DBA has announced that April 16 will be the date of a memorial service celebrating the life of Dennis Zentek, the co-founder of the the beer bar with locations in the East Village and Williamsburg. Zentek’s death was announced Monday, prompting an outpouring of tributes from friends, family, employees and customers. Yesterday on Facebook, his brother Ron shared details about the circumstances of his death.
Those of you who knew my brother,or just knew of him from me or one of the posters below will remember him as a unique individual whose greatest pride was saying he never worked a day in his life since as a Rock n Roll photographer, a bartender and finally a bar owner he was being paid for being at places he would have been anyway doing things he loved to do surrounded by beautiful women. He passed Sunday night at Bellevue hospital from the head injuries he suffered in fall down a flight of stairs on Friday night. To my knowledge, he never regained consciousness. Based on my brothers wishes, there will be no funeral or other services. Again let’s celebrate my brothers life as he would want us to do and I believe some of the DBA community will be arranging something foster these efforts…
As a photographer, Zentek took photos of Tom Waits and Joan Jett; he bartended in Union, NJ and, along with Ray Deter, opened DBA Manhattan in 1994. Deter died after being struck by a car in 2011.
Jimmy Carbone, a fellow beer lover, bon vivant and owner of Jimmy’s No. 43 near DBA, said on Facebook that Zentek, just last week, had expressed a hope to bring back DBA’s annual cask ale festival and also to start a whiskey fest. Carbone wrote, “Peace and blessings to Dennis, may he R.I.P., back with his buddy Ray in the ether of their souls.”