Presidential Visit!
President Obama graced Grand Central's Pioneer Square location with a visit this summer. We asked Cafe Manager Sarah Lucey to give us her first hand account.
Sarah shakes hands with President Obama
I was trying to wrestle my groceries into a cab home when my cell phone rang. It was Bridget, one of my baristas, and she was freaking out. She finally told me that the President wanted to come to our bakery. "What..." I said, "of the United States?" And thus began our whirl-wind visit from Barack Obama.
Half an hour later, I was standing upstairs in our office space with 15 men and women, all from various offices in the White House. They were all so nice as they explained how the next four days were going to go. The toughest part, they told me, was that I had to keep this an absolute secret. The only people I could tell were Gillian and Gabby. That was especially difficult because I spent most of Sunday asking my employees for their personal information to send off to the Secret Service for security screening (100% passed!). When they asked me what I was doing at work on a Sunday night I would casually throw out something about paperwork and hope they wouldn't ask any more questions.
The real magic began on Monday. I had posted a notice for all of my employees that they needed to look nice because the mayor was going to be coming for a visit the next day. I think the Secret Service members wandering through the bakery might have made them a bit suspicious but they were kind enough not to ask too many questions. That night, after the last of the baristas had gone home, the café changed in a matter of hours. They moved tables out; they moved a podium and some lighting in. Every so often someone would apologize to me for the inconvenience. Inconvenience? The President was going to be in my café! They could have asked me to walk across hot coals and I would have done it with a smile on my face.
Finally the great day had arrived. After only a few hours of being open, the Secret Service shut us down so they could do a bomb sweep of the building. When we reopened two hours later, only the GCB staff was allowed in. After making sure that the media was fed and that the café was immaculate all we could do was wait. All of the sudden, the media came running into a cordoned off part of the café and started snapping pictures. A few minutes later, the President walked in.
It was so surreal that, even weeks later, it seems like a dream. He strolled into the bakery with a pleasant "Hey guys!" and then shook hands with everyone on staff, asking all of their names. The best I thought we could hope for was for him to order some tea (Earl Gray with some lemon, the Secret Service informed me) but he declared that he was hungry and started to look at our menu. My very favorite picture of him is the one where he's looking at our pastries hungrily, just as I've seen so many people look at them before. Who knew he was just a regular guy?
Obama checks out the menu...
As I'm sure everyone knows by now, he got the turkey and chutney with a side salad and a jammer, which he later complimented in front of the press. I take it as a source of pride that nobody tested his food before he ate it. It went straight from Bridgett's hands to his table. After his meeting with Gillian and other small business owners and a short press conference, he came back into the café to take a picture with the entire staff. We can't wait to get that in the mail!
General Manager/Co-owner Gillian Allen-White with the President
The craziness hasn't let up since he left but I love it. And I know that as long as I live I will never forget that day. I am so lucky to work for a company that has such a wonderful reputation for honest beginnings and honest practices. That's why the President chose to come here over every other restaurant in Seattle. Because GCB was, is, and always will be a standard to which other American businesses should aspire.
Posted by Sarah Lucey, Grand Central Bakery Pioneer Square Cafe Manager / Seattle