Cunard Tavern Has Closed. Maverick Square Wants to Stay Up Later.
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"Eastie has changed a lot in 10 years, and the concept that launched 10 years ago doesn't make a lot of sense right now." Phil Frattaroli said that to the Boston Globe in late September. A week later his Cunard Tavern at 24 Orleans St. served its last night.
Cunard closed on Sunday, Sept. 27. That leaves Jeffries Point without a place that served octopus dumplings and clam-topped burgers with a long craft beer list for nearly a decade. A few blocks inland, two very different bars are making the opposite bet. Both are in Maverick Square, and both are built around long hours. One pours Colombian coffee at 8 a.m. The other plans to pour whiskey until 2 a.m. East Boston's night out is moving toward the square and stretching across the whole day, and the owners involved have said as much on the record.
Frattaroli gave the Globe two reasons, and both matter for what comes next.
The first was about taste. He said fewer people go out for craft beer now. "We're worried about this generation not drinking," he said. Cunard's menu had already changed once. In 2024, James Beard award winner Tony Messina joined as chef-partner and brought a gastropub menu. Messina's résumé includes Alta Strada, Menton, and Uni, where he won Best Chef: Northeast in 2019. Even with that talent in the kitchen, the owner decided against carrying the concept through another winter. "It made more sense [to close] rather than prolonging it and hoping for the best during the winter," he said.
The second reason was location. Frattaroli said the Jeffries Point spot can feel cut off from the rest of the city, and that East Boston "is like an island in a lot of ways."
Put those two reasons together and you have the brief the two Maverick Square bars are trying to meet. They need to give people a reason to come in that doesn't depend on drinking, and they need a location where people are already passing through.
Pomona Café & Wine Bar opened in July at the V-shaped corner where Meridian and Paris streets meet. As of Boston Magazine's August report, it is open from 8 a.m. to midnight every day. That is sixteen hours a day from one storefront, and the menu changes over the course of the day.
How it got built is the most local part of the story. Elkin Villegas, a builder from Revere, was hired as general contractor for a planned East Boston location of the Pomona brand. When the expansion plans changed, he stepped in as owner. It is his first restaurant. He turned a former real estate office into a dining room and says his crew made the tables, the bar, and the kitchen and laid all the tile themselves. The Eastie café is loosely affiliated with the Pomona in Swampscott but has separate ownership.
The corner lot gives the trapezoid-shaped room windows on three sides. The main floor seats nearly 50, and a smaller lower level takes weekend overflow and private events. General manager Pablo Isaza told Boston Magazine he wants Pomona to sit between the neighborhood's casual takeout spots and the more upscale restaurants along the waterfront.
The drinks list reads like an answer to Frattaroli's worry. Bar manager Juan Ruiz carries a full cocktail list and wines from organic and woman-owned wineries, including the Santa Julia El Zorrito 2023 orange chardonnay from Argentina. He also pours Pierre Chavin Zero Rosé, an alcohol-free wine made from cinsault, syrah, and grenache. For guests who aren't drinking alcohol, there are juices, smoothies, and a coffee program built on single-origin Colombian beans from Fazenda, a roaster in Dedham. A table can order one round with alcohol and one without, and the bar is set up for both.
The Spur is going into the gray stone building at 34 Maverick Square. Co-owner Joe Skoczylas's family has owned it for more than 100 years. Caught in Eastie notes the building was once a bank. When the neighboring bar Eddie C's closed in early 2025, Skoczylas and his partner, Corinne Balesano, took over its liquor license. Boston's Licensing Board approved the new bar on Aug. 27. Building it took nearly two years, with a full gut job and a collapsing roof along the way.
As of the last reports in late September, the doors were not open yet. The owners told the Globe they hoped to open "in the next few weeks." Patch reported on Sept. 29 that no official opening date had been announced. The bar's Instagram account, @spurboston, is the place to watch for opening news.
The owners are clear that the theme is cowboy culture, which they treat as separate from a Nashville-style country bar. Skoczylas got into it while training rescue horses in Topsfield. "Cowboy is much more rock-and-roll than it is country," he told the Globe, and he added, "Everyone is welcome." General manager and entertainment director Steven Mendoza is a former Marine and pro rodeo athlete. He has been booking a rotation that runs from rocked-up red dirt country to jazz, surf rock, and throwbacks.
The bar also gives back. A portion of proceeds and all merchandise sales will go to animal rescue, starting with Paws Saving Paws, the Texas nonprofit where the couple adopted their dog, Zero. The owners will match every dollar tipped to the live bands with a donation.
This is the clearest evidence that Maverick Square is being set up as a place to spend an evening. The Spur is seeking permits for a food truck to serve as its kitchen and as a late-night food stop in what the Globe called "sleepy Maverick Square," where most businesses close early. The plan is to stay open until 2 a.m., and the owners hope other local businesses will extend their hours too.
Skoczylas pictures guests having a few drinks and then crossing the street for a bite at Taco Mex. Its owner, Luis Vasco, is a friend of the Spur team and works closely with them. Vasco even told the Globe a story about his father riding a horse through Maverick Square decades ago. "We're not trying to be the only ones around," Skoczylas said. "We want to make sure that everybody has a chance to make money."
Frattaroli described Jeffries Point as an island. The Spur's owners are pitching the square as a cluster where several businesses support each other.
Here is how the square's hours stack up this fall, using the latest published information for each place.
When The Spur opens, the two storefronts together would cover eighteen hours. Cunard kept dinner-and-drinks hours a short walk away in Jeffries Point. The square's new businesses are trying to cover close to the whole day.
Cunard's building isn't changing hands. Frattaroli owns it, and it once housed his grandfather's woodworking shop. He told the Globe he might open a new restaurant there in the spring and isn't ruling out an Italian menu. For now, his focus is a Winchester location of the North End's Caffe Ducali, and he said Cunard's staff could move there. "Italian and Italian-American are the things I know best," he said. Nothing has been announced for the space yet, so Jeffries Point will likely have one less place to go out through the winter.
One more storefront change near the square has a different purpose. On July 23, Maverick Landing Community Services launched a Grab & Go Produce Market. It offers affordable fresh produce and artisan bread through advance orders, and the organization lists its address as 31 Liverpool St.
When a familiar corner spot changes, the blocks around it often change too. Lynn D'Avolio follows East Boston one storefront at a time, from Orleans Street to Maverick Square. If you'd like to talk about how changes like these play out on your street, let's connect.
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