First Reading. Memo to Mueller: A pretty complete history of my meals, drinks and texts with Roger Stone

Jonathan Tilove
jtilove@statesman.com
Roger Stone has dinner at Licha's Cantina on East 6th Street in Austin on Nov. 2, 2017, a few days after Paul Manafort's indictment.

Good day Austin ... and Robert Mueller:

 I am including the special counsel in my greeting today because, in light of his indictment of Roger Stone on Friday as part of his Russia probe, I did not want him to be spending precious tax dollars to have some functionary in his office have to figure out who I was and why, over the last few years, I have had occasional but regular contact with Stone, by phone, and email, and text, and meals, and drinks, and yes, I introduced Roger to Austin's Russian House, which became our go-to meetup spot, and from which Roger sent taunting tweets, directed more at U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, than Mueller, but same difference.

And, only in reviewing these contacts to prepare this report did I recall that even before the Russian House, I had invited Stone to see Igor and the Red Elvises, the Siberian surf rockers, perform their classic, I work for Taco Bell, She Works for KGB, at the Continental Club.

(Pardon the poor quality. This is my handiwork.)

And yes, I do have some Russian ancestry.

Many in the press have treated Stone for years as a (charming/ likable/ fascinating/ rogue. This is someone who writes a book charging that LBJ killed JFK, who has cheerfully polluted the political process for decades. It's classic "politics as theater" journalism,.https://t.co/PklmQZV9Qg

— Jeff Greenfield (@greenfield64)January 26, 2019

I will readily admit that, throughout my more than 40 years as a reporter, I have always been drawn to charming/likable/fascinating/rogues. One could call it 'politics as theater' journalism. Or the joy of storytelling. At some point, I may attempt a deeper examination of why, against all logic, I like Roger Stone, which I do, but for the moment, Mr. Mueller, I will offer the Caro Defense, taken from a terrific piece by Robert Caro in the most recent New Yorker on The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson's Archives.

Looking back at the early years of his research, Caro writes:

At that time, I was constantly flying back and forth between Austin and Washington. Papers don’t die; people do, and I was giving first priority to interviewing the men and women who, during the nineteen-thirties, had been members of a circle of New Deal insiders to which the young congressman from Texas had been admitted.

 One member of this circle was Thomas G. Corcoran, a pixieish, ebullient, accordion-playing Irishman known as Tommy the Cork, who had been an aide to Franklin Roosevelt and had since become a legend in Washington as a political fixer and a fund-raiser nonpareil. I just loved interviewing Tommy the Cork. He was at that time in his late seventies, but if he came into the lobby of his K Street office building while I was waiting for the elevator, he would say, “See you upstairs, kid,” as he opened the door to the stairwell. And often, when I reached the eleventh floor, where his office was situated, he would be standing there grinning at me when the elevator door opened. He was, in the best sense of the word (truly the best to an interviewer anxious to learn the innermost secrets of political maneuverings), totally amoral. He cared for nothing. Once, on a morning that we had an interview scheduled, I picked up the Washington Post over breakfast in my hotel room to see his name in big headlines and read a huge story about his role in a truly sordid Washington scandal. I expected to find a broken, or at least a dejected, man when I was ushered into his office. Instead, he gave me a big grin—he had the most infectious grin—and, when I didn’t bring up the subject of the story but he could tell it was on my mind, he said, “It’s just free advertising, kid, free advertising. Just as long as they spell my name right.”

NEW: Roger Stone is booed by crowd as he begins to speak following Mueller indictment.

"As I have always said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about," he says.https://t.co/PVtULfI2Jtpic.twitter.com/Wnqfihuzxn

— Nightline (@Nightline)January 25, 2019

 I first met Roger Stone in 2004 when I was in Florida looking at the possibility of a replay of the contested 2000 presidential election there and visited Stone at his office in South Beach.

I wrote:

 Nov. 2 may come and go without incident. It may be remembered as a calm and orderly occasion that produced a clear and decisive winner. But less than a month out, there are mounting fears here and elsewhere that the election results are going to be contested in ways that make 2000 look like a dress rehearsal. No election in modern times has arrived to such scrutiny and amid such suspicion, even dread.

“If you don’t have a clear result, if you have a muddled result of any kind, it’s going to cause a constitutional crisis,” says Roger Stone, the veteran Republican political strategist who now operates from an office in South Beach. “It will be cataclysmic.”

xxxxxxx

“It’s `Rashomon,”’ says Roger Stone. “There is no eternal truth. Everybody has a strong claim that they’re right in terms of the way this came out.”

Stone is not affiliated with Bush this year. But in 2000, he helped organize the successful effort to shut down the recount in Miami-Dade. The Bush team won, he says, because “they have very sharp elbows.”

Almost a decade later, I had moved to Austin to work for the Statesman, and, Stone would get in touch with me on his visits to Austin in 2013 and 2014 to promote his book The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ.

I would have liked to have gotten together with him. But I didn't see any possibility that I'd be writing about his book, and didn't want to mislead him into thinking that I would be, so I begged off.

But, over time that changed, as Stone's longtime client and for all practical purposes political creation, Donald Trump, became a presidential candidate, and as Stone became intrigued with Austin's Alex Jones, who I also had begun to pay a lot of attention to.

So, sometime in 2015, we had lunch at La Condesa (The Statesman's Matthew Odam: We will always owe a debt of gratitude to La Condesa for giving downtown Austin a blueprint for how to do cosmopolitan dining.) and I learned a lot about how Trump had years earlier laid the groundwork for a presidential campaign, securing the rights to Make America Great Again, and cultivating the Republican grassroots with his outspoken Obama birtherism. But, the way Stone talked about Trump was less as a booster and more as a cool analytical calculator of his potential which he saw as tremendous.

(Note to Mueller and my editors. As I recall I paid for that meal out of my own pocket. Stone never paid for any of our meals. On other occasions, I either paid for the meals or expensed some of the food but not any alcohol.)

Our next meeting led to a Nov. 10, 2015 First Reading, Roger and Me: A Saturday in the Stone Zone:

I had lunch with Roger Stone on Saturday.

He was in Austin promoting his new book, The Clintons’ War on Women, the basic premise of which is, as Stone puts it, “Bill Clinton is a Bill Cosby-like sexual predator,” and Hillary Clinton is his witting accomplice.

 I had asked Stone ahead of time where he wanted to eat. He said either barbecue or Tex Mex.

 I chose barbecue and asked whether he wanted a truck or bricks and mortar.

 He chose the latter, and I suggested Freedmen’s near UT.

(From Odam in August: Freedmen’s — the barbecue restaurant near the University of Texas that has consistently held a spot on the Austin360 list of Top 10 barbecue restaurants in Austin — will close Aug. 31 amid plans for construction of an apartment complex around the historic building at 2402 San Gabriel St.)

 We met there. It was cold and wet, so the outdoor seating wasn’t really an option. All that was open were seats at the bar. We took them. They were out of the ribs. Oh well. We both had brisket and shared beans and potato salad. Stone, who lives in South Florida, said he was very pleased, that it was just what he wanted.

 For 90 minutes, we talked 2016 politics and I can’t think of anyone better to do that with.

 On Friday, he spoke at the 30th Biennial State Convention of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, in Lubbock, where he sold a couple of hundred books, and a bunch of copies, of his previous book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ.

 For the women in Lubbock, it was a chance to get psyched for the coming campaign, and do some early Christmas shopping.

I embedded an introductory video from Stone's web site, the Stone Zone. Note that Stone enters the video at the 1:45 mark to the strains of the Stones" Sympathy for the Devil.

Stone is a man of intrigue and contradictions.

Stone’s introductory line this year – he uses it in his book and in his book talks – is, “I spent years in the corroded rectum of the two-party system.”

 But, the arresting coarseness of that image aside, he is also both satin smooth and disarmingly direct.

 He describes himself, in his book and in conversation, as a “libertine” and a “bit of a dandy.”

 He has a tattoo of Nixon’s head on his back.

 He is now a registered Libertarian in Florida, and his capacity for bipartisan mischief is suggested by his role as an adviser to Al Sharpton’s 2004 presidential campaign.

 Since the death of the Hollywood designer, Mr. Blackwell, he has assumed the mantle of preparing an annual Best and Worst Dressed List.

For example from the Worst List:

Hillary Rodham Clinton – The former Secretary of State and 2016 hopeful has no taste in clothing and no idea whatsoever what she looks good in. Take the coat she wore to the Nixon Cox-Castimitidis wedding. She’s changed “looks” more than we have. Darker colors would minimize her bulk, heavy legs and bizarrely thick ankles. Now, this may seem overly nasty and we would agree, except she deserves it. Meow.

Let me pause here to note that Stone has continued to perform this duty and that this year's list, released earlier this month, does not betray a man under stress or preoccupied with other matters.

Mr. Roger Stone’s 13th Annual International Best And Worst Dressed Listhttps://t.co/8yLvMwrqzUpic.twitter.com/akzp6Dr2wv

— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller)January 3, 2019

 From this year's list:

Best

MJ Lee: The dogged CNN reporter has a sassy, fresh style that exceeds may of her generation. Equally perfect in swank cocktail dress or finely cut leather pants and a tutleneck, her look is always polished, professional and always stylish with classic overtones. Her first year on the Best Dressed list but not her last.

Melania Trump: Let’s face it: The first lady would look great in anything she wore. But this kind, cultured, soft-spoken lady takes major abuse for her fashion choices, with virtually none of it merited. Always appropriate, tasteful and elegant. Her Safari outfit wasn’t neo-colonial. It was smashing! And yes, Timberlands are the right foot wear for Iraq. They beat the hell out of Michelle Obama’s hooker boots.The most chic and well-dressed first lady since Jackie Kennedy.

Van Jones: He is one of several well turned- out gents on CNN. Favoring a myriad of purple hues and accents, Jones can pull off the no tie to turtleneck with ease. Mr. Jones has room to grow and earn another appearance on our Best Dressed in 2019. Chris Cuomo rocks the dark suit-white shirt- solid black tie look with aplomb but Van Jones has Spezzatura.

Worst

Michael Cohen: Garish sports jackets , vinyl windbreakers and badly fitting Italian suits the Trump Organization lawyer dresses like the outer-boro gangster he talks like. The good news: He won’t need civilian clothes after pleading guilty to multiple counts. More Goodfellas than New York Fixer.

 Beto O’Rourke: America’s progressive boy wonder and resident FAKE HISPANIC is the definition of a “try-hard” in every element of his life — except when he is figuring out what to wear. Dweeby, washed-out and always swimming in whatever he lands on. Beto doesn’t take chances and couldn’t find a proper necktie or belt for the duration of his campaign against Ted Cruz. He will never be president and we can say that the odds are not in his favor to ever earn a spot on the Best Dressed.

 Steve Bannon: How many ways can you say slovenly? Bannon looks like he chases down hobos for their clothes or was up free-basing all night. He has perfected the “coming off a bender look” Perhaps he can get fashion tips from convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein who the New York Post reported he’s been meeting secretly with.

 Back to my November 2015 First Reading:

Stone is the voice of reason in Trump’s head – his top adviser in his presidential campaign until August, when he was either fired or quit after Trump went on his crude – and Stone thought self-defeating – tirade against Fox’s Megyn Kelly.

 But, such is the nature of their very long and tumultuous Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor, married-divorced-married relationship (with an occasional flash of Liz and Dick’s George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf), we can expect him to play the role of a Karl Rove or David Axelrod, at least intermittently, in a Trump White House.

 For example, from the terrific June 2008 Jeffrey Toobin profile of Stone in the New Yorker:

 "Stone worked for Donald Trump as an occasional lobbyist and as an adviser when Trump considered running for President in 2000. `Roger is a stone-cold loser,' Trump told me. `He always tries taking credit for things he never did.' Like Nixon, Stone is also a great hater-of, among others, the Clintons, Karl Rove, and Spitzer."

 Elliot Spitzer was among Stone’s most famous scalps – a complicated business that ended with the revelation that the New York governor was having sex with high-priced prostitutes. He resigned.

 Stone had a number of grievances against Spitzer, but apparently what most offended him was the revelation (via one of the prostitutes and delivered by Stone to the FBI) of Spitzer’s habit of keeping his calf-length black socks on during sex.

 Stone and Trump still talk regularly and he talks Trump up at every opportunity.

 There is a rich literature around Stone. A college course could be built around a close reading of Stone profiles.

xxxxxxx

On Alex Jones’s radio show Monday, the host seemed pleasantly nonplussed when Stone suggested he would hook Jones up with Trump as a guest on his show because he thought they would hit it off.

 After lunch with Stone, I moved the junk in the passenger seat of my 2008 Accord into the trunk and gave him a ride back to the Hyatt Place.

 I would see him a few hours later at his book talk and signing with co-author Robert Morrow, at Brave New Books, an appropriately subterranean bookstore on Guadalupe near the university, where far left meets far right in a spirit of underground bonhomie.

 Stone promised me an eclectic crowd.

 Self-assessing, I would rate myself in the middle or high middle in terms of deportment. Several of us had our hair in ponytails.

xxxxxxx

Here is Stone’s presentation, which was followed by a Q-and-A, which is not on the video.

 Stone finished his presentation with a rhetorical flourish – “Bill and Hillary are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of the American body politic” – and then answered questions.

 He was asked how it is possible that all the material in his book is true – and much of it previously out there – and yet the Clintons are still standing, even thriving.

 Stone said it’s been a generation since Bill Clinton was first elected president, and much of what they detail in the book is lost to gauzy memory.

 “Nothing is old news if people haven’t heard it before,” he said. “To them it’s news.”

 “Why hasn’t anyone used this stuff?” Stone was asked.

 Stone said “Their opponents are compromised. The two parties are in it together.”

 He was asked if any of the leading Republican contenders, “have the, pun not intended, stones to make an issue of this.”

 “There is one that does,” Stone said. “Trump as you can already see. He’s fearless. He’ll say anything.”

 Marco Rubio?

 “Not a chance. He’s in the club, totally in the club.”

 “Ted Cruz? Maybe. Maybe.”

 Back to Trump: “Believe me, Donald Trump has the political establishment pissing their pants. He is completely uncontrollable.”

 xxxxxxxx

I think the Clinton campaign is depending on Stone’s and Morrow’s approach and reputation to inoculate them from suffering the ill-effects of The Clintons’ War on Women.

 But Stone intends to raise money to make ads in which some of Clinton’s victims will tell their stories.

 There will be women, different kinds of women, who will be saying that Bill Clinton sexually abused them. Should that happen, those ads may be far harder to dismiss than the book, particularly in the new age of Cosby.

 xxxxxxx

 I suspect the great liability Clinton brings to his wife’s campaign is that this will all, almost certainly, be revisited in a general election campaign, with Stone’s and Morrow’s book well-thumbed if not necessarily well-regarded, and offering Republicans an opportunity to undermine the feminist pride that ought to be fundamental to her success.

 It is a critique of the Clintons that one might expect from the left, though, with rare exceptions, like the late Christopher Hitchens, they closed ranks behind the Clintons against a common enemy.

xxxxxxx

I left Brave New Books Saturday night for the Continental Club to see the Siberian surf rockers, Igor and the Red Elvises ...

I thought Stone might be intrigued, but he had other equally exciting Saturday night plans – “a burger with a bunch of Birchers.”

From the band's website:

BIOGRAPHY

 Igor Yuzov was born in Germany, raised in Ukraine and studied in Russia. He grew up in the former Soviet Union, where folk music was the norm and rock'n'roll was illegal. A rebellious streak, however, led him to seek out the forbidden music. As soon as it became possible, Igor left Russia for America with his “Folk'n'Roll" band Limpopo and was personally greeted by Ronald Reagan. In 1993, Limpopo won Ed McMahon's Star Search and their popularity began to blossom. In 1995, Igor dreamed that Elvis Presley came to him and told him to start playing rock'n'roll. Igor and his Russian friends became Red Elvises and gave street performances on Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade. As their crowds grew larger, the City of Santa Monica ordered them to discontinue their street performances. Evolving over the years, Igor’s music has been labeled "Siberian Surf Rock” which contains humorous lyrics and grooves that forces his audience to dance. Over the past 20 years, Red Elvises have constantly toured all over the world with occasional breaks to record new music and to participate in film and television projects.

 And, good news, the Red Elvises, whose next gig is at the Aurora Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be touring Texas, beginning on Feb 24, performing in El Paso, Terlingua, San Antonio, Victoria, the Continental Club in Austin on March 1, Dallas and Houston.

In October 2016 I wrote a story for the Statesman about how Alex Jones, in large measure thanks to Stone, had become the voice in Donald Trump's head.

“He is Rush Limbaugh on steroids,” said Roger Stone, the Trump confidant who brought Trump and Jones together, referring not just to Jones’ persona but to a multiplatform reach that now dwarfs his radio and cable rivals.

 “Alex Jones is cutting edge. He has found the formula. This is the model of the future,” said Stone, who has in recent months emerged as Jones’ frequent guest and political wise man.

 Stone saw how ripe Jones’ anti-globalist audience was for Trump’s nationalist appeal.

Earlier that month I had done a First Reading Alex Jones on Julian Assange going WikiWeak. `It’s karma. We troll a lot. We’ve been trolledon the occasion of Jones and crew broadcasting live, beginning at 2 in the morning, a Julian Assange press conference that, to Jones' bitter disappointment, did not live up to Stone's hype. (Assange would deliver, but later.)

I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp

 — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 3, 2016

"Julian Assange is a Hillary butt-plug." Alex Jones just referenced what is probably my favorite InfoWars broadcast of all time - the 10/4/16 overnight show when Jones turned on Assange for not releasing Clinton info when Roger Stone told Jones he would.https://t.co/o5r3dpmhAHpic.twitter.com/8CHnS4yV00

— jonathantilove (@JTiloveTX)January 25, 2019

With the election of Trump, Stone's relationship with Jones tightened and his visits to Austin became more frequent.

From my June 2017 First Reading: Roger Stone tangos in Austin. Will anchor Infowars by night. May let a flat.

 It looks like Roger Stone may soon be living in Austin, at least part-time, to anchor a nightly show on Infowars as Alex Jones expands his broadcast schedule and strengthens his ability to gain scoops straight from the Trump White House.

 “Soon, it’s five nights a week with Roger Stone. You heard it here first folks,” Jones said on his show yesterday.

 Stone, who lives in Florida and has a place in New York, confirmed for me that he is ironing out details with Jones and that he may take an apartment in Austin as he expands his role on Infowars

 Beginning with the 2016 presidential election, Roger Stone has become a close political friend and ally of Alex Jones and his frequent collaborator – in person and remotely – on Infowars.

 Stone came to Austin for most of a week back in April to help fill in for Jones during Jones’ child custody trial, with his ex-wife, Kelly Jones.

Stone was back for three days of doing shows with Jones in mid-May.

 On the last night of that stay, Stone called to see if I wanted to get dinner. Jones, he said, had him on an all-Mexican diet and he was ready for a steak.

 We met at Perry’s Steakhouse.

(Odam: Background: There are now 10 Texas locations of this Houston-based steakhouse that started as a meat market in 1979. The downtown Austin location opened in 2008.)

Stone looked good but exhausted, as one might after spending three days with Alex Jones.

Stone was revived by a Stoli martini, steak tartare, wedge salad, New York strip, double Espresso and a good cigar.

I walked Stone back to his hotel. It was near the Russian House, a favorite spot of mine, and I recommended it to Stone, who has been implicated, he says without a shred of actual evidence, by those investigating the relationship between Russia and the Trump campaign.

 Stone has volunteered – really demanded – to testify publicly before Congress without necessity of a subpoena.

The walls of the Russian House are replete with images of Russian politics and history.

Better yet, as you walk in the door there, on the right, is a selection of Russian military garb – coats and hats – guests can dress up in.

Stone had work to do, so I went to the Russian House by myself that night.

Stone was back in Austin this week, filling in for Jones who was back at the Travis Country Courthouse for a post-trial,follow-up hearing with Judge Orlinda Naranjo Tuesday.

Alex Jones’ attorneys are seeking to set aside the jury verdict granting Kelly the status of primary parent in the joint custody of their three children, meaning that for the first time since before their 2015 divorce, the children will live with her and visit their father, rather than the other way around.

 Naranjo did not hold a hearing on that motion Tuesday.

 That night Stone texted me to see if I wanted to join him for dinner with Rick Derringer – who was his guest on Infowars that day – at Uncle Julios.

 I couldn’t make dinner and Stone suggested drinks afterward at the Russian House, and so we met there.

OK I'm busted! Drinking at Russian House in Austin Texas! Kiss my ass @RepAdamSchiff https://t.co/ETDuKPCYN7

 — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) May 31, 2017

Stone dressed up. He posed next to a Russian bear.

Under a hammer and sickle.

And by a Nixonian caricature of Leonid Brezhnev, and a photo of Brezhnev kissing East German leader Erich Honecker.

It was tango Tuesday at the Russian House.

It was an intense scene.

 These tango dancers are serious and in the zone.

 After a brisk discussion with self-described “conspiracy factualist” Elizabeth Everett, on whether Antonin Scalia was murdered, and didn’t die in his sleep, at a West Texas ranch, Stone and Everett tangoed.

Last Tango in Austin. Roger Stone and Elizabeth Everett tango at the Russian House to fulfill Adam Schiff's dream.pic.twitter.com/4XnBxcuquA

— jonathantilove (@JTiloveTX)May 31, 2017

Why is House Intelligence Committee stalling on my request to testify in the faux Russian-@realDonaldTrump "collusion"? What do they fear?

 — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) May 31, 2017

xxxxxx

 With Stone officially in the Infowars fold it seems only a matter of time before Trump does the show again.

 Maybe the president will even come to Austin and do it live.

 And maybe if and when Donald Trump comes to Austin, he’ll stop for a drink at the Russian House.

I mean, with more than 50 different types of vodka and 101 infused vodkas, why wouldn’t he?

 Oh, wait, the president doesn’t drink.

 Well, there’s always the Ukrainian borscht.

 I’ve had it a few times. It’s quite good.

 Five months later, on Nov. 2, 2017, Roger and I met at the Russian House for a drink and then I took him to dinner at Licha's Cantina, a great place on East 6th Street, and we sat at one of the really nice tables they have on their front porch

Nov. 2, 2017, met at Russian House and then headed to dinner at

 From  Odam:

Peek into the kitchen at Licha’s Cantina and you won’t see a chef whose face you recognize from a profile in a glossy magazine.

 While formal training for chefs gains popularity in Mexico, the country’s culinary tradition has historically resided and prospered in family kitchens. Most of Licha’s co-owner Daniel Brooks’ family still lives in Mexico’s capital, and his “passionate, cook-driven” restaurant pays homage to his birthplace.

 Squint your eyes and use some imagination and the East Sixth Street restaurant, named after Brooks’ mother, Alicia, looks like it could have been transported from a forest in Jalisco, while much of the food mirrors what you might find on the streets of Mexico City.

Paul Manafort, Stone's former lobbying partner, had just been in indicted. Stone said that he had spoken to Manafort just before the indictment and Manafort assured him that there was nothing to worry about. He wasn't going to get indicted.

Stone noted the reports of Manafort's extraordinary spending on clothes.

From Derek Robertson at Politico:

Paul Manafort spent more than $1.3 million on clothing alone as part of the “lavish lifestyle” described in the indictment brought against him Monday by special counsel Robert Mueller.

 The indictment against the former Trump campaign chairman, which resulted from Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign and Russian election interference, lists transfers from offshore accounts totaling $849,215 to a “Men’s Clothing Store in New York” and $520,440 to a “Clothing Store in Beverly Hills, California” over the course of roughly six years, comprising $1,369,655 of the more than $75 million of illicit funds in question.

Stone said Manafort had no fashion sense and had wasted a lot of money on ill-fitting suits.

Stone was back in Austin for several days in February 2018, but I was very busy with work.

I did join him for a drink at the Russian House, where he and the InfoWars crew — not including Alex Jones — had just filmed a video I've never seen. The crew eyed me suspiciously, but Stone vouched for me.

Later that week, unable to make dinner, I suggested Stone try Vespaio. (He had asked for a recommendation for "a basic red sauce Italian restaurant.")

Odam: The restaurant, its half-curtained front windows advertising pasta and vino like a classic Italian restaurant in Manhattan, was named for a wasp nest found during initial construction, and the bar and dining room still buzz with excitement. The honey-toned and brick-lined bar area, a cozy haunt for a strong roster of regulars for years, is comfortable and inviting, while the intimate main dining room, with its open kitchen, is still an ideal place to feel like a boss or a birthday girl (or both.

Stone loved Vespaio, and, in a Facebook post, made the edible political.

Stone returned to Austin in mid-August for a few days. I was going to be on the road following Beto O'Rourke for a few days after a Bands for Beto event at Emo's. I suggested a late-night dinner at Suerte after the Beto event.

From Odam: Few restaurants in the past several years have enraptured Austin and caught the nation’s attention in a more complete way than Suerte. The modern Mexican spot from owner Sam Hellman-Mass and executive chef Fermin Nunez vibrates inside with the energy that careens off its brick walls and under its Oaxacan textiles

But it got later and later and Stone was unable to break away from Jones. I said he could join us but I wasn't sure if Suerte would suit his paleo dietary needs. Eventually, Stone, who had a 5 a.m. flight the next morning, canceled.

"Jones has drained every ounce of energy out of me," he texted me.

Just before Christmas, on Dec. 20, Stone texted, "I am in town. Drinks? Dinner?"

I was back in DC for the holidays, and not returning to Austin until after the first the of year. I asked if he would be back East before then.

"I will be probably be in prison by then," he texted back. "LOL."

"Maybe you could turn the Russian House into your Ecuadorian Embassy," I replied.

LOL, Mr. Mueller. LOL.