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Dante Stephensen

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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Dante's Likely to Close at End of July; May Open in New Buckhead Location

The beloved fondue and jazz restaurant, Dante's Down the Hatch, will not close at the end of March, but will likely not remain open past July.

Dante's Down the Hatch, a well-known and beloved Buckhead restaurant, will likely close its doors at the end of July. The restaurant's iconic owner Dante Stephensen told Buckhead Patch Tuesday that he is looking at other possible Buckhead locations for the restaurant. It was first reported in November that Atlantic Realty Partners, which sits in front of Dante's on Peachtree Road, would ink a deal to purchase the property on which Dante's sits and redevelop it as a 10-story apartment high-rise complex. The deal, which was expected to close mid-January, fell through. During that time, Stephensen said he received many more offers from various interested parties. However, Atlantic Realty has offered another deal that Stephensen said he will …

AJM

12:08 am on Wednesday, March 6, 2013

How about putting it in the soon-to-be-closed Loca Luna location in Amsterdam Walk? Plenty big enough to put that big ship seating area.   more ›

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Dante's Owner Opens Up about Closing the Beloved Restaurant

Dante Stephensen is an icon in his own right, and as much as Atlantans will miss his restaurant, no one will miss it as much as he will.

Several Atlantans are devastated that the iconic Dante's Down the Hatch restaurant is closing its doors after more than 40 years, but it's not the fondue or the incredible nautical decor or even the live crocodile that many said they will miss the most. It's Dante Stephensen himself. The man who created the legendary jazz-fondue restaurant spent almost every night of the last 40 years talking to customers at their tables and sharing stories from his extraordinary life. Perhaps no one will miss the restaurant, which he said is the country's oldest jazz club, as much as Dante. "The restaurant is my wife and the staff are my kids. I'm not married. That's the way I look at it," Dante said. Buckhead Patch Editor Kiri Walton had the pleasure to …

jules

4:31 pm on Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Dante was the lone holdout in Underground Atlanta as the Original tenant and the only thing that moved him from there was the devastating fire that took the whole restaurant AND thus, the antique ship that was re-assembled inside. Dante used to, maybe still does, own an antique fire truck that ran in all the Atlanta parades, proudly. He was (is) such a supporter of the City, the Community, the …   more ›

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