The Caucus | Obama's Budget Treat: Some Red Meat
Obama's Budget Treat: Some Red Meat
August 3, 2011 3:03 pm August 3, 2011 3:03 pm
Jason Reed/ReutersPresident Obama ordered lunch at Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
How do you celebrate a $2.1 trillion legislative compromise that almost no one liked?
With a burger!
President Obama grabbed a couple of his hard-working White House staffers on Wednesday and headed over to the Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill for a quick bite and a symbolic "thank you" for a job well done.
"It smells good," Mr. Obama said to surprised customers. "Michelle eats here all the time, but I don't get out."
Mr. Obama ordered a burger, fries and a salad and then gathered with his legislative team, including Jacob J. Lew, the budget director; Rob Nabors, the legislative affairs chief; Nancy Ann DeParle, the deputy chief of staff for policy; Bruce Reed, the vice president's chief of staff; and Gene Sperling, the director of the National Economic Council.
Reporters, who were too far away to make out the conversation, witnessed lots of laughing.
Mr. Obama chatted with customers, at one point offering a milkshake from the presidential table to a young boy at the next table.
"Choose any milkshake," the president said, according to the boy. "I guarantee this table isn't going to drink them all."
Mr. Obama also ran into Representative G.K. Butterfield, Democrat of North Carolina, who was on his way to a nearby Chinese restaurant and stopped in for a brief chat with the president.
"We talked about the difficult vote the other night," Mr. Butterfield told reporters outside. "I explained to him that I didn't vote with him, but I'm glad that it passed. He said he understood."
Good Stuff is a favorite of Capitol Hill staffers and reporters. It's owned by Spike Mendelsohn, a celebrity chef who appeared on "Top Chef."
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