Clubland: How Dante Ferrando Kept Washington DC’s Black Cat Indie AF Since ’93

Dante Ferrando is founder and co-owner of the Black Cat, one of Washington, D.C.’s most beloved clubs that for 33 years has remained resolutely independent—something seemingly baked into the owner’s DNA. 

“The name Black Cat is from my great-grandfather’s place,” Ferrando says. “He came over pre-Prohibition from Italy. He supposedly found an envelope in the gutter with a grand in it—I don’t know the actual story behind that—but he opened this small restaurant in Greenwich Village. It was sort of a piano bar, jazz and miscellaneous music and art weirdos hanging out pre-Prohibition. He closed it with Prohibition because he didn’t want to be mob-run. Then he went back to Italy, the Depression hit and he came back and opened a second Black Cat with partners in the ‘40s. So I’m fourth generation in the restaurant club business.”

Perhaps it’s that lineage, which includes his father’s famed D.C. vegetarian restaurant Food For Thought (where Dante put on his first shows with his band the Outsiders and DC’s Youth Brigade), that’s kept Black Cat decidedly independent. That p.o.v. is reinforced by D.C.’s political and social activism bent on transcending the federal government’s oversight of the city (see “End Taxation Without Representation” on the city’s license plates).

“D.C.’s always had that DIY, independent, anti-commercial vibe to it,” he says. “The early punk rock scene and the Dischord scene and everything attached to that amplified it in a really good way. You also have the early ‘90s DIY Simple Machines (label). It’s a theme that DC keeps going back to and is deeply rooted. Sitting blocks from the Capitol and the White House forces a certain amount of skepticism into your soul. But yeah, we fit in with that ethos.”

With National Guardsmen these days strangely patrolling the city’s already-safe streets, Ferrando’s perspective is also informed by playing in punk/hardcore bands including Iron Cross, Gray Matter and Ignition. “My design aesthetic has a lot more to do with bands I played with and going to venues,” he says. “When Gray Matter did their last tour, it was right before I opened the club. We went to Europe, and I was taking notes the entire time. I was like, ‘What’s the stage made of? This couch is disgusting. I should get vinyl couches, not cloth couches, no crabs,’ weird little things.  My influences tend to be places I went and really liked, which are cool, weird, fucked-up bars.” 

The club’s initial seven investors, since bought out, were made primarily of people in the D.C. music scene. This included Dave Grohl (Scream, Nirvana, The Foos), Mike Hampton (The Faith, Embrace, Fake Names) and Syd Butler (Les Savy Fav and French Kiss Records). Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi, Dischord) also lent money. 

“A lot of the people who backed me on the project of opening Black Cat wanted to see a place a little more focused on the local music, some of the smaller bands, and also just a better venue because the old 9:30 was incredibly rundown,” Ferrando says. 

The first Black Cat opened on 14th Street with a 550-cap and a separate bar on the side. In 2001, when the ownership team bought the building down the street at 1811 14th St., it allowed for a small cafe, a non-cover bar, a 200-cap small concert room, the Backstage on the first floor and the main concert room at 750-cap upstairs. These days, the first floor is rented out.

Ferrando says he faces stiff competition in D.C., with the city’s vibrant club scene and the dominant independent player I.M.P., whose vertically integrated venue portfolio includes The Atlantis, The 9:30 Club, The Lincoln Theatre, The Anthem, and Merriweather Post Pavilion. 

The Black Cat co-owner, however, isn’t interested in battling other promoters.  “I hate competition,” he says. “I like it when venues find their lane, when they cater to their customers, when they don’t rip each other off. There’s so many types of music that aren’t catered to as much as they should be. A lot of people in our industry are very competitive, almost sports-like about it. 

“If there’s a band we’re both bidding on, somebody gets it and somebody doesn’t, so there’s an inherent level of competition. But there’s a way to do it that’s respectful and understanding that these are your peers. You do have to work together, or you should work together, for the betterment of a good music scene because that’s going to mean more people enjoy more shows and go out more often.”

To wit, for its two-day 30th anniversary celebration in Sept. 2023, Black Cat brought in an array of mostly local luminaries: Ex Hex, The Messthetics, Birthday Girl, Flasher and Grey Matter on night one; Velocity Girl, Ted Leo (the artist who’s played Black Cat most), Bad Moves, Hammered Hulls and The Owners (the latter features Ferrando and his co-owner wife Catherine Ferrando). 

Now 33 years in, Ferrando is contented with his venue. “I come from the DIY world, and I like bars and clubs, not large concert venues. That’s not my thing. … I like spaces where you can see the band, and you’re in the same room with them. That’s how I grew up. So the music side leans much more indie. I never had much interest in trying to branch into the larger-scale promotion stuff. We’ve done a few things outside the room, but it’s pretty rare. So that’s where the focus stayed. Really, I just wanted to run a place that I would like to go.”