Maybe the only time a future president will say "We don't want to have Cheez Whiz dripping..."

[Lobster Martini]

(LM: This seals it. Whatever else might be said about Obama, he did pick the right place to go for a cheese steak. This is from the Philly Inky.)

Cheesesteaks and haircuts

As Democrats voted, Clinton and Obama made surprise visits.

In a series of surprise appearances yesterday, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama flitted through the Philadelphia region in a final dash for votes, popping up at eateries, a barbershop, and a recreation center.

Under the El at 51st Street in West Philadelphia, Obama showed up at Major League Cuts, to the delight of customer Tariq Tidwell.

<snip>

In Conshohocken, Clinton took up Boccella's restaurant on an impromptu invitation chalked out front: "Hillary, stop in for lunch."

With police cruisers and Secret Service agents in tow, Clinton ambled in after chatting up voters at a nearby polling place to order a chicken cheesesteak with Italian greens, onion and light sauce. To go.



<snip>

Obama got his obligatory dose of cheesesteak at a South Philadelphia landmark, Pat's King of Steaks at Ninth and Wharton Streets.

Along with his wife, he worked his way through the crowd to the counter, where he ordered two cheesesteaks, with onions. "Whiz with," Michelle Obama chimed in. (History: John Kerry infamously ordered his cheesesteak with Swiss.)

(LM: Swiss? On a cheesesteak? No. Say it's not true. That's so embarrassing.)

The couple sat down with a startled Charles McDermot of Roxborough and his daughter Ariel, 16. Obama had to fold his long frame to get under a bolted-down red plastic bench, at a bolted-down red plastic table, underneath the sidewalk overhang.

With the throng of cameras leaning over their shoulders, Obama and his wife tried to talk to their lunch companions. "We don't want to have Cheez Whiz dripping from our mouths," Obama said.

He ate all of the sandwich, then dipped into some French fries and opened a bottle of water. After taking a sip, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Do I have cheesesteak in my teeth?" he asked McDermot.

<snip>

(Link: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080423_Cheesesteaks_and_haircuts.html)

Bonus: I looked for the barbershop in the Philly phone book. It isn't listed, but I did find--I'm not making this up--Pate's Barber and TV Shop. What the...how do those go together...it's on page 150 of the Yellow Book.