The Woods Restaurant and Sports Bar at 3115 Harrison Avenue in South Lake Tahoe is under new ownership, and the changes are already underway. Drew Nichols, a Bay Area restaurateur who spent 15 years running Primo’s Pizzeria and Pub in Danville, purchased the property alongside business partner Greg Russell in April, taking over from previous owner Mike McKeen and bringing his entire team from Danville with him.
Nichols didn’t come to play it safe. Since taking over, he has added new food and drink items, installed additional TVs on the second floor, introduced handheld ordering tablets, and is currently building out a brand new back patio to complement the existing front patio with about 20 seats. Coming soon: brunch service, a happy hour program, and perhaps most excitingly, house-brewed beer produced on-site.
Running the day-to-day operation is general manager Joe Giagiari, who also made the move from Primo’s and brings the same service-first mentality that made Nichols’ Danville spot so successful for a decade and a half.
“We hope to continue to improve on our food quality, drink quality, and service,” Giagiari said. “We also have, in my biased opinion, the perfect place to come watch a game.”
The Woods, which originally opened in 2023 in a two-story 6,500-square-foot space in South Lake Tahoe’s Al Tahoe neighborhood, has already been putting those screens to good use, hosting FIFA World Cup watch parties as the new ownership settles in. According to the Tahoe Daily Tribune, the new team has been warmly welcomed by the community. “The community is very welcoming, which is very heartwarming,” Giagiari said. “We’re all about community outreach.”
