14 Former Presidents And The Restaurants They Loved To Eat At

We're obsessed with knowing the personal details of the people who run the country, and that extends to their eating habits. Knowing how the sitting president eats (and how the presidents that came before him did) is a particular fascination. What's especially interesting is how different their diets were — Barack Obama's eating regimen was focused on keeping sugar, carbs, and fats at bay, while Jimmy Carter preferred grits and cheese — and how this is reflected in their favorite restaurants.

Just like the rest of us, the president of the United States (whoever they may be) enjoys a meal out every now and again. Plus, as with anyone else, the person in charge of the country always has a favorite spot. Interestingly, these restaurants haven't always been near the White House, as you might expect. Instead, the restaurants that former presidents loved to eat at were dotted around the country, and the world, reflecting the diverse tastes of the people who are employed to lead the nation. From steakhouses in New York, to Oyster houses in Boston, to barbecue joints in Texas and even Parisian bistros, where the presidents have chosen to eat is as wide-reaching as some of the policies that they've championed. We've got our favorites right here.

Gadsby's Tavern, Virginia, which sits just to the east of the Potomac River, has been an American institution for centuries. The restaurant opened in 1770 and remains in operation today, offering a classic menu served in a historic setting. It's not just popular with the public, either: It was also visited by George Washington, who both dined there and used it as a venue for high-profile events.

The tavern was an important location for Washington and his associates to conduct the business of the country. Washington led a convention at the tavern to discuss imports that were sailed down the Potomac. It wasn't just business, though: Washington also held a birthday ball there in both 1798 and 1799. He was known for enjoying the roast duck on the menu, which was subsequently renamed in his honor for future guests. The popularity of the restaurant with the political set was such that the owner, John Gadsby, managed to organize his own stage coach service from Washington to the tavern, which could only be taken if you were staying there. We have no doubt that this was highly attractive to the powerful folks who would dine there over the years, which included Alexander Hamilton, George Clinton, and George Mason, among many others.

The second president of the United States may have been the first to live in the White House, but his preferred restaurant was a little further away. John Adams was a regular visitor to New York City's Fraunces Tavern, along with the likes of his contemporaries George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. The tavern was considered a social hub of the time, and the building it resided in was built long before Adams was even born, in 1719. Owner Samuel Fraunces, the namesake of the tavern, purchased it in 1762 and turned it into a hip and happening joint.

It's unclear exactly what John Adams liked to eat at the Fraunces Tavern, but it's likely that it accommodated the tastes of the time, with veal, mutton, pork, oysters, and soups all common choices. The tavern was unique in that it would serve food throughout the day, instead of at an established time — and it even offered take-out. Adams himself was known to enjoy fairly simple food like potatoes and fishcakes, which we're pretty sure the tavern would have been able to accommodate. Incredibly, Fraunces Tavern exists to this day, and serves a slightly updated menu that doesn't veer too far from the all-time American classics.

New York's Keens Steakhouse is one of the oldest steakhouses in the country, and over the years it's seen more than its fair share of celebrities and dignitaries. Everyone from Liza Minnelli to Albert Einstein ate at the legendary steak joint, with the latter being part of the Keens Pipe Club, a membership scheme for diners and smokers who visited the establishment. You can add one more name to that roster, too: Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, was a patron of Keens Steakhouse and a pipe club member, and frequented the restaurant when he was in town.

We don't know exactly what Theodore Roosevelt dined on when he was at Keens, but with the steakhouse serving a signature mutton chop, it's likely that he tried this a fair few times. Roosevelt was such a valued customer of the restaurant that a dining space inside it was named The Bull Moose Room, after his short-lived political party. Thankfully, the history of Keens is a little less short-lived, and it's managed to thrive in the competitive New York restaurant climate to still exist today. You can still get the mutton chop (although the meat they use is now slightly younger), and check out the impressive array of pipes left behind by its club members.

Grover Cleveland is known for many things, from being the first Democrat elected after the Civil War to being the first (and until recently, only) president to serve nonconsecutive terms in office. What he's less known for is his relationship with French food. It appears that Cleveland went back and forth on how much he liked French cuisine, but one time he did like it was on the morning before he was elected president for the first time in 1884. That significant day, he dined at Gerot's French Restaurant in Buffalo, New York.

Unlike other historic restaurants, Gerot's French Restaurant is no more: The building it stood in, located on the aptly-named Washington Street, has since been demolished. We'd like to think that Grover would be appalled at this, and that he was potentially munching on a croissant the day before he became the figurehead for the country. Other times, Cleveland appeared a little more ambivalent on French cuisine: While he was a lover of cakes like charlotte russe and served pâté at his Inaugural Ball, he was also known to skip French meals served to him in favor of simpler dishes.

John F. Kennedy's relationship with Boston ran deep: He was born just outside the city, his grandfather was elected mayor in 1906, and before he was the president he was senator of Massachusetts. As such, it's hardly surprising that he had a few favorite spots in the city, and Boston's Union Oyster House was one where he loved to eat. JFK and his family were frequent visitors to the restaurant, where they'd usually eat upstairs in privacy. Like so many of us, he even had a booth that he preferred to dine in, which has since been named "The Kennedy Booth" in his honor.

We'd imagine that Kennedy probably tried the oysters in this place a fair few times, but he was known to prefer the lobster stew. The Union Oyster House first opened way back in 1826, giving it the distinction of being America's oldest restaurant, but the stew wasn't yet served there at the time. Back then, you could pick from a collection of oysters, clams, or scallops, in a variety of cooking styles. You were able to order these with a side of crackers and milk or fried eggs, and wash things down with tea, coffee, ginger ale, or sarsaparilla, which was a predecessor of root beer.

Chinese food has a long and established history in the United States, and while it tastes different in America, that doesn't make it any less popular. It was particularly popular with George H. W. Bush, who liked to eat at the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, Virginia. The restaurant was opened in 1978, and from the outside, you might not expect it to be a president's favorite place to eat: The Peking Gourmet Inn sits in an unassuming strip mall, and its interior is pretty straightforward and not overly fancy.

However, perhaps it was that down-to-earth nature that appealed to Bush, who was known to eat there with wife Barbara and his children, including George Junior. The president first went to the restaurant when he was still vice, but continued to frequent it once he was elected, with hefty security precautions. Bush was known to like the restaurant's signature Peking Duck, but he was also partial to Szechuan beef and garlic sprouts. Owner Eddie Tsui was so well-respected by the former president that he was asked to travel down to Houston to cater for George and Barbara's 50th wedding anniversary.

Richard Nixon's diet will never be the thing that people think of when they hear his name — we'd have to say that a certain scandal likely comes first. However, it's still interesting to consider what his tastes might have been, and one of them was for food served at a Trader Vic's close to the White House. The Stetler Hilton (which was later renamed The Capital Hilton and classified as a Historic Hotel of America) was home to the chain restaurant, with the president visiting it with his wife and family. When they ate there, it seems like they went pretty big: Nixon was once famously heard to say "When you go in there, don't be on a diet," to New York Times reporters outside.

Nixon's other food habits weren't quite as out there (although we might not consider Trader Vic's to be the fanciest place on earth). He was well-known to enjoy classic dishes like meatloaf. He was also, somewhat strangely, a particular fan of the slightly strange combination of cottage cheese with ketchup.

A lot of former presidents aren't particularly known for visiting the same restaurant again and again. The same can't be said for Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a lifelong love affair with The Sun, also known as Sun Chop Suey, a Chinese restaurant situated on Columbia Road in Washington. Eisenhower first visited the restaurant back in the 1930s when he was stationed in the city with the army, and he would frequently take his family there to eat. After World War 2 ended and he returned to the city, he revisited his favorite place repeatedly.

His relationship with Sun Chop Suey continued once he was in the White House, where he would often order Chinese food when his relatives were in town. As for what he'd order, Eisenhower generally stuck to the classics of chicken chop suey (Cantonese style), egg foo yung, and fried rice, as well as almond cookies. We'd imagine that the staff at Sun Chop Suey were pretty happy for his patronage, but potentially less happy with the security circumstances that arose from it: When he got into the White House, the staff there had to be investigated by the FBI.

Georgia-born Jimmy Carter has always been a man to stay true to his roots. So it's little surprise that his favorite restaurant is in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Bonita's Restaurant is the kind of place that you probably wouldn't associate with a former president: The interior is unassuming and simple, with just a few tables and chairs and an American flag behind the counter. The food, too, is down-to-earth and unfussy, with the restaurant serving up Southern staples like fried catfish, southern fried chicken, corned beef hash, and sausage patties.

However, it's that simplicity that Jimmy Carter loves, and a trait that has defined much of his life. Carter moved back to Plains after his presidency, and Bonita's was the place to go for him to order fried catfish from the restaurant, made by Mrs. Bonita herself in the kitchen. If you're ever in Plains, a small city of less than a thousand people, you can head to Bonita's yourself and try out the cuisine.

While figuring out the eating habits of former presidents often requires trawling through the history books, for those that were in office in modern times it's way more simple: Everything's on the internet in real time. As such, the fact that Barack Obama was a big fan of Alan Wong's, a restaurant in the Mōʻiliʻili area of Honolulu, is no big secret. Obama's association with the restaurant was observed during his first term, with him dining there several times in 2008 and 2009. He would continue to dine there throughout his second term too, whenever he was back in his home state.

Alan Wong's specialized in serving classic Hawaiian cuisine, with items like ahi belly, poke, and poi stew in common rotation. Unfortunately, while the restaurant did a roaring trade throughout the years it was open, it wasn't destined to last forever. Alan Wong's closed in 2020, with the restaurant, like so many others, suffering business losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We'd imagine that Obama was pretty upset by the news.

George W. Bush is a Texas boy through and through, despite not being born in the state — he moved there at the age of 2 — so it's not exactly a surprise that his favorite food comes from the area. Cooper's Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano, Texas, was a particularly happy place for him, especially around the start of his first term. The restaurant is every inch the Texas barbeque joint. Massive hunks of meat have been cooked cowboy-style at Cooper's since 1962, when it first opened its doors. The food is cooked over mesquite coals to give it that deeply smoky flavor, and when the weather's sunny, you can eat on picnic tables outside. No wonder Bush likes it — it sounds like a dream eating experience to us!

Cooper's Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Que has since expanded to five individual locations, but it's the Llano one that remains the flagship. Amazingly, Bush wasn't the only president who liked the restaurant's food. Lyndon B. Johnson, another Texas native who couldn't get enough barbecue, also dined at Cooper's.

Abraham Lincoln didn't spend a lot of time in New York, with the president visiting the city only six times. However, when he spent time in Manhattan, he was often spotted at Delmonico's. Claiming to be the first fine dining restaurant in America, Delmonico's has done a roaring trade since it opened its doors in 1837, and you can still head there today to enjoy its signature ribeye.

When Lincoln dined at the restaurant, though, he preferred a different dish. Potatoes au gratin was his favorite thing to order, an option that you unfortunately can't get today. He wouldn't just eat there, either: Lincoln would also stay at the establishment. It was his preferred meeting spot to talk with his government and army colleagues, and his association with the restaurant was so strong that after he was assassinated, the route the procession took passed the building. Delmonico's is no stranger to esteemed guests, and throughout the years it's seen plenty of famous faces, with Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and many other presidents eating there.

Thomas Jefferson was many things — a president, a lawyer, an architect, and someone who writes Declarations of Independence that shape history — but he was also a lover of French food. His tastes were put on full display when he was stationed in Paris as the Minister to France, where he fell in love with the Champ D'Oiseau. When he first arrived in Paris, Jefferson wasn't well-versed in French food, but he soon fell in love with it. It didn't hurt that at the time, French food was experiencing a moment of real innovation, with mayonnaise, foie gras, and Grey Poupon mustard all being invented shortly before Jefferson first arrived in the city in 1784.

The Champ D'Oiseau may well have been the first French restaurant he dined in, with the restaurant itself being a relatively new concept, at least in its current form. When he returned to America and took residence in the White House, he brought his love of French cuisine with him. However, he avoided employing French chefs directly, and instead had enslaved people from the Virginia Monticello plantation trained in French cooking styles.

Missouri has been the home state of just one president so far, Harry S. Truman — but boy, was he proud of where he came from. This pride didn't just extend to his own town of Independence, but to Kansas City, where he'd frequently dine at Dixon's Chili Parlor. The joint was opened in 1919, serving local-style chili, and within a few years, Truman had established it as his go-to place to eat. His love of the parlor continued up until he entered the White House, and when he was in town he'd order their chili to his hotel suite.

Truman's love of Dixon's Chili Parlor ran so deep that he made a high-profile visit to the restaurant in 1950, dining on the chili in full view of customers and the press. The owner, Vergne Dixon, was deeply grateful to the president for boosting patronage, with the president responding with a letter stating how much he enjoyed dining there. The visit was a break from his usual schedule and eating habits, which famously included a shot of bourbon first thing in the morning, which he was advised to drink by his doctor.