The bright sunset-hues of autumn are quickly turning to cocoa-brown as leaves fall of the deciduous trees and muddy Chicago streets, but the warmth and comfort of the season endures as Thanksgiving looms.
Whether you want to celebrate the holiday at home in peace with the soft glow of your own fireplace, or in a low-lit restaurant with gregarious and chatty midwestern folks and out-of-towners, there are plenty of dining options to suit all configurations.
Choices Abound in the Windy City
For all of the fixings yet none of the dishes, for example, consider Kindling, where Chef Jonathon Sawyer has created a three-course prix-fixe supper during Thanksgiving week.
After a visit to Hotel Chocolat Michigan Avenue, you’ll likely leave with chocolate gift boxes as well as a Classic Velvetiser and drinking chocolate to the appreciation of your invitees.
Or pop in Moody’s Cake & Wine for to-go specialties and traditional relishes like take-and-bake apple cinnamon scones, Southern-style biscuits, brown butter chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pies and carrot cakes. The choices are seemingly endless in a sizable city of 2.75 million people.
A large city with millions of residents means that dining options abound.
Whether you decide to sit down in a restaurant surrounded by loved ones and let someone else do the cooking, or you bring some tasty pleasures home to brighten up your dinner table, prepare to create memories and gobble till you wobble this Thanksgiving. Keep reading for more of Chicago’s top eateries, bakeries, and take-home offerings.
Gravy Expectations: The Peninsula Chicago
Ever stylish, let the pomp and circumstance of The Peninsula Chicago’s The Lobby delight you and your brood this season. While a string quartet plays and a magician dazzles, choose plated a la carte options like focaccia bologna, duck confit hash, sesame-crusted tuna, and roasted branzino, offered alongside a generous and elegant buffet.
From a delicious preview of Comunitá’s Italian cuisine, a forth coming concept available in early 2027, to stuffed Ferndale turkey and glazed Berkshire ham carving stations to seafood and sushi stations to a Sassanian caviar station to global cheese & charcuterie selections, you won’t go hungry here. And pro tip: don’t skip the dessert.
The Thanksgiving day brunch and dinner buffet is available with a reservation from 10:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m. and is $350 per adult and $110 per child.
Feast Mode: Tutore Italian Cooking School
Learn how to make pasta from scratch from a trained chef and then bring your skills into your own kitchen to impress your friends and family on Thanksgiving day. Tutore’s 101 Fresh Pasta Class will teach you how to make and roll dough into classic shapes, use fillings, and perfect a delicious sauce. It’s social, it’s fun, and it’s a great way to kick off the holiday.
The last class before Thanksgiving is on November 20, from 6:00—8:30, on West Grand Avenue.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year in the Windy City.
Stuffed in the City: Noema
A Greek gastrobar might be the last place you think of when it comes to Thanksgiving revelries, but this warm and inviting space proves be just the glad-handing locale to take the edge off ahead of or directly after hosting family and friends for the holiday. Ditch the stress and over planning at Noema’s door.
Sit back, imbibe, and unwind at one of Lincoln Park’s newest hot spots and leave the cooking and preparations to the talented Chef Konstantinos Kvasilava. You’ll be able to meaningfully connect with your loved ones, or deliberate post-holiday, and enjoy the simple pleasures of being together while someone else cooks, serves, and cleans up.
Noema is open for reservations Wednesdays—Mondays, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Hosting Made Simple: Guillotine Bakery
For a special treat, and to seriously level up your Thanksgiving desert game, plan ahead and order special indulgences from Guillotine Bakery, a traditional French staple in Chicago.
From their Giant Kouign Amann to their Giant Vanilla and Praliné Flan to their Giant Vanilla Flan, each priced between $55—$70, you’ll raise an excited eyebrow or two for your at-home guests. Or why not purchase a two-pound sourdough loaf, which is made with 100% French flour? I mean, can’t you just smell the delectableness right now?
Available for pre-order only, pastries, desserts, and bread perfect for sharing can be picked up ahead of your dinner on November 25 or 26 between 8:30 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com