For the past 10 years or so, we have hosted Thanksgiving at our house. Christmas, too. But this year I was feeling too overwhelmed to get the house ready, shop for food, and wash the wineglasses and silver, etc. Plus there were only going to be 4 of us, each with very different taste in food, so I made reservations.
The restaurant that I chose was 1300 Fillmore, a very elegant restaurant with an upscale soul-food menu. For $49 you could choose between 3 starters, 3 mains, and 3 desserts. And they only charged $15 corkage fee, so with bringing our own bottles of wine, it really was far less expensive than cooking.
We ended up being a party of 6, so they seated us at a large round table near the front. We got in at the last seating, which was 4:30. The restaurant was a-buzz with families all enjoying their holiday dinners.
We started off with a cocktail and some cornbread with honey butter and jalapeno jelly. For my starter I had their famous shrimp and grits, and for my main I had turkey with stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and greens. We ordered sides of mac & cheese, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and more greens.
For dessert, I had chocolate panna cotta.
The wine was good. The food was filling. The company was nice.
It did not feel like Thanksgiving.
Afterwards, we went to our friends' for dessert. We had pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, coconut cream pie, pecan pie, and a lemon cream cheese pie. That overstuffed feeling came over me almost immediately.
But something was really missing. All of the great smells filling the house. The flurry of getting ready for guests followed by welcoming everyone into our home. People dropping by all day and all night.
Leftovers.
For us, it was the right decision to let someone else make the food this year, but honestly, I don't care if there are only 2 of us at the table, and even if it's just turkey sandwiches, I will make Thanksgiving dinner next year.
