Work crews removed the statue of General Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal on Richmond’s Monument Avenue earlier this month. PC: Eze Amos
Statue disposal
Many of Richmond’s Monument Avenue Confederate statues are gone, but debate over their removal continues, and people have wondered where the toppled statues are being stored. This week, some sharp-eyed Richmonders noticed a large collection of monument-shaped tarps standing around the city’s wastewater treatment plant. It’s about as close as you can get to literally flushing the things down the toilet.
PC: Castle Hill Gaming
Prime real estate
It looks like a slot machine. It plays like a slot machine. But actually, it’s a “skill game.” Now, these games are legal in Virginia—and there are more than a dozen lined up in a glamorous former bank building downtown. The space is currently home to high-end steakhouse Prime 109, which was shuttered by the economic crash. The new scene inside the building has left some in town wondering if there’s a swanky casino in Charlottesville’s future.
Prime 109 boss Loren Mendosa insists that “right now there’s not much to talk about.” Sure, it could be a casino eventually, but Mendosa says things are happening fast, and he has “no idea what the actual thing would look like.” Still, he’s rolling the dice on the idea.
The Prime team hurriedly carted the machines into the space at the 11th hour. On July 1, all previously installed skill game machines became legal, though the law change doesn’t allow new machines to be installed. “If we don’t have the machines installed by June 30th, there’s no chance of even talking about it,” Mendosa says.
“It’s definitely not [a casino] right now. Who knows?…It might be a lot of different things,” he says about his restaurant full of quasi-gambling machines.
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Quote of the week
“When you go outside and say, ‘I can’t breathe with this mask on; I’m gonna take it off,’ try breathing with COVID.”
—area resident Stacey Washington, who contracted the virus after taking her mask off at a family Fourth of July celebration.
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In brief
Teacher troubles
On July 9, Albemarle County schools laid out plans for in-person reopening this fall. It quickly came to light, though, that the plan had been created without getting feedback from ACPS teachers, reports The Daily Progress. Teachers and staff have since circulated an open letter advocating against in-person instruction, calling the proposal “unequivocally unsafe for Albemarle County staff and families.”
Party’s over
As coronavirus cases increase every day, Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker urged local residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay home as much as possible, among other safety precautions, in a press conference on Monday afternoon. Walker also denounced the large gatherings being held around town—including parties on UVA’s frat row.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker reminded residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay home. PC: Eze Amos
New faces
Norfolk Delegate Jay Jones and Alexandria Delegate Hala Ayala have announced 2021 campaigns for lieutenant governor of Virginia, joining Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan—both running for governor—as the third and fourth people of color under the age of 50 to announce a Democratic run at statewide office. Meanwhile, Terry McAuliffe still lurks in the wings, having pulled almost $2 million into his PAC this spring.
Tiki terror
Early Monday morning, two local activists awoke to find blazing tiki torches in their yards—an eerie reminder of the KKK rally held nearly three years ago at the University of Virginia. (Another activist found an unlit, discarded torch.) The act was “without a doubt intentional,” according to a Medium post by Showing Up for Racial Justice.
Redshaw split with partner chefs Loren Mendosa and Mitchell Bereens—C-VILLE Weekly’s Best Chef winners in 2015 and 2019, respectively—reportedly to spend more time with his family (he and his wife, Allie, have two children) and launch a private supper club. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Renowned local chef Ian Redshaw has left the building—or rather, buildings, plural. Redshaw parted ways earlier this month with his fellow partners of two high-profile restaurants he helped put on the map: Lampo, the Neapolitan pizzeria in Belmont, and Prime 109, the upscale steakhouse on the Downtown Mall. Voted Best Chef in 2018 by C-VILLE Weekly readers, Redshaw also received major national recognition as a semifinalist for the 2019 James Beard Awards Best Rising Star Chef of the Year. The Charlottesville 29 food blog reported on Monday that Redshaw split with chefs Loren Mendosa and Mitchell Bereens—C-VILLE’s Best Chef winners in 2015 and 2019, respectively—to spend more time with his family (he and his wife, Allie, also a chef, have two children) and launch a private supper club.
Can craze
On the heels of the successful launch of Charlottesville’s Waterbird Spirits canned cocktails, which sold out hours after a shipment of 42 cases hit the shelves at Kroger, Richmond’s Belle Isle Moonshine announced September 24 that it would introduce a line of sparkling pop-top drinks. Flavors including grapefruit and blood orange will be spiked with Belle Isle’s moonshine.
Nibbles
Charlottesville’s famed Sandwich Lab, which started in Hamiltons’ at First & Main on the Downtown Mall, is making a comeback on Thursday, September 25, at Peloton Station, the new home of former Hamiltons’ chef Curtis Shaver. • Early Mountain Vineyards introduced chef Tim Moore last week at a tasting-menu dinner at the Madison winery. A seven-year veteran of The Inn at Little Washington, a three Michelin star restaurant, Moore will head up Early Mountain’s fine-dining program. • Grit Coffee is officially open in its new Pantops location, in the Riverside Village development on Stony Point Road. • Bonefish Grill in Hollymead Town Center is celebrating National Seafood Month with a three-course lobster meal for $19.99 every Thursday in October. • Over in Staunton, Blu Point Seafood Co., a venture by the fine folks behind Zynodoa restaurant, jumps into the deep end with a grand opening Friday, October 4. “The Chesapeake Bay meets the New England shore,” is Blu Point’s motto. We’re buying it! blupointseafoodco.com
Pappardelle bolognese, grilled swordfish and chitarra-cut spaghetti with jumbo lump crab at Tavola. Photos by Tom McGovern
“Cooking is a young person’s game.” I’ve heard it more than once. As chefs grow older, the daily grind leaves many looking to continue their careers outside a restaurant kitchen. Never easy, the transition can be especially tough for chef-owners, who must entrust someone else at the helm.
Consider Michael Keaveny of the Belmont Italian restaurant, Tavola. When Keaveny opened Tavola in 2009 with his wife, Tami (C-VILLE’s arts editor), the lifelong chef ran the kitchen. His food was outstanding. In 2011 though, the father of two was ready to step back. “Pushing 50, it would’ve been tough to continue in that role for much longer,” says Keaveny. But Tavola after 2011 has been every bit as good as Tavola before 2011. So, how has Keaveny pulled it off?
“I try to make it advantageous for young chefs to come in, learn and better themselves,” says Tavola owner Michael Keaveny. Photo by Eze Amos
Initially, preparation eased the transition. Keaveny had been grooming his sous chef, Loren Mendosa, for the role. With Mendosa’s talent and training, regulars barely noticed a difference.
But, when Mendosa left in 2014 to help launch Lampo, Keaveny found himself with a new challenge: hiring and retaining a talented head chef from outside Tavola who would be willing to cook someone else’s food. Tavola’s dishes are largely Keaveny’s recipes, and their consistent execution has been key to the restaurant’s success. “An established chef who wants to come in and do his own menu is never going to work out at Tavola,” admits Keaveny.
The ones Keaveny has hired sure have worked out. Most recently, Caleb Warr was named the area’s Best Chef by C-VILLE Weekly readers. When Warr left town this summer, Keaveny hired C&O chef de cuisine Dylan Allwood, who took over in July. And, as Mendosa and I learned during a recent dinner at Tavola, the kitchen hasn’t missed a beat under Allwood, continuing the restaurant’s success from one chef to the next.
Vital to this, says Mendosa, is excellent training. “Tavola has done a great job of bringing staff along at their own pace and training properly,” he says. “Not every kitchen has that in mind or the luxury of the time to train.” Allwood has noticed this already. In just three months, “Michael’s experience and knowledge have helped me improve as a chef,” he says. Keaveny does much of the training himself, still spending more than 15 hours a week in the kitchen. “I try to make it advantageous for young chefs to come in, learn and better themselves,” Keaveny says.
That shows in Tavola’s classics, which Allwood’s kitchen already has down. Case in point is the cozzi ai ferri e pane that began our meal. Mussels are skillet-roasted in butter and garlic, and then served in the skillet with slices of Albemarle Baking Company baguette to soak up the briny sauce. Like many of Tavola’s dishes, Mendosa says, the mussels dish resonates because it’s simply prepared but boasts a bold flavor profile.
Allwood’s go-to among the Tavola classics is linguine alla carbonara. “Comfort food,” he says of the pasta tossed with housemade sausage, Olli pancetta, egg, Pecorino Romano, onion and black pepper. For purists who quibble that sausage does not belong in true carbonara, I have advice: Taste it. This is the way Keaveny learned it at the legendary Connecticut restaurant Carbone’s, and there’s a reason chefs and regulars swoon over it. “I love the way the salty pork and sausage work with the egg sauce and a healthy dose of black pepper,” Allwood says.
Dylan Allwood joined Tavola as executive chef in July. Photo by Natalie Jacobsen
Mendosa meanwhile is partial to the bucatini all’amatriciana, which we polished off quickly. Like spaghetti but thicker and hollowed out, bucatini is tossed with marinara, Calabrian chili, onion, Olli pancetta and Grana Padano cheese. “Again, simple, so it has to hit on all the little details,” Mendosa says.
Another key to retaining good chefs is providing an outlet beyond rote replication of recipes: the blackboard menu of specials. “That’s the chef’s playground,” Keaveny says, dating back to Mendosa’s days. “The freedom to create within the realm of the specials gives plenty of creative outlet for most chefs,” Mendosa says. And, it also rewards Tavola’s guests. Among all of the dishes Mendosa and I shared, Allwood’s special entrata was our favorite: chitarra-cut spaghetti with jumbo lump crab, Calabrian chilies, basil and lobster brodo. The squared shape and texture of chitarra pasta enabled the luscious sauce to adhere to it, all the better to savor it. “Fantastic,” Mendosa said. “Rich and buttery, but still light enough to leave you feeling satisfied but not overwhelmed.”
Tavola is one of Charlottesville’s most beloved restaurants. The main reasons for that, Mendosa says, are the quality of ingredients and consistency in preparing them. For the latter, since stepping down as head chef six years ago, Keaveny has relied upon a series of excellent young chefs to fill that role. He’s found another one in Allwood.
“Dylan is doing an incredible job,” Keaveny says. “His food has fit in perfectly with what Tavola does/is.”
Morel mushroom season is about a month long—from mid-April to mid-May.
For going on a week-and-a-half we’ve been waiting, watching the weather, hoping for the perfect combination of conditions that will spark an explosion of hidden life bursting from the forest floor. “Morel mushrooms are notoriously fickle,” explains 33-year-old Loren Mendosa, Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria chef-co-owner and local morel hunting guru. “They’re kind of like the baby bear in the fairy tale that wanted his porridge ‘just right.’”
While the exact formula consists of a somewhat mysterious stew of variables, the season for these treasured delicacies is short, beginning somewhere around the second week in April and, in a best-case scenario, stretching into mid-May. “Regional folk wisdom says it follows spring gobbler season and that morels can be found when the poplar leaves are the size of squirrels’ feet, or when the red bud blossoms begin to open,” says Mark Jones, resident mushroom cultivation expert and CEO at Keswick’s Sharondale Farms. Which is another way of saying: when the daytime temperatures average above 60 degrees but remain relatively cool, with nighttime lows hovering just above 50 degrees for about a week. “That’s when the sap starts moving and the primary producers come online, and the trees start pumping sugars and juice into the ground,” says Jones. That surge of energy feeds the subterranean vegetative structures of fungi, or mycelium, causing threadlike roots of hyphae to grow and prime themselves for reproduction.
With those conditions good and ripe, throw in a warm, heavy rain and presto—in the manner of fruit trees producing plums or apples, the mycelium put out mushrooms. Only, in the case of the latter, the process is radically accelerated. “They come up overnight, growing so fast that, if you were watching, you could literally see them grow,” says Mendosa. “They’re here and then they’re gone, and some years they don’t grow at all. You have to catch them at exactly the right moment.”
This, combined with the fact that morels are incredibly tasty and have yet to be effectively commercially cultivated, makes the mushrooms a coveted culinary delicacy and, along with ginseng and truffles, a forager’s trophy crop.
The hunt is on
For a string of afternoons earlier this month, storm clouds roll dense and steel-blue over Afton Mountain. From my front porch swing I observe them with mixed emotion—one moment I’m swearing, the next I’m begging like a medieval farmer. Curse, pray, threaten, plead. Regardless, the weather does as it will. A week passes. Minutes after I’ve finally decided to throw in the towel and quit caring, on comes the rain.
Early the next morning I pay a visit to Shenandoah National Park. Tromping through a wilderness area off Skyline Drive I’ve circled on my map a somewhat bitterly labeled “Eric Wallace’s Secret Morel Spot #1,” and I watch the forest floor with an intensity I hadn’t known was possible.
“Every hunter worth his salt has his own spots and, because they tend to produce again and again, year after year, he’s probably not going to reveal them to anyone,” says Ben Kessler, co-owner of C’ville Foodscapes, tactfully rejecting my request to tag along for his first morel foraging mission of the season. Part of the fun is getting out there in the woods alone and learning the hard way, he added, encouraging me to embrace the adventure of discovering a new wild edible experience for myself.
Ben Kessler, co-owner of C’ville Foodscapes, says each hunter has his own go-to spots for finding morels, which tend to pop up in the same spots year after year. Photo by John Robinson
He did, however, offer the following advice: “What you want to look for is damp, warm leafy areas around dead or dying elms, poplars, ashes or apple trees in areas where there’s very little foot traffic, animal or human. …Once you find a good spot, you want to try and really tune into the forest floor, to think in terms of pattern recognition, proceeding in a gridded search pattern, looking for slight variations. From above, the mushrooms blend into their surroundings and look just like pinecones. For the unseasoned eye, they’re pretty tough to spot.”
Treading delicately through the leaves I maintain a low crouch, scouring the terra for abnormalities. “Find one, find many,” I whisper to myself over and over, taking pleasure in my appropriation of the mantra Mendosa said he’d picked up from an old-timer who had, in turn, gotten it from his grandfather. “The trick is spotting that first one,” Mendosa had assured me. “When you see one, stop immediately where you are and take a good look around; chances are, there are a whole lot more. Once you find that first one, it’s like this shift happens—your eyes kind of adjust and suddenly you’re seeing them everywhere.”
‘Forager’s gold’
If there’s anyone qualified to shed light on the pleasures, hardships and how-tos of morel hunting, it’s Mendosa. Growing up on Shannon Farms in Nelson County, he began foraging wild edibles as a toddler and recalls harvesting his first morels around the age of 5. “Like sleeping, eating and bathing, foraging was just a part of our lives,” he says. “It started with the adults teaching us what to look for and how to identify things, and then we started venturing out in little bands by ourselves.” Each spring, when the weather began to turn warm, Mendosa would join the neighborhood kids and disappear into the forest for hours, searching for ramps, sorrel, milkweed, stinging nettle and, yes, morels. “They were and remain sort of like the forager’s gold—they’re rare and hard to find, and when you do it feels absolutely amazing,” he says. “I remember once, when I was in maybe the seventh grade, my friends and I found a bunch and cooked up this big feast with wild asparagus, ramps and morels. We drank spring water and ate in the woods. It was pretty gluttonous!”
“They come up overnight, growing so fast that, if you were watching, you could literally see them grow. They’re here and then they’re gone, and some years they don’t grow at all. You have to catch them at exactly the right moment.” Loren Mendosa
As with most morel hunters, the desire to share his spoils with friends and family has followed Mendosa into adulthood. “Two years back, Loren found a boatload of morels and went out of his way to let the local culinary community know that, if we wanted some, they were available,” says Jeremy Webb, sous chef at Hamiltons’ at First & Main. “He has this great secret spot out in an old orchard somewhere in Nelson and that year it was jumping with mushrooms, and he wanted to make sure everybody had the opportunity to share in that abundance.” Abundance indeed. Enlisting the aid of fellow Charlottesvillian and mycologist Charlie Aller, Mendosa hauled in upward of 80 pounds of morels. “To put that number into perspective, I’ve been foraging for morels for more than 15 years and the most I’ve ever found is probably three pounds, which is basically the amount I need to change the menu and run a special at the restaurant,” says Webb.
Jeremy Webb, sous chef at Hamiltons’ at First & Main, says the restaurant generally sources morels from full-time professional foragers. Because foraged foods are unpredictable, the restaurant tends to make morels the focus of a daily special once a bounty comes in. Photo by John Robinson
But in Mendosa’s case, while certainly impressive, poundage is a secondary point. According to Webb, the example’s significance lies in what it reveals about the attitude of the city’s culinary community. “I’ve worked in restaurants in Richmond, Roanoke and other places, and I’ve never experienced the degree of communication and support that we have here in Charlottesville surrounding local foods,” he says. Over the course of the last decade or so, locally sourced foods have for most area restaurants become more rule than exception, says Hamilton’s chef Curtis Shaver. And the process has yielded an atmosphere of collaboration, as opposed to a competitive mindset. “It’s not so much that I take pride in being this great hunter who can find so much of this or that,” says Mendosa. “It’s more so a pride in the region, in the fact that we live in a place that produces these amazing mushrooms that are famous all around the world. …I take pride in the richness of the land and in doing my part to make that bounty available to friends, family, cooks and the patrons they serve.”
Priceless treasure
Moral high ground aside, there is an economic element to foraging morels. Of the 200 species of edible mushrooms native to Virginia and the 25 that find their way into restaurants, morels are by far the most coveted. “Because you can’t grow them with efficiency in a commercial setting, because they’re hard to find in the wild, because the season is so brief and because they taste absolutely out-of-this-world, yeah, they fetch a pretty price,” says Jones. According to Webb, morels typically run $20 to $35 a pound, depending on availability. Which would make Mendosa’s 2015 haul worth about $2,800.
But how, exactly, do the mushrooms make it from the wild onto plates at your favorite restaurants?
“We typically like to deal with full-time professional foragers,” explains Webb, who says the pros tend to have applied for Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services permits certifying them to inspect the mushrooms for contamination and disease, thereby ensuring restaurants meet Food and Drug Administration regulations for serving wild foods. “They’ll come to the back door with a bag full of mushrooms or whatever and Curtis or I will go back there, take a look, agree on a price and potentially place an order.” At that point, the manager cuts the forager a check and the chefs get to work modifying the menu. In a best-case scenario, the mushrooms are served that night. Worst, the next day. “Foraged foods are unpredictable, so it’s kind of a pain in the neck to change things like that, but man, when you’re staring at a bunch of rare mushrooms that were picked just hours before, how can you say no?” says Webb, laughing.
In times of local scarcity, chefs turn to Cavalier Produce, which sources morels from Oregon-based foraging company Foods In Season. “Wild edibles entail less than 1 percent of our total business, but it’s a service we’re proud to provide, because we feel it helps keep our local restaurants at the top of the field,” says Cavalier’s operations manager Spencer Morris, who has been sourcing food for the company for 16 years. In 2016, from March 23 through the end of May, Cavalier sold 120 pounds of morels. “The foragers let us know when they’re coming in and we then have our sales representatives call restaurants and take orders. Typically, they’ll buy five or 10 pounds at a time.” Once orders are placed, Cavalier has Foods In Season overnight the mushrooms via FedEx.
“The flavor is really meaty and delicate, but really it’s unlike anything else. …They pair great with cheese or ham, but basically I like to sautè them in butter and let them stand on their own so you can really taste the mushroom.” Jeremy Webb
Regardless of origins, once the morels arrive at the restaurant, here’s what happens. “I clean them by rinsing them and then placing them on a sheet or tray, removing any remaining bugs, pine needles or leaf debris by hand. Then I dump them in salted water for a quick second rinse,” says Webb. After that, the fun begins. “The flavor is really meaty and delicate, but really it’s unlike anything else. …They pair great with cheese or ham, but basically I like to sautè them in butter and let them stand on their own so you can really taste the mushroom.”
Other area restaurants known for making use of morels include Mas Tapas, Lampo, The Alley Light, The Local and more.
Finder’s keepers
After hours of prowling and many false excitements, I plop down on an old dead stump beside a fallen elm and ask myself what the hell I’m doing out here. “So much for Secret Morel Spot #1,” I mutter, imagining Kessler, Mendosa and Jones wearing spring-green Peter Pan tunics, skipping through a meadow of bright-yellow buttercups. Big colorfully woven baskets brimming with morels are hooked over their elbows. A red-checkered quilt lies spread in the meadow’s center. There’s an ice bucket with wine and champagne. Fine cheese. Bread. And Webb is manning a grill. By Job, the bastards are having a picnic!
I prepare to deal the stump a vicious toe bash, only then, a little to the right of my raised boot I spot… an abnormality. Looks like a pinecone, but not. Could it…oh yes. Yes, yes, yes! A morel snaps into focus. Like a fairy tower jutting from the forest floor, its conical top looks like a shriveled yellow-brown brain. It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“Find one, find many,” I hiss, reminding myself to focus. Blinking, I survey the area. And sure enough, like solving a tessellation, I see them everywhere. Hot joy pulses through my body. Mendosa and company give me a standing ovation.
“For me, it’s about the hunt—I love that moment when you find a bunch and you just get overwhelmed by the beauty of being in the woods and by the fact you’ve sort of just stumbled upon these amazing specimens,” Webb had told me days before. “Whenever I find a good-size batch for myself, I always end up calling friends. It’s not often I cook at home, but on occasions like those I put on some music, make a big fire, whip up a nice pasta and tell my friends to bring the wine and beer.”
Like a mendicant, I slip down onto my knees and bow before my first morel. Studying its strange curves, I think about how this fellow will taste and, yes, about those I’d like to share him with.
Niko gets a stay of execution.
Courtesy Prayers for Niko
Totally cleared
Robert Davis, 32, spent 13 years in prison for a Crozet double slaying after making what experts call a textbook false confession. He was released a year ago on a conditional pardon and on December 16, the governor granted an absolute pardon, a rarity in Virginia. Read more.
Rumor of the week
Is Lampo opening a steakhouse in the downtown Bank of America building, where owner Hunter Craig has already confirmed a grilled meatery will be going? Lampo co-owner Loren Mendosa says, “That’s a popular rumor,” and declined to comment.
Last week’s rumor confirmed
Quantitative Investment Management owner Jaffray Woodriff issued an official Payne Ross release acknowledging that an entity called Taliaferro Junction LLC is evaluating the Main Street Arena as a purchase for a 21st-century office building that will not house QIM.
Accounting for every penny
Charlottesville plans to award Belmont Bridge preliminary design and engineering to Kimley-Horn of Richmond, and negotiated the cost to $1,980,038.77, according to a release.
ABC not liable
Photo by Bryan Beaubrun
A judge dropped the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control and Agent John Cielakie from Martese Johnson’s $3 million lawsuit stemming from his bloody 2015 arrest after he showed his real ID at Trinity Irish Pub and was turned away.
No more No. 15
UVA basketball star Malcolm Brogdon’s jersey is headed for the display cases and his number has been retired, making him the eighth Hoo to receive this honor. Brogdon is now a rookie for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Sad tidings
Christopher Spears, 22, of Waynesboro died in a single-car crash around 4am December 16 on U.S. 250 in Crozet in Albemarle’s sixth fatal crash this year.
Candy land
Photo Tom McGovern
From the initial blueprint to the cardboard model to the actual cookie construction, UVA Dining’s executive pastry chef Janice Benjamin takes building gingerbread houses to a new level. This year, she based her annual holiday work of art, which currently sits in the main lobby of the UVA Children’s Hospital, on everyone’s favorite movie of the season: Elf.
On the house: 304.5 hours of labor | 98 pieces of gingerbread | 60 pounds of royal icing | 6 pounds of cherry Twizzlers used on
the Empire State Building | 6 different kinds of licorice | 2 12-volt rechargeable wheelchair batteries to power the skating rink
Accused cat killer granted stay
Courtesy Pray for Niko
An Albemarle County pit bull named Niko, on doggie death row for allegedly attacking and killing a neighbor’s cat in 2014, has been granted a stay until January 18, when his owner will appeal Judge Cheryl Higgins’ order to execute him.
What was scheduled as Toni Stacy’s last visit with her pup at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA on December 18 turned into a protest attended by many sign-waving dog-lovers and an eventual celebration when Stacy received the news later that day.
The case has also attracted the attention of Against All Oddz Animal Alliance Inc., a Buffalo, New York, rescue organization that has offered to take Niko into its care. It is undecided whether the group will be allowed to gain custody of him.
Prayers for Niko/Niko Strong, a Facebook page for the pit’s supporters, has nearly 4,000 members. Kristy Hoover, a friend of Niko’s owners, created the group last October. “He’s just a typical dog,” she says. “He’s not vicious in any form.”
Stacy maintains that Niko did not attack the cat he’s charged with killing, but she posted on Facebook that “it’s all in God’s hands now.”
Quote of the week
It was such an amazing relief to have gotten the news and it was so favorable. It’s been a long, long journey. —Attorney Steve Rosenfield upon hearing Governor Terry McAuliffe had granted Robert Davis an absolute pardon.
