In a city still striving to find some sense of normalcy, one neighborhood is a few notes closer to a familiar tune.

Musicians, friends, college students and curious neighbors recently gathered on the cherry-red-bricked corner of St. Claude Avenue and Marigny Street to celebrate the first night of the newly renovated Hi-Ho Lounge.

The Oct. 7 opening included drinks, discussions and a common urge to get down in celebration to the sounds of the night’s featured bands, Fay Wray and Glasgow.

Kevin Corcoran, mass communication junior and lead vocalist and keyboardist for alternative rock outfit Fay Wray, spoke highly of the newly renovated space.

“They brought the ceiling way up, put in nice flooring and generally just made the place look respectable again. It looks like a classy joint now, where as before it looked like a dive,” Corcoran said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love dives, but I think it managed to retain its character.”

According to the club’s new owners, in the days following Katrina the ground-level Hi-Ho Lounge flooded with about eight inches of water. The building sat vacant until April 2006 when Ohio-transplant John Barrett bought it from the original owners and resolved to get the corner back into action. Together, Barrett and his business partner John Hartsock executed the renovations.

“After Katrina, the place was kind of dark, a little bit funky, and it’s taken us three months to get it to this point. And we’re still working on it,” said Barrett on the night of the reopening.

The club’s improvements from pre-Katrina days have given it a new feel. In addition to the raised ceilings, the new bar is big with beautiful cuts of stained woods, the bathrooms are clean and of course, the paint is fresh. A human-sized birdcage graces one side of the dance floor, and it’s official – this is a bar with serious potential.

The exterior remains the same, fire engine red-painted bricks backdropping the original neon sign with funky disco font that reads “Hi-Ho Lounge.”

On the opposite side of St. Claude, a handful of businesses and a couple of lively bars are open. Barrett said he believes it’s only a matter of time before the whole neighborhood experiences its collective rebirth.

“A lot of neighborhoods are in the process of coming up right now, and I feel like this is the next one to be developed. It’s got the beauty of the Irish Channel and Bywater neighborhoods but seems to somehow get lost between the ninth and lower ninth wards,” Barrett said, motioning toward rows of houses along Marigny Street and the adjacent neighborhoods.

“Most of these houses didn’t flood and the street is beautiful. I’m really involved in real estate, and if I were to start all over again today I’d get my start right here,” he said.

Barrett hopes the improvements at the Hi-Ho Lounge will ultimately lend themselves to a growing nightlife scene in the neighborhood, but he said the club intends to house more than nightly music.

Hartsock, a Louisiana native with more than 20 years of local cooking experience, said the future Hi-Ho lunch menu will feature a healthier style of New Orleans cooking. He mentions New Orleans barbeque shrimp po-boys, sautéed dishes and a rare, but appreciated “no fried food” concept.

“We’re eventually going to open a kitchen here where we want to play with local fare but do it healthy. We’ll have daily specials and open the club for lunch with tables set up where the dance floor is,” Hartsock said.

As Hartsock spoke, two neighborhood children cruised by on their bikes, trying to sneak an underage peak through the wide-open double doors as they passed.

“Those two kids would ride by everyday this summer when we were here working, constantly asking us when we’d be done,” Hartsock said. “And we’re finally open!” he yelled after them.

Jessica Dore can be reached [email protected].