Dante Stephensen on Loneliness and Closing Dante's

Watch Dante Stephensen talk about how he feels about having to close Dante's Down the Hatch, which will shutter by the spring to make way for high-rise apartments. Spoiler Alert: He does not feel good. In this slightly dark and very sad first installment of a Buckhead Patch interview, the restaurant owner talks about how older men usually die six months after retiring out of sheer loneliness and his post-Dante's worries.

My biggest problem is, how do I go from working the floor seven nights a week to— I'm not going to do nothing, I have lots of hobbies, but my family structure is this place. This place is my wife; the staff are my children— that's the role. I already feel the loneliness. I break into tears periodically, because the thought of closing..

Still no word on what's going to happen to the crocodiles.

· Dante's Owner Opens Up About Closing the Beloved Restaurant [Patch]
· All Coverage of Dante's Down the Hatch [-EATL-]
Dante Stephensen. [Photo: Doug Monroe/Creative Loafing]