A new bar and nightclub serving Caribbean food, and featuring a rooftop cocktail lounge, is in the works at 1815 Market Street, near the Castro Safeway on Mint Hill.

It's the space that was formerly home to Peruvian restaurant Destino, and the SF Business Times has word of the project, called Dante's Inferno, from proprietor Dante Buckley. Buckley is a former video game designer who tells the Business Times, "There’s a lot of crossover between building video games and bars. It’s a world you get to create for people to come and enjoy. You’re thinking, how do you make it fun, how do you get people coming back?"

Drawing on his Jamaican heritage, Buckley envisions a cocktail bar spotlighting Jamaican rums, and a food menu with Caribbean dishes — the food side of things is being handled by consultant Greg Nasser of Borne LLC, and Nasser formerly served as operations manager for the restaurant group Back of the House, Inc. (Beretta, Delarosa, Starbelly, Super Duper, A Mano, etc.).

Renderings from Oakland-based Arcsine show a rooftop bar with lounge seating and a pool table, and the downstairs space will feature a dance floor.

It appears from the renderings that Dante's Inferno would occupy only the former Destino space, and not the corner space that was home to sister bar Pisco. Per the Business Times, it sounds like the building's other tenant on the Pearl Street side, Sushi Zone, is not going anywhere.

Buckley refers to this area as Hayes Valley, which it clearly is not — but it is close by.

This is the second new nightclub project that we've heard about since the pandemic, the first being Pink Swallow, which is due later this year in the former Harvey's space at Castro and 18th streets.

Dante's Inferno is still getting its permits, and construction has not yet begun. Buckley tells the Business Times that he is aiming for an opening in the first half of 2025.