Page 49 - Esquire (November 2019)
P. 49
the Big Bite
So let’s do just that. dates back to the days of Teddy Roosevelt. I told my
Try as I might, I can’t help but associate Thanksgiv- mom not to worry, I hadn’t joined a cult; this was
ing with...work. It’s work to cook so many dishes (Un- just a one-off experiment with (ahem) not working
cle Marty will throw a tantrum if he doesn’t see his be- ourselves to death on what’s supposed to be a holiday.
loved creamed onions; Cousin Nancy won’t show And that night at Keens came as a revela-
up if scalloped potatoes aren’t on the menu), and tion. The menu included all the classics—
it’s work to scrub so many plates and bowls, just candied yams, mashed potatoes, pumpkin
as it’s work to haul the children through jammed pie with ginger cream—as well as shrimp
airports and it’s work tap-dancing through four cocktail and fat slabs of bacon. We feast-
days of conversation trying to pretend that Don- ed like wild dogs. Yet we got up from that
ald Trump doesn’t exist. Sometimes I wonder table with an unexpected feeling of light-
whether Thanksgiving has less to do with ex- ness. The airy sensation could be attribut-
pressing gratitude and more to do with enshrin- ed to something simple: We didn’t have
ing some Puritan custom of making things way to do anything. We didn’t have to clean
more arduous than they need to be. up. Our family conversation around the
If you happen to belong to my semi-clan- table that evening was marked by looseness.
destine band of Turkey Day refuseniks, I have We actually relaxed.
a solution for you: Go to a restaurant for Thanks- Should you snicker that my sentiments
giving dinner. Reserve a big table and take the here are somehow un-American, that it is
whole family. Maybe you think there’s some- our duty to suffer through the plate-juggling
thing obscene about such a suggestion, con- circus of Thanksgiving just because That’s
sidering Thanksgiving’s deep connection to What You’re Supposed to Do, keep in mind
hearth and home, but (pssst) it’s not as radical AWAY GAME my primary realization during that dinner
as it might initially appear. The first time I did The stuffing at Craft in New York, a longtime fa- at Keens: The place was packed. It turns out
it, I was feeling overwhelmed by the crunch of vorite place to spend Thanksgiving not at home. there is a sizable secret society of turkey-lov-
the holiday season, and weeks before my fam- ing patriots who happen to prefer a stress-
ily members flew into town from California, I found free Thanksgiving. I still remember their uproarious
myself wistfully Googling “New York restaurants that laughter at Keens and that liberated gleam in their
serve Thanksgiving.” eyes. “Do you finally get it?” they seemed to be ask-
Lo, such restaurants were manifold. I rashly made ing me with knowing nods. “Thanksgiving at home
a reservation at Keens, a Manhattan chophouse that is for suckers.”
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