He drank beer there for 30 years. Then he bought the bar.

When San Francisco’s famous craft beer bar Toronado was listed for $1,799,000 in 2025, no one expected its new owner to be a longtime regular. Here’s how Bill Lewis and his brother-in-law ended up in charge of their very own Cheers, and what they’ve learned so far.

Q: What made you decide to buy this bar? “Toronado was the first place I’d ever had a Belgian beer back when I’d never even heard what that was. It’s not a dive or upscale, but it has a lot of character. Stickers and beer signs cover the walls. There’s always punk rock or metal playing on the jukebox. It’s very San Francisco weird and very analog; no one’s sitting on their phones, people talk to each other. At the time, I was CFO of a startup that was getting acquired and wouldn’t keep me around, so I was transitioning and had time to spend on this.”

Q: How was your offer received? “I wasn’t the richest offer; I was third in line. The first buyer got a lot of bad press with plans to launch a YouTube channel and a crypto coin called Toronado Cash. It was pretty antithetical to the culture of this place. The community backlash was strong: Regulars said, ‘If this guy buys it, none of us are coming back.’ So I just kept reinforcing to the agent that I was a longtime fan of this place. A year later, I was under contract.”

Q: What was the steepest learning curve in running a bar? “We had a wild ride on our way to the finish line because the manager walked out before the deal closed. I was terrified. Luckily, the owner gave me an accelerated, in-person crash course to bring me up to speed. And aside from the manager, the rest of the staff stayed and were a massive help.”

Q: Two months in, is the bar profitable? “I’m not sure yet. I think it has to be since it’s been here for 39 years, but I won’t know until the bookkeeper gets the numbers set up. But to me, the bar is a passion project. The real investment is the real estate. I don’t know if I would have bought the business without the building, or the building without the business. This way, I not only control my own lease, but I also have downside protection: Let’s say I’m the worst bar owner in the history of humankind and all the customers leave. I still have a building in San Francisco with strong appreciation potential, since we’re entitled to build up three stories.”

Q: Is owning this bar all you thought it would be? “The first thing all bar owners say is that buying a bar is a terrible idea. But once you get that out of the way, there are so many good things. I can’t tell you how many people met their spouse here or take their first dates here. I get why they do: It’s a litmus test, seeing if they can hang at Toronado. You learn a lot.”