Thursday, November 27, 2008

My Frenchy-French Thanksgiving



Well it's Thanksgiving again, and that means oo-lah-lah, time for la belle cuisine francais!

Since I moved to the NYC metro area lo these 10 years ago, I have had Thanksgiving dinner at Capsoutos Freres every year, except in 2005 when my ex wanted to try something snootier, and we went to One If By Land, Two If By Sea - which I was not impressed by. It seemed to me like a very over-priced and snobby TGIFridays, complete with servers singing happy birthday to a customer. The waitstaff was extremely unctuous, which my ex adored. Well, we are very different in many ways, which is why he is my ex.

But he did introduce me to Capsoutos, and I owe him for that. Capsouotos is a "nice" restaurant without being snobby and uptight. The Freres seem like a pretty laid-back group of guys (although there's one Frere I've never seen cause he's in the kitchen.) It's all the way in TriBeCa, so it tends to be frequented by a loyal fan-base with not alot of walk-in traffic - although that's probably changing since the neighborhood seems to get more upscale and fashionable each year.

And I must come clean here - it isn't like I have foie gras and snails for Thanksgiving each year - they do have turkey with traditional cranberry sauce (although not directly from the can like Mom used to serve) and veggies. And for dessert, pumpkin souffle! I'll have to do my traditional post-dinner 3-mile walk after that - THIS year in Central Park, which is now in my neighborhood - wheee!