The pantry The President's Other Dining Room Just off the Oval Office, through a small corridor past the president's private study is the president's West Wing study and dining room, sometimes called the "Oval Office Dining Room" (some presidents use a smaller office next door as their private study). In this room, the president may have casual meals alone or with staff and catch the news on television or discuss White House policy. Because this room is usually furnished with a small television, it is often here that the president first sees news events being reported from around the world. In the 1930s and 40s, the room was the office of the president's secretary, as the White House chief of staff position was known then. As late as the Nixon years, it was the office of the president's personal secretary. For many years, the famous Childe Hassam painting Avenue in the Rain (1917) hung in this room (it's part of the White House's own collection). During the George W Bush administration, one of the north doors to the corridor was closed off.