Many eateries choose to immortalize celebrity visits by hanging an autographed picture on the wall.
A restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam, however, decided to think a little outside the box ... with a box.
Anthony Bourdain and President Barack Obama enjoyed grilled pork and noodles together at Bún chả Hương Liên, a restaurant known for its very reasonably priced (and very delicious) cuisine, for the season eight premiere of Bourdain's show "Parts Unknown" back in 2016.
Now, the owners of the restaurant have decided to preserve the table where the famous duo dined by enclosing it in a large glass case — with bowls, cups, chopsticks and all.
Bourdain’s Instagram post of the glass-enshrined dining set has reached over 120,000 likes since he posted it Monday. The chef-turned-television personality captioned the picture, “Not sure how I feel about this.”
It makes sense for Bourdain, whose entire show is based on the premise of discovering little-known eateries, to have conflicted feelings about seeing a favorite local spot he visited transform his night into a potential tourist attraction.
Instagram users also shared their varying views on the glass-encased table. One Bourdain follower wrote,“OH GOD NOT MORE IDOLATRY,” while another fan commented, “I totally get it. LEGENDS.”
Bourdain might not be sure about the display, but apparently a lot of people are pretty excited about it.
The eatery’s owners reportedly said they decided to immortalize the historic meal because customers wanted to see it.
To satisfy visitor expectations, the owners even tried to set the table exactly as it appeared (sans the delicious food) when the pair visited two years ago — everything from the white bowls and plates, to the container of chopsticks and even two bottles of beer look nearly identical.
The restaurant has also memorialized the visit with a new menu item called “Suat an Obama,” which translates to "Order like Obama." The meal features crab cha gio spring rolls and bun cha noodles. And it even comes with a bottle of local Hanoi Beer. The highly-publicized dinner meeting in 2016 cost a grand total of $6. Bourdain picked up the check.
“I’ll tell you, the emotional impact the next day, people were coming up to me in the street, recognizing me from news photos, in tears. They couldn’t believe the president ate their humble, local specialty,” Bourdain told Sunday TODAY's Willie Geist at the time.
And it turns out the dinner that forever changed this local Vietnamese eatery was also a special time, not between celebs, but a meaningful experience for the two dads.
“I spoke to him as another father of a young girl, as a Southeast Asian enthusiast, as a guy who’s happy to sit on a plastic stool eating noodles with chopsticks drinking a cold Hanoi beer," Bourdain told People, "and I think the president enjoyed that experience too.”