Local Cocktail Legend Dave Cagle Is Revamping Cuisine en Locale's Bars

You've tasted Dave Cagle's delicious drinks at cocktail gems around town, including Deep Ellum, Lone Star Taco Bar, Green Street, Trina's Starlite Lounge, and B-Side Lounge, may it rest in peace. Now, he's teaming up with Cuisine en Locale to reinvent the Somerville function hall's dual bars, creating The ONCE Lounge.

The name stems from Cuisine en Locale's decade of pop-up dinners, dubbed ONCE — "One Night Culinary Events." The locavore catering team put down roots in the former Anthony's space in Somerville's Spring Hill late in 2013, serving food and drinks at various times and hosting a busy schedule of events, including lots of rock shows. The space boasts a full liquor license and a charmingly vintage vibe; it's ripe for becoming a hidden cocktail haunt.

"The ONCE Lounge is a friendly, neighborhood place with extra great food and drinks," says Cagle via a press release. "You can come in for dinner or just to hang out, shoot some pool, and be social." In addition to pool tables, there's a 1981 Ms. PacMan / Galaga machine and a jukebox stuffed full of late '70s to '90s punk.

There will be beer on tap, cane-based soda guns, and a brand new cocktail list, served upstairs in the lounge as well as downstairs in the disco-ball-and-chandelier-bedecked ballroom.

Taco Mondays, which already exist at Cuisine en Locale, will still take place in the lounge beginning at 5 p.m. each week, and the lounge will also be open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Food and drink will also be available on other nights of the week when there's a public event taking place in either room.

Monday, July 20 — yes, there will be tacos — marks the launch of the new ONCE Lounge; swing by between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to check it out for the first time. Meanwhile, Bread & Salt Hospitality's Gitana pop-up runs at Cuisine en Locale through July 19, offering Spanish tapas.