Obama, Spielberg and Springsteen dazzle Barcelona restaurant
Famous customers, in town for The Boss’s concert, enjoy seafood meal before posing with staff for photo
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
Former US president Barack Obama, film director Steven Spielberg and singer Bruce Springsteen surprised a Barcelona restaurant with a last-minute dinner reservation on Thursday.
Obama, former first lady Michelle, Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw came to the Catalan capital for Springsteen’s concert on Friday night.
Pol Perello, an employee at the Palace Hotel’s Amar restaurant posted a picture on his Instagram of the stars posing with the staff after they enjoyed a seafood meal.
“Pleasures that this job brings you,” Perello wrote.
Amar chef Rafa Zafra told Spanish radio network Cadena SER that Spanish-American chef José Andrés, who has a close relationship with the Obamas, recommended the restaurant only a few hours before the famous guests arrived.
“The security people told us to please not ask them for photos, but just before leaving, Obama entered the kitchen and told us that this had been one of their best meals and if they could take a photo with the whole team,” Zafra said.
“We gave them oysters, shellfish, and fish from Roses, my classic — the caviar bikini — a little bit of everything,” he stated, adding the group also “drank a little.”
“The one who behaved best was the one who had to work today,” he said, in reference to Springsteen’s concert.
Obama met Springsteen when the singer backed him for president in 2008, and the two have since become friends. The former president has also been longtime friends with the acclaimed film director and honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
