An avalanche of major questions emerged Saturday night after a man opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and sparked a panic evacuation, with a new report from The Washingtonian revealing the answer to one few might have thought of: What happened to all those nice steak and lobster dinners?
As the annual event was preparing to kick off on Saturday, a suspect opened fire in the lobby of the Hilton hotel where it was taking place, forcing the president and his officials to be swiftly evacuated and eventually causing the festivities to be cancelled. Later, an alleged manifesto connected to the suspect revealed that he had, in fact, been targeting Trump and certain members of his cabinet.
As the Washingtonian pointed out in its Monday report, "attendees were on the salad course" when the chaos broke out, leading to a small measure of speculation about the fate of expensive dinner courses that were never served. Per the report, "2,600 portions of prime Chateaubriand [steak] and Maine lobster" were readied for the evening's attendees, with the steak costing as much as $75 per pound and the seafood sometimes running over $30 per pound.
The outlet confirmed with the Washington D.C., Hilton that the main courses were donated to local sources, as is standard practice for uneaten food at events the hotel hosts.
"Turns out the surf and turf did not go to waste," the report explained. "A spokesperson for the Washington Hilton tells Washingtonian that the hotel regularly donates unused food from events to local organizations, and this weekend was no exception. (The rep did not immediately share which organizations received the food—stay tuned.) Remaining produce items were composted and will be sent to farms for agricultural use."
The report further noted that the disruption also left numerous bottles of wine unused, though social media users were already way ahead of the news about what happened to some of them.
"As for the wine, it seems some attendees didn’t want that to go to waste either," the report concluded. "Live streams caught some people grabbing whole bottles on their way out."
