Bidens dine out, visit movies in Lewes vacation
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President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden wave as they ride bikes down a path in Gordons Pond State Park in Rehoboth Beach on Monday. A day later, they ventured out to Matt’s Fish Camp and a movie. | PHOTO COURTESY OF REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS
LEWES – Amid a weeklong summer retreat to their beach house, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden dined at Matt’s Fish Camp in Lewes and took in a movie at the Atlantic Theater.
The Bidens arrived at their North Shores home on Friday night and have largely restrained their activities to visits to the local beach, bike rides through Gordons Pond State Park and attendance at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach.
On Tuesday night, however, the first couple made their way into town for a date night, mingling among Lewes beach vacationers.
They first dined at Matt’s Fish Camp, a SoDel Concepts restaurant that mixes an oyster and clam raw bar with fried fish and chicken sandwiches along with other dishes.
The Rehoboth Beach-based restaurant group with 16 locations around Sussex County did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday about the presidential visit and what the couple ate.
It’s only the third visit by the first couple to a Delaware restaurant since they entered the White House despite returning home dozens of times. They had previously eaten at Banks’ Seafood Kitchen and The Quoin in Wilmington but had never ventured out during their trips to the beach.
After finishing their meal, the Bidens went to a public screening of the new movie “Oppenheimer” at the Atlantic Theater at Movies at Midway off Route 1.
Sneaking into the theater through a back door, the couple settled in about seven rows from the front for the more than three-hour-long film by director Christopher Nolan that traces J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
After walking out of the theater, the president told pool reporters that the film was “compelling.”
While the Bidens have hosted movie screenings at the White House during their tenure, they had never attended a public screening – in fact, such presidential outings seem particularly rare in modern history.
The couple’s outing in coastal Delaware gained additional attention from the national media because it occurred just as former President Donald Trump was being indicted for conspiracy. The Associated Press and Reuters were among the national outlets to identify the local businesses in their coverage carried by newspapers across the country.
