Austin Residents Ticked Off That Obama Cut The Line At Beloved BBQ Joint

President Barack Obama pays for his and other people with a Visa card when he visits to Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, Thursday July 10, 2014. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Kye R. Lee, Pool)
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Nobody — not even Anthony Bourdain — cuts the line at Franklin Barbecue, an Austin restaurant famous for its brisket and known for its three-to-five-hour waits. But President Barack Obama isn’t quite nobody.

“I know this is a long line. I feel real bad, but – I’m gonna cut,” Obama said when he stopped at the restaurant after delivering a speech Thursday, according to a pool report from the Austin American-Statesman.

The President apologized to the two patrons at the head of the line whom he displaced and offered to make up for the slight by buying their lunch, according to a White House pool report. He purchased three pounds of beef, two pounds of ribs, a half-pound each of sausage and turkey for Austin resident Bruce Finstad and his daughter, who were eating with two other already seated family members.

“Hold on — how many folks are y’all feedin’?” Obama asked, according to the White House pool report.

For some Austinites, though, the magnanimous gesture didn’t make up for the faux-pas of cutting the line.


h/t Eater Austin

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