Trump’s Inauguration Will Be Chowderless, Says Legal Sea Foods

There's a break with presidential culinary tradition this year.

Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee!

Despite a decades-long tradition, there will not be any Legal Sea Foods chowder at the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, the New England-based seafood chain says.

It’s not clear why that’s the case, but CEO Roger Berkowitz says he hopes it isn’t for political reasons. Despite the fact that it hails from deep blue Massachusetts, he tells the Globe, “It’s not partisan chowder.” And it’s not for lack or trying, either. Berkowitz says he’s hoping something works out, and it appears the company has been reaching out to Trump’s people to work something out.

The soup, prepared in the traditional (and superior) New England creamy style, has had a role in Washington since the Reagan years, served at the inaugural ceremonies, at several fundraisers, and even aboard the Clinton campaign’s airplane.

Legal’s has embraced its ties to the American political process. The company garnered a lot of publicity for its provocative and politically-charged TV and print ads (a fish taco joke about Mexicans and the border wall, one that poked fun at Trump’s hands, another that compared Hillary Clinton to a “cold fish”). Those campaigns have also been a bit more innocuous. In 2009, to greet the start of the 44th president’s term, it sold cups of chowder for 44 cents.

There is still time for plans to change. How hard is it really to fit a few gallons of piping hot chowder into a meal plan, really? But with the inauguration now just a week away, the clock is ticking.