Comments (0) Best Public Pay Phones - 2007

The Fairmont

Those of you without cellphones — all four of you — know that finding a working pay phone in San Francisco can lead to a journey longer than Odysseus' trip to Ithaca. No dial tone, dead mouthpiece, missing receiver — many are the obstacles that thwart the would-be pay-phone user. (And let us not dwell on the most unsettling hindrance of all: the dreaded sticky earpiece.) That's why, for our 50 cents, we like to amble into one of the Fairmont's half-dozen phone booths. Yes, that's right — booths. Remember? Shut the glass door and shut out the world, then dial in peace. Ahhh. At the Fairmont, one booth even has a small seat, yet another feature you'll never see offered with a cellphone. Better still, the door keeps your conversation from being inflicted on passers-by, a concept that, alas, seems as quaint as pay phones themselves.