North End restaurant owner with a grudge admits he tried to gun a man down right on Hanover Street

Patrick Mendoza, the now former owner of Monica's Trattoria on Prince Street in the North End, today pleaded guilty to charges that he tried murdering a guy with whom he had beef in front of Modern Pastry on Hanover Street last July 12, Oscar Margáin reports from Suffolk Superior Court.

Mendoza, who has spent much of the past year behind bars, after police found him hiding out at a Cape Cod substance-abuse clinic, pleaded guilty to charges of armed assault to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition and illegal possession.

According to police and prosecutors, Mendoza spotted the man he wanted to kill outside the Modern and opened fire, missing him but putting a fresh bullet hole in the Modern. He briefly chased the man around a parked car before giving up and pedaling away on his bicycle, disappearing until a few days later, when police found him on the Cape.

He was initially held without bail as a potential danger to society, released to home confinement at his North End condo in May of this year, then put back in custody a month later after he cut off his court-ordered GPS device.

The Boston Licensing Board initially shut his restaurant, since he was the designated manager, a role he could no longer fill as he was behind bars, but allowed it to re-open in August after his wife and sons took over formal ownership and named a long-time employee as the official manager.