2nd St, South Beach

2nd Street in SoMa is one of those truly metropolitan commercial city streets—the sort you can only get in a big city like SF. Back in my former life as a paralegal, I often used to find myself here during my lunch hour or after work. It was an excellent place to go for lunch because you had basically an international kitchen within a space of a few blocks. You could have a burger at Flames, Thai food at Osha’s or Hunan at Henry’s, spaghetti at Umbria, Indian at Mefhil’s or a burrito at Maya.

Then there were a couple of stand-outs, the Fly Trap and Eddie Richenbacher’s. The Fly Trap is a Mediterranean place just around the corner at Folsom. It was way out of my price range, but I got taken there by one of the young up-and-comers at the place I worked. It has a very cozy, classy appeal to it and the food is great. Little tables, white table clothes and little early twentieth century type curved lamps as wall fixtures over the tables. Great, but more as a nightspot than a lunch spot. Then there is Eddie Rickenbacker’s. The food is not so great but any place that has motorcycles hanging from the ceiling is worth a visit at least once.

There is also a small park/plaza like place, kinda a mini-Yerba Buena Gardens, that is nice to sun yourself at and have lunch on nice days, although it tends to get a bit crowded around 12:30 so get there early. There is a 24-hour fitness there, which one of the other girls in the office used to go to during her lunch break.

There are a few other cool spots on the street as well like the really cool mural right around the corner on Minna which can be fun to stare at for a fifteen or twenty—very detailed and colorful. Minna is less of a street than a glorified alley, but it has a certain attraction. The Minna Gallery is also there but I never went in.

If you would rather spend you lunch money on clothes or books rather than food—my favorite kind of diet—2nd street gives you a couple of fat reducing options beyond the 24 hour fitness. It is worth hopping over to the south of 80 to Jeremy’s where you will find a good selection of moderately priced heels, for example. The Alexander Book Company near Market is also a good place to find an interesting read if you would rather fill your mind than your stomach.

There are also a bunch of dot.com type companies on 2nd street like Zedo, Giga, and Friends of the Urban Forest, which means that you run across a lot of cute, creative techy types out-n-about. I happened to run across a guy from Honk!, a car review site that was just getting started last year, and when I got canned and had extra time on my hands I wrote some reviews for the Beta version of his site just for fun. So, it is a good place to network as well, if you are the go-getter type.

In short, 2nd street in SoMa is a great place to work and play.

2nd Street, located in the heart of San Francisco’s downtown, mostly concerns financial and company matters. The streets around the Montgomery BART Station are generally more for business. If you want to go shopping, it is best you get off at Powell Street, the stop before Montgomery. Second Street is home to the American Red Cross Bay Area chapter. I am generally only familiar with the part that is closer to the BART Station, not the ballpark area.This street has expensive restaurants, but there is a delicious (but overpriced) thai place on the same street. There are wonderfully interesting bookstores on the same street, a Starbucks, and some convenience stores. Nearby are a couple of McDonalds, a Jamba Juice, and other various dining areas. The people on this street typically work nearby, and will be wearing business-attire. It will typically be busiest around lunch time, and 5-6pm, when people start getting off work.