After Nino Selimaj was ordered to take down his photo of Chelsea Clinton at Osso Buco (it’s still hanging), we got to wondering where other restaurateurs fall on the political spectrum. All we had to do was run some names through the Huffington Post’s FundRace 2008 search engine to find out, for starters, that Mario Batali gave $1,000 to John Edwards while his business partner Joe Bastianich gave $2,300 to Rudy Giuliani (this could get ugly). So who are other restaurant honchos like Drew Nieporent, Danny Meyer, Siro Maccioni, et al backing?
Hillary Clinton
Jonathan Fireman, restaurateur: $4,600
Amy Rubenstein, owner of Peter Luger: $4,600
Danny Meyer, restaurateur: $4,600
Drew Nieporent, restaurateur: $2,300
Kerry Heffernan, former chef of Eleven Madison Park, now at 154 South Gate at Essex House: $2,300
Deborah Gavito, owner of Counter: $500
Joe Biden
Joseph Monaco, owner of Veniero’s: $2,300
Rudy Giuliani
Sirio Maccioni, restaurateur: $2,300
Joe Bastianich, restaurateur: $2,300
Amy Rubenstein, owner of Peter Luger: $1,200*
John Edwards
Mario Batali: $1,000
Christopher Dodd
Josh Lebowitz, owner of Brother Jimmy’s: $1,000
Barack Obama
Beatrice Tosti Di Valminuta, owner of Il Bagatto: $250
FundRace [HuffPo]
*Correction: In an earlier version of this item, the amount Amy Rubenstein donated to the Giuliani campaign was misstated.
