Returning home from the nation’s capital, James Gessner Jr., chief of the Mohegan Tribe, called Thursday from T.F. Green Airport in Providence with a tale to tell.

The previous evening, he’d been seated at a table between New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Erika Prosper, who is the first lady of San Antonio, Texas, and an executive with H-E-B, her state’s largest grocery store chain. He’d spotted the actress Angelina Jolie and her son, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, consumed braised beef short ribs and ice cream, and reveled in South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s rendition of “American Pie.”

Gessner seemed to still be processing the state dinner President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden had hosted for Yoon at the White House.

“It was really an honor and a privilege to go to such an event to represent my tribe ― generations past, present and in the future,” he said. “I really thought about that afterwards. I couldn’t have been more honored or humbled.”

Gessner attended the dinner with Chuck Bunnell, the Mohegans’ chief of staff. They flew to Washington on Tuesday and took in events Wednesday, starting with the Bidens’ official greeting of Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee of South Korea, which took place in the morning on the South Lawn of the White House.

The dinner invitation had arrived last week via White House email.

“Obviously, it was in recognition of the fact we’re making a pretty large financial investment (in South Korea),” Gessner said.

Indeed, the Mohegans’ Inspire integrated casino resort, a $1.6 billion project, is scheduled to open this year on Incheon’s Yeongjong Island near Incheon International Airport. It represents the first phase of a mammoth development with a price tag expected to eventually reach $5 billion.

“It was pretty special,” Gessner said of the greeting ceremony, which featured a military display.

The evening’s festivities began at 6 p.m., he said, with a cocktail party on the first floor of the White House, where the guests mingled. More than 180 people had been invited, among them federal officials, governors, athletes, artists, entertainers, business leaders and prominent Asian Americans.

Later, the guests were summoned to the second floor, where each of them greeted the Bidens and the South Korean president and his wife and continued to their seats in the dining room.

At a round table that seated 10, Gessner and Bunnell, wearing tuxedos, sat down with Murphy and his wife, Tammy; Prosper and her husband, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg; Julie Chávez Rodriguez, the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, who has been named campaign manager for Biden’s 2024 reelection bid, and Aqeela Sherrills; and two Korean business officials.

The Bidens and the guests of honor entered the dining room and sat at the table next to theirs, Gessner said.

“For me, it was an honor to be part of something so historic,” Bunnell said in a phone interview. “To have three sovereigns together and for James to be recognized as the leader of a sovereign nation, and the fact we have friends in both the U.S. and South Korea who thought it was appropriate … It was appropriate ― and awesome.”

After dinner, the crowd moved into another room on the same floor. There, Broadway stars Norm Lewis, Lea Salonga and Jessica Vosk performed, capping their set with what Gessner described as “a cut-down version” of “American Pie,” the 1971 rock ‘n’ roll standard. The Broadway stars said they had heard it was a Yoon favorite.

“Then President Biden asked if he (Yoon) would like to sing a verse and he was, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll give it a shot,’” Gessner said. “He did a great job, and got a standing ovation.”

When Biden presented Yoon with a guitar signed by Don McLean, who wrote “American Pie,” the South Korean president seem genuinely surprised, he said.

Gessner said attending the state dinner was the “icing on the cake” of his involvement with the Inspire undertaking. He estimated he has traveled to South Korea 10 times in connection with the project and will travel there again next month to check on the progress of construction.

He said the project’s three hotel towers are set to open in September, with the rest of the development ― a 15,000-seat arena, a foreigners-only casino, an indoor water park, a theme park and dining and shopping venues ― opening three to four months later.

Gessner said Mohegans lose little sleep over South Korea’s proximity to nuclear-armed North Korea and its unpredictable leader, Kim Jong Un.

“Back in 2016, that was more of a concern,” he said. “But as you talk to officials in South Korea and to the people who live there, it becomes less and less of a threat. They live there and it’s not top of their minds. Knowing that puts our minds at ease.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com