Liberal Mormon

I've heard several people complaining on Twitter about the new story concerning President Obama and VP Joe Biden going out to eat at a local burger joint in Arlington, VA. The burger joint? "Ray's Hell Burgers" which by the name of it originally brought thoughts of some greasy spoon dive of a burger joint. However, by doing some quick googling I learned much to the contrary. Rays is a very high quality, but mid-range priced restaurant.


Their burgers are not frozen crap. They have a Chef who butchers the meat and grinds the meat into 10 ounce patties that's a freakin huge burger. It's also very marbled high quality beef they're using, not cheap choice meat. Interestingly enough, they don't even serve fries which is a very smart thing to do. That makes the restaurant different. and definitely not MORE OF THE SAME.

I had thought to originally post this on my Mormon Chef Blogbut it's more a political/social story than culinary story. As you can see from the YouTube clip down below, Obama and Biden ordered burgers personally, and INSISTED that they pay for it. During the clip, the Chef you can barely see, tries to NOT charge Obama, who insists that he has to pay. Why is that important? It could very well be a publicity stunt 4 years in the making, or it could be that Obama wants Americans too see he has confidence in the American Economy by PAYING for quality food. I appreciate that the Obama's are going out and getting to know their new neighborhood. He could have easily gone to McDonald's or Burger King, but chose to eat some good quality food and support the little guy.