Farewell, No Dice
After Hi-Ho Lounge shuttered its doors on Halloween 2024, Kat Dilonno, co-owner of No Dice, took the opportunity to leave her mark on the St. Claude music venue strip. For almost two years, she booked four shows a week, watching a community built around music, mutual support, and a shared love for the venue and its staff.
Upon receiving an offer from enthusiastic local buyers looking to restore the beloved Hi-Ho, Dilonno saw another opportunity to preserve her mark, exit on a good note, and say goodbye. “It’s bittersweet. Leaving is hard, but I’m excited for the next thing for me,” she told me. As someone who has seen many projects open and thrive, Dilonno establishes herself as someone who can grow and nurture a business while also seeing where the next spark can lead her when the winds of change blow—and so do the seasons of her desires.
Before No Dice, Dilonno co-owned Mortal Machine Gallery on Royal Street in 2019 with curator and artist Gabriel Shaffer. The gallery focuses on alternative artists, both emerging and established, whose expression shows innovation and relevance to cultural temperature. Then, with her family, she opened Beggars Banquet on Prytania Street. Additionally, she opened Tough Love Tattoos, always heeding the call for the next endeavor before eventually opening the now-departed No Dice.
“The St. Claude strip was a special, magical place. Getting to be a part of the scene and community was such a wonderful experience,” said Dilonno, who described the feeling of knowing when the time is right to move on, and learning to embrace the uncomfortable friction of change. It’s an incredibly strong and sensible act to recognize the exact point when the thing you’ve given your all to needs to be let go. I’m struck by the wisdom it takes to listen to the parts of yourself saying it’s time. Despite a passion project consuming your life—which it almost fundamentally needs to do to sustain itself—she maintained enough separation between personal identity and the venue that took on a life of its own. When I asked what was next, through exhaustion she said: “I’m going to sleep for the next six months, then decide.”
The music scene in New Orleans is an interesting thing to witness. Some artists tour constantly, while others take the time to recalibrate, record, create, or straight up fuck off—which we all need. That unpredictable rhythm can be tough on music venues that rely on local bands to pack rooms and bring in the steady crowds required to stay in business. Practical financial reasons aside, sometimes it’s also OK to accept that this part of your life and identity will live on simply because you do. It is OK to walk away from a massive project that brought you closer to the public, even if it briefly pulled you away from the next chapter of your personal life.
Knowing when to call it quits is an absolute skill. It preserves the sanctity of the nights like hosting MiniKiss, which packed out the venue with a crowd just happy to be alive, or befriending H.R. of Bad Brains when he shared a night with local band Donny’s Demeanor. “I think we did what we set out to do. We intended to build something new for that block,” Dilonno said. “Doing it any longer, I personally wouldn’t have been able to do it at my best. I think I gave it everything that I could for two years.” Yet, despite her experience pouring her entire soul into a business, walking away into the unknown never actually gets easier.
New Orleans and its people aren’t quick to embrace change, even though we watch businesses tangle their roots into our daily routines and go anyway. Any place that makes us feel safe, at home, and able to thrive is welcomed when its focus is truly to water what’s already here. I remember when Hi-Ho Lounge closed, and No Dice announced it was moving in. I was skeptical, maybe even a little indignant. But when I saw the announcement that No Dice was also taking a bow, I felt the familiar sting of losing something that quickly became a regular spot in the scene. No Dice is in good company alongside Mimi’s and The Goat. Heaven preserve Poor Boys.
Dilonno left these final words on behalf of No Dice to its patrons, bands, and all those who came and went: “It was an absolute honor to have the local scene on our stage; that’s what made it worth it when it got hard, truly. From the heart, walking into that bar ready to be stressed and annoyed, seeing strangers and friends smoke cigarettes outside, dancing to their friends’ bands, people finding new music that they love—it was a joy to witness that from behind the bar.”
Photo courtesy Kat Dilonno
