Just like us, US presidents have their favorite restaurants. These are some of the most beloved dining spots of our former presidents.
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00:00Just like us, U.S. presidents have their favorite restaurants. These are some of the most beloved
00:04dining spots of our former presidents.
00:07For Trump, a good ol' New York boy with the 80s paparazzi snaps to prove it, 21 Club was
00:12the spot. It started as a family tradition. Growing up, his father Fred often took the
00:16family to 21 for Sunday dinners. Donald held his first wedding reception there, the one
00:20where he married Ivana. He even had his own table, Number 11, and his favorite menu item
00:25was a $36 cheeseburger. In fact, the 21 Club, a former speakeasy, played host to nearly
00:30every U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Presidents Kennedy, Ford, and Nixon even kept
00:36personal wine collections in the restaurant's basement.
00:38One of Trump's most publicized visits to 21 Club was one of his last. He took Melania
00:42and his children there in 2016, shortly after becoming president-elect. Unfortunately, in
00:47March 2021, after prolonged closures related to renovation and the COVID-19 pandemic, the
00:5321 Club closed for good.
00:56Barack Obama is our only president to hail from Hawaii, and his favorite restaurant,
00:59Alan Wong's in Honolulu, was uniquely Hawaiian. The restaurant fused fine dining techniques
01:03with the island's authentic ingredients and traditions. If anyone knows Hawaiian food,
01:08it's Obama. And as one of our greatest foodie presidents, we're in no position to challenge
01:12his love for Alan Wong's. During his presidency, Obama ate at Alan Wong's more than any other
01:17restaurant.
01:18According to Chef Wong, Michelle typically opted for a lighter meal, whereas the former
01:21president always went for the multi-core chef's menu. Items from the chef's menu included
01:25Wong's seafood cake, tomato with lihingui dressing, and foie gras grilled cheese with
01:30a two-color Big Island tomato soup to start, followed by lobster lasagna, ginger-crusted
01:34onaga, a ruby snapper native to Hawaiian waters, and coconut ice cream with dark chocolate
01:38and tropical fruits for dessert.
01:40"'Wong says the president's favorite dish is the soy braised short ribs. Yum!"
01:47Sadly, after 25 years in business, Alan Wong's closed in 2020.
01:52It's not often that a secret service detail rolls into a strip mall. Unless, of course,
01:56that strip mall is the one that's home to Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, Virginia.
02:00During his presidency, George H.W. Bush dined at Peking Gourmet Inn more than any other restaurant.
02:05In fact, owner George Chui says Bush ate at his restaurant over 100 times.
02:10After his first visit in 1985, Bush wrote a letter to the owner's father to let him
02:13know the food and service were exceptional. His favorite was the combination meal with
02:17Peking duck, spicy shredded beef, lamb chops, and jumbo shrimp. It became known as the Bush
02:22Standard Menu.
02:23Normally, we lost a great president, also lost a good friend."
02:28Richard Nixon didn't feel comfortable in a lot of places, but he could loosen up at Trader
02:32Vic's. The Polynesian tiki-style restaurant and bar served countless politicians over
02:36the years. Nixon first dined there with his family on Valentine's Day 1973, when he was
02:41already hiding the secret that would end his presidency. From then on, when he felt
02:45he had no one to turn to, Nixon would jump in the presidential limo and head to Trader
02:49Vic's for late night drinks. The Secret Service would alert the restaurant that the POTUS
02:52was on its way so they could clear out customers. Over a couple of Navy grogs, Nixon would pour
02:57out his heart, and the bartender would listen.
03:00Cooper's Pip BBQ in Llano, Texas specializes in smothered ribs, brisket, and chops fit
03:04for even the most discerning cowboy. Cooper's opened as a stand in Mason, Texas in 1953,
03:10and a couple former presidents from the Lone Star State have feasted on what Cooper's was
03:13serving up. In the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson rolled up to Cooper's in his Lincoln,
03:18hungry for some coal-fired barbecue. And when George W. Bush won the 2000 presidential election,
03:23he had Cooper's cater his party at Crawford Ranch. In addition to the one in Llano, there
03:27are Cooper's locations in Austin, College Station, Fort Worth, and New Braunfels.
03:32Dwight D. Eisenhower likely discovered his love for Chinese-American fare while serving
03:36in the military, where chop suey was a popular mess hall dish. As an Army major stationed
03:40in Washington, D.C., he fell in love with a spa on Columbia Road called Sun Chop Suey.
03:45Eisenhower was a regular, often coming in to eat with his wife Mamie and their young
03:49son. His favorite dish was the chicken chop suey, and he didn't deviate from it. In fact,
03:53the only reason Eisenhower deviated from sun chop suey at all was to fight in World War
03:57II.
03:58Even while he was in the White House, Eisenhower stayed loyal to sun chop suey. The FBI knew
04:02how much he loved the food there, so they took the liberty of investigating all of the
04:06restaurant's employees. No harm ever came to President Eisenhower at his beloved restaurant.
04:11President Kennedy's affinity for Union Oyster House has become the stuff of legends. While
04:15representing Massachusetts in the House and later the Senate, Kennedy made a habit of
04:19popping into Union Oyster House on weekend afternoons. The owners always gave him his
04:23favorite booth on the second floor, where he could read the newspaper and feast on lobster
04:27stew in private.
04:28A plaque designating it the Kennedy Booth hangs there in his memory. Kennedy wasn't
04:31the only president to eat there. Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and
04:36Barack Obama all visited the legendary seafood restaurant.
04:39So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get ten chattas to go. Ten chattas to go.
04:45We're gonna eat them on Air Force One."
04:47Union Oyster House was established in 1826 and is one of the nation's oldest continually
04:52operating restaurants. But be warned, sightings of Kennedy's ghost have been reported in the
04:56dining room and the bathrooms of the venerable restaurant.
04:59After heading to the polls on Election Day 1884, Grover Cleveland had breakfast at one
05:03of his favorite local eateries, Giroux's French Restaurant in Buffalo, New York. Giroux's
05:07has been demolished, but it used to be on the corner of Swan and Washington streets.
05:11The restaurant's signage boasted poultry, game, and oysters, and in August 1884, it
05:15advertised a lunch counter that sold sandwiches, salads, and cold cuts in the afternoon to
05:20accommodate businessmen in the area — men like Cleveland. Before assuming the presidency,
05:24he served as mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York.
05:27Cleveland's fondness for restaurants had a lot to do with him being one of our first
05:30urbanite presidents. In his lawyer days, he worked and lived in downtown Buffalo, staying
05:34in an apartment building and frequenting nearby restaurants rather than cook at home. Giroux's
05:38French Restaurant was one of the premier places Cleveland went to satisfy his robust appetite.
05:44Founding father and third president Thomas Jefferson was a man of refined and at times
05:48extravagant tastes. When he served as an American diplomat to France in the 1780s, Jefferson
05:53took to the Parisian food scene like a duck to water. Sampling fine French wines and tasting
05:57the Nouvelle Cuisine that was developing in France at the time turned Jefferson into
06:00a Francophile.
06:01Among the many places he visited was Champs-d'Oiseau. The restaurant opened in 1765 in Rue des Poulies,
06:07or what is now known as Rue du Louvre. It wasn't a fancy place — it specialized in
06:11dishes meant to restore and replenish their diners. Champs-d'Oiseau served items like
06:16eggs, pasta, and semolina cakes. Its signature dish was poultry with chicken sauce. Jefferson
06:21brought his love affair with French gastronomy back home — that and 680 bottles of wine.
06:26He installed a stove in his Monticello kitchen like the ones he'd seen in France. He had
06:30olive oil, mustard, cheese, anchovies, and a pasta maker shipped from overseas and sent
06:35his enslaved cook, James Hemings, to apprentice under French chefs in order to finesse his
06:39culinary skills. Jefferson's White House dinners were steeped in French influence and included
06:44the finest French wines. He did have quite the collection, after all.
06:48If it's a historic tavern on the East Coast, George Washington has probably been there.
06:53America's City Tavern was one of Washington's go-to places. It opened in 1773 and was a
06:58popular meeting spot for America's earliest politicians, who headed in to talk business
07:02before and after congressional sessions. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Philly's native
07:06son Benjamin Franklin all ate and drank at City Tavern, which closed in 2021. One night
07:11in 1787, City Tavern hosted a party for soon-to-be-president Washington, and the founding fathers really
07:17let their wigs down. The bar tab for the event, which was attended by Washington and 54 guests,
07:22still exists, and it's no joke. The men drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of Claret,
07:278 bottles of Whiskey, 8 bottles of Cider, 12 bottles of Beer, and 7 bowls of Alcoholic
07:32Punch. Dinner was also served that night, but the bar tab alone totaled 89 pounds, 4
07:37shillings, and 2 pence. That would be around $15,400 in today's currency.
07:43George Washington was all about the tavern life, and not just with his soldier friends.
07:46He dined out with his wife, Martha, too. Gadsby's Tavern in his hometown of Alexandria, Virginia,
07:51was a favorite. English-born John Gadsby operated the tavern and hotel beginning in
07:55the late 1700s. It was a hive of activity centered around Alexandria's port-based economy,
08:00and the establishment relied on a workforce of enslaved people to keep its hospitality
08:04at a high standard.
08:05The five presidents who succeeded Washington — Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and
08:10Quincy Adams — also dined at Gadsby's. Gadsby's biggest night of the year was its annual birth
08:14night ball, thrown in February in honor of Washington's birthday. Since Washington was
08:19busy being president when the tradition began, he didn't actually attend until 1798 and again
08:23in 1799, 10 months before his death.
08:26The dress-to-impress event was filled with food, late-night dancing, and a sizable guest
08:30list. Historical accounts suggest that Washington killed on the dance floor. Today, Gadsby's
08:35is a museum and a registered National Historic Landmark. The museum offers guided tours,
08:39and you can stay for a meal at the colonial-inspired Gadsby's Tavern restaurant. The museum still
08:44hosts a birth night ball every February, and it's a hot-ticket event.
08:48You won't hear the pounding of horse hooves outside France's tavern anymore, but you can
08:51step back in time if you drop by for a visit. The historic institution, which still stands
08:56in Lower Manhattan, was built in 1719, before America even existed, and it set the scene
09:01for some epic revolutionary-era moments. In 1774, the Sons of Liberty, an angsty secret
09:06society of colonists that included future president John Adams, founding father Samuel
09:10Adams, and midnight writer Paul Revere plotted the New York Tea Party at France's tavern.
09:15A year later, a British warship sent an 18-pound cannonball through the tavern's roof. The
09:19tavern was owned by Samuel Francis, who bought the building in 1762 and originally operated
09:24under the name Queen's Head Tavern.
09:26He had two kitchens. He had a savory kitchen and a sweet kitchen, which was very uncommon
09:31of the time."
09:32During the British occupation of New York in the mid-1770s, Francis was forced to cook
09:36for British generals who enjoyed the tavern's hospitality, no matter how strained. When
09:40British troops finally evacuated in November 1783, Governor George Clinton marked the occasion
09:46with a soiree at Francis' tavern. During the festivities, George Washington bid farewell
09:50to his fellow officers in a speech that brought war-hardened soldiers to tears. Today, the
09:54building is part tavern, part museum.