Mortgage Broker in Lexington, SC

Alodia’s Italian restaurant in Lexington has temporarily closed its doors after staff said their checks have bounced and they have not been paid for two weeks.

Lauren Brunson, who worked for two years as one of three managers at the restaurant, said issues began June 20 when several staff members were unable to cash their checks.

By June 28, managers at the West Main Street restaurant had decided to have a “cash-only day” in an attempt to pay staff. At the end of the day, employees decided to close the restaurant.

“I mean, it’s the end of the month and the beginning of a new month. I mean, everybody has bills due,” Brunson said. “The number one thing that you’re supposed to do for your employees is keep them happy, keep them paid. And when that’s not happening, I would have had so much more respect for (the owner) if he had addressed the issue.”

According to Brunson, Alodia’s owner Adam Huneau is currently on vacation and has not communicated with staff members about their concerns.

Zoe Spires, a former server at the Alodia’s for about two and a half years, took to Facebook before June 28, asking for any customers visiting to pay with cash. Spires said she thought getting word about the situation out to the community was important.

“I wanted people who go to Alodia’s to know that the tips that they’ve been leaving their servers wasn’t coming to us,” Spires said. “The money they spend is going to someone who doesn’t care about his employees.”

In her Facebook post, Spires said that while some employees were paid or given cash from the general manager’s personal account, multiple staff members were still waiting on money from working Monday.

Huneau replied to Spires’ post but otherwise has not publicly commented on the situation.

“Zoe is correct, there has been a cash flow issue for sure,” Huneau wrote on Spires’ post. “We are actively pursuing measures to correct it and it will be rectified.”

Huneau commented that the lack of pay was not intentional and said he plans to compensate Spires and reopen the restaurant. Spires said that she has yet to be compensated.

“It’s been a very challenging three years. I would appreciate everyone’s support when we reopen as we did recently at the Irmo store,” Huneau wrote in a comment. “Lexington will reopen and continue to serve the great community there.”

Alodia’s serves Italian food, featuring a variety of homemade pasta dishes for dinner. In 2019, Huneau was named the South Carolina Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration.

Brunson and Spires said checks had bounced before this month but that the problem was always resolved in the past.

According to Spires, Alodia’s was typically a popular and busy restaurant in Lexington. Brunson said the staff had a strong relationship with each other and the community.

“We’ve had our regulars, and that’s also part of what makes me really sad is that we’ve gotten to know the community,” Brunson said. “That’s also been ripped away from us, all those relationships.”

In the comments under Spires’ post, community members offered jobs and expressed their concerns about the situation while other employees explained their shared experiences.

“This sounds like less of a community problem and more of an illegal work situation. After not being paid, i sure wouldn’t return for more. File a wage complaint and move to a more reliable place. I’m sorry you are dealing with this,” one person commented.

Spires said she and other employees plan to take legal action.

“We all agree that this legal action should be done because not only has it affected our livelihood, but also our mental state on all of us who are extremely upset,” Spires said. “We work our butts off, and we work to pay for the things that we have.”

The restaurant’s Irmo location, 2736 North Lake Drive, is still open.

LEXINGTON, S.C. (WIS) - White Knoll High School received two bomb threats in the first couple days of school, according to a district message sent to parents and staff.

White Knoll High School is a part of Lexington County School District One and students returned to the classrooms after summer break on Aug. 9.

The school received a bomb threat on Tuesday and Wednesday, the district message said.

The threats had “a very low probability of being credible” and sweeps by law enforcements and school administrators were conducted on the campus and building.

WIS News 10 is working to confirm the results of the investigation.

Read the text from the emails sent out to parents signed by Principal Nicholas Pearson here:

Aug. 15:

“Dear White Knoll High Students, Employees and Families, WKHS was notified by law enforcement of a bomb threat directed at our school this morning. The threat had a very low probability of being credible. However, law enforcement, school & district administrators conducted a thorough sweep of the building and campus as a precaution. We are working diligently to minimize any disruptions and to ensure that our school day continues as smoothly as possible. Employees and students can help keep our school safe by remembering to say something if you see something that doesn’t look or feel right. Having a threat directed at our school is concerning and frustrating, especially considering the hard work our employees and students have put in to have a great start to the school year. Please know that we are committed to investigating all threats thoroughly and dealing aggressively with those responsible to the fullest extent of the law, regulations and policy. Thank you for your continued support.”

Aug. 16:

“WKHS was once again notified by law enforcement of a bomb threat directed at our school this morning. Again, the threat has a very low probability of being credible. However, law enforcement, school & district administrators will conduct a thorough sweep of the building and campus as a precaution. Because of this, we are implementing the “Hold” safety response while we investigate and search the campus. The “Hold” response is part of the “Standard Response Protocol” used by school districts nationwide. During a “Hold”, school administrators clear the hallways and students and employees remain in the classrooms and teaching and learning continued. Click here if you would like to learn more about the Standard Response Protocol. Please know that we are committed to investigating all threats thoroughly and dealing aggressively with those responsible to the fullest extent of the law, regulations and policy. Again, we want to reiterate that school is continuing as normal while taking the necessary safety precautions, despite these threats that have little credibility.”

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A Lexington County resident recently was awarded $2 million by a jury after offering to settle for less than 10% of that amount following a trip-and-fall accident at a county-managed facility.

Donna Roland sued Lexington County in October of 2020 after she says she tripped and fell while stepping down from a curb leaving the Lexington County Auxiliary Administration building, located at 605 West Main St. She visited the location to drop off an absentee ballot as a means of taking safety precautions while voting during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result of the fall, Roland, who was 60 years old at the time, broke her arm in two places and had to undergo surgery 10 days later, according to Robert Goings, Roland’s lawyer.

Roland incurred $92,000 in medical bills and offered to settle with the county for $150,000, but Lexington County declined that offer.

Two-and-half years after the fall, a three-day trial ensued in a Lexington County court. And in less than 25 minutes on Wednesday, a unanimous $2 million verdict was announced in Roland’s favor. Judge Walton McLeod presided over the trial.

It was first time in Goings’ 15-year career that he’s seen a verdict so large in a county that’s historically conservative and reluctant to award such large monetary verdicts.

“I think this verdict reflects that Lexington County citizens are fed up with Lexington County government taking their tax dollars and doing nothing,” Goings said. “And the question is how many more citizens have to fall and get severely hurt before the county does the right thing and fix the sidewalk?”

Goings said Roland fell because of a channel or gap — about 3 inches wide and a half-inch deep — between the sidewalk and curb in front of the Lexington County Auxiliary Administrative building. Unaware of the defect, Goings said his client’s foot got caught in the gap as she was leaving the sidewalk and attempting to step down from the curb.

In their reply to the suit, lawyers for Lexington County argued, among other things, they lacked notice of the sidewalk’s condition because there hadn’t been a reported fall or complaint about the sidewalk area where Roland fell in the 19 years since the county bought the building in 2001 before Roland’s 2020 fall.

Goings, however, argued — and the jury agreed — that just because no one had fallen or complained about the sidewalk’s condition prior to Roland, it didn’t excuse the county of notice. But even if it had, the county’s risk manager, Sarah Lind, ultimately testified in a deposition that the county was in fact aware of the defect and that repairs were a “top priority,” according to Goings.

Lind “said it was a top priority and that they were going to get the (sidewalk) fixed,” Goings said. “Guess what? They never fixed it. And the testimony was that it would only take one or two bags of concrete at about $15 a bag to fix this.”

In his closing arguments, Goings delivered two 50 pound bags of concrete to the defense, a move he said resonated with the jury.

“I said (during my closing) what’s cheaper: ‘Nearly $100,000 in medical bills and permanent injury or two bags of concrete?’” Goings said. “The county lawyers left the bags of concrete in the courtroom and didn’t take it, so I dropped the bags off to the voter registration office after the trial in order to speed up their efforts to fix this dangerous condition.”

Efforts by The State to reach lawyers for Lexington County were unsuccessful.

Don’t worry, Lexington. You’re also going to get a chance to get your hands on some steamed bagel sandwiches.

Sully’s Steamers, the sandwich franchise that has long been popular in the Upstate and is known for its wide variety of sandwiches served on steamed bagels, recently opened a shop at 2835 Devine St. in Columbia. Now, franchisee Michael Stuckey confirms that Sully’s has set its sights on its next Midlands location, which will be in neighboring Lexington.

Stuckey said the Lexington spot will be at 5580 Sunset Blvd., in the Kitty’s Corner shopping center. The Sully’s restaurant will be going into the space that was formerly a Kitty’s Hallmark store. That’s right next door to Menchie’s frozen yogurt shop.

“We are hoping to be open there in mid-November, if everything works out well,” Stuckey told The State. “If not, it will be very early December.”

Sully’s Steamers has long had a location on East Washington Street in bustling downtown Greenville, and it also has Upstate locations in Clemson, Simpsonville, Mauldin and Spartanburg, as well as a spot in Brevard, N.C.

Aside from the recently opened Columbia shop and the coming Lexington spot, Stuckey also has plans to open Sully’s restaurants in several other Midlands areas, including West Columbia, Irmo and Forest Acres, though exact locations for those units have not yet been finalized.

The Lexington County Chronicle first reported the location of Sully’s Steamers in Lexington.

The response to the Devine Street Sully’s, which opened June 26, has been tremendous, Stuckey said.

“There has been a perfect mix of customers (visiting the Columbia shop) who have been to the Sully’s in Greenville, who already were fans of Sully’s, and people from the local community,” Stuckey said. “I grew up maybe 10 blocks away, right off of Rosewood, and Devine has always been a place, for me, that needed a more family-friendly spot, with some outdoor space.”

The Sully’s in Lexington will be along a very busy thoroughfare. About 35,000 cars per day pass down that stretch of Sunset Boulevard, per state Department of Transportation data. There are a host of shops, restaurants and other businesses in the area, including a Walmart, a Chick-fil-A, Ganbei Japanese restaurant and many others.

“We looked for a while in Lexington, and we were kind of going between Main Street and (Sunset Boulevard),” Stuckey said. “Everyone who lived in Lexington that I knew said (Sunset) was where we should go. Traffic is heavy, yes, but it flows.”

Sully’s menu has a plethora of bagel steamers, including the Nachos Maximus, which has turkey, cheddar, lettuce, honey mustard, parm-peppercorn and Doritos (the chips are on the sandwich), and the Hulk, which features turkey, pepperoni, salami, onions, provolone, cheddar and Italian dressing. The also have a number of breakfast steamers.

LEXINGTON, S.C. —

The next time you're headed to Columbia or the beach and get a hankering for the taste of Southern cooking, you'll want to go back in time to a country store that's well worth the detour.

Four Oaks Farm Country Store is a family-owned fourth-generation business specializing in pork products, according to owner Michael Mathias.

Very Local

It sits just off the Interstate 20 interchange with Highway 1, about 10 miles west of Columbia.

Customer Natalye Clark describes it this way: "This is a hidden gem that that a lot of people don't know about."

The store is named after the four large oak trees growing in the front yard of the Mathias family home, which stands about a hundred yards or so behind the building.

Four Oaks is just like those trees, having "stood the test of time and weathered the storms of change for nearly 85 years now," according to the store's website.

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Very Local

Along with everything pork, including lots of bacon, the store also sells locally-grown fresh produce when it's in season, jams, jellies, preserves, canned vegetables and pimento cheese.

Two chefs on staff prepare everything from chicken salad to lasagna, Mathias says.

For adventures in the kitchen, they even have a cookbook that features handed-down family recipes for favorites like Southern chow chow and biscuits.

Mathias says the store's "bread and butter" is its gift boxes that are shipped all over the country year-round from the packing and shipping warehouse that supports the mail order division of the corporation.

Grandma would never have believed her country store would get so big time.

Learn more about Four Oaks Farm Country Store and other Lexington attractions by streaming Very Local's "Eat, Play, Stay."

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What is Very Local?

Very Local is a streaming app where you can watch local news, original series and more. Keep connected to your hometown with the news team you trust and discover original series and specials that explore your community and beyond.