I’m exactly the kind of person who reads restaurant menus online, even if I’ll probably never go to a particular restaurant. I’m a particular eater and I loathe most cheese-intensive dishes, so I like to check out which restaurants shove cheese into every f–king dish and which restaurants are friendlier to the cheese-averse among us. In any case, if I’m going to a restaurant for the first time, I probably already know what I’m going to order because I’ve already looked at the menu. I don’t expect that of my dinner mates though, and I always love to hear what other people decide to order. It’s apparently different for President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The Bidens recently went to dinner at one of their favorite DC spots, Red Hen. They ordered the same dish. People are freaking out about it!
Where and what presidents eat is an enduring fascination. We love to scrutinize former president Donald Trump’s ketchup-doused steaks or the Obamas’ penchant for culinary hot spots. And so when President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, recently dined out in Washington at the popular Red Hen in Bloomingdale, their order — a chicory salad, grilled bread and butter, and two bowls of rigatoni — drew attention, and ultimately set off a virtual food fight.
It wasn’t what they ate, exactly, that got people all worked up. Their choices were on-brand: The Bidens are well known to be fans of red-sauced pasta. And they hadn’t opted for some culinary lightning rod, such as foie gras or pizza topped with pineapple. It was the mere fact that they both ordered the same entree that set group chats and social media sideline commenters ablaze across the land.
For many, it’s verboten to choose the same entree as one’s dining partner. Hannah Madden, a 24-year-old Washington resident who does fundraising for a political nonprofit, is firmly in this camp. “Getting the same thing as the person you’re eating dinner with is silly,” she says. “The whole point of going out to eat is getting to try as many things as possible.”
For her and others, the discussion that ensued after the Bidens made news for their matching order revealed just how deeply people hold their beliefs about how couples (and friends, even) should handle restaurant orders. “At first, I thought, it’s funny that everyone is in such a twist about this,” Madden said. “And then I realized, ‘Oh wait, I’m in a twist about this!’”
I understand why people have opinions on this because… I do too? I think it’s fine that they ordered the same dish. They’re not 20-somethings looking to experiment on their date night. They’re older people who know what they like, and they probably went to Red Hen specifically because they were both craving rigatoni and/or because they knew they would get exactly what they wanted. Anyway, I love that this is a thing, actually! I love these minor “scandals” of the Biden administration. Oh noes, Dr. Biden and President Biden both ordered rigatoni!
In case you want to see the Red Hen’s menu, go here. I would probably order the pork chop? They have gelato on the dessert menu too, I wonder if President Biden got some gelato instead of ice cream.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- Washington, DC – United States President Joe Biden, left, and first lady Dr. Jill Biden, right, pet their dog, a German Shepherd puppy named ‘Commander’, while virtually meeting with United States military service members on Christmas Day, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, DC, USA. Pictured: Joe Biden, Jill Biden BACKGRID USA 25 DECEMBER 2021 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC – President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden host a celebration in observance of Black History Month in the East Room of the White House. Black federal, state and local government officials as well as Civil Rights leaders are in attendance. Pictured: Jill Biden BACKGRID USA 28 FEBRUARY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, D.C. – United States President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden depart from the White House in Washington, DC en route to Fort Myers, Florida as Latina and Latino influencers who are visiting the White House look on. The President and First Lady will survey storm-ravaged areas and will then receive a briefing on current response and recovery efforts. Pictured: Joe Biden, Jill Biden BACKGRID USA 5 OCTOBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC – President Joe Biden, his wife Jill, President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron as they arrive at the State Dinner at the White House hosted by the President of the United States on the occasion of the State Visit of the French President and the First Lady. Pictured: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Macron BACKGRID USA 1 DECEMBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DIST – The President and First Lady returning to the White House via Marine One from a vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Pictured: Joe Biden BACKGRID USA 2 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- United States President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden disembark from Marine One as they return to the White House in Washington, DC after visiting Fort Myers, Florida on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. The President and First Lady will surveyed storm-ravaged areas and received a briefing on current response and recovery efforts. Featuring: President Joe Biden And First Lady Dr. Jill Biden Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 05 Oct 2022 Credit: Leigh Vogel/Pool/CNP/startraksph/Cover Images
First Lady read SPARE on her trip to Africa, and told the reporters.
How magnificent and glorious to boot!! I am loving Dr. Biden!! She is one classy dame.
Would love to know if Jilly from Philly was just nodding her head along with all the descriptions of Kate in Spare. Imagine she could add some herself. She would never say anything in public but I’m sure she told her husband all about that very short round table discussion.
I think this is really sweet. They are exactly that couple (anyone who’s worked in a family diner will know) who go on date nights to the sane place, sit at the same table, order the same thing, have known most of the staff for decades and always ask about their grandkids Once in a blue moon one of them will order a different side and it’ll throw the kitchen off balance for the rest of the night. They are completely besotted with each other and after they’ve been in the young staff post TikTok’s with the hashtag #RelationshipGoals.
“The whole point of going out to eat is getting to try as many things as possible.”
Then order whatever you want to eat and keep your maulers off my dinner. I don’t do sharing, I order my meal and I eat it. Keep your fork out of my meal. (I know I sound deranged about this, but many moons ago I had a friend that would claim not to be very hungry and proceed to eat half of everyone else’s meal, she was just mean and would not pay for a meal for herself, always “forgot” her purse too)
@ZAPP Same. I have food insecurity issues (due to several factors) and I have two strict rules: don’t touch my food and don’t tell me what to do with my food.
Focus on yourself and your food and leave me and mine alone.
Hahahahaha! That is not deranged. When Mr FC & I started dating, he did NOT like sharing food at all and that was ok! Fast forward a decade later and now he loves to share a bit & try new things but still likes his own plate.
Funny story – we were out to dinner with my wonderful grandfather and his younger wife, who is a bit odd – (eats soooooooooooooooooooooooo slow, can never make up her mind about what to order – so its rare that we eat with them.) We went out for her birthday and after finally ordering and having our meals brought to the table, she proceeded to take a fork full right off my husband’s plate. LMAO – the face he managed to hide was stupendous!! I took him out for a drink after that to calm him down and let him reset – Oh my stars…it was the rudest thing I had ever seen. It was just so surprising to see someone actually do that …so odd…anyway – I love that the Biden’s got the same thing – they are adorable!
So glad Hannah Madden weighed in with the vast wisdom of her 24 years. What a twit.
Right!!!! If you want to try as many things as possible, order what YOU want.
It’s verboten to order something different from your dinner companion. Since when? I eat what I like. Screw my dinner companions. What a silly article. Anyhoo…that rigatoni sounds right up my alley.
Awwww….how sweet. Burrata & black truffle crostini, chicory salad and wild mushroom arancini for moi.
That Burrata sounds amazing!
It cracks me up when people act like simple things that bother them, must bother everyone else. This is right up there with Dijon mustard, tan suits, and a VP that makes 235,000 dollars a year buying a Creuset pot. As much as we complain about the BM, stories like this make me roll my eyes at ours too. Two people thought the same dish sounded good, shock/horror!!
I would probably get the short ribs pasta. I’d also see if I could talk anyone else into getting the burrata truffle bread because I wouldn’t want to pay that much for toast on top of a carbs entree.
I agree they’re probably at the age where they both just want they want when they go out. I do think it’s silly that them ordering the same dish made it into the WaPo.
@ Jay, I’ll go halves on the brurata truffle bread and am looking at Mezzi Rigatoni for me and finished off with the Hazel Totré. 😋😋
If I’m at a new restaurant and am trying a new dish, or I’m eating someplace I’ve been before but I’m again trying something new, I will def ask what my husband is ordering and if he wants the same thing do, I”ll order something different. But that’s only if I am not sure I want the whole dish. I don’t know how to describe my thought process, lol.
basically if I want rigatoni, I’m ordering rigatoni regardless of what he orders. If I am not sure if I want the rigatoni or the scampi, and he’s ordering the rigatoni, then I’ll get the scampi – we don’t split the entrees, but I’ll have a few bites of his and vice versa.
at that restaurant, I would want all the pasta dishes, lol. I LOVE PASTA.
Pasta is life. And now I want scampi.
Well I’m also curious if the restaurant was closed for them to use? I used to live above Cafe Milano, John Kerry was there often, and the whole street would be a mess with secret service everywhere. So I can’t imagine that part of DC with even more narrow streets.
This was the dumbest controversy from WaPo. Some folks like to experiment when they go out to dinner and that’s fine. Some folk like to get the same dish at a certain restaurant and that’s also fine. Some folks will go out not to try new things but because they don’t feel like cooking and that’s fine too.
WaPo should be talking more about how Fox News misled its viewers than about the “audacity” of a couple out to dinner ordering the same entree.
@ bonobochick, yes. WaPo should be helping Faux News dig their own grave. Leave the loved up Biden’s alone. My gawd, the audacity.
Nooooo cheese on pasta is the best! Lol. Cacio e pepe anyway. Lasagna and mac and cheese too.
This menu looks amazing. I’d order the burrata and black truffle crostini, the grilled octopus, and the squid ink linguine or rigatoni.
My family was in politics so if we were in Washington when I was a kid we’d go to the Old Ebbitt Grill. Such good food.
@ C, I had octopus once and haven’t recovered from that experience since. It’s going on 45+ years so I don’t think I will get over that hump. Though I do love wild game meat, including alligator.
Aw I’m sorry! I eat a lot of Japanese so I’m a big fan of eel and octopus. But other than that the only “exotic” meat I’ve had is wild boar a few times, and venison.
The squid ink pasta and arancini are nice little Sicilian touches to the menu!
When I used to live in Japan, there was literally squid(ika?)on a stick at the festivals. Like a tentacle on a stick to eat like cotton candy or something. I absolutely loved all the different types of food but I’m sorry @bothsides if I just gave you nightmares! It was cool though!
Octopus is one of my favorite things to eat! They are yum! I like them every possible way. Only I don’t eat them now because it’s kind of like if I ate my dog
This is so on-brand for them and I love it.
Wherever we go, the Hubby and I usually order the same dishes. He even piggy backs off of mine “I’ll have the same.” They’ve been together for a long time and have developed similar tastes. Who cares? It’s just dinner.
What a non-story, couched as “BREAKING NEWS”!! Who actually GAF about whether they order the same dish?? Maybe the rigatoni is sooo good that they aren’t willing to share? The suspense is KILLING me. 😂
Thanks for posting a link to the menu.
I too look at restaurant website menus and likely know what I’ll order before I get there.
Me too. I call it “Restaurant Reconnaissance.” I have some dietary restrictions, so I like to know if there is anything I will eat there ahead of time. If not, I’ll have a snack before I go then just say I’m not too hungry and get a simple garden salad or something.
I bet they have good sausage there.
From the menu, it looks like a Sicilian restaurant. And Jill Biden is Sicilian, so it makes sense.
Isn’t the Red Hen the place that asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave because staff were upset with Trump’s family separation policy?
I’m having the butternut squash hummus, the spaghetti verde and the maple panna cotta.
That was the Red Hen in Lexington VA.
The rigatoni at red hen is FANTASTIC. Cannot blame them for getting it!
Same — I love a good menu! Last week I looked up Georgio Baldi’s menu b/c Rihanna dined there the night before. Reviewing the Red Hen dishes, the Mafalde pasta is speaking to me. Mr. Smith and I like to order an entree each and then share half so we can try two dishes. I bet he’d get the rigatoni. 🙂
I am a cheese lover. I’m sure this place is good, but it looks too light on cheese for me. If I’m going to get pasta, I want CHEESE.
Slow news day for WaPo? I’d be embarrassed to pitch this article.
Reading the menu before I go somewhere is part of the fun of the experience for me. I don’t like to try to make a decision while people are talking to me. I’d rather leisurely peruse the menu beforehand and pick something, and then listen to the specials and see what I’d like best. It’s truly all part of the enjoyment.
I kind of love that this is a story. Our president ands wife are so low-key, so non-dramatic, that this is an actual story. I have no problem with them ordering what they like FFS. My husband and I will sometimes get different things if it’s a new place and split them between us, but sometimes we get the same thing because that’s what sounded good. This sounds like a made-up controversy. lol.
This just reminds me of Friends, “Joey doesn’t share food!” Which is what I sometimes say to my husband when he reaches for my fries because he ordered a salad.
I love not having to doom scroll every day wondering what shenanigans our president has gotten up to. If this is the most salacious gossip on Joe, we are doing good. This is adorable and I don’t understand why it’s causing such a fuss.
I love that this is the biggest scandal these dingdongs can come up with. Thank you Joe Biden for being so normal and boring. It’s exactly what we needed after 4 years of Trump “excitement”
Thanks for all the Jill Biden pictures. Absolutely love her style.
This controversy is right up there with Obama’s tan suit.
Do you suppose this is an attempt to get the younger generation to believe that Biden is “too old” for the job? Otherwise, this makes zero sense for the Washington Post to be writing about it.
“And what will we be having tonight?”
“Ummm…..hmmm….I don’t know yet. Sweetie, you go ahead and order.”
“I’ll have the rigatoni.”
“Oh that sounds good, I’ll have the same.”
Like, stop trying to make fetch happen.
The short rib pasta sounds amazing, I lobe looking at menus ahead of time because I can be indecisive.
My fiancé loves to “try a little” of everything and I’m glad we’ve met in our 30s and not 20s because if he likes my meal better than his, he will want more than a “try”. Fortunately for me and him, I can’t finish most of my meals anyway so I’m fine with it (most of the time) But I warn him if I’m especially hungry like after my long hikes now to keep the peace. My dad did not like my mom’s sister doing this early on and they actually didnt get along before I was born because my dad’s philosophy is “I ordered what I wanted and you ordered what you wanted”. And she quizzes everyone at the table on their orders ahead of time to make sure she wasn’t ordering the same thing. She’s 84 yrs old not changing. I’m happy to have her around to pick off my plate lol.