Broom closet café

>> Revamped and renamed, le Cagibi fills a Mile-End void left by the closing of Esperanza

COMMUNITY-MINDED: Mariev Robitaille, Jess Lee and Bernie Houde

When the popular Mile-End eatery Esperanza suddenly closed its doors earlier this year, it sent shock waves through a wide demographic of zinesters, scenesters, noontime diners and music makers alike. Fortunately, it was only a matter of months before a triumvirate of community-minded folks, former Esperanza workers Jess Lee and Mariev Robitaille, and musician Bernie Houde, pooled their resources and re-opened the space under new ownership and a new name—le Cagibi. “It means a storeroom or a broom closet, but cuter,” Houde explains. “We went through so many names, and we needed to find something Francophonish and neutralish... a lot of people were really attached to Esperanza, but we had to change the name for legal purposes.”

Since opening a couple of months ago, le Cagibi’s already playing host to a couple of monthly DJ nights, and a wide range of live music and spoken word, with an emphasis on the experimental and the not-too-loud. “It can be a pretty free space, not only in terms of cost—we don’t charge people for the space—but for what you can do there,” says Houde. “It’s a good place for people to test things out or improvise.”

Le Cagibi has also adopted the Bibliograph/e Zine Library, a public-access collection of some 600 zines, comics and artist books. “Both Mariev and I were members of the Bookmobile collective, so bringing the zine library over seemed like a natural extension,” Houde says.

Le Cagibi will close (briefly!) in August for renovations, and will re-open with a revamped menu (retaining all the veggie favourites), a Web site and several changes to the back room, in order to make it a more amenable space for live shows.

STUFF TO SEE AT LE CAGIBI

Friday, July 6: Trumpeter Gordon Allen presents a night of improv, with Pierre-Yves Martel on bass, Philadephian Dan Blacksberg on trombone and NYC clarinetist Mike Winograd.

Saturday, July 7: Art collective and label Aribin Sillah presents le Headache Opera, featuring Depost Through The, Danger Danger Mammoth Hunter and Cian Éthrie.

Wednesday, July 11: Rick Rigby stirs things up with his biweekly improv hoedown series Lake of Stew.

5490 St-Laurent (at St-Viateur),
Info: www.lecagibi.ca