Lunchtime

The Mayor Ate Where the Ebola Patient Did to Prove That’s Not How You Get Ebola

Delicious as usual.
Delicious as usual. Photo: Emily Bennett-Coles

Part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s weekend was dedicated to having had lunch at the Meatball Shop where patient Craig Spencer ate last week, around the same time he also grabbed some Blue Bottle on the High Line and bowled in Williamsburg. Spencer had visited the Greenwich Avenue location, which later closed voluntarily for a few hours on Friday. To prove the point that everything was safe and sanitized, the mayor, flanked by wife Chirlane McCray and health commissioner Mary Bassett, headed there Saturday to go in on the house specialty.

To dispel conspiracy theories, the trio tried somewhere between “several items” on and “most of” the menu, depending on what you read — chicken meatballs with spicy tomato sauce, pork with mushroom sauce, and the veggie with pesto, is what it looks like. After they finished, de Blasio told reporters, “This is a city that does not fall into a pattern of looking at fears. Everyone is going about their business as normal.” Apparently the beloved neighborhood joint didn’t need his stamp of approval — Time reports it “was packed” and co-owner Daniel Holzman reported the closure merely caused the line to bottleneck and spill down the block. Over the weekend, the reopened Gutter bowling alley thanked everyone on Facebook as well “for the AMAZING support we have received from our regulars, New Yorkers, people from all over the country, and even the world!”

Related: After Ebola-Related Closing, the Gutter Will Reopen Today
[AP, Time]

The Mayor Ate Where the Ebola Patient Did to Prove That’s Not How You Get