When George Washington took the oath of office in New York City on 30 April 1789, his wife, Martha, had not yet arrived from Mount Vernon, so that evening he dined alone. Likewise, President John Adams, after his inauguration in March 1797, repaired to his boardinghouse, where he, too, ate a solitary meal. In March 1801, the newly inaugurated Thomas Jefferson, notably more convivial than his predecessors, dined with thirty others—but, like Adams, the meal was at a boardinghouse. In March 1809, James Madison became the first president to celebrate his inauguration with a ball, which included a midnight supper for four hundred. The menu for that supper has been lost, but tradition has it that ice cream, then still quite a novelty, was served. Ever since Madison’s time, new presidents have been fêted with more and more elaborate events, and food is always part of the proceedings.
