Louie's to Get a Revamp From Tempest Team

Louie's, in its current form. [Photo: Logan C./Yelp]

The Pour Guys team of Joey Christensen, Tony Cooney, and Justin Trujillo, who currently own the Tempest in SOMA, are about to ink a deal to take over at Louie's, the longrunning SOMA/FiDi after-work spot. Though they're planning to keep the bar open throughout the transition and to work with the existing customer base to figure out what works best for the space, they've also set their sights on changing a few things, according to Inside Scoop. Most notably, they're revamping the food program, with Stephen Crawford at the helm.

Crawford, a Michael Mina alum, is also the chef at the Box window next door to the Tempest, and earned praise for his food from the Examiner's Jesse Hirsch a few weeks back. Louie's menu will be similar, with bar fare like burgers and chicken-in-waffles, plus a few new additions.

The liquor-license transition is set to go through in the next 5-6 weeks, and although they're hoping to tweak the music and lighting slightly, the team is pretty in love with the space, which was popular with whalers way back when the water line was well into the FiDi. "We'd like to keep it relatively the same, but breathe some new life in an old location, just like we did at the Tempest," says Cooney.

· Tempest guys taking over another San Francisco old alley bar: Louie's [Inside Scoop]