The owner of a North End restaurant who is facing charges for a shooting incident in the popular neighborhood earlier this month appeared in court on Wednesday, a day after the Boston Licensing Board suspended the business's license to serve food and liquor.
Patrick Mendoza faced a judge for a dangerousness hearing on Wednesday on several charges, including assault to murder, after allegedly trying to shoot a man he's had a feud with for years and allegedly leaving a bullet hole in Modern Pastry on Hanover Street.
Prosecutors for the Commonwealth pushed for Mendoza to be held without bail, while his defense attorneys said that GPS monitoring would suffice, and that there's a lot more to the story.
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The judge found him to be dangerous, ruling that he be held without bail for 120 days.
He was arrested on Friday, following a search that lasted for more than a week.
The city's Licensing Board suspended Monica's Trattoria's liquor and food license during a hearing on Tuesday morning. The suspension, made based off a citation for failure of the licensee to appear at a board hearing on July 20, 2023, and a citation of no manager on duty, is until the board is able to transfer management to someone other than Mendoza.
Monica's has been in business for more than 20 years and now it's trying to replace its troubled owner and manager in order to retain its liquor license. Through its lawyers, the restaurant has been requesting the board grant a transfer of license to assistant manager Amanda McQueen.
Attorney William Ferullo argued on behalf of Monica's that McQueen has been working at the restaurant for six years and for the last two has been working as an operations manager, meaning she should be qualified to handle day-to-day operations. He also noted that Mendoza had resigned from the corporate entity that owns the business, and that his wife and son have taken over in his stead.
Despite this, the board decided to suspend the license, saying they have not had a chance to review an application for McQueen and that prior to the hearing they did not know who was in charge.
