Mission bar/nightclub Slate appears to be in the process of changing hands and changing names, though the bar remains open as Slate for the time being, and likely for several months.

SFist finds that some new owners — including one of the longtime managers and owners at nearby Blondie's (540 Valencia Street), Nicole DeWald, along with two other partners — are in the process of purchasing the liquor license at 2925 16th Street from current owner Patricia West. The new name: Spirit Animal.

DeWald is a veteran of the Mission bar business, having been managing Blondie's since the age of 21, in 1991. As she said in an interview in 2015, she learned "how to run a bar by trial and error," after her mother purchased the building and named the bar after her. She also described some of the entitled behavior she had witnessed among her Millennial clientele, saying of the neighborhood, "The crackheads, the prostitutes, et cetera, that I don’t miss, but the entitlement of the people moving here is equally as ugly."

As of 2015, we learned that the building that houses Blondie's was on the market and the site was zoned for several more stories in height, meaning that the bar's days may be numbered. We don't yet know if the martini haven is still endangered or not.

The license transfer for Spirit Animal is scheduled to take place, according to state records, on April 30, 2020, though it's unclear so far what the timing of the handoff may be. DeWald is apparently joined in the business by partners Sven Forner and Rachael Cornell.

Slate's website and Facebook page indicate no upcoming changes, and the bar has its regularly scheduled events going on as usual.

Slate opened in 2012 in a space that was formerly home to Liquid, and then briefly clubs called Pink and SOM Bar. The space is twice the size of the original Liquid, having taken over and combined a next-door space years go. As Slate the place is home to regular dance parties, a Thursday "dance karaoke" night, and it gets rented out for private events.

SFist will update you as we learn more about Spirit Animal, the new concept to come.