CHICAGO — Barack Obama first kissed the woman who would become his wife outside a Chicago ice cream shop — and now there’s a plaque to prove it.
The managers of a shopping center in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood installed the 3,000-pound granite marker this week with a plaque reading, “On this site President Barack Obama first kissed Michelle Obama.”
The plaque includes a picture of the first couple and a quote taken from an interview the president gave to “O, The Oprah Magazine” describing their first date.
“On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb. I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate,” the plaque reads.
The sweet smooch happened in 1989 when the president treated the first lady to ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins, which is now a Subway restaurant. The boulder sits in a flower bed next to the shopping center.
“It’s a marker for the community, for posterity and tourism, too,” said Jonelle Kearney, a spokeswoman for Mid-America Asset Management, which manages the shopping center.
The Obamas will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in October. They have a home in the city’s Kenwood neighborhood, not far from the shopping center.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
