Obamas Celebrate Date Night at Farm-Centric Eatery Blue Hill

by Rebecca Flint Marx, Posted Jun 1st 2009 @ 11:00AM

During their trip to New York this weekend, the Obamas dined at Blue Hill. To gastronomes in the New York metropolitan area, Blue Hill has long been synonymous with all things local, organic, humane, refined and good in the dining world.

So it was little surprise that bloggers and commentators jumped all over the Obama's choice of venue, analyzing the meaning and the message of their meal. Frank Bruni opined on the New York Times' Diner's Journal blog that Blue Hill was "the proper ethical call, the proper message to send, the proper restaurant segue from the planting of the White House garden."

But Blue Hill, as Bruni also pointed out, happens to be one of New York's most critically lauded restaurants, so it's not as if the Obamas were exactly sacrificing pleasure for politics.

Still, out of the many, many high-end restaurants that the Obamas could have chosen to patronize, there are relatively few that are so closely associated with the kind of sustainable and progressive eating that the First Lady championed with the planting of the White House garden.

The pick appears to be further evidence of the research that the Obamas have seemingly put into their food choices -- and further evidence of the food world's willingness to analyze the President's every bite, be it of hamburger, chili, or, yes, an impeccably fresh and impeccably local carrot.

Filed Under: Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants
Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, blue hill restaurant, BlueHillRestaurant, michelle obama, MichelleObama, Obamas, white house garden, WhiteHouseGarden

Chew on This

Royal Wedding Cake Details Revealed! - YumSugar

Make Your Own Pop Tarts - CHOW
Denny's Introduces a Maple Bacon Sundae - Eater
Whole Foods Opening Bars in Stores - USA Today
Rules Of Bar Etiquette -- For The Bartender - HuffPost Food

Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-02-2009 @10:36AM NoNaMe said... How lucky are we that our President and First Lady are so out of touch with the people they represent?

I wonder how many unemployed Americans would like to take a private plane to NYC, dine in a high end restaurant, then pop over to see a Broadway show? I don't really care that he's the POTUS and so called "deserves" a night on the town when so many are trying to live on what they receive at the Food Banks and Soup Kitchens. Anyone seen anything organic at those lately?

A Man of the People? Not at the dining table, for sure.
Reply