OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – When First Avenue Bar & Bistro was announced, my first thought was immediate: This had to be special. It was taking over the former home of La Cuisine, the French restaurant whose farewell Facebook post was filled with hundreds of comments from locals who had marked birthdays, anniversaries, and ordinary Tuesday nights at its tables. La Cuisine’s chapter had been a meaningful one. The name on the door has changed. The culinary chapter on that corner has not closed.
Downtown property owner Don Gulling opened First Avenue Bar & Bistro to the public on October 20, 2026, at 48 SW 1st Avenue after buying the business from La Cuisine owners Patrice Perron and Elodie Guinard in July. On Wednesday, November 4, 2026, they held their ribbon-cutting ceremony steps away from the entrance downtown.
“We want to be a totally approachable family restaurant that offers excellent value and an elevated environment,” Gulling said. “It’s an approachable cuisine. It’s nothing off-menu and weird. It’s family food. It’s American comfort food.” The goal, he added, was to keep the corner in restaurant use rather than let the longtime dining spot go dark.
The building itself has been open for business far longer than any of its recent tenants. Speaking with Gulling, he mentioned that the building was constructed in the 1920s at the Fort King intersection; it once stood along what was then a main thoroughfare through Ocala. Early on, it operated as a horse-feed store, one of the practical commercial spaces that filled downtown after the city rebuilt itself in brick following the 1883 fire. Over the decades, it changed hands and uses, remaining a working part of the commercial district. When Patrice Perron and Elodie Guinard bought it around 2008, they renovated the space and opened La Cuisine in 2009; for the next 17 years, that was the only version most Ocalans knew. Look up inside the bar or main dining room today, and the cedar ceiling slats still date to the 1920s, the same ones that have been there since the building first opened for trade.
Gulling, who already holds other downtown properties, said the chance to keep the building in restaurant use arrived quickly. “Patrice and Elodie came to us in May and told us they wanted to move on,” he said. “I’m a big believer in downtown. I have other properties downtown. And so when they came to me, literally the next day, I said, ‘yes’… We finished the acquisition in July and then started construction and renovations immediately.”…