Drunk Governor: Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick Says He Got 'Quite Drunk' After Boston Marathon Manhunt For Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick retreated to his rural home the day after the capture of surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and got “quite drunk” alone at a restaurant, he said during a talk at a Boston-area marketing firm.

On Wednesday, Patrick told employees at HubSpot, a Cambridge, Mass., marketing firm that he was relieved that Tsarnaev had been captured on April 19, because he worried that people would complain about the “shelter in place” order he enacted as a safety measure, The Associated Press reports. The order locked down the city of Boston and several suburbs, keeping local residents safe and allowing authorities to search for Tsarnaev.

Patrick and his wife traveled to Berkshire County the day after Tsarnaev’s capture, he said at HubSpot. The Patricks have a vacation home in Richmond, about three hours west of Boston, AP reports.

The governor said that he went for a swim, and then went to a local restaurant alone to read a book, AP reports. The restaurant’s co-owner sat him in an isolated corner, away from other customers.

"She starts bringing me things to drink as a celebration. And by the end of the meal, I was actually quite drunk, by myself," Patrick said, according to the Boston Herald. The news came as a surprise to Maggie Merelle, co-owner of Rouge restaurant in West Stockbridge.

In an interview with the Herald, Merelle said that Patrick had a “glass of chardonnay or two” with dinner, but never appeared to be drunk. “He wasn’t tipsy. I never would have known,” Merelle said.

Merelle added that hosting Gov. Patrick made her feel “like an old Jewish mother feeding him. We just wanted to nourish him.”

Patrick said that he hadn’t brought any money to the restaurant, and asked if he could come back to Rouge the next day to pay his bill. Merelle told the Herald that he “definitely” settled his tab.

President Barack Obama called Patrick on April 19 and advised him that he couldn’t keep Boston and its surrounding area locked down indefinitely, the governor said. Patrick added that, had Tsarnaev not been captured, he would have called off the “shelter in place” order as soon as authorities had completed their door-to-door search in Watertown.