When we decided to travel to New York City for Thanksgiving, I was a little unsure about how it would all go down. Our friends from California were coming out to meet us for the week, so that part I was excited about.
But when my mother-in-law suggested China Town Brasserie for our Thanksgiving dinner, I balked. What? What is Thanksgiving without sitting around the house all day, eating, drinking too much, fighting with relatives and making gravy? Also, for as long as I can remember, we have ended up ripping our sweaters off and going for a walk in our shorts and t-shirts either before or after the big meal. During the day. From our house. Not at night. From a restaurant. A Chinese restaurant.
As I was making our plans for the week, it dawned on me that instead of fighting over the last pint of whipping cream at an over-crowded Vons, I would be procuring seats for our kids on the bus to a museum.
And rather than hoping I would make it to the florists before they close, I would be running to the theater to get there before last curtain call.
I was going to spend my evenings leading up to the holiday dining in fabulous restaurants, not marketing, cooking and prepping everything possible ahead of time.
So, since I wasn’t going to be washing wine glasses, but rather sipping out of them, why not kick back and embrace the non-traditional holiday?
I leapt out of bed Thursday morning, and not having to worry about getting the turkey into the oven before 9:00am, I enjoyed a few cups of coffee, showered and walked in a very civilized fashion down to view the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade at Columbus Circle.
After a festive brunch and sauntering around Central Park with the kids, we took naps and then all met up at the China Town Brasserie. This fabulous restaurant is on Manhattan’s lower east side and it had great ambiance and even better food.
We topped off the evening with a walk to Greenwich Village for pie in an Italian coffee shop. As I looked around the table over my steaming espresso, I thought that my friend’s comment to me about the whole experience couldn’t carry more sentiment: I’ll never second guess Peking Turkey again.
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