Hours
Pool Room dining hours
Tuesday thru Thursday 5:30 to 9pm.
Friday & Saturday 5:30 to 9:30pm.
We are closed on Sundays and Mondays for special events.
Farallon/The Pool Room
The main dining room
The Pool Room
A hand-painted ceramic ceiling, dedicated in 1925 over a swimming pool, now arches over dinner.
The ceiling
An Elks Lodge swimming pool, drained and set for dinner
This original Elk's Club swimming pool ceiling, dedicated in 1925, now gracefully arches over the aptly named Pool Room – Farallon's main dining room.
The Pool Room is our historic main dining room where you can relax underneath sea urchin chandeliers in one of our cozy banquettes and enjoy a Three or Four Course Tasting Menu and delicacies from the Raw Bar.
What you are sitting inside
The building at 450 Post Street was raised as San Francisco Elks Lodge No. 3, and the swimming pool was its centrepiece: a two-storey volume sunk into the basement with a gallery running around it at street level. When Pat Kuleto took the space on in the 1990s the pool went, the ceiling stayed, and the gallery became the balcony you can still see from the floor.
Sea urchin chandeliers
Kuleto's fixtures are the reason people look up. Hand-blown glass urchins hang the length of the vault, throwing warm light onto the painted ceramic and leaving the banquettes below in shadow — a deliberate reversal of most dining rooms, where the light falls on the guests and the ceiling disappears.
The ceiling over the twenty-seven by seventy-five foot swimming pool was (is) hand painted ceramic. This ceiling was two stories high from the basement, with a gallery on the first floor, overlooking the pool.Elks Lodge #3
Sitting down
How the room works
The menu
Nightly Tasting Menu
A Three or Four Course Tasting Menu is offered every evening, alongside the à la carte card and delicacies from the Raw Bar.
In the middle
The Wine Hold
The Wine Hold table seats a maximum of 12 guests and is surrounded by 4 glass walls, located in the Pool Room itself.
Then
The pool, before the plates
The archive photograph shows what the room was: a twenty-seven by seventy-five foot swimming pool, two storeys high from the basement, with the gallery running around it at first-floor level and the painted ceramic vault overhead.
Almost everything above the waterline survived. Stand in the middle of the dining room, look up, and you are looking at exactly what a member of Lodge No. 3 saw from the water in 1925.
The room today
Under the vault
Frequently asked questions
The Pool Room, answered
Is the swimming pool still there?
No — the pool itself is gone. What remains is the hand-painted ceramic ceiling that arched over it, dedicated in 1925, along with the gallery that overlooked the water and now serves as the balcony.
Can I request a banquette?
Yes, and it is worth asking. Note it when you book on (415) 956-6969 — we will do our best, though the room fills quickly on Friday and Saturday.
How many courses is the tasting menu?
Three or four, your choice, plus anything you want from the Raw Bar.
Is the Pool Room suitable for a large group?
For groups above about ten, the private rooms upstairs are usually a better fit. The Wine Hold table inside the Pool Room seats a maximum of 12 guests behind four glass walls — call the reservation line at 415.956.6969 to reserve it.
Is it loud?
Less so than the lounge. The vault absorbs a surprising amount, and the banquettes create pockets of quiet — it is a room where a table of four can hold a conversation.
Reservations
A table on Post Street
Make a reservation online, or call us at (415) 956-6969. Our full menu is served at the bar, and limited valet parking is available.