food and drink

Vino Wine and Spirits is uncorked on South Carrollton

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The once bare white walls of a South Carrollton Avenue storefront are now highlighted by bottles of red, white, rose and sparkling wines from France, the U.S., Spain and Italy, along with some select local and global spirits. If those walls could talk, they would tell of the journey Vino Wine and Spirits took, including delays due to COVID-19 pandemic regulations and the cyber attack on City Hall, as they were navigating the already arduous permitting process. Then there was the card reader that wasn’t going to arrive in time for the opening, and then when it did, it was in pieces to be assembled. The good news is that a new chapter began the last week of June, when Vino Wine and Spirits welcomed its first customers, card reader be damned. Vino Wine and Spirits is the realization of a dream of Allyson and Milton Hernandez.

business

Police: Camellia Grill burglaries may be inside job

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The Camellia Grill on South Carrollton Avenue has been broken into twice within a month by thieves burrowing through a wall, and investigators believe that employees of the landmark restaurant may be involved. The first burglary was in early October, and surveillance video from inside the store shows a masked intruder coming through a hole in the wall, walking immediately to the video camera and turning it away, said Sgt. Warren Keller of the NOPD property-crimes division. The cash box was then stolen from a safe, Keller said. This past Friday, the Camellia Grill was struck again, and the burglary followed the same exact pattern: a man with something over his face comes through the wall in the exact same spot and goes straight for the camera, and the business’s money turns up missing again, Keller said.