What was open on Thanksgiving?

[rworange]

I was doing doing the tour de Bay Area yesterday with some visitors.Thought I'd note some of what I saw open yesterday for next year .... for last minute groceries ... where to eat if not craving turkey ... where to go for an unplanned turkey dinner.

First of all, if you don't want traditional ... every ... I mean every ... Indian restaurant was open. I noticed Indus Village in Berkeley was open and as we drove around SF, the same seemed true for every Indian restaurant we passed.

Zaki Kabob House which replaced Taxi Brousse was open and crowded.

Other than places not on the opentable radar ...

North Beach was surprisingly dead. It was only that block around Calzones that was pretty much open. Cafe Trieste was open both in SF and Berkeley.

The Mission was surprisingly shuttered. There were less than a half dozen taquerias open ... and of course, some Indian place on 24th. The new George BBQ with rotisarrie chickens spinning in the window was doing big business.Reading yelp about it it seems more haufbrau than bbq. The owner worked at Pete's on Mission, so same idea.

There were a few Mexican markets open, should you forget the celery or whatever. Walgreens was always my "omg, I forgot the xxx". place to go. They seemed to be all open this year.

Now here's the back up plan for a turkey dinner ... get ready ... Fisherman's Wharf.

Every ... I mean every restaurant was serving Thanksgiving dinner ... Alioto's, Franciscan (where we ate, more of that in another post) ... even Buena Vista (only $16 for turkey dinner AND pie). For most, a full turkey dinner with trimmings was about $25 ... some a little higher, some lower. Also, it was the only area really bustling, very little was closed. Only Fisherman's Grotto took the day off. The street performers were out in full force, some dressed as turkeys ... and of course the sea lions knew from nothing about Thanksgiving and enteretained as usual.

[Joel]

IN past years we have gone to Chinatown, most places seem to be open. Also out on Clement a couple times, just the two of us, mostly to China First. The usual inexpensive dishes, but nice to have free street parking and almost no traffic in the city.

In Chinatown we have arranged Thanksgiving banquets at Louie's, which were very nice.

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Louie's California Chinese
646 Washington Street, San Francisco, CA 94111-2106

China First
336 Clement St, San Francisco, CA 94118

[Joel]

I was invited to Garibaldi's in Rockridge, Oakland. They were doing a good business Thanksgiving evening. The meal was $60, before tax and tip, with a choice of apps, mains, desserts.
Too expensive for the quality, but a nice atmosphere.

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Garibaldi's
5356 College Ave., Oakland, CA 94618

[chemchef]

I was surprised to see that Whole Foods in Berkeley was open yesterday... and seemed to be packed.

I should mention that, due to a spur of the moment change in plans, I was not able to pick up my pumpkin pie from La Farine, and instead picked up two small pies (pumpkin and pecan) from Whole Foods. When we got ready to eat the pies last night, I noticed that the pumpkin one was already moldy! I will return the box and get my money back and probably won't buy pies there again. I've not really cared for their baked goods too much in the past anyway.

[sox74]

Yuck. That must have been at least a week old. Hopefully they didn't sell a lot of them, if so I hope people noticed before they ate them.

[chemchef]

Yeah. Yesterday, I went to get my money back for the moldy pie, and sure enough there was someone in front of me that actually brought their moldy pie back. There must've been tons of them sold! Horrible.

[Melanie Wong]

Earlier in the week I saw a sign in the window at the Little Henry's on Larkin that Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings would be $12.50.

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Little Henry's
955 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94109

[rworange]

Ferret's in Alabany was open and when I was there the day before he mentioned dinner would be $9. Didn't mention it here because driving by, despite big signs in the window, it was empty. I doubt if they repeat this next year.