Sasha Obama, who has spent eight of her 15 years in the luxurious confines of the White House, is learning how the other half lives this summer. The first daughter is working the takeout window at Nancy’s, a seafood restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard, asking that age old question: Would you like fries with that?
Sasha, who’s using her full name, Natasha, at Nancy’s, has been learning the service industry ropes at the Oak Bluffs eatery this week, working a cash register, busing tables and doing prep work before the restaurant opens for lunch.
“We were wondering why there were six people helping this girl, but then we found out who it was,” said a server at the busy island eatery. “She’s been hosting, serving and working takeout. We’re happy to have her. It will probably be good for business.”
Sasha was accompanied to her summer job yesterday by a contingent of six Secret Service agents, who sat outside the restaurant in a large Suburban SUV and on the takeout ?benches while the president’s daughter waited on hungry tourists. When her shift ended, Sasha and a friend, who also was wearing the navy blue ?Nancy’s T-shirt and baseball cap, brought a tray of drinks out to her security squad, got in the SUV and took off.
Question: What does it cost the taxpayers to have six agents watch a teenager make just above minimum wage for four hours a day? But we digress …
Nancy’s is a favorite stop for the first family, who always pop in for a seafood feed when they are on their annual Martha’s Vineyard summer vacation. The Obamas reportedly are friends with Nancy’s owner Joe Moujabber, which is how Sasha scored her summer gig.
The White House declined to comment yesterday, but we’re thinking that the prez and ?Michelle Obama, who have tried to raise their daughters as ?normally as possible, considering dad’s title and all, wanted to let Sasha experience a normal teenage summer job.
The Obamas’ younger daughter has been working an early four-hour shift at the busy, ?350-seat restaurant, finishing up just a half-hour after it opens ?for business at 11:30 a.m.
“She’s been around for a ?few days,” one of the girls working the takeout window told us yesterday. “It’s pretty random.”
Although a Nancy’s manager declined to discuss the details, we’re told that summer restaurant workers can make between $12 and $15 a hour on the Vineyard, where it is tough to find seasonal help.
Tyler Evans, 12, of Holyoke ?ordered chicken fingers, fries, a clam chowder and a Sprite from Sasha yesterday and he said it was obvious she was still in training.
“There was someone there helping her, she wasn’t that good at it,” he told the Track.
“I had to tell her my order ?a few times.”
Tyler said he asked for a picture with the first daughter but she told him, “No, I can’t.”
Work rules and all …
The rest of Sasha’s family ?arrives for their two-week Vineyard vacation on Saturday and word is, that will mark the end of Sasha’s summer work experience.
The president and first lady have tried to keep their daughters out of the limelight and give them the space to be kids during their seven-plus years in the White House. Sasha and her ?older sister Malia, who will ?attend Harvard University in ?2017 after taking a “gap year” and after her dad leaves office, just got to attend their first state dinner in March.
“We generally don’t include the girls,” the first lady told “Entertainment Tonight” at the time.
“We tried to normalize their lives as much as possible,” she said.
The first daughters did get to meet “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds at the White House fete, with a picture of Sasha greeting the actor as Malia gave her two thumbs-up going viral.
File Under: How She Spent Her Summer Vacation.
