Suzanne Goin & Caroline Styne Cook for President Obama

By Sophie Gayot

Los Angeles, April 22, 2011

Watch our exclusive video interview with partner and wine director Caroline Styne.

“The President walks into a tavern through the back door,” sounds like the beginning of a racy joke, but that’s exactly what happened last night in Southern California. There were so many people around Tavern, the restaurant where Barack Obama was holding a fundraiser, that the Commander-in-Chief had to be escorted in through the back door. We know that Tavern co-owners Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne worked closely with the Secret Service to plan the event and the menu.

According to Caroline, “Many have asked us about our dinner last evening for President Obama at Tavern. It was an incredible and intense experience for Suzanne, me, and everyone that works with us. The planning, anticipation and execution of the evening was nerve-wracking and exciting beyond description. We and our entire staff are just so honored to have been entrusted with such an important evening. All of the guests seemed to truly enjoy themselves and their time with the President. He was gracious and generous with his time, going beyond the donors at the dinner and taking time to shake the hand of every staff member at the restaurant. We couldn’t be more pleased with the evening as a whole.

Here’s the menu everyone has been asking about, and I just had:
– Crab Louie with little gems, tomatoes, eggs and Russian dressing
– Baked torchio with radicchio, wild mushrooms, asparagus and taleggio
– Braised beef daube with carrot purée, tomato confit and tapenade
– Three cheeses with griddled tavern toasts
Snickers bar with salted peanut caramel and vanilla ice cream.  I forgive the White House for losing our invitation to the pricey event, but not for the President’s helicopter waking me up this morning. And congratulations ladies for being the one-night-out of President Obama during his one-day stay in Los Angeles. Now that you have done this with success, you can cook for anybody!