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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 24, 2005 Angel Suarez prepares trays of bread for dressing Wednesday at HomeTown Buffet in Medford. The restaurant expects to serve about 2,200 customers today. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Eating out on Thanksgiving For some, it means no cooking or dirty dishes; others say it’s just not the same By JENNIFER MARGULIS For the Mail Tribune In the thick of holiday preparations, the mood at the HomeTown Buffet is festive and busy. According to the kitchen manager, Ginger, who goes by her first name only, the restaurant is expecting 2,200 people for Thanksgiving. They serve 1,200 on any other Thursday, she said. For a week now they’ve been preparing. "A week in advance we start calling Ecolab to get our equipment checked," she said, "and Cutting Edge to come in and do our sharpening, and Aramark to get extra linens." Prep cooks have been working around the clock, but the food is all cooked on Thanksgiving itself. "They get everything cut up and torn up in advance. On the day of Thanksgiving we add the cooks in and they start combining everything," Ginger said. Advertisement The HomeTown Buffet is expecting lines out the door all day, and they’ll have cookie and cider for those waiting, Ginger said. "Be patient with us," said Valerie Barg�, the service manager. She says they will have 60 servers on hand throughout the day and the lines move quickly. "We’ll get you in as fast as we can." There’s a key reason why people eat out on Thanksgiving, Ginger believes. "I just basically think that today’s society everything is too pushed and too rushed. People like to sit down and enjoy the food too rather than taking care of everyone else. I think it has just become a tradition to go out now. There’s just not that much time left in the daily life." Ginger said her Thanksgivings are best enjoyed at home. "I myself am still the old-fashioned type," she said. "I love the steamy windows at the house and the smell of the turkey baking, and the family atmosphere." Still, she said eating out is a good option for people who do not have family in the area, do not want to cook or are short on time. HomeTown Buffet is just one of many restaurants that will be doing a brisk business today. Ryan Gierloff, manager of the McCully House in Jacksonville, also said eating out for Thanksgiving is a good option for older folks. "We’re open Thanksgiving, every year," said Gierloff. "It’s a busy day for us. Before I worked here I never thought of going out to dinner on Thanksgiving, but we sell out every year." According to the chef, Derenda Hurst, 165 people will be coming to the McCully House to enjoy a traditional meal. On the menu is a choice of herbed turkey or apricot ham, homemade stuffing with green apples and dried cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, creamed peas, candied yams, and pumpkin or pecan pie. "Everything’s homemade," said Hurst who has cooked on Thanksgiving for the last six years. "I really enjoy cooking. A lot of people come out because they don’t have the capability of doing it in their home. � I really like the fact that I can make people happy on Thanksgiving." As much as eating out on Thanksgiving is a good option for some people, it doesn’t work for everyone, said Cheryl Maddox of Eagle Point. Maddox, who works as a receptionist at Country Insurance in Medford, decided it would be "a brilliant idea" to eat out for a recent Thanksgiving. Several of the women in her family only had one day off and needed to work on the weekend. They chose a restaurant that was a little more upscale, and 15 family members met to enjoy a meal together. The experience didn’t turn out as planned. "We got there and the food was nasty," remembered Maddox. "It was either cold or dry or unidentifiable. And we went at a prime time — it’s not like we waited to go. We were there at 6 p.m. and the food should have been hot and fresh and recognizable." As bad as the food was, Maddox said she appreciated having no dishes to do. "The cleanup was the only part that all of us agreed we didn’t miss," she said. "But we missed all of the cooking — that fun that goes into being together and the noise and the shouting and the kitchen getting too hot. � We were together for an hour and a half for the whole Thanksgiving holiday and we all hated it. When we left the restaurant, we all went our separate ways." "We have always cooked dinner at home," agreed Clara Rowe of Medford. "I would never even think to eat out on Thanksgiving. It would just not be normal for our family." Jennifer Margulis is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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