Bar San Pancho’s Replacement Will Have Rum, Pisco, and Natural Wine

The primo bar space at 3198 16th Street (at the corner of Guerrero) is changing hands, with the team behind Tacolicious selling off sports cantina Bar San Pancho to new owners Eric Ochoa and J. De Natale. The new duo just posted their liquor license transfer in the window this weekend, and in 90 days, the bar will be theirs to remake as Elda.

The idea, Ochoa explains, is to have “some sort of mescal or tequila component, but also, a focus on rum and the spirits of the Americas, including pisco... I want to celebrate all these different flavors from south of the border,” he says.

Customers can also expect a selection of beer and wine including a natural wine program — “I just wanna have another place to champion that category.”

Elda may be new ground, but Ochoa is no stranger to the block: He’s spent three and a half years at esteemed bar ABV, whose owners he counts as mentors and friends. Before that, he helped open Bar Agricole and Trou Normand as bar manager under James Beard award-winner Thad Vogler. De Natale, meanwhile, has worked in the technology and financial sectors.

Food at Elda is in the works, too — the space has a sizable kitchen, which served Bar San Pancho and Tacolicious’ dumpling and noodle restaurant Chino before it. There’s no set date for Bar San Pancho’s closure as the transfer goes through — stay tuned on that and for more on Elda as the space changes hands.