IT’S THE FEAST THEY CAN DO
Some will open, others will not, as eateries
For city restaurant owners, 2020 was a recipe for disaster — and it’s not over yet.
Instead of scrambling to secure enough Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing to feed the usual horde of New Yorkers opting for dinner at a favorite eatery, the crippling pandemic created unexpected holiday hurdles for restaurants big and small: How, where, and whether to welcome any in-person diners at all.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s kind of the new normal,” said Philippe Massoud, 49, the owner of Ilili restaurant in Chelsea. While he hopes to serve customers indoors at 25% capacity, he’s also creating hundreds of to-go baskets for guests staying home Thursday.
“It’s all about resilience,” he said. “We will not allow [ourselves] to not celebrate Thanksgiving, no matter what, and this is kind of the alternative way of celebrating.”
He’s not alone. With a surge in COVID-19 cases across the city, restaurants are doing everything they can to prepare for any Thanksgiving Day eventuality — spacing out tables, building heated tents, and offering an unprecedented number of takeout turkey feasts through online portals.
Ilili’s gourmet dinners will include all of his acclaimed Mediterranean-inspired Thanksgiving dishes — with some minor reheating required — and can feed groups in sizes from two to eight.
“It was a no-brainer for us,” said Massoud. “If you cannot come to our dining room, we’re going to come to you, and we’re going to do everything we can to give you that moment of Thanksgiving.”
At the Wicked Wolf in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, manager Emma Rosenberg believes keeping the doors open for Thanksgiving dinner — even on a scaled-down basis — will bring holiday cheer to regular customers who might otherwise be celebrating alone.
“This year, it’s hard, but we opened just to have more people be able to go somewhere,” said the 41-year-old Rosenberg. “You’re sitting at home, you’re by yourself, it’s so depressing on a holiday … We’re really hoping to be open for the customers, especially because we have a lot of older people.”
The restaurant plans to do its traditional three seatings at 12:30, 2:30 and 5:30 p.m., with a strict maximum of 50 people per time slot. For server Jennifer Comerico, 41, this year’s small crowd will be a far cry from the hundreds of
hungry patrons she remembers from her past Thanksgivings at the local pub and eatery, but she plans to be present nonetheless.
“If we’re still open, I sure will,” she said.
Other restaurants and bars, despite long-standing traditions, will sit this turkey day out.
“Considering how unpredictable everything is right now, we made the decision to close for Thanksgiving this year,” said Sophie Deverell, 26, the general manager at The Farm on Adderley in Brooklyn. “It was a big call, but we didn’t see any other ethical option.”
The famed
Ditmas
Park joint, after cooking up a not-tobe-missed feast for the past 14 Thanksgivings, wanted to offer its staff the option of celebrating this year’s holiday safely at home. To keep that promise, there won’t be any turkey to go, either.
“We were considering doing some kind of takeout option, but the staff have been so over-taxed with all of the new restrictions, so I’m really glad they’ll get to take a rest and be home with their families,” said Deverell.
“I think most of them are happy — I know I’m happy about it.”
La Masa, a favorite spot for homemade Colombian and Dominican dishes in the Morris
Park neighborhood of the Bronx, will also be closed this Thanksgiving Day — although owners Joshua and Laura Montalvo may be busier than ever.
In the true spirit of the holiday, the husband and wife are planning to give thanks to their community by preparing and distributing hundreds of free meals to hungry families. The gesture is payback to the very people who got their mom-and-pop restaurant through the darkest days of the COVID crisis last spring.
“When COVID hit, it was really tough,” said Joshua Montalvo, 38. “We had to let go of a lot of people, we scaled down considerably. Financially, at the beginning, we had to ask for help from the community, and they came out. They ordered and they ordered, and we did good. And now, because we did good, we’re able to give back.”
The Montalvos have 70 families signed up so far, along with a women’s shelter in New Jersey, and they hope to keep spreading the good news.
“Right now, our biggest challenge is to get the word out,” Joshua said. “We want to do at least 300 families. That’s our goal.
“We want everybody to be able to have a meal.”