Waitress Full Platter
50s cartoon waitress carrying full platter of foods
By Jorge Rennella
New research from the National Restaurant Association (NRA) reports that about one in ten adults plans to eat Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant this year. What does this mean for restaurants, including Mexican and Latin? The possibility of increasing your profits on this traditional date. A blend of traditional American Thanksgiving fare and Mexican/Latin dishes is called for.
Tradition and Familiarity
The NRA report also points out that when choosing a restaurant for Thanksgiving, tradition and familiarity are important factors for many consumers:
• 31 percent said they choose the same restaurant for Thanksgiving each year.
• 30 percent said the restaurant they choose for Thanksgiving is the one they only go to for a special occasion.
• 21 percent said they are going to one of their regular favorite restaurants.
Christmas shopping is now part of Thanksgiving, too, and 43 percent of respondents to the NRA’s survey said they will shop on Thanksgiving or the Friday after. Of them, 72 percent expect to eat at a restaurant while they are shopping.
American Turkey and Tamales
Francisco Barreiro, owner of Lupitas Restaurant & Taquería, in Dallas Texas, said he serves Thanksgiving dinners that feature "the strong American tradition, combined with Mexican food and the Spanish touch."
"We serve the typical American food: stuffed turkey, salads, cranberry jam, beets, and mashed potatoes, and we combine it with Mexican food by adding tamales of chicken and pork in green or red sauce, rajas, cheese, and sweets," says Barreiro.
Another element that they add, for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, is the typical Mexican punch. "The punch we make with many fruits, some fresh and other dried, such as peach, apple, pineapple, orange, tejocote -- a wild Mexican fruit -- pears, prunes, raisins, sugar cane, some add cinnamon or cloves, and water. We boil it boils all night," Barreiro says, adding that "some people put alcohol in it, but the vast majority do not add alcohol so that everyone, including children, enjoy and share this precious tradition.”
Latin Turkey Take-Out
The NRA report also indicates that "many consumers are also planning to use restaurant prepared food to complement their Thanksgiving meal at home. Of the respondents who said they plan to eat a Thanksgiving meal at home, 10 percent said they would ask for part of the meal at a restaurant.”
Border Grill in Los Angeles is tapping into that business by promoting a full menu of holiday treats for take out – such as herb roasted turkey roulade, maple glazed smoked ham, poblano mashed potatoes, and honey lime yams. Click here for some amazing recipes from Border Grill along those lines
Jorge Rennella is part of the el Restaurante magazine team. Contact him at: jorge@restmex.com
Sidebar: Do You Know Your Thanksgiving History?
In the United States, the modern tradition of Thanksgiving has its origins in the year 1621, at a celebration in Plymouth, in the current state of Massachusetts. There is also evidence that Spanish explorers in Texas held celebrations in the continent prior to 1598, and thank-you parties in the Virginia colony. The party in 1621 was celebrated in gratitude for a good harvest. In later years, the tradition continued with civil leaders such as Governor William Bradford, who planned to celebrate the day and help in 1623.
The pilgrims left the Netherlands, crossing the Atlantic in their mythical religious ark, the Mayflower, and arrived in what is now Massachusetts. Since at first the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed the 102 settlers, the natives of the Wampanoag tribe helped the pilgrims by giving them seeds and teaching them to fish. Supposedly, the Pilgrims and Indians enjoyed a harvest meal together.
However, the practice of holding a harvest festival like this did not become a regular tradition in New England until the late 1660s. According to the historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the pilgrims may have been inspired by the annual Thanksgiving services for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574.