For those who’d rather leave the cooking on Thanksgiving to someone else, several neighborhood restaurants are offering dine-in and takeout options for what is arguably the most eagerly anticipated holiday meal of all.
Peregrine restaurant in the Whitney Hotel Boston at 170 Charles St. is offering Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 26, which includes light and dark meat turkey, soft rolls with cultured butter, cornbread dressing (stuffing), mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, green-bean casserole and pumpkin pie.
“We’re excited to be giving a little bit of normalcy around the holidays,” said Joshua Lewin, who owns and operates Peregrine with Katrina Jazayeri. “We’re planning on opening for a few diners indoors, and if the weather holds up, we’ll have some outdoor spaces as well.”
Pre-pandemic, Peregrine could accommodate 12 tables indoors for Thanksgiving dinner, said Lewin, as opposed to only four now in keeping with social distancing and other guidelines for public safety.
While Thanksgiving has historically been one of Peregrine’s busiest nights, this is the first year the restaurant has offered catering, while in contrast, its sister establishment, Juliet in Somerville’s Davis Square, typically offers catering on Thanksgiving, but is closed for the holiday.
“We’re excited to be able to invite a few people to the restaurant, but with social distancing it won’t be as many as in years past,” Lewin said, “and we’re really excited about being able to reach even more families with catering this year.”
For $55 per person, dinner via catering includes, light and dark meat turkey, two soft rolls with cultured butter, cornbread dressing (stuffing), mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and a slice of pumpkin pie. Additional Thanksgiving sides are also available a la carte including green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, cornbread or pork dressing (stuffing), kale and sweet potato gratin, chicken noodle or vegetable noodle soup, and cranberry sauce.
So far, Lewin said catering from Peregrine has “gotten a really good response and we haven’t even gotten a chance to cook it yet.”
Visit www.peregrineboston.com for more information.
While Bin 26 Enoteca isn’t open on Thanksgiving, the restaurant is offering for takeout its apple pies, as well as a selection of wine handpicked to pair well with the meal.
“For those neighbors staying in the neighborhood, and who aren’t able to see family, we wanted to be to provide a few things that will add to the joyful event,” said Babak Bina, who, with his sister, Azita Bina-Seibel, owns and operates the restaurant at 26 Charles St. “We’ll be featuring apple pies, which we’ve donated to Community Servings Pie Drive in years past, and featuring delicious, festive wines for Thanksgiving.”
The 9-inch apple pies cost $32 each, and orders must be placed by 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, while featured white wines include Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve Champagne ($65), which Bina describes as “a magnanimous wine with quince, allspice, smoked meringue, warm brioche”; Romorantin, Francois Cazin, Cour-Cheverny, Loire, FR ‘17 ($29), which he describes as “a Noble dense proud waxy fruit, with the structure of the wine being its electrifying acid core [that] boasts of the limestone clay rich soils from which it hails that will cleanse the palette”; Sauvingon Blanc, Domaine de Villargeau, ‘La Belle Paresseuse’ Coteaux du Giennois, Loire, FR ‘15 ($30), which, according to Bina, possesses “the richness, and volume from the barrel ferment, in concert with the mineral edgy slight grassy sancerre style” ; and Riesling, Joh.Jos.Christoffel Erben, Spatlese Urziger Wurzgarten, Mosel, DE ‘17 ($48), which, Bina said, has “spicy, tropical, boisterous bravado” and comes from “the famous vineyard site in the middle Mosel called the ‘Spice Garden,’ know for its characteristic red-slate and red-sandstone soil.”
Red wines that Bin 26 has selected for Thanksgiving include Barbera, Castello di Nieve, ‘Santo Stefano,’ Piedmont, IT’19 ($40), which was first commercially produced in 1978 and has, according to Bina, a “pure fruit expression, unadulterated lacquered raspberry fruit and a touch of sage, and lavender underneath”; Pinot Noir, Domaine Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre Rouge, Loire, FR ‘18 ($52), which, Bina said, is the “soul-stirring” end-product of 400 years of winemaking that’s “not your Mom’s sancerre, but it could be”; and Cab Sauv, Cab franc, Merlot, Chateau Haut- Bergey, Pessac-Leognan, Graves, FR ‘97 ($65), which Bina describes as a “23-year-young example from the Pessac-Leognan [that] offers mature notes of mushroom, truffle, beef broth, and cacao covered espresso beans and blueberries,” and which he recommends opening 30 minutes before serving.
Besides selling each wine individually by the bottle, Bin 26 is also six packs containing one of each variety for $250.
Call Bin 26 Enoteca at 617-723-5939 for more information.
Hampshire House is offering Thanksgiving dinner again this year, and while Markus Ripperger, president and CEO of Hampshire House Corporation, said the tradition dates back for at least the eight years he has been with the company, things will be different this time due to social-distancing guidelines.
No more than six guests will be permitted per table, Ripperger said, compared to years past when larger tables could accommodate families and other larger groups.
But Hampshire House will still do its best to maintain the communal spirit of the holiday this year, he added, by placing tables that “belong together” near by each other so larger groups can enjoy the meal together.
For $75 per person, Hampshire House is offering a three-course plated menu on Thanksgiving from 12:30 to 4 p.m., which includes a choice of appetizer that range from harvest pumpkin bisque to autumn salad; a choice of entrée that includes oven-roasted turkey, grilled organic salmon filet, filet mignon and pumpkin ravioli; and a dessert sampler with a miniature cranberry apple tart, a petit cinnamon cheesecake, a pumpkin pie and a pecan triangle.
“What Thanksgiving is all about what comes after the turkey,” Ripperger said of the sampler. “You really get the benefit off all four Thanksgiving dessert options by having them all on the same plate.”
One of the neighborhood’s most elegant venues, Hampshire House doesn’t ordinarily open as a restaurant, Ripperger said, and instead only offers dining in to the public for special occasions like Thanksgiving, as well as for Mother’s Day and Easter and a recent Halloween luncheon, so this is truly a unique dining opportunity that shouldn’t be passed up.
Moreover, Hampshire House’s sister establishment, 75 Chestnut, is offering the same menu on Thanksgiving for dining in, as well as for takeout.
“Patrons ordering their meals to go can pick them up on Thanksgiving or even beforehand if it’s more convenient for them,” Ripperger said.
Several neighborhood families who typically enjoy the meal together are all ordering their meals to go from Hampshire House, Ripperger said, before they go back to their respective homes, prepare their meals and tune into a Zoom call while they sit down together for a virtual Thanksgiving dinner.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday season for Hampshire House, as well as for 75 Chestnut, which offers its Gingerbread House Party Bunch where guests can decorate a gingerbread house while enjoying its winter menu fare daily, except Sundays, from Friday, Nov. 27, through Thursday, Dec. 24.
Visit 75 Chestnut at 75chestnut.com or call the restaurant at 617-227-2175, and for more information on Thanksgiving dinner at Hampshire House, and to make reservations, visit hampshirehouse.com.