As doctors monitor former President Bill Clinton's recovery from heart surgery in a New York hospital, his favorite barbecue joint is also consulting the medical community.
McClard's Barbecue in Clinton's boyhood home of Hot Springs is breaking with tradition and changing its menu for the first time in its 76-year history.
Owner Scott McClard said Tuesday that he was so concerned about losing his best customer that he's sent some ideas for menu changes to a local cardiologist for guidance.
"We had to make an amendment to the menu, so we have to put it through the Senate and the House first, but (Clinton) has veto power," McClard said. "He's the only reservation we've taken in 76 years, and he's the only one we'd change our menu for."
McClard's gained national attention for catering meals on Air Force One with 15 pounds of chopped beef, 15 pounds of pork ribs and two gallons each of beans and cole slaw.
When Clinton was profiled on CBS' "60 Minutes" in June, Clinton took Dan Rather to the restaurant. McClard said his grandfather "swears up and down" that Clinton took new bride Hillary there before they left on their honeymoon.
But now that the world is associating Clinton's eating habits with his quadruple-bypass surgery, McClard said he wants to be part of Clinton's future health, not a cause of the problem.
"I've got mixed emotions about this thing; I love the publicity, but I don't want to be known as the place that stuck him in the hospital," McClard said. "I'm trying to slough it all off on the Big Macs and french fries."
The restaurant has proposed offering a new menu item of sliced pork or beef, beans and cole slaw, without any bread or sugar added, to eliminate the carbohydrates that Clinton had cut out recently as a part of his South Beach diet.
A copy of the recipe was faxed Tuesday to another dedicated customer, Dr. Joe Howe, a Hot Springs cardiologist, for approval of portion size, McClard said.
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