Happy Thanksgiving Day, everyone! Depending on where you are while reading this, it’s possible there’s already gravy dribbling down your chin. I hope you saved some room for the weekend.
The holidays are a cheat code for us restaurant lovers. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the people who would normally be filling up local dining rooms are at home (or out of town). Tables are in high supply, and the status pastries of our era sell out a few hours later. I’m writing to you from Illinois this week, where I’m enjoying a Malört-filled weekend with family and friends, but here’s where you’d find me if I were sticking around.
A bowl to bring you back
After the onslaught of stuffing, mashed potatoes and my aunt Marsha’s sweet potato casserole, all I want is a big bowl of soup from the chef Bun Cheam. Formerly in charge of the kitchen at Red Hook Tavern, Mr. Cheam and his wife, Cait Callahan, tend to a tall stockpot of pork broth on weekends, when they transform Runner Up, a tiny, 12-seat wine bar in Park Slope, into a Cambodian noodle shop, called Hōp.
The specialty, ku thiel phnom penh, can right any wrong. Named for Cambodia’s capital, each bowl is packed full of shrimp, ground pork and a fistful of green onion. The noodles are fairly straightforward, but the slow-simmered broth is ridiculously good. Made from pork neck, shrimp and squid, it’s finished in the bowl with a heap of nutty fried garlic. Of course, if you’re like me, once you smell it, you’ll start to get menu-curious. I threw in an order of the beef skewers, brushed in pungent kreung paste, and didn’t regret it.
367 Seventh Avenue (11th Street), Park Slope
Thanksgiving, continued
Thanksgiving doesn’t end when your family leaves or when the last leftovers are cleared from the fridge. It ends when Elyssa Heller says so. Each year around this time, Heller, an owner of the wonderful Edith’s Sandwich Counter, adds a Thanksgiving-themed sandwich called the Carmela to her menu.
And thankfully, it’s only available for a few weeks each year because if the Carmela was around any longer than that, I’d have a serious problem. That’s how much I like her sliced turkey, blackened around the edges from the spice rub, a soft plank of fried stuffing wedged right in the middle. Creamed spinach was never on my Thanksgiving table, but it appears in this sandwich in the form of bright green aioli. (It’s tied with the biting cranberry mustard for my favorite ingredient.) Don’t wait: You have until mid-December to order a Carmela this year; after that, they’re gone until next fall.
Multiple locations, Williamsburg and West Village
Pizza with a point of view
Eating a pizza at Ceres has been an absolute nightmare ever since this summer, when Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports and One Bite Pizza Reviews, called its pies some of the best in town. The owners, Julian Geldmacher and Jake Serebnick, had to implement a new system for ordering that requires would-be customers to place orders in advance. (No slices.)
Whatever you think of reserving pizza, I’m sure you’ll be pleased by their masterful slices, which I added to our best pizza list this year. The toppings are modern, running from pancetta to ’nduja; the tomato sauce is tart and fresh-tasting and the masterful sourdough crusts are blistered until dark brown, like my favorite baguettes in the Third Arrondissement.
164 Mott Street (Broome Street), Little Italy