After 40 years, SF's craft beer king steps down |
You don’t have to be a beer nerd or even a drinker to recognize that David Keene, the founder of San Francisco’s Toronado, is a trailblazer. Keene, 70, built the internationally renowned craft beer bar on nearly four decades of his own curiosity and physical labor.
Keene opened Toronado in the Lower Haight in 1987 before most Northern California breweries were in the draft business. To get their beers into his taps, he drove his Honda hatchback to them — in Marin, Contra Costa and Mendocino counties — filling soda syrup canisters he’d rigged into kegs and effectively launching what would become the region’s craft beer movement.
“He was a pioneer of that business model,” Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner of Russian River Brewing Company and Keene’s friend, told SFGATE. “He was super smart and genuinely went on these hunts to share interesting beers with his customers at what is basically a dive bar. All these years later, whenever we have a new or limited-release beer, Toronado is the first place we call.”
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An interior view of Toronado, San Francisco’s legendary craft beer institution, in the lower Haight in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.
An exterior view of Toronado bar in the lower Haight in San Francisco on May 8, 2026. The bar recently changed ownership from Dave Keene, who owned the bar for 39 years, to longtime patron Bill Lewis.
By the late 1990s, beer drinkers across California and beyond had caught on, converging on Toronado’s Dutch door to step inside and sample interesting imports and local crafts in one place. Keene stepped away from day-to-day operations 10 years ago, and now, after a long search that included a contested sale to a cryptocurrency investor, he is officially handing over the beloved, cash-only bar to someone he trusts — Bill Lewis, a San Francisco resident of three decades and a regular of the bar.
As the transfer of ownership nears, Keene is holed up in the Sierra Nevada just days away from closing the biggest chapter of his life.
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As the steward of one of SF’s most famous bars, you might expect Keene to be an open book. He’s not. He is guarded, even elusive. For the past several years, Keene has lived in a small town in Tuolumne County with his wife, Jennifer. He’s funny and easy to talk to, once you earn his trust, but even then he won’t share his phone number or email with you.
Toronado owner David Keene is pictured outside his home in Tuolumne County, Calif., on Thursday, May 21, 2026.
His friends know him as Big Daddy, a music buff and dog whisperer — he has rescued and rehabilitated at least five pit bulls, including one named Uki that was known to jump up on the stools at Toronado and sit with customers.
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Cilurzo, who has known Keene for over 25 years, calls him a teddy bear.
“There’s a sense of entitlement when it comes to beer bar owners, especially those who carry a lot of unique, highly sought-after beers,” Cilurzo said. “Dave has always been humble. He never expects anything. He wants to make sure that you’re happy.”
A native of Ohio, Keene came out to San Francisco to visit a friend in 1979 and never left. He slept on his buddy’s floor for six months and got a job at a TV and video store at the corner of Scott and Lombard in the Marina. He managed another video store, eventually joining some Japanese friends in the car trading business.
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A photo from Toronado in 1987 shows the bar with bare walls and minimal decor.
It was those friends who convinced Keene to open a bar with them in 1987 in a former hair salon. Keene named it after his favorite 1966 Oldsmobile and managed it from the start. But the bar at 547 Haight St. was hardly the sticker-covered, jukebox-centric dive it is today. The walls were bare, and its DJs and dance floor catered to a bridge and tunnel crowd.
“We had........