A multi-hyphenate entrepreneur and video-game wiz will unveil his first nightclub next year in San Francisco, and he’s building buzz by throwing a launch party in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
Dante Buckley, the adrenaline-chasing creator of the first-person shooter game “Onward,” is the force behind Dante’s Inferno (opens in new tab), a multi-floor venue slated to open next fall on Market Street. Ahead of its debut, he booked hip-hop and funk master DJ Pee .Wee (opens in new tab) to headline “Don’t Look Down (opens in new tab),” a Feb. 4 bash at 111 Minna Gallery (opens in new tab) in SoMa.
DJ Pee .Wee is the alter ego of Grammy-winning singer, rapper, and producer Anderson .Paak, who has performed in San Francisco several times in recent years, notably at Outside Lands 2025 (opens in new tab) with his band the Free Nationals and as the special guest at the Fred Again and Skrillex rave held in June 2024 at Civic Center. DJs Noodles (opens in new tab) and Esentrik (opens in new tab) are set to round out the evening, with other names to be announced.
Buckley, a skydiver, actor, and guitarist, is critical of people in the tech industry who’ve found success in San Francisco, only to turn their backs on it. The nightlife scene needs a jolt of rejuvenation, he says. So for the Super Bowl weekend party, he’s looking to both his Caribbean heritage and the Big Game. “You’re going to see Jamaican food in a way you’ve never seen it before,” he says, noting that two tickets to the Super Bowl will be raffled off. “We’re bringing the heat.”
All proceeds from “Don’t Look Down” will be donated to the 49ers Foundation and recovery from Hurricane Melissa, which devastated Jamaica in October.
Dante’s Inferno will combine the former Sushi Zone and Curry Hyuga spaces at 1815 and 1819 Market St., a nebulous neighborhood where Mid-Market, the Mission, Hayes Valley, and SoMa converge. The club will take its cues from an early Renaissance epic poem in which hell has nine levels of torment, ranked by the seriousness of a person’s sins. Some are sexier than others, of course. “We’re trying to take you to the second level,” Buckley says, “which is lust.”
PriceTickets on sale Dec. 19