Bill Clinton wanted to eat at waterfront restaurant in Miami, but plans changed
President Bill Clinton in the house!
Last week, No. 42 reportedly was in the South Florida area. Insiders tell Miami.com that President Clinton wanted to book a table at NOMA Beach at Redfish in Matheson Hammock Park in Coral Gables.
The former POTUS’s security team reached out to chef/owner Donatella Arpaia about the situation and then came out to stake out the place, formerly Redfish Grill.
The upscale restaurant with stunning views was, alas, a no-go. After Clinton’s team did a walkthrough of NOMA, they realized that due to its location, right on the ocean, the restaurant could not be secured.
All hope was not lost. Clinton still got to meet Arpaia, whose husband, Dr. Allan Stewart, chief of cardiovascular surgery at Mercy Hospital, coincidentally, was on the team of heart surgeons who performed the quadruple bypass on him in 2004 in New York.
When Clinton found out about Arpaia’s close connection to his doctor, he invited them to dine at Fontana at The Biltmore.
On her social media pages, Arpaia shows off pictures from the momentous day. The “Iron Chef America” judge also told her friends and followers that she arrived with a chocolate cake with a customized message that read, “Celebrating 19 years.”
The treat was vegan; the 76-year-old former Arkansas governor adopted a no-meat, dairy, eggs (etc) lifestyle in 2010 after he had a pair of stents put in.
“I just decided that I was the high-risk person, and I didn’t want to fool with this anymore,” Clinton told AARP magazine in 2013. “And I wanted to live to be a grandfather, so I decided to pick the diet that I thought would maximize my chances of longterm survival.”
“It was wonderful being a part of this doctor-patient reunion after so many years,” wrote Arpaia. “Can’t wait for the next one!”