Sure, you probably know by now that the First Couple dined at locally-sourced Greenwich Village restaurant Blue Hill on Saturday night, but there are still lots of juicy details to pore over! Like the wine: a 2007 Hirsch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, according to Eater. Besides the vino, the First Lady was also observed knocking back two martinis! (It's unclear if she had any of the Pinot.)
We're standing by on details regarding what they ate, but it's believed they ordered the "Farmer's Feast," a five-course tasting inspired by the week's harvest. The other diners, who had to submit to a Secret Service search before entering the restaurant, somehow maintained their composure during the Obamas' dinner, but one tells the Daily News, "When they stood up to leave, this blasé New York crowd stood up and exploded in spontaneous applause."
Not so impressed is Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, who thinks it's just so typical for the Obamas to choose Blue Hill: "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?" Or is someone just a little jealous he wasn't consulted on the Obamas' NYC dining decisions?
After dinner, the First Couple attended the critically acclaimed revival of August Wilson's play Joe Turner's Come and Gone, which has been running at just 65% capacity despite the rave reviews. But the Obamas' visit might be a big boon for the production; on Sunday they sold triple the number of tickets sold on the previous Sunday. Martin Jenkins, a tourist from Georgia, tells the Post, "We definitely came to the play because the Obamas saw it." Sigh, if only Passing Strange had been so lucky.
