Thursday, September 13, 2012
4:11 PM
Biden hits downtown cafe as part of Eau Claire visit
As part of his visit to Eau Claire, Vice President Joe Biden stopped at the Acoustic Café downtown, interacting with most of the patrons in the restaurant.
Biden stopped to chat with a young couple that had a baby with them as they sat at an outside table on a sunny day, according to a pool report. Biden told them of his own children and grandchildren while warning them kids tend to pull back from their parents in their teens.
“But they all come back at about 18 or 21,” he reassured them.
Biden was greeted with a huge cheer when he entered the café.
“You going to win tonight?” he asked Dewey Britt, an Altoona man who was sporting a Packers shirt on the day of Green Bay’s game with the Chicago Bears.
“You betcha,” Britt responded.
Britt said Biden went on to explain that when he was in college the Packers were everybody’s second favorite team because he had a professor who excused them from a class after each Green Bay win.
Biden sat down with three out-of-town visitors — Donna Hoel of Minneapolis, Elizabeth Bishop of Andover, Minn., and Mary Harlow of Spokane, Wash.
“All you wanted was a sandwich and you got stuck with the vice president,” Biden said with a laugh before signing autographs for the women.
“It was wonderful,” Hoel said of their brush with the nation’s second-highest-ranking official.
“He’s very personable,” Harlow added.
Biden posed for photos 8-year-old Noah Olson of Altoona and wrote him a note for his teacher after asking about his school, Pedersen Elementary.
“To Noah — Please ask Mrs. Fleming to excuse you today — Joe Biden,” the note read.
Biden later sat in a booth with friends Kelly Forster and Melissa Ludy of Chippewa Falls about the importance of supporting military troops and their families.
“We’re proud, passionate Democrats. This is a huge day for us,” Ludy said.
“Biden and Obama put forward the policies we believe in,” Forster said.
The vice president later went to the counter and ordered a turkey sandwich with provolone cheese and sliced tomatoes. He offered to buy a sandwich for Pauline Schultz of Chippewa Falls, but was told she had already paid.
After sitting down to eat his sandwich, Biden earned a final cheer as he returned to the waiting limousine.
-- By Staff
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