{"id":352965,"date":"2026-06-09T11:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352965\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:22:11","slug":"how-a-guy-and-a-honda-hatchback-changed-american-craft-beer-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352965\/","title":{"rendered":"How a guy and a Honda hatchback changed American craft beer forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t have to be a beer nerd or even a drinker to recognize that David Keene, the founder of San Francisco\u2019s Toronado<\/a>, is a trailblazer. Keene, 70, built the internationally renowned craft beer bar on nearly four decades of his own curiosity and physical labor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Keene opened Toronado<\/a>\u00a0in 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\u00a0\u2014 in Marin, Contra Costa and Mendocino counties\u00a0\u2014 filling soda syrup canisters he\u2019d rigged into kegs and effectively launching what would become the region\u2019s craft beer movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a pioneer of that business model,\u201d Natalie\u00a0Cilurzo, co-owner of Russian River Brewing Company and Keene\u2019s friend, told SFGATE. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/p>\n

An interior view of Toronado, San Francisco\u2019s legendary craft beer institution, in the lower Haight in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE\"An<\/p>\n

An exterior view of Toronado bar in the lower Haight\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE<\/p>\n

By the late 1990s, beer drinkers across California and beyond had caught on, converging on\u00a0Toronado\u2019s 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 \u2014 Bill Lewis, a San Francisco resident of three decades and a regular of the bar.<\/p>\n

As the transfer of ownership nears,\u00a0Keene is holed up in the Sierra Nevada just days away from closing the biggest chapter of his life.<\/p>\n

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DJs and a hair salon<\/p>\n

As the steward of one of SF\u2019s most famous bars, you might expect\u00a0Keene to be an open book. He\u2019s 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\u2019s funny and easy to talk to, once you earn his trust, but even then he won\u2019t share his phone number or email with you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Toronado<\/p>\n

Toronado owner David\u00a0Keene is pictured outside his home in Tuolumne County, Calif., on Thursday, May 21, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

His friends know him as Big Daddy, a music buff and dog whisperer\u00a0\u2014 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cilurzo, who has known Keene for over 25 years, calls him a teddy bear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of entitlement when it comes to beer bar owners, especially those who carry a lot of unique, highly sought-after beers,\u201d Cilurzo said. \u201cDave has always been humble. He never expects anything. He wants to make sure that you\u2019re happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Ohio, Keene came out to San Francisco to visit a friend in 1979 and never left. He slept on his buddy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

A photo from\u00a0Toronado in 1987 shows the bar with bare walls and minimal decor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Courtesy of David Keene<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had originally thought we would be a Tiki bar, believe it or not, but we couldn\u2019t afford the liquor license,\u201d Keene told SFGATE in a long-ranging interview he has rarely granted to the media in recent years. \u201cThey were $50,000 to $60,000 at that time and a beer license was $500.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So they went with beer.\u00a0Keene knew what he liked. After seeing a segment on \u201cToday\u201d\u00a0in which Bryant Gumbel declared Chimay the best beer in the world, he started exploring Belgian Trappist ales. He read up on secondary fermentations, discovered Orval and even dabbled in homebrewing. But that didn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI made a couple batches and let\u2019s just say I decided I would be a consumer and not a manufacturer,\u201d\u00a0Keene said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Counselor, a Toronado regular, poses for a portrait with his dog Earl in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE\"An<\/p>\n

An interior view of Toronado, San Francisco\u2019s legendary craft beer institution, in the lower Haight in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE<\/p>\n

By 1989,\u00a0Keene had already made his first pilgrimage to Belgium and was spending all of his time at the bar, so he offered to buy it from his partners. In lieu of a contract, \u201cwe had a gentleman\u2019s agreement that I would pay a certain amount and then the bar would be mine, and then they changed their minds a year later,\u201d Keene explained. So, twice he paid them \u201cover $100,000.\u201d Keene did not disclose the exact amount to SFGATE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This time, though, he had a lawyer and a contract. \u201cNo sour grapes,\u201d Keene said. \u201cI got the bar. I was very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A big reputation\u2019<\/p>\n

Eager to discover craft beers closer to home, Keene began attending beer festivals. He went to one on the UC Berkeley campus, where he discovered Devil Mountain, a brewery that opened the same year as Toronado did, in an abandoned Southern Pacific railroad train station in Walnut Creek. Devil Mountain made headlines that first year by winning three medals at the Great American Beer Festival. Keene was partial to the brewery\u2019s full-bodied Iron Horse Alt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FILE:<\/p>\n

FILE: Vendors pour out craft beer to attendees of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver,\u00a0Colo., on Sep 18, 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ed Andrieski\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just had incredible flavor to me at that time compared to pedestrian American beers,\u201d he said. He drove out to meet owner Greg Jones and brought back as much of the beer as he could, sliding the kegs inside a rack he\u2019d built out of wood and strapping them down so they wouldn\u2019t roll around in the back of the car.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe didn\u2019t wait for the breweries to decide they wanted to distribute,\u201d he said. \u201cWe went and got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keene estimates he made \u201c50 or 60\u201d trips out to Devil Mountain before the brewery closed in 1995. Once, on a 100-degree day, the Honda overheated with the precious cargo inside. \u201cI had a friend rescue me and the beers,\u201d he recalled. He had to have the car towed and its engine replaced, but the beers were safe. And the Iron Horse Alt was a hit.<\/p>\n

\"Toronado<\/p>\n

Toronado bar is covered in stickers and beer memorabilia in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE\"The<\/p>\n

The back room of Toronado bar is lined with craft beer memorabilia in the lower\u00a0Haight in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE<\/p>\n

Soon, the dance floor and DJs went away and\u00a0Toronado\u2019s walls were covered with memorabilia, from autographed Duvel Jeroboams to the original Devil Mountain pub taps gifted to the bar after the brewery closed in 1995. The large \u201cGarage Service\u201d neon hanging over the bar was given to Keene by a group of British Death Fleet motorcyclists who were regulars.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlmost all of them were carpenters and they were tearing down a hotel in downtown SF and that was the sign that was on the parking garage,\u201d\u00a0Keene said. \u201cWe\u2019ve probably fixed the neon in it five or six times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keene kept seeking out beers without distribution or \u201coddities that people overlook.\u201d He brought in Anderson Valley Brewing, which at one point was doing 20% of its sales at Toronado, Keene said. Once, the hatchback was so heavy with bottles and kegs that Keene needed help getting out of the driveway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to unload the beer, carry it up the hill, drive the car from the top of the hill, and then reload the car,\u201d he said. When Anderson Valley finally went into distribution for themselves, Keene moved his kegs over to Marin Brewing Company<\/a> in Larkspur and started the whole process again.<\/p>\n

\"Toronado<\/p>\n

Toronado owner David Keene is pictured at his home in Tuolumne County,\u00a0Calif., on Thursday, May 21, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long time of just building on being the place that you could go to get beer that you can\u2019t get somewhere else or you gotta drive to go get it,\u201d Keene said. \u201cWord spread and we kind of got a big reputation and anybody who came into town for a conference or if they were here for vacation, they would come to the Toronado, because they didn\u2019t have to drive to Anderson Valley or to Southern California, they could get it all in one place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Friendship over finances<\/p>\n

Vinnie Cilurzo remembers the first time he met Keene. It was 1998, and Russian River Brewing was in its infancy, still owned and operated by Korbel Champagne Cellars. Cilurzo, the brewer, brought two beers for Keene to taste \u2014 the Belgian-inspired Damnation and HopTime Harvest, a beer made with wet hops, which was rare at the time. Cilurzo was nervous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just starting to sell our beer in the Bay Area and to get into the Toronado was a huge deal,\u201d Cilurzo recalled. Still is, he said.<\/p>\n

Keene \u201clit up\u201d when he tasted the HopTime. They finished both bottles and he asked for a keg of the Damnation and as many kegs of the HopTime as Cilurzo had. He never asked the price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Regular<\/p>\n

Regular Michael Moore wears a limited-edition Toronado baseball cap, in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE\"Dusty<\/p>\n

Dusty Duvel bottles line the walls of Toronado bar, in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the moral of the story,\u201d Cilurzo said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about the cost; it was about how many he could have for his customers, because he liked it so much. I\u2019ll never forget that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Natalie\u00a0Cilurzo called Toronado the city\u2019s first really good beer bar, \u201ca blue-collar\u201d dive with \u201csome of the cleanest draft lines, best selection and best happy hour in San Francisco, if not in the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s where both of their cult-status\u00a0IPAs, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, have been sold since they debuted in 1999 and 2005, respectively, and where many of the couple\u2019s favorite Bay Area beer events have taken place over the years, from Keene\u2019s epic Belgian beer dinners that would start at 11:30 in the morning to the now-famous Barleywine Festival he started in 1993.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At some point along the way, a friendship developed between the\u00a0Cilurzos and the Keenes. They traveled to Hawaii together when the Cilurzos renewed their wedding vows and always spend Fourth of July together in the Sierra. Natalie and Jennifer even have matching tattoos that Keene helped design for them: a skull, crossbones and heart. \u201cWe love Dave and Jenn. They\u2019re our best friends,\u201d Natalie Cilurzo said.<\/p>\n

\"Toronado<\/p>\n

Toronado owner David\u00a0Keene shows off a Yeast of Burden Pale Ale on Thursday, May 21, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

The Cilurzos are designing something for him, too: A Belgian-style lambic made with pluots for Toronado\u2019s 40th anniversary next year. \u201cIt takes years to age them in wood, which is why we\u2019re talking about it so early,\u201d Keene said, excitedly. Russian River has produced an anniversary beer for the bar every five years since its 20th anniversary.<\/p>\n

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A Belgian monk\u2019s welcome\u00a0<\/p>\n

When you ask\u00a0Keene what the craft beer industry needs right now, he tells you people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to get out from behind their phones, go to a bar and talk to each other,\u201d he said. \u201cThe\u00a0Toronado has been a place where anybody from a punk rocker, a Deadhead, a strip mall developer, a motorcycle enthusiast and a conventioneer who\u2019s a doctor could sit and start having conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Regulars,<\/p>\n

Regulars, from back left, the Counselor, Michael Moore, Todd Shields and Angie Adler play dominoes at Toronado in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE<\/p>\n

He has been honored in various ways over the years. He\u2019s had beers named after him, from Speakeasy\u2019s Big Daddy IPA to Anderson Valley Brewing\u2019s Brother David\u2019s double and triple abbey-style ales. His bar was once deemed the\u00a0No. 1 beer bar in the world<\/a>, and for decades brewers have clamored to get their beers into his bar, which Lost Abbey Brewing Company\u2019s Tomme Arthur<\/a> once dubbed \u201cBroadway for brewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But the wildest moment for\u00a0Keene\u00a0\u2014 what showed him how far the little dive bar on Haight Street had come\u00a0\u2014 happened on a trip to Belgium. He had just arrived at Scourmont Abbey, the monastery where Chimay is made. Suddenly, a monk who recognized Keene broke his silence to greet the bar owner: \u201cHello, Big Daddy,\u201d he said. \u201cWelcome to Belgium.\u201d \u201cA monk was calling me Big Daddy? I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Keene said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another time, at\u00a0Westvleteren, the tiny 19th century monastery and Trappist brewery, a monk giving Keene a tour led him into a private cellar, where he pulled a cellphone from inside his robes, made a call and then addressed Keene.<\/p>\n

\"Toronado<\/p>\n

Toronado owner David\u00a0Keene shows off his namesake Big Daddy IPA, on Thursday, May 21, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the best liquor store that\u2019s open on Sundays in Belgium,\u201d the monk, a former cop, told\u00a0Keene. \u201cThis is my pallet. Take anything you want.\u201d (Keene took a six-pack of Westvleteren 12, a dark amber ale considered by some to be the best in the world).\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"image\"<\/p>\n

Stay informed, and entertained.<\/p>\n

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Today, Keene is ready for the next chapter in his life, a quieter one focused on health and hiking. Toronado hit the market in January 2025, and it took until now to find its next steward, Bill Lewis, a tech and finance expert who will no doubt lean on his brother-in-law and co-owner Wall Pringle\u2019s experience in the beer world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before they signed the paperwork,\u00a0Keene invited Lewis up to his home in the Sierra. He made lunch. They talked. Keene shared very little about\u00a0Lewis, except that he is \u201cgracious, reserved and appreciative.\u201d Most importantly, the new owner doesn\u2019t want to change anything about Toronado. And that gives Keene tremendous relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Toronado<\/p>\n

Toronado bar, which features a variety of eclectic decor, will retain its original character after new ownership, in San Francisco on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lizzy Myers\/For SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for someone younger to get in now and continue this legacy on,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets. My life\u2019s been filled with people. I\u2019m kind of enjoying there being fewer of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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