Celebrating the inauguration
Several restaurants around town are celebrating Barack Obama's swearing in one week from today.
UpStairs on the Square is particularly jubilant about the event: "We at UpStairs on the Square are more than delighted to welcome in a new president, and we have carried our delight into a day full of happy events for our guests."
From 8-10 a.m., there will be a "Fire-Side Chatroom Breakfast" in the Monday Club Bar. You can curl up next to the fireplace and partake in free coffee and a sweet treat in honor of Obama.
From 11 a.m.-3 p.m., they're offering an "Inaugural Bail-Out Luncheon Special," three courses for $20.09. "Enjoy a special restorative lunch of three stately courses influenced by our very own carpetbagger, Susan Regis. There is nothing lame about her duck confit!"
From noon, bartenders will be mixing "Coca-Cola Cowboys," "I Can See White Russians," and "other loony leftist libations."
There will be special menus all week long for $44 to celebrate the 44th president. Day of, starting at 9 p.m., there will be dancing with the Winiker Orchestra.
Legal Sea Foods is celebrating, too. On Jan. 20 you can get a cup of clam chowder for 44 cents at all locations during lunch and dinner. They say: "Legal Sea Foods' famous Clam Chowder has been served at every presidential inauguration for more than 25 years."
Prezza is offering a cocktail called the New Fashioned American Honey. "This tribute cocktail is a taste of change -- a new spin on an old classic; the Old Fashioned." Ingredients: orange, cherries, cherry juice, bitters, sugar, and Wild Turkey American Honey. It's served over rocks with a splash of soda.
On the 20th, from 5-8 p.m. Da Vinci offers politically themed hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, including Mitt's Mushroom Mousse, Barack's Panzerotti, Clinton's Cranberry Duck Cigars,a Bye-Bye-Bush Cocktail, the Obama-Mania Martini, and Svedka's $700 Billion Bailout Martini (which actually only costs $9).
Here's the recipe:
Liberal amount (2 parts) Svedka vodka
1 part fresh lime juice
1/2 part simple syrup
Conservative splash of lemon juice
Shake. Pour on ice.
Garnish with $700 billion of freshly minted US currency.
(If short on cash, fresh mint can be substituted.)
The Svedka $700 Billion Bailout Martini strikes again at Vox Populi's inauguration night Bailout Ball. (Or make it at home with the vodka of your choosing.) At 8 p.m., Vox serves up the cocktail, airs the inaugural address and Obama's swearing in, and generally offers "Barack appreciation." $5 cover charge.
Tavolo hosts a bipartisan inauguration night gala with DJ, dancing, pizza, crostini, and antipasti. $20 cover charge; cash bar. Suggested dress code is creative black tie or red, white, and blue.
Monday night -- a.k.a. Inauguration Eve? -- at Restaurant dante, there's an "Arrivederci Bush!" party. "Stop in to the bar and toast to a brighter tomorrow with the $7 Bailout Punch or the $5 Yes We Can Punch. Enjoy $1 Sfizi options and a side of optimism."
As part of Om's "Bid Farewell to Bush Bash," they'll be offering half-price drinks and appetizers from 5-7 p.m. Mon-Thurs all month. There's also an inauguration cocktail list that features the favorite drinks of past presidents.
Sandrine's Bistro is offering a one-day "Economic Stimulus" for dinner Jan. 20. Every appetizer on the regular menu will be $5-$10, every entree $15-$22, and every dessert $6. The restaurant says: "This is a deep discount for deeply discouraged diners."
T.W. Food presents a five-course inauguration dinner for $49; it features American food and wine.
In Rialto's lounge, the inauguration will be on TV, and there will be complimentary cookies and coffee as Obama is sworn in.
Green Street offers presidential cocktails, specially brewed inaugural beers, and a champagne toast in honor of the inauguration.
I'm sure there are more events, which I'll post as I hear about them. Go figure -- I don't remember restaurants hosting equivalent events when Bush was inaugurated. Perhaps they did in less-liberal bastions. Imagine if a Cambridge restaurant had held a celebration for Bush along the lines of UpStairs on the Square's for Obama. It would have been a good way to alienate clientele fast. Granted, most of the celebrations are fairly politically neutral. But if you're not an Obama supporter, do they alter your perception of the restaurants holding them? Do/should politics and restaurants mix?
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Do/should politics and restaurants mix?
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No, it doesn't. You say hosting a Bush bash would have alienated clientele. Who's to say this won't as well? Yes - there aren't near enough as many conservative voters in this state as there are liberal, so these restaurants probably feel the backlash isn't going to be as great as it might be in, say, Texas if a restaurant there did the same thing.
But I just think this is stupid. And typical of this overwhelming liberal state.
so...move?
Read it again, Linda. There were as dishes and drinks poking fun at liberals as well as conservatives. A good example is "Clinton's Cranberry Duck Cigars" Can you say OWCH? That is a little low, and I would be offended if it didn't sound rather interesting.
Maybe this is a celebration of having a first black president. If he was a Republican they would have done the same thing too. They would also have done if Hillary was president too.
The man is becoming President of the United States of America, not president of the Democrats. Not president of the liberals. Celebrating the inauguration of the new president is not liberal, and it is not stupid. It is patriotic. Or do conservatives have a corner on patriotism?
I live and work here, kate, and have family here. So your comment is (not surprisingly) a useless response. The blogger asked a question; I responded with my opinion.
No they don't mix. I like to escape politics from time to time. Not everything in life should be politicized. I truly hope the politicization of everything fades over the next four to eight years.
I don't think Linda is in the mood to party. C'mon, have a cocktail. Life is short.
Brandon - it's just that restaurants *have* never and probably WOULD never "celebrate a new president" if that president were Republican (in reply to Tejas). Regardless of whether they were black, white, Asian, Hispanic, or a woman. Tejas - They didn't do it for either Bush, as Devra First stated - they didn't do it because it would have definitely alienated their clientele. Look at the names of one of the parties - "Arrivederci Bush!" party. Yeah. That's not deliberately one-sided? Again, as I said in my first post - typical for this state.
And Meri - I saw that particular "dish" as well. Regardless of having both parties "represented" in the dishes at Da Vinci, I thought the name of the item offensive.
As Marty said - meals at restaurants shouldn't be politicized.
Lighten up, people! We're emerging from an 8-year-long national nightmare! This is not the time to take ourselves so seriously. We'll have plenty of opportunities going forward to be grumpy and whiny. Linda, take a deep breath, go pat your dog (or other pet of choice), and have your favorite beverage. We live in a country where there is an orderly transfer of power from one administration to the next. No riots, kidnappings, or killings. Everyone's vote counted. No threats to vote one way or the other. How many other nations can say that?
I think these are great ideas! I agree with Barbara, lighten up people! If you don't like the idea don't go, if you like the idea of it then....go! Its really that simple.
No need for complaining about something that some people find fun or silly.
I'd go to one of these events but they are too far for me....if anyone does go, have fun!!! :)
get real - this is time to celebrate - BUSH is out and I don't even know any Republicans anymore who are sad to see him go. Go Massachusetts! I love it! Anyone who is against open-mindedness should move somewhere else because this is the best place to be for the best people.
Interesting you say "open-mindedness," pat, because I'm very open-minded. Just not to someone or a group of legislators who are going to be taxing me even more than I already am, or a state government that pushes its policies down its constituents' throats. How about when we, the voters of MA, overwhelmingly voted to repeal the "temporary tax increase" several years ago ... and the legislature completely ignores what the voters said? You think this is the way you should be governed? Obviously you do, as people like you keep voting in the state and national senators and congressmen who ignore you!
And for the record, by the end of his term, I was not in favor of Bush - so please don't assume that I was just because I take issue with restaurants going all political.
And Barbara, considering the amount of intimidation by various pro-Obama groups that was documented, your statement about threats to vote one way or another is completely misguided.
And getting back to the original reason for this post - restaurants are NOT the place to be political. My opinion. Which I choose to express while I still can. Keep an eye out for those brown shirts, folks.
Hi Linda, Do you have any links to support your assertions that pro-Obama groups intimidated people? Was it similar to the violence and vitriol at McCain rallies? FYI MA has an average tax burden-not excessive. I don't like paying taxes either, but how do you propose we pay for schools? Libertarianism doesn't work in reality; only in theory.
Devra, If you are going to quote someone in a piece you really ought to include their name. "We at UpStairs...for our guests."
It's from a press release.
Linda, you are expressing your opinion and so are the restaurants hosting these "parties." End of story.
Linda, you are not alone in your beliefs. Don't let these bed-wetting, tree-hugging liberals get to you too much.
Hi Chris, Too bad you have to resort to childish insults. Your party ran the country into the ground for eight years, and as someone whose sons did a combined five tours in Iraq, I'm very excited to have a president that is not going to put our troops in harm's way for the wrong reasons and actually fund programs that support the troops.
This isn't about politics as much as economics. Restaurants are hurting and if people are looking for a chance to have a party, they want them to come to their restaurants. Anything and restaurants mix if it brings in the patrons.
No surprise most of these places are in the PROC (peoples republic of cambridge). What do you expect from the bleeding heart capital of the world?
Kathy-MA
Your party spent millions going into Iraq for - let's see - 1 week? If the job would have gotten done then, we would not be in this mess in the first place.
And you say for the wrong reasons??? Have we forgotten the Holocaust?? BIn Laden and Hussein would have loved to have re-enacted the horrors of the Holocaust - against US.
Linda,
Your comments don't really make much sense, to me. It's a liberal city, hence the celebration of a liberal President. Seems fairly logical to me. You're right to say that a conservative state like Texas would be hostile to such celebration tomorrow. But wouldn't they have welcomed it had it been McCain being elected? No one from the Northeast would have expected anything but celebration in conservative parts of the country; why are you holding liberal states to a separate standard? People are happy. Deal with it. Your comment feels unnecessarily contrarian and kind of childish.
It
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