Forget Zagat. Restaurants pack in diners with the Bill Clinton stamp of approval

Bill Clinton has proven to be a valuable surrogate for Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this fall, but did you know he is also single-handedly boosting restaurant business around the world?

As the New York Times' David Segal writes today, the 42nd president's dining exploits almost always result in major business for the restaurants he chooses to visit. Clinton's name is frequently mentioned in reviews for restaurants written up in international guidebooks. And some patrons even go so far as to request the specific table where Clinton and his party sat.

One restaurant now playing up the Clinton buzz is Bukhara in New Delhi, India, which serves a Bill Clinton platter commemorating the former president's two visits to the restaurant many years ago. (While the restaurant tells Segal the special isn't advertised, that's not exactly true. This reporter, along with two other media colleagues, shared the Clinton platter at Bukhara with a Bush White House official when the 43rd president visited India in 2007. At the time, the dish was displayed prominently on Bukhara's menu, along with a picture of Clinton.)

Over the summer, Clinton announced that he had become a vegan for health reasons. In 2004, he underwent a quadruple heart bypass. Earlier this year, he was hospitalized again after chest pains. But that doesn't mean he hasn't done some sneaking around on the diet front.

In Madrid, Clinton has frequently dined at Casa Lucio, where he once ate a meal with the King of Spain — and the restaurant has been dining out, as it were, on the Clinton connection ever since. "He had the filet mignon last time he was here, four months ago," Javier Blazquez, the son of Casa Lucio's owner, told the Times. "The doctors tell him not to eat it, but he does anyway."

For some establishments, the Clinton stamp of approval can mean years of repeat business from Clinton fans. The former president dined at Gugelhof, a Berlin restaurant, with German chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2000. The owner told Segal that a group of 25 Swedish tourists showed up to dine at the restaurant last week based on a newspaper clipping reporting that Clinton had eaten there.

"That meal was a decade ago," marveled Detlef Obermuller, the restaurant's owner.

(Photo of Clinton and President Obama after a meal at New York's Il Mulino in 2009: Pete Souza/White House)