{"id":7440,"date":"2018-05-26T12:50:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T16:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=7440"},"modified":"2018-05-27T08:10:51","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T12:10:51","slug":"once-burglary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/05\/26\/once-burglary\/","title":{"rendered":"Somerville\u2019s Once Nightclub Hit By Burglary, Wrecked Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once<\/a> Ballroom\u2014the Somerville nightclub and headquarters of the locally-grown food catering company Cuisine en Locale\u2014was hit by a burglary and wrecked office overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, owner JJ Gonson says.<\/p>\n

The head chef\/head of sound found the damage when he arrived at 156 Highland Ave. business around 10:30 Wednesday morning, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSean [O\u2019Brien] came in to open to cater and he found a wrecked office. Just stuff everywhere. The doors were torn off the cabinets. That is the damage, an office that way, ripped to pieces,\u201d Gonson says. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how they got in or out. That makes everybody uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alarm was on,\u201d Gonson says. \u201cAt 3:30 in the morning, they [the alarm company] heard something and they didn\u2019t call us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police \u201creports currently note that the building was secure and there were no signs of forced entry, and that multiple people have keys and a building access code,\u201d according to a Somerville city spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Once also reported to police that hundreds of dollars were missing. Gonson asked me not to name the exact amount. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a huge amount of money. It was the office that was torn apart and a sense of discomfort at a time when Boston music is already feeling uncomfortable. We just had that EMF [musicians building in Cambridge] thing. For a small business any loss is a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelle Wood, the longtime host of the locally-created music program \u201cBoston Emissions\u201d and organizer of the annual Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Rumble contest, launched a GoFundMe fund-raiser for Once<\/a> on Thursday: \u201cOnce Ballroom in Somerville is one of the last remaining independently-owned spaces around. We learned today that the venue was vandalized and robbed. This is a tough blow, and just as the club enters into the historically leaner months on the concert calendar. Please join together in offering support and throw them a line. This fund will assist the club in the fixes it needs and to face the aforementioned lean times.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of midday Saturday, $12,781 have been pledged toward a $20,000 goal. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond generous,\u201d Gonson says.<\/p>\n

\"Sheperdess<\/a>
Sheperdess performs at “Map of Monsters” at Once, Somerville, Oct. 17, 2014. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cuisine en Locale launched in 2005. Once Ballroom opened as an offshoot in early 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been some really tough moments for Once,\u201d Gonson says. \u201cIt started with that year when it snowed all the time.\u201d Once hosted the Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Rumble in 2016 and 2017, but plans fell through in 2018, which Gonson says was another big financial blow.<\/p>\n

The burglary and vandalism \u201ctotally sucks and it hurts us because we\u2019re so hand to mouth. It hurts us,\u201d Gonson says. \u201cIt\u2019s so fragile. It doesn\u2019t take much to damage a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should people worry that Once might close?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not it,\u201d Gonson says. \u201cWe are always, always, always on the edge. I invite people to think about what really matters for longevity is to come to shows or if you can\u2019t come to shows \u2026 consider if you can buy a ticket and give it to a friend. \u2026 What really matters is coming to the shows and buying drinks and telling friends.\u201d She adds, \u201cOr consider us for catering.\u201d<\/p>\n

What now? \u201cWe repaint the office, put the doors back on the hinges. We go to the bank and take out more money. \u2026 And keep calm and carry on, my friend. Don\u2019t abandon the music scene. Fight fiercely to support food and art because culture matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Once Ballroom\u2014the Somerville nightclub and headquarters of the locally-grown food catering company Cuisine en Locale\u2014was hit by a burglary and wrecked office overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, owner JJ Gonson says. The head chef\/head of sound found the damage when he arrived at 156 Highland Ave. business around 10:30 Wednesday morning, she says. \u201cSean [O\u2019Brien] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,114],"tags":[370,368,369,175,314,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7440"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7448,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions\/7448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}