted by cior at 3:37 PM on February 25, 2010

I'd find a land line if you're on AT&T. Serious call droppage due to all the iPhones.
posted by salvia at 11:19 PM on February 25, 2010