CINCINNATI — President Joe Biden enjoyed lunch at Walnut Hills barbecue restaurant Just Q'in after speaking in Covington about newly-granted funding for a Brent Spence Bridge overhaul.
On his arrival at the restaurant, surprised patrons applauded while Biden greeted the staff and owner Matt Cuff before heading to pre-packaged bags of food waiting nearby. He dug through one of the bags before fishing out a container full of peach cobbler and digging in.
"It's really good," he said, posing for a photo with the woman who made it.
According to the press pool, Biden was served The Goliath, a one-pound brisket plate, as his main course. Pool reporters said the group was also served macaroni and cheese, potato salad and jalapeno cornbread.
Biden could be heard discussing the restaurant with Cuff, including topics ranging from challenges posed in the industry by the COVID-19 pandemic to what kinds of meats Just Q'in smokes in-house.
After that, he posed for photos with Cuff and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval while holding a shirt emblazoned with the restaurant's logo. In his other hand, Biden held the container of peach cobbler, again remarking that it was very good.
Cuff stopped by Good Morning Tri-State on Thursday and talked about what it was like getting a surprise visit from the president.
"We found out about 20 minutes before the president got there," Cuff said. "The Secret Service agents were on our patio looking up under empty trash cans and snooping up under our tables and we kind of thought 'what's going on here."
He said meeting the president was something he'll never forget.
"It was a really cool experience," Cuff said. "It's just by the grace of God that he chose our business that day."
Cuff even got to talk with the president about leadership.
"We had a really good conversation I thought," Cuff said. "I feel like it is the leader's role to elevate the people around you and to achieve things that are greater than even you have achieved."
Cuff launched Just Q'In as a food truck in 2009 then opened a Newtown location at 6901 Valley Ave. in 2011. He opened a second location at 975 E. McMillan St. in Walnut Hills in 2016. In 2019, he chose to close the Newtown location to focus more on the Walnut Hills location that hosted Biden on Wednesday.
Biden spoke Friday afternoon in Covington, with the Brent Spence Bridge behind him, touting the bipartisan Infrastructure Law that has allowed for more than $1.6 billion in federal funding to go towards reworking the Brent Spence Bridge corridor.
Biden, along with Governors Mike DeWine and Andy Beshear and Senators Rob Portman, Mitch McConnell and Sherrod Brown, spoke about the importance of Democrats and Republicans working together to achieve crucial goals like the Brent Spence Bridge project.
"I wanted to start off the new year with this historic project here in Ohio and Kentucky with a bipartisan group of officials, because I believe it sends an important message," said Biden. "An important message to the entire country. We can work together, we can get things done, we can move the nation forward."
You can watch the full speech below:
