Sotomayor's Solo and Healthy Night Out

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor meets with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) during a visit to Capitol Hill Wednesday

Although Sonia Sotomayor has been described as having the exact opposite personality of David Souter, the famously reclusive retiring justice she's been nominated to replace, she sure acted like him last night.

President Obama's Supreme Court choice dined alone at DC Coast, a K Street restaurant typically inhabited by lobbyists and pols. She was squirreled away in an out of the way table for one upstairs, apart from the boisterous, backslapping riffraff.

Still, a few restaurant patrons spotted the first Latino candidate for the high court and paid their respects, prompting the management to keep a closer guard so she could enjoy her healthy meal of snapper in private.

Sotomayor certainly could have opted for room service in her hotel room rather than eating out alone. But as DC Coast general manager Ryan McCarthy puts it, "Why have room service when you can dine at DC Coast?"

Plus, he says, it shows the New York jurist is ready-made for the Washington scene. "By dining alone at DC Coast, we think Ms. Sotomayor is already acting like a hard-working Washingtonian," McCarthy told the Sleuth by telephone today.

A source close to Sotomayor describes the nominee as "very social" but added, "After a long day in the Senate, [she] probably felt like getting some fresh air."