President Biden's Favorite Foods

This classic Italian salad (sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil) was one of the items mandated in what the UK’s Daily Mail called a “rock star rider” attached to his contract for a speaking engagement in Florida in 2019.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported back in 2012 that the then-vice-president ordered a tuna salad plate and a Diet Coke when he stopped at Nestor’s at Bageland in Boca Raton on a campaign swing through the Sunshine State.

This was Biden’s choice for carry-out when he swung by a Hy-Vee supermarket in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 2012.

The Wilmington branch of Capriotti’s, an Italian hoagie chain, is one of Biden’s regular stops when he’s in his hometown, and his favorite sandwich there is this “Thanksgiving on a roll” — an assemblage of pulled turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mayonnaise on a long Italian roll.

A turkey club sandwich with chips and pickles on the side is one of the president’s sometime choices at Wilmington’s Charcoal Pit, a 64-year-old burger joint that has been a favorite of his since his high school years.

Stopping at the Concord, N.H. location of the casual Works Café in 2015, Biden opted for a Dagwood sandwich — a heap of roast turkey, ham, bacon, provolone, and tomato with mayo on sourdough, named for the famous comic-strip trencherman Dagwood Bumstead.

In a pre-election radio chat last year with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Biden confessed that “When in doubt, I have a peanut butter and jelly.” People make fun of him for that, he admitted, but he discovered that former secretary of state John Kerry has “the same addiction.”

The quarter-pound burger at the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington is another one of Biden’s standard orders there — and back in 2009, as vice president, he and President Obama paid an impromptu visit to Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., where he devoured a cheeseburger with jalapenos. As much as he obviously loves burgers, though, when asked at a town hall meeting last May if COVID-related regulations in processing plants might increase the price of meat, he said “No worker’s life is worth me getting a cheaper hamburger.”

Paying a visit to the Philadelphia landmark Pat’s King of Steaks back in 2010, Biden confessed that when he was in law school at Syracuse University in upstate New York, he’d stock up on cheesesteaks there on the way back up north from Wilmington, wrap them in foil, then sell them to fellow students in Syracuse for three times what he’d paid. At Pat’s, he ordered a cheesesteak “Whiz, widout” — topped with Cheese Whiz, with no onions. The press reported that he promptly “scarfed the whole thing.”

These delicate noodles with tomato sauce are one of the foods that were specified in the contract rider for Biden’s pre-election speaking engagements. It’s also a dish he has eaten frequently at one of his favorite haunts in the nation’s capital, Cafe Milano in Georgetown, where it goes under the name “capellini Ann Hand” (named for a well-known D.C. jewelry designer).

This Italian-American classic was on Biden’s plate when he visited Rosebud on Rush in Chicago in 2018. It’s also a dish he special-orders at Bardea Food & Drink in Wilmington, in lieu of the more contemporary Italian fare on the menu there.

For pizza (see below) and other Italian fare when he’s home in Wilmington, the president favors Gianni’s Pizza, where one of his favorite indulgences is baked ziti.

The Brooklyn-style pies at Gianni’s pizzeria in Wilmington are another of Biden’s hometown favorites, and he stopped at the place in 2019 right after he’d kicked off his presidential campaign in Washington. Two of his preferred restaurants in D.C. in his vice-presidential days were Pizzeria Paradiso and Pete’s Apizza. And last August in Pittsburgh, he brought along pizzas from local standby Mineo’s Pizza House when he made a campaign stop at a city firehouse.

This may well be the Italian-American dish Biden has eaten the most: His wife makes it often for him from an old family recipe. She serves it with rigatoni and a green salad,

When Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer interviewed Biden on her radio show last year, she asked if it was true that he loved Fig Newtons. Absolutely, he replied, “because they’re small and I can sneak them.”

Biden seems to love ice cream in any form — even when it’s in a milkshake. That’s one of the things he has ordered often over the years at Wilmington’s Charcoal Pit. And when he visited Durham, North Carolina, last fall, he and his granddaughter Finnegan got shakes at Cook Out. When reporters asked what flavors they’d chosen, he replied “We got one vanilla, one chocolate, but I wanted to get what we call black-and-white. … We’re gonna split it.”

Yet another frozen dessert that Biden favors, frozen custard figured in a contretemps at Kopp’s Frozen Custard in 2010. When he asked how much he owed for his custard, the manager replied “Don’t worry, it’s on us. Lower out taxes and we’ll call it even.” Biden momentarily lost his temper, and called the man a “smartass.”

“My name is Joe Biden and I love ice cream,” Vice-President Biden announced in 2016. The following year, at Cornell University, he said “I’m the only Irishman you guys know who’s never had a drink and loves ice cream.” The Cornell Dairy created a special chocolate chip ice cream in his honor, dubbing it “Big Red [the nickname for the school’s sports teams], White, and Biden.” By April of last year, according to the Federal Election Commission, Biden’s presidential campaign had spent more than $10,000 on the chilly treat. Jeni’s Splendid is said to be his favorite brand, and the company created its own specialty to mark his inauguration — White House Chocolate Chip (vanilla ice cream with chocolate flakes and pieces of chocolate-covered waffle cone).

It may have become known as President Trump’s heraldic beverage, but Diet Coke is also a Biden favorite. The refrigerator at the vice-presidential residence, when he was there, was always stocked with Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

“My favorite drink is orange Gatorade,” Biden told US Weekly early this year. In fact, he may have lost at least one vote because of his preference. Appearing on the popular Showtime program “Desus & Mero” during his presidential campaign, Biden brandished a bottle of orange Gatorade after Mero said jokingly that he could only support a candidate who quaffed the Glacier blue version of the drink.