43
Valley proud of Obama ties
Obama Slept Here.
Video
Photo
WAFFLES, BACON, EGGS: Barack Obama had waffles, bacon and two eggs over medium at the Yankee Kitchen Family Restaurant in Boardman. Joe Biden ordered the French toast. With them Saturday morning are their wives, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.
You wouldn’t know it by walking around the Hampton Inn in Austintown, but President-elect Barack Obama slept there — twice.
In comparison, it’s easy to see that Obama, his wife, Michelle, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, ate breakfast at the Yankee Kitchen Restaurant in Boardman.
The wall behind the booth where the foursome ate is lined with 16 photos taken Aug. 30, the day of the visit, including several with restaurant owner Phil Raptis mugging for the camera.
Just because they take different approaches doesn’t mean those who work at the Hampton Inn and Yankee Kitchen aren’t equally proud that the incoming president spent time at their locations.
“The whole situation was absolutely wonderful,” said Sheree J. Moore, regional director of sales for the Meander Hospitality Group, owner of the inn. She is based out of the company’s Hampton Inn in Austintown. “It was an honor to have them, especially twice.”
“There was a lot of excitement that day,” said Dawn Brownlee, a Yankee Kitchen waitress who took most of the pictures that hang by the “Obama Booth.”
“When he came, you [could] really feel the excitement,” Raptis added. “I was freaking out. How many guys can say they had breakfast with the president and the vice president and their wives? Not too many around here.”
A lot of people come to the Market Street restaurant asking to sit in the “Obama Booth” or for the “Obama Special,” said Vicki Walter, a waitress there.
The “Obama Special” is the breakfast he ordered that day: waffles, bacon, two eggs over medium, orange juice and home fries. Obama shared the home fries with his wife.
“People come here for the first time and ask to sit in the ‘Obama Booth,’” Walter said.
Raptis said he wanted to pick up the tab, but Obama insisted that he pay the bill.
Raptis said he was sworn to secrecy about Obama’s visit to his restaurant before the visit.
“I didn’t even tell my wife and my kids,” he said. “They were screaming at me” when they found out.
Obama, his staff and Secret Service agents stayed at the Hampton Inn in Austintown twice in August.
The first was Aug. 4-5 for Obama’s public rally on the latter date at Austintown Fitch High School. The second was Aug. 29-30. After stopping at the Yankee Kitchen on Aug. 30, the four attended the funeral of the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones in Cleveland.
During the first stay, Obama and his “entourage” had “practically the entire hotel,” which has 82 rooms, Moore said. There were so many room requests that some in Obama’s group were sent to nearby hotels, she said.
The need for space for the second visit was smaller, she said.
“There was high concern with security, and the bulk of the rooms were for security,” Moore said. “His staff [had] a small number of rooms.”
Obama stayed in the same room, 201, during both visits. The room underwent a complete remodeling a month before Obama’s visit as part of an improvement project at the hotel, Moore said.
Secret Service wanted Obama in a room near the stairs at the end of the middle floor of the three-story hotel with agents in the rooms directly above, below and next to him, Moore said.
During both visits, the second floor was off-limits to other guests, Moore said.
Several celebrities — including the members of ZZ Top and actress Liv Tyler as well as U.S. Sen. John Kerry, when he unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004 — have stayed at the Hampton Inn.
The hotel’s staff has honored some strange requests for particular items in the past such as no brown M&Ms, Diet Coke at a specific temperature and a certain type of bottled water sold only in Pittsburgh, said Moore and Robyn Palumbo, the hotel’s general manager.
“The craziest thing they asked for [for Obama] was a certain type of Honest tea,” Moore said.
It was a bit of a challenge finding the bottled natural tea in Obama’s favorite flavor, black forest berry.
The beverage is found at health food stores, but there wasn’t any of Obama’s favorite flavor in the area, so Moore said she tracked it down near Solon. It wasn’t too far out of her way, Moore said, as she was near the area on business when the request was made.
“His visits were high emotional days because we wanted to do everything right,” Moore said. “But it was also very gratifying. Our staff still talks about it to this day.”
As for Obama’s room, “you wouldn’t know that the room was used,” Palumbo said. “Not even a paper was left behind. All of their rooms were immaculate. We got a couple of commemorative photos.”
Guests occasionally ask about the Obama visits, but no one’s requested to stay in the room, she said.
During the two August visits, Obama got in morning workouts at Fitness One, a gym in McKinley Heights.
“He surprised us the first time by just coming in,” said Chris Carusso, the gym’s co-owner.
A Secret Service agent came in asking about the number of exits and then Obama with other agents walked into the gym, said Nancy Lubonovic, the business’s manager.
A few weeks later, a woman, who didn’t identify herself, called the gym and asked if it could open at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, Lubonovic said. The gym opens at 5 a.m. on weekdays, but not until 8 a.m. on Saturdays.
“Probably not” was Lubonovic’s response to the woman, she said.
Shortly after that, the same woman came to the gym and said it would be for Obama, Lubonovic said.
“We said, ‘OK,’” she said.
The gym’s policy is that a person can work out for a day for free. After that, a one-day pass is $7, Carusso said.
“He actually paid the $7,” Carusso said. “The money didn’t come from his hands, but he did actually pay.”
Obama focused on exercising his legs during both workouts, which lasted about 40 to 45 minutes each, Lubonovic said.
Next to pictures of current and former World Wrestling Entertainment performers, including Carlito and Torrie Wilson, and some bodybuilders are a couple of Obama photos hanging on the gym’s walls.
“He was very nice and he seemed very down-to-earth,” Carusso said. “He came back the second time because he liked the atmosphere and found everything he needed here.”
Obama made two other stops in the Mahoning Valley on his way to the White House.
The first was a June 21, 2007, fundraiser at the Boardman home of local businessman Herb Washington, who’s said Obama’s election victory is a dream come true that “gives hope when sometimes you think there is no hope.”
The second was Feb. 18, 2008, a few days before Obama was soundly defeated by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Ohio’s Democratic presidential primary. He toured RMI Titanium Co. in Weathersfield Township, across from Niles’ Waddell Park, and delivered a speech to a packed house at Youngstown State University’s Beeghly Center.
skolnick@vindy.com