Concluding a year in which the beloved beer destination Toronado was purportedly being sold to a crypto bro who was talking about installing a roof deck, and then that sale fell through, we now have word that the bar is going into good hands.

Longtime owner and the founder of Toronado, Dave Keene, announced this week that he has sold the bar to Bill Lewis, who's described as "a San Francisco resident of three decades and a regular of the beloved Haight Street bar." Lewis has partnered with his brother-in-law, Wall Pringle, to purchase the bar.

SFGate was first to the news, which comes a little over a year after a sale was announced to crypto enthusiast Orion Parrott, who spoke of wanting to turn Toronado into a "global brand" with its own crypto coin, the Xitter account for which is still live under @ToronadoCash.

SFist reported in January that that deal was officially dead, about seven months after Keene had suggested he was trying to back out of the deal, and after longtime customers of the cash-only establishment balked at the possibility of losing the bar to the tech-brosphere.

"The history, the atmosphere, and the community have to remain intact,” Keene said in a statement about the latest sale. "I want to properly pass the torch."

The release further said the the priority remained "Preserving everything that makes Toronado the Toronado,” and no changes were planned to the staff or general direction of the bar.

New owner Lewis said in a statement, "It is an honor to become the new owner of Toronado, and I look forward to sustaining it for the next 40 years."

Keene opened Toronado in 1987, and quickly turned it into a mecca for craft beer lovers that was well ahead of the curve in terms of Northern California's craft beer boom. Defined by signature annual events like its Barleywine Festival, which celebrates the less common, high-alcohol end of the craft brewing spectrum, Toronado has remained a landmark bar in the Lower Haight and a notable must-stop for beer tourists from around the world when they visit San Francisco.

The past two years, Toronado has hosted its own Beer Week that runs on a different schedule from San Francisco Beer Week.

After 38 years running the bar, Keene put it up for sale in January 2025 along with the whole building, which includes the small storefront next door that had for years been home to a sausage shop — first Rosamunde, and later Berliner Berliner.

Previously: Beer Mecca Toronado, Which Did Not Sell to Any New Owner, Hosts Its Own Beer Week Once Again