The chief justice’s mysterious meal
Have you heard the story of the chief justice, the mysterious lunch mate, the plate of penne and the baseball cap?
The tasty tale began with a Reliable Sources tidbit in the Washington Post earlier this week about Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. having the audacity to walk through the front door of Carmine’s in Washington’s Penn Quarter for lunch (rather than using the private entrance as VIPs usually do). He had no reservation, but he and a mystery lunch companion were seated right there in the middle of the dining room where everyone could see the nation’s top jurist munch on pasta with sausage.
Then, Above the Law uncovered other details from tipsters who were there: the lunch companion was “a rather rotund, strangely dressed fellow who kept yapping and waving his arms at Roberts.” And then there’s the matter of the baseball cap sitting on the table, which read in large letters: “THE JUDGE.”
Does the chief justice of the nation really walk around in such a topper? Not likely – ATL surmises that the cap belonged to Robert’s lunch mate, who is believed to be District Court Judge Richard J. Leon. Mystery solved.
