The Making of the Presidential Sandwich 2012
President Barack Obama’s much-buzzed-about visit to Taylor Gourmet Italian Deli on 14th Street NW yesterday ended with an exclamation, according to Taylor co-owner David Mazza. The president took one look at the Spruce Street sandwich he ordered and said, “This is a big sandwich. A BIG SANDWICH.”
The leader of the free world then took his turkey hoagie and $68 worth of additional sandwiches for a White House luncheon with congressional leaders, left $100 and said to keep the change, signed a few autographs, and left the building in a tornado of staff, sirens, and flashbulbs.
When I ran into Mazza around lunchtime in the line at the Greek Deli on 19th Street NW, near where Taylor will open its fifth location this summer, he told me how it had all come together. I had in mind the old Phil Hartman Saturday Night Live skit lampooning President Bill Clinton’s jogging detours to McDonald’s, but the course of events can actually be traced back to Mazza’s encounter with a woman on H Street NE, shortly after he and his business partner Casey Patten opened their flagship location in 2009.
The woman was Bridget Bean, a longtime Small Business Administration staffer who is now director of the agency’s Washington Metropolitan District Office. Mazza was introduced to Bean by Anwar Saleem, the head of H Street Main Street whom many consider to be the godfather of growth in the white-hot neighborhood.
“I gave her my card, and a few weeks later we were in her office shooting the shit,” Mazza says. “She was great, and she turned us onto a 504 SBA loan, which we ended up securing to build both our Bethesda and City Vista locations.”
Mazza and Patten developed a close relationship with Bean, but even they were a bit anxious when Bean left a “we gotta talk” message on their phone last week.
“I was scared she was going to rip into us because we recently refinanced our SBA loans without getting in touch with her,” Mazza says. “I tried to get Casey to call her back, but he wouldn’t do it, so I just said, 'Fuck it,' and called her.”
As it turns out, Bean had a much more benign proposition to put on the table. She asked if Mazza and Patten wanted to be part of a roundtable discussion on small business with Obama.
“My hands started shaking,” says Mazza. “I said, 'Uh yeah, done and done,' and she told me to expect a call from the Secret Service.” Read more The Making of the Presidential Sandwich 2012








It's the biggest pizza oven on the East Coast, or at least that is 






