President Barack Obama stopped at Magnolia’s Deli and Cafe on Park Avenue. That’s the tip top of his head in the middle of the photograph. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

After a day or so of speculation and preemptive sour grapes, Rochester did, in fact, get a quick, casual visit from President Barack Obama today. (It had been thought that Obama would skip Rochester on his upstate swing.)

The media and the general public learned about the POTUS pop in at the last minute — the moment the presidential motorcade pulled off I-490. Shortly after, people started tweeting that the motorcade was at Magnolia’s Deli and Cafe on Park Avenue.

President Barack Obama heads out of Magnolia’s Deli and Cafe. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

The president started his day in Buffalo, where he talked about his plan to control rising college costs (the Buffalo News has a video of his speech here and the White House has a transcript here). And later today he’ll deliver a similar speech in Syracuse. He made his Rochester stop as he traveled between the two other cities.

We sent our photographer, Mark Chamberlin, down to Magnolia’s to see if he could get a shot of Obama. Access was locked down tight and a Secret Service car cut Mark off. But he still managed to capture a little bit of the scene. 

This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2013.

Covers county government and whatever else comes my way. Greyhound dad; vegetarian; attempted photographer with a love for film and fixer; sometimes cyclist.