Escorted by an Albemarle deputy, Roderick “Guam” McDowell, 25, leaves Circuit Court on Thursday, May 28, a day before a jury recommended a sentence of 60 years.
PHOTO BY GORDON BLOCK

After two-and-a-half hours of deliberation, a jury found 25-year-old Roderick “Guam” McDowell guilty of first-degree murder and robbery in the April 12, 2007 slaying of William Godsey, the husband of Wood Grill Buffet night manager Sandra Godsey.

The victim was beaten over the head with a baseball bat until it shattered, and died 12 days later. While the courtroom was pindrop quiet during most of the trial, emotions ran high once the jury reached its verdict.

“How could you?” implored Godsey through tears, sitting on the witness stand during sentencing, moments before rushing out of Albemarle Circuit Court.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elliott Casey hailed the guilty verdict as “an inspiring day to the citizens of Albemarle County.”

“This case,” said Casey, “is a credit to citizens coming forward and telling the truth.”

Casey was referring to the six witnesses he called who had all been imprisoned with McDowell in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, where they all said McDowell had told them of (more)

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Joel Salatin, founder of Polyface Farms in Swoope Virginia, may be the Commonwealth’s most celebrated farmer– he’s already a household name from his leading role in sustainable food tome The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Now, he’s about to make the leap onto the silver screen in a pair of documentary films. The first, Food, Inc. is from the producers of the Oscar winning Al Gore-backed documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The second is Fresh, which focuses on the positives of smaller sustainable food businesses like Polyface and Stonyfield Farm.

Salatin is thrilled to be in the spotlight, according to a recent article in the Staunton News-Leader. “We’ve gone from sucking hind tit,” he told the paper, “to now being avant garde.”

–last updated Tuesday, May 26 at 3:47pm

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The Biltmore Grill on Elliewood Avenue was sold yesterday, but will re-open in August.

Biltmore Grill manager Katie Russell confirms that the Corner restaurant and bar, once named to a Playboy list of hot bars and home of the infamous Survivor Hour, was sold yesterday. After 14 years, it appears the poor economy prompted owner Tim O’Neil, who also owned the recently sold O’Neil’s Irish Pub, to throw in the towel.

“It was time to get out,” says Russell.

However, Biltmore fans needn’t mourn. Russell says the new owners plan on re-opening as the Biltmore Grill in August. Russell won’t say who the new owners are, but she does confirm that they are current Corner restaurant owners.

The building, long owned by Corner property owner Ann Albright, was built as a boarding house in 1945, then became a Mexican restaurant called Tortilla Flats in the 1970s. Later, it became the Coach House Inn and then Graffiti. In 1989, it was transformed into the Biltmore Grill by Dillon Baynes and a quiet North Carolina investor. Baynes is now a corporate developer in Atlanta, who happens to be spearheading Coran Capshaw’s Coal Tower development project.

On the heels of another Playboy mention in 1987, in which UVA was ranked the 10th best party school in the nation, Baynes oversaw the expansion of the building in the early 1990s, adding a ground level, a new back room upstairs, and solidifying its reputation as a place to party on the Corner.

–Last updated Tuesday, May 26 at 3:57pm

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Tom Jakubowski of What Up Dog, the Mall’s newest hot dog cart.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Tom Jakubowski isn’t the only person with a hot dog cart on the Downtown Mall, but he’s probably the only one with a degree from Hot Dog University.

“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” says Jakubowski, who opened his What Up Dog hot dog cart on the Mall just a week ago. “And then I saw something about Hot Dog University on CBS Good Morning, and decided to give it a try.”

During the Chicago-based two-day intensive course, dubbed “the Harvard of encased meats” by CBS, Jakubowski learned what’s called “the art of the cart.” But cooking and restaurants were already in his blood.

When Dish visited, his sister, Susan Jakubowski-Ostrowski, was lending a hand. The two grew up in the restaurant biz, as their father owned the Roy Rogers on Preston Avenue, where Bodos is now.

Jakubowski wanted to open his cart, which is parked in front of the Downtown Regal, last year, but a car accident interrupted his plans. But he’s full steam ahead, serving up jumbo gourmet dogs from Boar’s Head meats, along with 25 different toppings, nestled in buns from Chandler’s Bakery. He also had his shiny, stainless steel cart custom-made in Arizona.

“I bet there’s no one else on the Mall who has to cut their rolls before putting the hot dogs in,” he says.
Indeed, the jumbo dogs are tasty, the condiments unique and many, and Jakubowski, in his bright white chef’s smock, looks the part of an artist of the cart.

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 The new food guides are here! The new food guides are here! That’s right. Piedmont Environmental Council’s local food guide is out and its more extensive than ever. Who knew there was such a bounty of local food sources and sympathies? Well, we did, of course. This year, the guide includes 11 grocers, 8 farmer’s markets, 23 produce farms, 9 orchards, 15 meat, poultry, and dairy producers, 8 CSAs, 2 cheese makers, 4 caterers, and 15 restaurant (they list 16, but OXO has long since closed) that support local growing and eating. And all of it’s available online at the PEC’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local website.

There’s also a new Farmer-Chef Express directory designed to bring folks needing food together with those growing and raising it. Restaurants and shops, even the Harrisonburg City School systems, supply information about what food they need and how much, and food producers says what they produce and how much. 

Of course, the local food movement is about more than just eating well–it’s about saving our small farms!

“As the local food movement grows, it can help change the trend we are facing across Virginia that farmland is being lost,” says Melissa Wiley, director of our local Buy Fresh, Buy Local chapter. “Statewide, between 2002 and 2007, 500,000 acres of farmland were lost. Buy Fresh Buy Local can improve the economic outlook for small farms, which ultimately preserves farmland and the potential for people to grow food here in the future.”

Ah, remember just going to the grocery store?

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