Red Bank Bistro Gets Visit from Homeland Security Secretary

Between stops on her tour of New Jersey's hurricane-damaged coast, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and her entourage of FEMA officials and Secret Service agents stopped by the Bistro at Red Bank for a lunch Friday afternoon. 

Napolitano had reportedly finished up a news conference as well as a tour of parts of Middletown and northern Monmouth County and was en route to shore points when she stopped for lunch. 

"It was a high honor to have her here," an excited Bistro Co-Owner George Lystris said Friday night. "It was one our high points, for sure."

Lyristis said members of the Secret Service came to the Bistro the day before to scope out the place before presumably giving it the OK. He and his staff were also asked not to mention the visit until later Friday, for security reasons.

About seven people joined Napolitano for lunch, Lyristis said, while Secret Service agents waited outside. Lyristis said he believes Napolitano ordered the duck salad.

A member of President Barack Obama's cabinet and one of the world's most powerful women, Napolitano took the opportunity to ask Lystris if his business and and Red Bank had fared well following Hurricane Sandy. 

"I told her Sandy's got nothing on us," Lyristis said.