
Ask HN: Moving to Mountain View CA – Places to go to hang with fellow geeks? - mrburton
I&#x27;m looking to see where geeks hang out in mountain view? Coffee shops, co-working spaces, etc.<p>Suggestions?
======
ageitgey
Not to be flip, but literally anywhere. Mountain View is a pretty small place
with just one main street - Castro St. You'll see people coding on laptops at
every cafe and restaurant around there.

It's the same way in Palo Alto around University Ave and to a lesser extent,
Menlo Park around Santa Cruz Ave. Your biggest problem with be the inability
to escape the "tech world" since nearly everyone you meet will work in tech.

But if you want to meet up with someone to code or chat, the suggestions for
both RedRock Coffee (Mountain View) and Philz Coffee (Palo Alto) are great.

~~~
rmaus
How exactly _do_ you escape the tech world when you want? Just visiting SV for
a couple days was borderline oppressive to me! Everyone has an idea for an
app, nearly every bar or restaurant patron was discussing something technical.
How do you overcome the lack of professional diversity, or am I just
hypersensitive to it? Chicago is admittedly not all that diverse (we have
lawyers, accountants, consultants, or tech) but the jump from ~1 profession to
>1 profession results in a wildly different experience for me.

~~~
timr
Not to be flip, but you don't. You just finally get sick of it, and you move
away. Even niche interest groups in the bay area are dominated by people who
work in tech.

The problem of diversity in the tech industry will not be solved until the
industry is forced by its employees to relocate.

~~~
electricslpnsld
> Even niche interest groups in the bay area are dominated by people who work
> in tech.

I don't think this is true. In San Francisco 12% of the population is tech
workers, while the valley is closer to just 30%. I live in Oakland and outside
of work encounter almost no one that works in tech.

~~~
godot
I also agree, living in the east bay. In cities like Hayward, Union City, San
Leandro, Castro Valley, you will most likely find that most people you meet
locally don't work in tech. I can see the same for San Francisco, but chances
are people on HN tend to hang out in neighborhoods like SOMA where it's a lot
more tech, than neighborhoods like Sunset where it's not.

~~~
timr
While I agree that there are better and worse places in the bay area, they
mostly self-partition based on the pain of transportation to tech centers.
Sure, you can always choose a more painful commute to escape tech, but that's
implicit. You can commute from Fresno or Marin, too.

East bay neighborhoods that have "easy" access to SF/Facebook/Google are just
as clogged with tech people as anywhere else, modulo the pain of a daily BART
commute.

(Also, arguing about exact percentages isn't relevant. It doesn't matter if
it's 12% or 30%, if the group overlaps substantially in lifestyle and
interests. If I have to change my entire lifestyle to avoid being surrounded
by tech bros, I'd rather just move somewhere where I can go out and not be
surrounded.)

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taurath
People will say "literally anywhere", and its true that those are the places
that geeks hang out (they outnumber non-geeks by 5:1). But finding geeks that
are actually open to conversations is harder - there isn't really a place that
people hang out where they're open to new people except bars or interest
meetups.

~~~
petercooper
I've not yet been there despite donating to them but I assumed somewhere like
[https://hackerdojo.com/](https://hackerdojo.com/) could fit the bill.

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jedberg
You'll see a lot of people say "Red Rock", and there is a reason why. It's
very friendly to tech meetings. They have an upstairs with a bunch of power
and wifi, and they don't seem to kick anyone out even if they stay for hours.

I've attended multiple meetings there as both a founder and investor. It's
kinda funny actually how much of a default meeting place it is.

Also the office for 500 startups is right down the street, so you'll see a
bunch of the 500 startups people roaming around.

~~~
khazhoux
Their espresso is ridiculously bitter. You've been warned.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
I mean, it's espresso. It's supposed to be bitter.

~~~
khazhoux
A better term would be _tart._ It's extremely acidic.

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sureaboutthis
Isn't this like asking, "I'm going to a Major League Baseball game. Where can
I hang out with baseball fans?"

~~~
tristanj
Most people who live in Mountain View, and silicon valley in general, aren’t
tech workers. There are a lot of people working in the services industry,
management, finance, marketing, etc or just not working in general (kids
spouses or retired persons).

Here is a quora post that illustrates this: in 2013 only 12% of people who
lived in SF were actually tech workers.

[https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-SF-inhabitants-
are-...](https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-SF-inhabitants-are-tech-
workers-Those-who-commute-from-SF-should-be-included-But-do-not-include-those-
who-commute-to-SF-for-work)

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aanet
1\. Red Rock in downtown Mtn View - great place to work / meetup / chat with
fellow geeks. Best thing - great Wifi! 2\. Data St Coffee is also great -
though Wifi isn't as good 3\. Mtn View Library is also good - but my
experience with Wifi wasn't as great 4\. Hacker Dojo, when it was in Mtn View,
is a great place. Now it's moved to Santa Clara

~~~
ovrdrv3
"Data St Coffee" with bad Wi-Fi? They had one job

~~~
jdoliner
Data St. Coffee is, I believe, actually referring to _Dana_ St. Roasting
Company. So the bad Wi-Fi is marginally more forgivable.

~~~
DrScump
Dana St. is more basic, open, casual, and old-school. Live music here and
there (with loud salsa music bleeding over from next door otherwise).

Years ago, they were the first to have WiFi at all in downtown (except perhaps
Printers Inc.'s upstairs cafe).

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csnewb
Hana Haus in Palo Alto is a great co-working space, and is about a 15 minute
drive from MV. Otherwise I really enjoy the Mountain View public library, just
make sure to get there early before it gets flooded with engineers and
Stanford students. The study environment there is even more intense than my
old college library.

~~~
nijaru
I live in the east bay, but I have stopped here when visiting my grandparents
and it's a nice place.

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flyingscotsman
The Bierhaus and Steins are fine establishments but Mountain View is a strange
place and I soon left for the City. As an expat, I absolutely recommend the
best way to meet people is to go out on a bike ride with a local group (try
Alto Velo) nobody cares who you are or what you do, but everyone is pleased to
see you. Do well.

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jxramos
Check out the meetup.com scene in the South Bay Area; lots of fun events
hosted at Google, LinkedIn, Nvidia, various small startups etc close enough to
Mountain View. Search for a piece in a tech stack of interest and you'd
usually find some hits. Check their recent calendar of past events to gauge
how active they are.

~~~
DrScump
SVLUG meets at Cavium in San Jose nowadays, although they used to meet at the
Symantec cafe space for years.

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kearneyandy
It's pretty incredible how many people rock climb (at Planet Granite in
Sunnyvale). People are interested in talking there as well, as opposed to lots
of cafes where people are heads down.

Meetup groups for things like Ultimate Frisbee, Spikeball are good too.

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mrburton
Thanks for the suggestions!

I curated a list based on the feedback.

\- RedRock Coffee 9x \- Philz Coffee 2x \- Olympus Caffe & Bakery \- Coffeebar
\- HackerDojo \- Dana St Coffee \- Coupa Cafe \- Y2E2

I talked to a friend who recently moved to MV, and she told me Red Rock does
have poor wifi; too many people using it?

When I move to Mountain View - I'll be sure to post it on Hackernews so I can
meet up with some folks.

I love programming and I also enjoy playing bullet chess. :)

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RNeff
Try the Hacker Dojo, was in MV, now in Santa Clara.
[https://hackerdojo.com/](https://hackerdojo.com/)

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DrScump
Another option is Specialty's (the built-in typo always makes me cringe) on
Ellis St by 101. It's more of a bakery/cafe. Symantec is down the street.
Parking is a problem anytime around lunch. WiFi was a problem for months on
end; I haven't tried it lately.

Trivia: when Moffett Field was still a thing, that 101 exit was known as
Moffett South Gate.

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coderholic
Welcome! RedRock is a nice place to work out of, although it gets busy and
hard to get a seat if you turn up after ~10am, but gets quiet again in the
afternoon. I also like working (on [https://ipinfo.io](https://ipinfo.io))
from the library, which has tons of desks and great wifi.

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Techonomicon
Anywhere is the truth, if you really want to actually meet people who share
interests then go to those sorts of places (cycling events, rock climbing gym,
etc).

Red Rock is a great coffee shop, I'm partial to Dana St, there's the hacker
dojo, but for me I enjoy the friends I've found outside of the "forced"
situations.

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russelluresti
Afternoon hangout is Red Rock cafe, as many have mentioned. Evening hang out
is Steins Beer Garden (usually on the outdoor patio - you'll find a lot of big
groups there).

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throwawayrp
I'll be surprised if human's communicate with each other in Silicon Valley?

Do update this thread in few months if you happen to really connect with
fellow geeks :)

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feross
Philz Coffee on Middlefield Rd. is an excellent place to work. I wrote large
portions of WebTorrent and StandardJS at that coffee shop.

~~~
Nuzzerino
I think that location was also shown in an episode of Silicon Valley.

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jpnelson
\o/ welcome!

~~~
perrohunter
\o/

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perrohunter
Hit me up, we can go for lunch and socialize :P disclaimer: i work in tech

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chrisprobert
Coupa Cafe on Ramona St. in Palo Alto, or the one in Y2E2 at Stanford.

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jayavanth
Umm.. This new place called anywhere!?

