Welcome back: The Obamas order ribs at 12 Bones

Posted on by Jeff Fobes

Video by Pattiy Torno, Curve Studios

Here’s how Pattiy Torno describes what happened: “President Obama & his wife Michelle came back as promised to eat Barbeque @ 12 Bones in the Asheville RAD. (River Arts District) He tried the Blueberry Chipotle & she, the Brown Sugar Rubbed Ribs with greens & baked beans. We are honored to share our neighborhood with the First Family.”

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About Jeff Fobes
As a long-time proponent of media for social change, my early activities included coordinating the creation of a small community FM radio station to serve a poor section of St. Louis, Mo. In the 1980s I served as the editor of the "futurist" newsletter of the U.S. Association for the Club of Rome, a professional/academic group with a global focus and a mandate to act locally. During that time, I was impressed by a journalism experiment in Mississippi, in which a newspaper reporter spent a year in a small town covering how global activities impacted local events (e.g., literacy programs in Asia drove up the price of pulpwood; soybean demand in China impacted local soybean prices). Taking a cue from the Mississippi journalism experiment, I offered to help the local Green Party in western North Carolina start its own newspaper, which published under the name Green Line. Eventually the local party turned Green Line over to me, giving Asheville-area readers an independent, locally focused news source that was driven by global concerns. Over the years the monthly grew, until it morphed into the weekly Mountain Xpress in 1994. I've been its publisher since the beginning. Mountain Xpress' mission is to promote grassroots democracy (of any political persuasion) by serving the area's most active, thoughtful readers. Consider Xpress as an experiment to see if such a media operation can promote a healthy, democratic and wise community. In addition to print, today's rapidly evolving Web technosphere offers a grand opportunity to see how an interactive global information network impacts a local community when the network includes a locally focused media outlet whose aim is promote thoughtful citizen activism. Follow me @fobes
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7 thoughts on “Welcome back: The Obamas order ribs at 12 Bones”

  2. Jackie Mashburn

    Man, If he’s gonna eat there often, he needs to get with the program. That order line always reminds me of the “Soup Nazi” on Seinfeld. You gotta know what you want, then get outta the way. Glad to have the “other” Big O in Aheville!!!

  3. cecibothwell

    I wonder how long it’s been since we had a President who actually carried cash. Seems to me that most of them (famously) generously permit aides to deal with the tab. (And recall how foolish GHW Bush looked when he was caught on camera marveling at a grocery store scanner a decade after they were in common use.)

  4. travelah

    Couldn’t help getting a creepy comment in there about Bush, could ya Cecil? I’m guessing your undies were in a wad over his visit to Billy Graham.

  5. red

    why do we always find fault in things that are not important.Look, if we were attacked today would you care if President Obama ate at what ever ,as long as he saved your life? We must remember we are all americans,we are all in this mess together.

  7. cecibothwell

    Oh, come on travelah, 1) it’s not creepy, 2)that was the most public, and publicly reported, real world out-of-touchness demonstrated by a sitting President in recent history. My point had nothing whatever to do with party or politics. Most Presidents don’t carry cash because they pretty much don’t engage in cash transactions.

    I’m guessing your panties were in a twist over the Prez coming to Asheville.

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