Escape Your Family (Or Enjoy Their Company) at Tasty Thanksgiving Week Events
Puritan & Co. / Photo provided
Is Aunt Muriel on her way? She probably should have left tomorrow, for traffic reasons—and to give you one more day to prepare for the long weekend of family and food. This Thursday, enjoy the company and bounty around your table, but during the rest of this week, no one would fault you for sneaking out for a pint, a flute, or just a moment away from the kitchen. Here are a handful of ways to treat yourself before and after Thanksgiving.
Will & Grace Thanksgiving at Club Café
Tuesday, November 24
Get into the spirit of binging with Will, Grace, Karen, and Jack. Traveling party people the Welcoming Committee are taking over the back room at Club Café tonight for back-to-back-to-back Thanksgiving episodes of the seminal ’90s sitcom, Will & Grace. Relive Jack coming out to his mother during one eventful holiday, and flash back to Will and Grace’s courtship during another. Club Café is serving up light bites, and you may even find Karen at the cash bar.
$15, November 24, screening 7-10 p.m., Club Café, 209 Columbus Ave., Boston, 617-536-0966, clubcafe.com. Tickets available via Eventbrite.
Friendsgiving at Pier 6
Wednesday, November 25
Steel yourself for possibly running into your high school nemesis on Thanksgiving Eve with the Neighborhood Bully, one of this Charlestown spot’s celebratory Friendsgiving cocktails. Perhaps the blend of Downeast Cider, Bully Boy Hub Punch, lemon, and angostura bitters is exactly the symbol of peace necessary to mend a decades-old rivalry? Pier 6 also has shareable specials to enjoy with friends during the year’s biggest, unofficial reunion. Practice for the next day’s feast of fowl with grilled half chicken, pumpkin risotto, or Friendsgiving cassoulet, with Great Northern white beans, braised lamb shank, smoke bacon, and turkey confit. The cocktails and plates are all price a la carte, along with regular dinner service.
5-10 p.m., One 8th St., Charlestown; 617-337-0054 or pier6boston.com.
Mac Attack at Olde Magoun’s Saloon
Wednesday, November 25
Comfort food abounds at this Somerville pub. On the final night of a month-long, Wednesday series, fill up with one of seven different macaroni and cheeses, including the seasonally-appropriate roasted pumpkin with mascarpone cheese, Vermont cheddar, maple-cured bacon and crispy fried sage; flash-fried mac ‘n cheese croquettes with spicy herbed tomato sauce; or Blue Ribbon, with cheddar, slow-smoked baby back ribs, and a buttermilk biscuit crust. Just maybe skip breakfast before the Thanksgiving Day meal.
5-11 p.m., 518 Medford St., Somerville; 617-776‑2600 or magounssaloon.com.
Family-You-Choose Feast at Puritan & Co.
Wednesday, November 25
Puritan & Co. is celebrating three years—and thanking the friends who have kept them in Cambridge with a night of conviviality. Chef/owner Will Gilson—a Mayflower descendent—is creating bites from his personal cargo hold of New England-inspired recipes to share a gratis, and speciality Privateer Rum and Campari cocktails, plus Notch session beers, will flow from the cash bar.
9 p.m.-midnight, 1166 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge; 617-615-6195 or puritancambridge.com.
Black Friday Record Store Day at Tres Gatos
Friday, November 27
If the urge to spend money on one of the busiest shopping days of the year is just too strong, at least pick an independent retailer that will also ply you with hot coffee and fresh cookies. Tres Gatos always has a well-curated record and bookstore in the back of its Jamaica Plain restaurant. For the fifth year in a row, the shop is taking over the whole space for Record Store Day, a biannual event celebrating indie vinyl shops with exclusive releases. More than 100 LPs, EPs, doubles, and singles will hit shelves on Friday, and Tres Gatos promises at least one copy of each exclusive. The bar opens at 2 p.m. with a special cocktail of Kraken Black Spiced Rum, Amaro Averna, and Casa Mariol Vermut Negre, called Man in Black in honor of a special release by Johnny Cash. Before the kitchen opens for dinner, pastry chef Allyson West’s signature record-shaped cookies and coffee will flow freely.
10 a.m.-11 p.m. (bar open at 2 p.m. and kitchen open at 6 p.m.), 70 Centre St., Jamaica Plain; restaurant: 617-477-4851, store: 617-477-9209; tresgatosjp.com.
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Release
Friday, November 27
A tipsy Black Friday tradition: Goose Island Beer Co.’s annual Bourbon County Brand release hits a few Boston-area spots this year. The pioneering Chicago brewery launched its barreling program in 1992, and for the past five years, the company has produced a flagship Bourbon County stout, as well as deeply-flavored variants, at select package stores around the country. Kappy’s in Medford is the local shop selling the 12-ounce bottles this year; they could include the original, dark and dense stout; an Intelligentsia coffee variation; a barleywine aged in a past season’s bourbon barrels; and a rye whiskey barrel-aged stout. Kappy’s hasn’t announced what variations they’ll bring in, but the team anticipates three bottles available for every soul in line. Doors open at 8 a.m. and Daddy’s Bonetown Burgers is slinging breakfast sandwiches.
Not up for an early-morning beer run? Bukowski Tavern and Foundry on Elm are both hosting Friday night tap takeovers with Goose Island. In Back Bay, the 2013 and 2015 Bourbon County Stouts will be on draft, as well as this year’s coffee release, plus a few other special Goose Island kegs. In Davis Square, Foundry’s beer czar Geoff Thompson will tap Regal Rye Bourbon County Brand Stout, aged in Heaven Hill and Jim Beam barrels with single-strength blackberry juice, Luxardo cherries, and a touch of sea salt; and the 2013 barleywine; there will also be some bottles of the coffee stout.
8 a.m. until it sells out, Kappy’s Fine Wine & Spirits, 10 Revere Beach Pkwy, Medford; 781-395-8888 or Facebook.
5 p.m. tap takeover at Bukowski Tavern, 50 Dalton St., Boston; 617-628-9999 or Facebook.
5 p.m. tap takeover at Foundry on Elm, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville; 617-437-9999 or Facebook.
Bubbly Bar at Deuxave
Friday, November 27
Cheers to the end of this holiday week—and the beginning of the weekend. Deuxave’s general manager and sommelier Jason Irving is popping a few sparkling bottles not typically available by the glass during this regular Friday night event. This week, sip on J.F. Merieau Touraine Bulles; La Caravelle Brut Rosé Champagne; and Eric Rodez Cuvée des Crayères Grand Cru Ambonnay Champagne. Along with four sparklers Deuxave typically pours, these three are priced individually. Chef Chris Coombs’ seasonal menu selection is available a la carte. Call ahead to reserve your seat for the Bubbly Bar.
5 p.m.-7 p.m., 371 Commonwealth Ave., Boston; 617-517-5915 or deuxave.com.
