Pulling up to Nikola's restaurant yesterday, you might have expected to see a line of Beemers and Benzes in the parking lot instead of Civics and pickups. Inside, you might have anticipated a passel of power-lunchers swilling martinis and munching on haute cuisine instead of a couple of older women quietly eating lunch.
After all, this is the place that publications from the New York Post to the London Telegraph have been describing as "posh," "tony" and "five-star" in the week since the Kerry for President campaign rolled through town July 30.
Reporters covered the Democratic candidates and their wives lunching on burgers, chili, and Frostys at Wendy's in Newburgh, in keeping with John and Elizabeth Edwards' anniversary tradition, and then moved on. But for other news and opinion outlets, the most tantalizing morsel of the story was still on the table.
Or so says Rush Limbaugh. The conservative commentator told his radio audience this week that the Kerrys and Edwardses tossed their fast food in the trash before retiring to the bus for more gourmet fare. The meals on the bus were ordered from Nikola's restaurant.
The New York Post, perhaps aware that there are lots of photos and witnesses to attest to the fact that the candidates did ingest their burgers and chili, hedged a bit, saying there was "very little eating" at the Wendy's stop. But the gist of the story remained the same as it spread to news channels around the world.
There is at least a kernel of truth to the story. Shortly before the campaign buses rolled onto Route 300 that Friday afternoon, a Kerry advance team was down here on the Hudson River, near the foot of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge.
They squawked into walkie-talkies and waited as Nikola's kitchen staff rushed to prepare 19 lunch orders placed by phone the night before, not long after Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
It was a big moment for the small restaurant, and chef and owner Michael Dederick hoped to make the most of it.
Seeing a chance to win some attention for his staff and his fledgling restaurant, he put out the word of Nikola's role in feeding the Kerry campaign.
But now Kerry and Edwards are being portrayed as snooty eaters who snubbed the Wendy's fare in favor of gourmet meals. The Jerusalem Post, Fox News and others joined the scrum.
Jay Leno mentioned the Wendy's stop in his monologue this week.
The story became more fabulous with each telling.
The Kerrys and Edwardses "threw that stuff away," Limbaugh said of the fast-food lunch. He changed the meals from five-star to five-course.
In fact, the five-star rating is from the Times Herald-Record, a testament to the food but not a globally recognized mark of approval like the Michelin guide. With the modest discount the restaurant provided, the meals came out to about eight bucks each.
Luis Vizcaino, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said the plan was always to do lunch at a Wendy's in the Edwards' honor on July 30, their anniversary. He said he couldn't confirm who ordered or ate what but said that the campaign had a lot of mouths to feed that day.
Local journalist Hank Gross was the first to publish the Nikola's story, posting it on his Midhudsonnews.com Web site after getting a tip from someone not associated with the restaurant.
Bigger outlets picked up on it and, before you know it, this humble place is a "very upscale eatery," according to the New York Post.
The food is great, and so are the views, but upscale it's not.
"Look at this," Nikola's Assistant Manager Brian Murphy said at lunch-time yesterday, waving his hand across the near-empty dining room. "This is not posh."
Murphy shakes his head at how the story has spread and mutated. For all its play, only Fox News bothered to call and check some of the story's facts.
Politically, Dederick and Murphy both lean to the left, but this wasn't about politics for them, it was about business.
As Murphy said, "We'd be happy right now if Bush ordered food.">{? What the news is saying
Mentions of the Wendy's-gate incident vary, but all seem to accept that the Democratic candidates and their wives only pretended to lunch on good old American burgers and chili before tucking into gourmet lunches on their bus. The Kerry campaign says the lunch was legit. A sampling of the coverage:
Newsmax.com: "After tossing out their cheeseburgers and chili, Kerry and Edwards feasted on shrimp vindallo, grilled diver sea scallops, prosciutto, wrapped stuffed chicken and steak salad."
The Rush Limbaugh Show, regarding the Wendy's stop: "It's all been for show!"
New York Post Page Six: "A member of the Kerry/Edwards advance team had ordered much fancier fare the night before from posh Nikola's Restaurant at the Newburgh Yacht Club..."
Kansas City Star, under the headline "Save room for scallops": "While Kerry and John Edwards had a photo-op lunch at a Wendy's in Newburgh, N.Y., their real lunches were waiting on their bus, says the New York Post."
Mark Steyn in The Jerusalem Post and The Daily Telegraph of London: "It then emerged that Wendy's had just been an appetizer ... John Edwards is right: There are two Americas – one America where folks eat at Wendy's, and another America where the elite pass an amusing half-hour slumming among the folks at Wendy's and then chow down on the Newburgh Yacht Club's specials of the day."
