Obamas Hit the Town in NYC for "Date Night"

President Barack Obama made his first trip to New York City since taking office over the weekend. Contrary to what one may expect for a U.S. president presiding over the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, Obama wasn’t in town to talk business with the heads of finance in the Big Apple – instead, he and wife Michelle took in the sights and had a date night in the city.

The presidential couple attended their daughter Malia’s soccer match, then hopped on a C-20 plane to jet off to New York on Saturday afternoon. Apparently, the trip to NYC and the date night were a promise made by Obama to his wife during his campaign. The couple stopped first in the West Village, where they had dinner at Bluehill Restaurant. The dinner caused some problems for other diners, but they were very good natured about it. Said Eva Fleischer, "They had to pat us down," she said of secret service people. Fleischer also noted that as the Obamas left, the president said to her "Hi guys!" Fleischer, speaking of her chance encounter with the president, said "It was very exciting because we didn’t expect to see him there. It was really neat."

After dinner, the couple traveled to the Belasco Theater on West 44th Street, where they watched "Joe Turner’s Come and Gone," a play about a group of African Americans exploring and trying to understand the legacy of slavery in the U.S. Afterward the couple flew back to the White House, but not before putting a charge into the already-amped-up city that never sleeps.