Don’t feel like cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year? We completely understand. We’re exhausted, confused, stressed, but we’re still hungry. Take a drive to the Hamptons, instead, and check out these fabulous restaurants offering a feast that takes advantage of the rich bounty of the area. And indulge with a celebratory meal before or after Turkey Day as well.
Calissa
Calissa Photo By: Meryl Pearlstein
For a change of pace, Calissa invites diners to create a Greek-inspired Thanksgiving meal at home with their prix fixe menu. Mezze options include pantzarosalata beet dip, tomato salad and savory fall pies. Mains include roasted sliced turkey with Mediterranean herbs, slow-roasted pork shank with gigantes beans and thyme, and beef keftedes with Aleppo pepper and feta. Accompaniments add even more of a Greek flavor with gigantes beans and briam with roasted vegetables, feta and tomato. Indulge in Calissa’s dessert options like Melomakarona Greek holiday cookies with spices and honey.
T Bar
T Bar
T Bar Southampton’s outdoor space is nothing short of fantastic and that’s where I suggest you book your holiday feast this year. If you prefer, there’s also indoor dining but the outdoor heat lamps make it cozier than you might imagine.
The prix fixe Thanksgiving dinner offers a mix of the restaurant’s favorite dishes and ones created specially for Turkey Day. Start your meal with butternut squash soup and grilled tiger prawns, or indulge in the restaurant’s signature yellowfin tuna tartare. For your entrée, you have a choice of Amish roasted turkey with Brussels sprouts, stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.. If turkey isn’t your thing, there’s also salmon with zucchini and mushroom risotto, or filet mignon with mashed potatoes and haricots verts. Desserts are a specialty here with a choice of pumpkin pie, warm apple crisp, chocolate mousse or the beautiful banana parfait mille feuilles.
North Fork Table and Inn
North Fork Table and Inn
Thanksgiving to-go at North Fork Table and Inn shows off what Chef John Fraser is famous for, his veggie-forward expertise with a seasonal sensibility. The a la carte menu takes full advantage of the area’s farms plus the maritime location. You can create a selection of appetizers with stuffed mushrooms, broiled clams and smoked salmon mousse, a perfect prelude to the main event, a whole roasted turkey. Adorn the bird with smoked sourdough stuffing, classic giblet gravy, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. Veggie options include roasted Brussels sprouts, sherry-flamed mushrooms, spiced kabocha squash, and green bean almondine. For dessert, local farms have supplied the ingredients, which feature in the caramelized apple or pumpkin crostatas.
A separate beverage menu offers many at-home Thanksgiving choices. Local RGNY, Macari Vineyards, Channing Daughters and One Woman wines are offered along with Old Country choices. You’re encouraged to have some fun with finish-at-home cocktails like the chai cranberry punch bowl, ginger appletini or Wild Turkey old fashioned. For a bit of whimsy, the sommelier has created a blind wine tasting kit, too, with instructions for how to taste, what clues to look for, and guided maps.
Bistro Ete
Bistro Ete
Chef Arie Pavlou has put together an at-home feast that’s traditional with just an inkling of his Mediterranean orientation. The prix fixe meal gives you bacon-wrapped turkey breast medallions, rice stuffing with chestnuts and sage, and chestnut-sage gravy. Add mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and brandy-glazed Brussels sprouts as sides, options like pumpkin-butternut squash-apple cider soup, and Chef’s homemade ice creams and you’ll have a dinner that will hopefully give you some leftovers for the next day.
Highway
Highway
If you’re tired of Thanksgiving and want to spruce up your meal repertoire before and after with non-turkey dinners, Highway has you covered. But, don’t worry. If Thanksgiving is all you can think about right now, Highway will send a private chef to your home to put it all together for you. Your menu can be customized and will, of course, include Highway’s homemade pies and ice cream. The chef will even bring a bottled “Turkey Crossing” cocktail.
But the real holiday attractions from Highway are the restaurant’s night before and night after dinners, giving you an option that doesn’t have anything to do with turkey. The “Classic Highway Night Before Thanksgiving” takeout meal offers roasted chicken, eggplant parmigiana, salad and apple crumble. But I’d go for the “Post Thanksgiving Asian Night” feast, personally. You can order Peking duck, miso-glazed salmon or Thai chicken stir fry, all worthy alternatives to turkey. Complement it with crab and papaya salad, Asian slaw, baby bok choy and you’ll have a break from all that stuffing and cranberry sauce. Enjoy the “Night After” either in the restaurant or at home.
