Toronado, the legendary bar on San Francisco’s Haight Street, came perilously close to being lost forever
Thirty-nine years ago, the very concept of a good beer bar — a bar devoted to good beer, not big beer — was something of a novelty. Dave Keene, who founded the glorious, notorious, surly-but-lovable Toronado Pub, was a visionary. Or, at the very least, he was magnificently mad about what people called microbrew back in the 1980s, when Toronado’s doors first blew open. (see article at SFGATE)
But time catches up with everyone, even visionaries. Keene was ready to hand over the reins. And then came the plot twist nobody wanted: last year, a so-called “high-bidding cryptocurrency investor” made a play at taking over Toronado — with plans to launch a YouTube channel in its name. Hearts sank. Heads spun. If ever a place was the spiritual opposite of a YouTube channel, it is Toronado. This is, after all, a gloriously analog establishment. Cryptocurrency? Hell, the bar doesn’t even accept credit cards. Cash only. YouTube? Hell, you might get 86’d just for taking a selfie.
“LOL, trying to make the Toronado into the ‘next SF hot spot’ is a fool’s errand,” someone said on Reddit when news of that potential deal hit the streets. “Trying to make it ‘hot’ automatically kills what made it what it is. The Toronado IP [intellectual property] is hate of this very concept.”
Mercifully, that deal fell through, to the enormous relief of Toronado’s regulars and fans everywhere.
New blood, same vibe, we hope
Then, the other day, the world was treated to genuinely joyous news. A deal is in the works for Toronado to be purchased by Bill Lewis, a longtime local resident and devoted regular, along with his brother-in-law, Walt Pringle. Wait. What? Walt Pringle? Now that’s a Toronado-worthy name!
Their plan? To change absolutely nothing. This is, by any reasonable measure, excellent news — and some might argue it should have been mandated by law. If there were a National Registry of Historic Beer Places, Toronado would occupy a very prominent spot on it.
“It is an honor to become the new owner of Toronado, and I look forward to sustaining it for the next 40 years,” Lewis said in a press release. “As a first-time small business owner, I’m excited to learn from the staff and hear from the customers.”
Lewis, by all accounts, is a successful tech-sector executive, a UC Berkeley graduate who went on to earn a doctorate at Stanford, and — perhaps most importantly — a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan.
The regulars chime in
The internet, naturally, had thoughts. “That’s far better than a crypto bro wanting to turn it into a lifestyle brand,” quipped one Reddit commenter, speaking for the masses.
Not everyone is popping the cork on the Chimay Grande Réserve just yet, however. One more cautious regular posted: “I’ve been coming to T for more than a decade. I don’t know them, and neither do any regulars I know. I’m not saying they won’t be good owners — I’m hopeful they succeed — but they aren’t quite the regulars this article is making them out to be.”
Fair enough. But for now, the beer is flowing, the cash-only sign is still proudly glowing, and Toronado endures. Cheers to that!.
