Obama, Ben's, Equinox, Marvin on CNN

[DonRocks]

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[spiegelb]

Where in DC will Obama will eat next?

ES is holding a contest - cast your guesses for the next eatery where he'll be spotted

[lekkerwijn]

This past weekend Obama was in NYC eating at Blue Hill. (Since when is Blue Hill someone's neighborhood restaurant?)

From Marion Nestle's Blog:

NYC celebrity sighting: The Obamas at Blue Hill!

One of the things about living in New York City is that you run into celebrities all the time and pay no attention. As it happens, my partner and I were meeting Sidney Mintz and his wife tonight at my neighborhood restaurant, Blue Hill. We wondered why the street was blocked off, a huge crowd gathered at one end, and secret servicemen all over the place.

The Obamas! At the next table! Six feet away! I can’t tell you what they ate because Dan Barber cooked for them. But I saw the President pay the bill.

Turns out this was their promised night out, and the Republicans are already complaining that it cost the taxpayers too much. From the applause in the restaurant when they were leaving, the picture-taking mob in front of the restaurant, and the crowds lining 6th Avenue, this is one expense nobody minds. They looked they were having fun. We did too.

[Waitman]

Politically speaking, I've decided that the next Obama visit should be Moroni Brothers. Half Latin/half pizza, in a much cooler section of the city than he's visited yet, and mid-priced so he doesn't look like a snob. He can bring Sonya (yeah, I know, it's Salvadoran rather than Puerto Rican, but, as they say in The Bronx whatcha gonna do?). Great pizza, great Suppa de Marisco, great photo-op.

****

Not everybody like the Blue Hill choice:

Well, of course the Obamas went to Blue Hill....

If you’d known in advance that they were going to spend Date Night in Manhattan and had to guess where they’d dine, wouldn’t it be the smart-money bet?

It’s the proper ethical call, the proper message to send, the proper restaurant segue from the planting of the White House garden. It summons all the correct adjectives: local, seasonal, organic, humane....

And yet.

In the very predictability of this choice, in its all-too-neat squaring with the officially sanctioned food agenda, in its absence of surprise or abandon, isn’t it ever so slightly disappointing? Just a little too pat and controlled?

[u-bet!]

Meanwhile, the Secretary of Education takes one for the team.

[cheezepowder]

Meanwhile, the Secretary of Education takes one for the team.

I'm wondering why he's kissing the onion ring?

[u-bet!]

I'm wondering why he's kissing the onion ring?

Maybe trying to convince people he's eating it without actually having to do so.

Although, you know, it actually doesn't look that bad. Plump, nice golden-brown color...

[Anna Blume]

I'm wondering why he's kissing the onion ring?

So's the kid directly in front of him!

What I'm wondering is why the article isn't yet another lament about the abysmal state of school lunches.

The subject may be trite these days, but look at those trays! Note the other grown-up the camera caught w a carton of chocolate milk that I would probably have grabbed in that situation, too.