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Posted
Via The Hill:

(Not sure why they have it located in Alexandria...)

Mark Knoller has it correct in his tweeting, so I'm not sure where the misinformation orignated.

ETA: He also says: "Lunch play-by-play. Press Pool reports Obama ordered a swiss mushroom burger with chili and cheese cooked medium. Paid cash."

I don't know why I find this level of detail appealing but I do.

The President also bought burgers for some in the press corps (apparently the ones who wanted them).

Apologies for the edits. I didn't want to make new posts for every comment and then managed to make a bunch of typos...

Posted
chili? :rolleyes:
Perhaps it was chiles as in the peppers. I know there used to be jalapenos, at least, but I haven't been there in a while. Chile and chili could easily be conflated.
Posted

HA. Knoller now says: "Pool got it wrong: Obama really ordered a basic cheddar cheese burger, medium well with spicy mustard. also order cheesy tater puffs...."

Posted

Made it to national news - Obama has lunch and pays for the entire news corp at Hell Burger.

Left $5 in the tip jar - as reported by MSNBC - 5 Full minutes on national news feed.

Posted
Made it to national news - Obama has lunch and pays for the entire news corp at Hell Burger.

Left $5 in the tip jar - as reported by MSNBC - 5 Full minutes on national news feed.

Click here for the MSNBC article.

Mr. President or Mr. Vice President, would you please weigh in with your opinion of the cheesy tater puffs? If you post just once you can access the dining guide. :rolleyes:

Posted

I am thinking, based on all this recent activity, that maybe the President is an obsessive but slightly incompetent or underinformed Mark Slater groupie, desperately trying to find him but not quite up to speed on when/where to go.

Posted

From a friend... "He needs to stay at the office and eat at his desk and get some work done. Jeb Bush, Eric Cantor and Mitt Romney were at Pietanza on Saturday. Arlington is the new gastro-political hotspot."

Posted

My office mate and I went to Pho 75 for lunch and were caught up in this whole craziness. It was mass chaos outside the entire time they were there. President Obama and entourage were in and out in 30 minutes.

Posted
This is the dcist link:

http://dcist.com/2009/05/obama_and_biden_l...t_rays_hell.php

I sent it to my husband, and he immediately recognized the poster behind the VP in the photo. We've sat at that table <_<.

"The last time Obama stopped by a casual lunch spot, there was a line around the building to get into Ben's Chili Bowl for six weeks."

Clearly Michael needs to establish super secret "open hours"... like 3:13AM to 3:23AM, when those of us from before Obama "raised hell" can still get a burger. :rolleyes:

---------------------------------------

And sheldman... LITERALLY loling at your Slater groupie post...

---------------------------------------

From my wife: i hope Spike is cursing and jumping up and down on his hat

Posted

Congrats to Mr. Landrum for being recognized by our president and vice president as the go to spot for the best burger.

Now my wife will finally believe me that this is the best and agree to go with me.

Posted

Ha! I had just PM'd Mark yesterday about how it was too bad he hadn't been able to pull a cork for Michelle and Barack the other night, and that we should start applying some pressure for them to visit "the people's steakhouse" across the river. No wine at Ray's Hell, but it's only a matter of time now. You go, Michael!

Posted
Now it's going to be impossible to get a table!

Indeed!

I can't even be too sore about that though, because it's just so wicked cool. Oh, and now I look good to the friends that I've been trying to cajole to go out for a burger.

Posted

Great, now everyone will be going there! Lines out the door! The owner will get a swelled head! :rolleyes:

Congratulations Michael.

Posted
He ordered his burger medium well!!!! wtf

I would have thought he'd order it with a red, warm center. Shows what I know.

Saw the report on CNN while I stopped in to Jason's Deli in Falls Church. Good-bye, delicious Hell-Burger, we hardly knew ye. See you in a few months when the crowds die down.

Posted
Landrum passes Secret Service background check? Bad boy? no, pussycat.

Right?! No wonder Michael was so pleasant, upbeat, and well-behaved during that crazy Arlington interview. :rolleyes:

Posted
I am thinking, based on all this recent activity, that maybe the President is an obsessive but slightly incompetent or underinformed Mark Slater groupie, desperately trying to find him but not quite up to speed on when/where to go.

He'll know after tomorrow's Food section. :rolleyes:

Posted
He ordered his burger medium well!!!! wtf

From the video in Waitman's link, he said "medium", not medium-well, because he was ordering extras and didn't know how people would want them.

ETA: Oops! Heard a radio clip on the way home - he did indeed order his own medium-well.

Sigh. Nobody's perfect.

Posted
From the video in Waitman's link, he said "medium", not medium-well, because he was ordering extras and didn't know how people would want them.

Check the CNN video. He orders his own medium well, and then later appears to order more mediums for the press corps.

Posted

Perhaps he is just dutifully following the USDA recommendation that ground beef be cooked to an internal temperature that, I believe, corresponds to medium well to well-done.

That is how a President should behave, no? :rolleyes:

Posted

Hopefully Michael will have time to post his recollections of the day. I'd like to know if they really did just "show-up" or was there some advance notice.

Posted
Hopefully Michael will have time to post his recollections of the day. I'd like to know if they really did just "show-up" or was there some advance notice.
From the sight of the traffic cones blocking off all of the street parking as the motorcade pulled away, I would say there was advance notice.
Posted

So you guys are criticizing the President for ordering his burger medium-well? Well, I take my steak tartare, well, raw; my steak, medium-rare; and, my burgers medium to medium-well. Sue me; bring it on!

Posted
So you guys are criticizing the President for ordering his burger medium-well? Well, I take my steak tartare, well, raw; my steak, medium-rare; and, my burgers medium to medium-well. Sue me; bring it on!
I've tried meduim-rare, medium, and medium-well Hell-burgers, and prefer the medium & medium-well versions. Melting the fat a little more makes them more flavorful. The trick is not to press them so that they lose said fat during cooking, and the grill-masters there know what they are doing.

I'd love to know why The Hill name checks Spike but not Michael in this:

The Hill.

Posted
I've tried meduim-rare, medium, and medium-well Hell-burgers, and prefer the medium & medium-well versions. Melting the fat a little more makes them more flavorful. The trick is not to press them so that they lose said fat during cooking, and the grill-masters there know what they are doing.

I'd love to know why The Hill name checks Spike but not Michael in this:

The Hill.

Reality tv star. :rolleyes:

Posted

Seriously, Michael, you need a new PR agent. You haven't gotten nearly enough publicity the first three days of this week. :rolleyes:

Posted
I've tried meduim-rare, medium, and medium-well Hell-burgers, and prefer the medium & medium-well versions. Melting the fat a little more makes them more flavorful. The trick is not to press them so that they lose said fat during cooking, and the grill-masters there know what they are doing.

I'd love to know why The Hill name checks Spike but not Michael in this:

The Hill.

Clearly they're not very bright, because it still says Ray's is in Alexandria.
Posted

Actual true moment, and the most beautiful moment in my life--something that will never make it into the press--when the President sat down to eat, this was what was playing: click Harvest for the World. Can you believe that shit?

Me to the President: "I don't know what's on your I-Pod, but check out our soundtrack. Here we play the Isleys"

President to me: "Right on."

No lie.

Posted

Now, those of you who don't know me might not believe me, but what I set out to do do ten years ago when I first set out to have a business, I had one thing, and one thing only, in mind.

To see my plan come to fruition, and to have a national stage to do so, blows my mind in a way that is incomprehensible even to me.

Now that I have a direct ear to the White House and have finally established a foundation for my plan, I can now reveal just exactly what I have been about for the past ten years: To achieve a Presidential Pardon for Gil Scott-Heron.

Once this is done, I can rest.

Anyone from the national press who links to this site must link to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch? to find out what America is all about.

Or this: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=KH_Ak95CaRc&...feature=related

Or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4CChz4DjQE

Posted

Gotta add the story as reported by the Obama Foodorama's Ag Policy Wonk* (does anyone here know this guy?); note the link to Marler's food safety blog with photos of hamburgers in various states of doneness: click.

*Since the focus is on issues related to my own obsessions, the Hell's Burger story appeared rather late. Greater interest expressed during the day about Sam Kass and the Chicago high school students who won a trip to the White House to cook w the personal chef.

Posted
He ordered his burger medium well!!!! wtf
I have a dream of a day when we judge a president by the content of his character, not by the color of his hamburger.
Posted
I have a dream of a day when we judge a president by the content of his character, not by the color of his hamburger.

:D

But would it have been so difficult for him to ask "what do you recommend?" Especially at a joint which grills in a high-char style and offers a doneness level called 'recommended'...

Posted

Or perhaps Robert Gibbs pleaded with the president to order his burger medium well so Gibbs wouldn't have to spend an entire press conference answering questions about USDA recommendations regarding the doneness of beef. "Does the president question the USDA's recommendations?", "Will the president be asking the USDA to reevaluate its recommendations?", "What other government recommendations does the president contravene?" , "Would the president serve a medium rare hamburger to Sasha and Malia?", etc.

Posted
Or perhaps Robert Gibbs pleaded with the president to order his burger medium well so Gibbs wouldn't have to spend an entire press conference answering questions about USDA recommendations regarding the doneness of beef. "Does the president question the USDA's recommendations?", "Will the president be asking the USDA to reevaluate its recommendations?", "What other government recommendations does the president contravene?" , "Would the president serve a medium rare hamburger to Sasha and Malia?", etc.
My thoughts exactly.
Posted
Or perhaps Robert Gibbs pleaded with the president to order his burger medium well so Gibbs wouldn't have to spend an entire press conference answering questions about USDA recommendations regarding the doneness of beef. "Does the president question the USDA's recommendations?", "Will the president be asking the USDA to reevaluate its recommendations?", "What other government recommendations does the president contravene?" , "Would the president serve a medium rare hamburger to Sasha and Malia?", etc.

Or maybe he just likes them that way. Nobody's perfect.

Posted

In ML's address book, we can be pretty sure that "W. House" stands for "White House" can't we?

(maybe Landrum would like to open a place at the Watergate).

Posted

Video and commentary made it to The Daily Show tonight--but Jon Stewart didn't even mention the restaurant's name. It did get mentioned when they played the video however.

(that was a great line :D )

Posted
Video and commentary made it to The Daily Show tonight--but Jon Stewart didn't even mention the restaurant's name. It did get mentioned when they played the video however.

(that was a great line :D )

Link???
Posted

One thing I haven't seen mentioned (maybe I just missed it) was who turned the President on to Ray's in the first place. A hint came this morning in an NPR piece about Biden and his relationship to Obama. The story said Obama suggested Ray's to Biden for their weekly lunch based on the recommendation of one of his staff members. Who the mysterious staffer actually is is anyone's guess...

Posted
One thing I haven't seen mentioned (maybe I just missed it) was who turned the President on to Ray's in the first place. A hint came this morning in an NPR piece about Biden and his relationship to Obama. The story said Obama suggested Ray's to Biden for their weekly lunch based on the recommendation of one of his staff members. Who the mysterious staffer actually is is anyone's guess...

The staffer was named in one of the online articles I read the other day, but I couldn't tell you which one. My recollection is that it was one of Biden's aides, not Obama's.

Posted
The staffer was named in one of the online articles I read the other day, but I couldn't tell you which one. My recollection is that it was one of Biden's aides, not Obama's.

It is Phil Schiliro, Obama's LA Director. Former chief of staff to Mighty Mouse.

Posted
Or perhaps Robert Gibbs pleaded with the president to order his burger medium well so Gibbs wouldn't have to spend an entire press conference answering questions about USDA recommendations regarding the doneness of beef. "Does the president question the USDA's recommendations?", "Will the president be asking the USDA to reevaluate its recommendations?", "What other government recommendations does the president contravene?" , "Would the president serve a medium rare hamburger to Sasha and Malia?", etc.

In the responses to the Akers piece, several African-American posters have suggested that it's a black thing -- that they and the vast majority of their black friends eat their beef cooked past pink. In my experience, rural southerners and Midwesterners (like the rural Kansan grandparents who raised him) are also more likely to go for the grey.

............................

Boy, doesn't this post seem prophetic now: "As the undisputed king of free publicity..."

Posted

Sigh.

I guess it's up to me to ask all the tough, hard-hitting questions all you fluff posters are afraid to:

Did either of them slice their burger in half, as is recommended?

Did either of them finish their entire burgers?

Between Citronelle and Ray's, he's going to have a hard time keeping his Washingtonian-cover body in shape.

Posted

Can't we all just get along? :D

The line was out the door and down the street at 12:45. I consoled myself by driving to Vidalia and having the pork grinder instead.

Posted

So did POTUS actually like the HB? Did he finish it? Did Biden take home the leftovers? What about the Cheesy tater tots, where they consumed? Anyone drip on themselves? Finally, the questions I have had for the last couple of days......Did ML wear a clean apron?

Posted

How about swerving this back on topic...

Obama can be heard asking if they have a "spicy mustard" or a "Dijon mustard", something like that. But aren't those two different things? I don't think of Dijon mustard as "spicy"; I'm thinking he was after something more along the lines of Gulden's, which brands itself as "Spicy Brown Mustard". So... exactly what kind/brand of mustard did the pres get on his burger? If I had been to Hell Burger recently I guess I would know what they offer, but I haven't so I don't.

Posted
You must never have had a fresh jar of Maille.

Well, my mom is a big fan of Grey Poupon, so we always had it around the house when I was growing up. I remember taking a long time to learn to appreciate it; to my delicate unrefined childhood plate it had too much of a strong, "alcoholic" taste (not to be confused with my uncle Joe, who was also a strong alcoholic, but that's another story). I have had Maille, but it was a long time ago, and I don't know if it was fresh or not. I don't really remember what it tasted like.

So much for being back on topic - it's turned into the mustard thread. Shit.

Posted

President Obama followed his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday by treating him to lunch at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., the pool reports... DEVELOPING...

Posted

President Obama followed his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday by treating him to lunch at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., the pool reports... DEVELOPING...

If he's speaking about Ray's, Medvedev states now in opening, broadcasting from the White House, that he and Obama ate at an "interesting place, perhaps not that healthy, but very American and you can feel the spirit of/in the place".

Not verbatim, but close (via translator).

How cool- The Hamburger Summit.

Posted

From the Washington Post

When in Rome ... Go to Ray's Hell Burger

President Obama treated Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to a traditional American lunch at the Arlington eatery Thursday before returning to the White House for a joint news conference.

Obama ate a traditional cheeseburger, while Medvedev added jalepenos, mushrooms and onions to his. The pair shared an order of fries, according to the White House. No word on which superpower paid for the meal. (Update, 1:47 p.m.: It was Obama's treat.)

Both sat, scrunched in at the tiny table in shirtsleeves, while the packed-in patrons gawked. There was much cheering when the pair came out.

It may not be the most glamorous location for a visiting head of state, but Obama clearly has a thing for the burger joint.

In May of last year, Obama and vice president Joe Biden stole away for a similar mid-day lunch, prompting a similar amount of restaurant chaos and forever making it even harder to get a table at the Virginia establishment.

Medvedev is in town for one-on-one meetings with Obama before the two head up to Canada for the meeting of the G20 nations.

Posted

It's also the lead story on the NY Times website right now.

Link to their version of the story.

From the Washington Post

When in Rome ... Go to Ray's Hell Burger

President Obama treated Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to a traditional American lunch at the Arlington eatery Thursday before returning to the White House for a joint news conference.

Obama ate a traditional cheeseburger, while Medvedev added jalepenos, mushrooms and onions to his. The pair shared an order of fries, according to the White House. No word on which superpower paid for the meal. (Update, 1:47 p.m.: It was Obama's treat.)

Both sat, scrunched in at the tiny table in shirtsleeves, while the packed-in patrons gawked. There was much cheering when the pair came out.

It may not be the most glamorous location for a visiting head of state, but Obama clearly has a thing for the burger joint.

In May of last year, Obama and vice president Joe Biden stole away for a similar mid-day lunch, prompting a similar amount of restaurant chaos and forever making it even harder to get a table at the Virginia establishment.

Medvedev is in town for one-on-one meetings with Obama before the two head up to Canada for the meeting of the G20 nations.

Posted

Strangely enough, both President O'Bama and President Medvedev, through an interpreter, had just one thing to say to me:

"Your wine splits suck."

The irony is that I'm reading this whole saga sitting downstairs at Shake Shack, watching a replay of Isner and Mahut, and having an overcooked burger, crinkle-cut fries, and a poorly mixed chocolate malt.

Cheers,

Rocks

Posted

Medvedev's assessment--typically American. Not so healthy, but tasty. Is that a perfect, succinct take on Mikhail Landrumsky, or what?

Madame, not forget sucky wine splits zelected by Mirko Edwinovich Shlotszky. Spasibo bolshoye.

Posted

via Yahoo.....

TRENDING NOW

Salma Hayek

Bristol Palin

Vlad the Impaler

Summer Recipes

Jill Biden

Scott Hamilton

Volvo

Gregg Allman

Stock Prices

Ray's Hell Burger

Posted

Why must you torment me Michael Landrum, teasing me with the hopes and dreams of your delicious take on seafood at a reasonable price!!!.

Michael, Would you be willing to open yet another Ray's Hell Burger in a secret location that is only available to Don Rockwell members and fans of Gil Scott-Heron? I think the lines are going to be a tad ridiculous after this last Obama visit.

Posted

Medvedev's assessment--typically American. Not so healthy, but tasty. Is that a perfect, succinct take on Mikhail Landrumsky, or what?

I heard that as Mikael Blomkvist.

Posted

via Yahoo.....

TRENDING NOW

Salma Hayek

Bristol Palin

Vlad the Impaler

Summer Recipes

Jill Biden

Scott Hamilton

Volvo

Gregg Allman

Stock Prices

Ray's Hell Burger

what a bizarre list...

Posted

Seriously. Vlad the Impaler?

One post poking fun at Horowitz is funny; two is piling on. Plus, he played with a flat-finger technique, so unless he taped thumbtacks to his fingertips, I don't think it would have been physically possible.

Posted

Madame, not forget sucky wine splits zelected by Mirko Edwinovich Shlotszky. Spasibo bolshoye.

Shlotszky? Are you part of the deli clan? What wine mit pastrami?

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