It's a questionable undertaking at best to set out to refuting anything published by the Weekly Standard--it usually violates the "teaching the pig to sing" principle, wherein trying to teach the pig to sing wastes your time and annoys the pig.

Having said that, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone, as in this Weekly Standard post, attempts to smear Obama with the "alienness" of his home neighborhood in Hyde Park.  This is of a piece with David Brooks's statement on MSBC that Obama wouldn't eat at an Applebee's.

One of the many ironies here is that Brooks is an alum of the University of Chicago.  In fact, Brooks's 25th college reunion was just last week.  I know because my boss, also an alum, was his classmate.  (My boss also got better grades than Brooks did in political economy.)  I haven't yet ascertained whether Brooks made it back to his alma mater for the reunion.

If he had, and if he had a lick of insight, I wonder if he would perceive the Hyde Park neighborhood of today significantly transformed from the one he knew as a college student?  From the grim days of white flight, urban renewal and "mote building," Hyde Park is now a center of an ever-expanding ring of re-developing urban neighborhoods.  Hyde Park has long been an ethnically and economically integrated neighborhood, but I have the strong conviction that integration is now more welcomed and less grudging than it was 20 or 30 years ago.  The black middle class, which has always sustained Hyde Park as much or more than the University of Chicago, has continued to attract African American professionals to the neighborhood.  The area is home to growing list of quality public and private schools -- like many "college towns," Hyde Park is very education- and kid-focused and friendly.  Crime in Hyde Park is low by urban standards, often lower than the much tonier Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago's more glamorous North Side.

In short, Hyde Park looks a lot like many stable-to-prosperous suburbs or smaller towns in America:  somewhat insular, kind of dull, but very family-focused.  Or, just the sort of place that the National Review should feel at home; and, the U of C is even the intellectual home of Milton Friedman and Antonin Scalia.  However, Hyde Park DOES distinguish itself with its remarkable ethnic and economic diversity, and therein lies the biggest surface difference that NRO and Brooks want to exploit.  For, being on the "scary" South Side of Chicago, Hyde Park doesn't succeed very well, still, in attracting the kind of chain stores and restaurants common in the suburbs.  We have a Boston Market, and that's about it.  So Brooks is right, I guess, in that Obama may not have much experience at Applebee's, but that's as much Applebee's fault as Obama's.

What Obama does have is 53rd Street.  When the U of C demolished much of the neighborhood in order to save it, back in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the biggest casualties was the commercial zones along 55th Street.  As a result, even though it is smaller, narrower, etc., 53rd has become the default commercial strip for the area.  53rd is home to some of our few national chains (Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Boston Market, Starbuck's) and an even larger number of local spots too numerous to mention.  A few stand out.  There's Leona's, a local Chicago chain very similar to Applebee's, which opened in the nabe a few years ago.   53rd Street also has Rajun Cajun, a soul food meets Indian restaurant (I kid not) run by a delightful family from Gujarat by way of Kenya.  They took over the Soul Food restaurant spot and kept the fried chicken, greens and mac 'n cheese to retain the customer base, but now also serve the soul alongside dal, chana masala, and lamb curry. 

Finally, and most significantly, there is Valois.  Obama is (was) a Valois regular.  Valois (pronounced Val-oyz, in case you wondered) proudly sports the motto "see your food." It is one of the last of that dying breed -- the urban lunch counter/cafeteria.  The cooks are Greek and the serving staff hail from, well, all over.  The food is reliable, affordable and decently nutritious (if you so choose).  You can get scrumptious ham off the bone, one of the city's best Reubens, prime rib and mashed potatoes, sometimes short ribs or a lamb shank, fantastic baked chicken.  It's a meeting ground for the neighborhood -- SRO residents, police, tradespeople, local shop keepers, sports fans, college students, young families wanting an alternative to the Golden Arches.  In fact, it's unique sociology was chronicled in a book about the cross-cultural connections forged at the Valois's often scarce tables.

In short, Valois is the kind of place you go when you don't have an Applebee's.  Or, maybe it's the kind of place you have in your neighborhood before you have an Applebee's.  I don't know.  I DO know Valois (despite the name) is as rock-solid American as they come.  Whether you come from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Mississippi or Nebraska, the food at Valois is sure to hit the spot.

I don't know if David Brooks ever ate at Valois during his college years.  Maybe he was a regular.  Maybe he was afraid to set foot north of 55th Street.  If he missed out on Valois then or during the recent reunion weekend, he missed an opportunity to understand what is so appealing about Obama -- his embrace of classical American ideals, with that embrace strengthened by and inflected through a celebration of America's stunning and unprecedented diversity.