The Bar Towel

https://www.eddies-list.com/p/toronado- ... d-for-sale

Toronado Craft Beer, San Francisco Listed For Sale


I've heard the service was crappy and they were intolerant of lots of people. Hopefully it gets replaced by something better.

anthony9 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 1:30 pm https://www.eddies-list.com/p/toronado- ... d-for-sale

Toronado Craft Beer, San Francisco Listed For Sale

I've heard the service was crappy and they were intolerant of lots of people. Hopefully it gets replaced by something better.

I'd been to Toronado a couple of times over the years. Totally get why it took hold with a punk kind of ethos combined with a good beer selection that was ahead of the curve.

I looked back at something I wrote and made an insinuation that their service was like Toronto's (i.e. somewhat inattentive), so if visiting from Toronto, it would be familiar.

No slight intended to today's servers, but I do recall a period of Toronto's bar scene before the rise of split cheques and increased bar service that service was quite frustrating around here.

Kind of funny that I had these expectations of what the service would be like at Toronado and it was simply what I was used to all the time at home.

Cass wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 8:52 am

anthony9 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 1:30 pm https://www.eddies-list.com/p/toronado- ... d-for-sale

Toronado Craft Beer, San Francisco Listed For Sale

I've heard the service was crappy and they were intolerant of lots of people. Hopefully it gets replaced by something better.

I'd been to Toronado a couple of times over the years. Totally get why it took hold with a punk kind of ethos combined with a good beer selection that was ahead of the curve.

I looked back at something I wrote and made an insinuation that their service was like Toronto's (i.e. somewhat inattentive), so if visiting from Toronto, it would be familiar.

No slight intended to today's servers, but I do recall a period of Toronto's bar scene before the rise of split cheques and increased bar service that service was quite frustrating around here.

Kind of funny that I had these expectations of what the service would be like at Toronado and it was simply what I was used to all the time at home.

Hah, true. Although I'd say service in Toronto in the post-pandemic world has gotten much better in my experience.

Toronado may as well have been an automat for the kind of service you get there, but I also happened to have the best (and most badly needed) beer of my life there after having taken a wrong turn through the Tenderloin.

Rumour has it that some crypto bro is in the processes of buying Toronado.

Tangential, but I wonder if more money from places like this will flow into the industry.

Tangential still, there is a brewery in Alberta that makes a lot of fancy beer. Blind Enthusiasm is in Edmonton and says it ships nationally. The guy who owns it is a former BioWare exec. The brewer had an internship/apprenticeship/job at Cantillon.

On paper this seems great. If I struck it rich I’m afraid I’d do something pretty similar. I can’t shake the feeling that it feels extremely corporate and reminds me of those articles in papers that are along the lines of; Gary quit his job as a corporate raider to start a small downtown store that only sells cupcakes for corgis.

anthony9 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 11:09 pm Rumour has it that some crypto bro is in the processes of buying Toronado.

Tangential, but I wonder if more money from places like this will flow into the industry.

Thanks for posting about that - I had saw that news on social and forgotten to bring it up.

I was thinking about this and I guess I don't really care where an owner's money comes from, as long as the place is good, cares about beer and their staff, etc.

Over the years non-corporate brewery owners (with a few exceptions) generally didn't get scrutinized for who they are or what they stand for. It was a bit ironic that during the craft beer boom, especially in the face of the craft vs. crafty debate, beer fans assumed that non-corporate breweries stood for the ethos of the industry - when it was certainly clear that not all owners did.