Peels’ Thanksgiving

Taavo Somer, patron saint of hipster nightlife and arbiter of old-timey American style, isn’t one to mess with a holiday like Thanksgiving. His newest venture, Peels, a two-story restaurant on a happening stretch of the Bowery, will be open this Thursday. Unlike Freemans, Somer's taxidermied Lower East Side hangout, or the Rusty Knot, his deliberately kitschy West Village bar, Peels opens at 7:30am, serving Stumptown coffee and freshly baked biscuits with house-made jam to early risers. “Peels is kind of supposed to be Freemans' girlfriend,” Somer says. “He's all old New England, and she's like a feminine, Southern girl.” Somer modeled the downstairs dining room after a 50s-style soda fountain, with menus spelled out in plastic letters on blackboards and cooks in kerchiefs operating meat slicers behind the counter. To celebrate Thanksgiving, Somer, his wife Courtney and business partner William Tigertt, invited a collection of friends to Peels to sample the Thanksgiving menu, created by husband-and-wife chefs Preston and Ginger Madson. It's a classic Somer blend of traditional and modern by way of Preston’s Southern upbringing: Smoked turkey with giblet gravy, cornbread stuffing with poblano peppers, a spiced sweet potato soufflé under a blanket of house-made marshmallows, and freshly baked Parker House rolls. “The food’s the point of Thanksgiving, right?” Somer says. Peels' full Thanksgiving menu follows below, or click here for recipes for Peels' sweet potato pie and punch.

MENU 

Mains:

Smoked turkey

Cornbread stuffing

Cranberry sauce

Giblet gravy

Creamed collard greens

Roasted Brussels sprouts

Autumn salad 

Spiced sweet potato soufflé

Parker House rolls

Desserts:

Market apple pie (served warmed with vanilla bean ice cream)

Sweet potato pie (served with chantilly) 

Wine:

2009 Gothic, "Nevermore," Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Cocktail:

Peels Punch (Alto del Carmen Pisco, Martini Bianco, hibiscus syrup, lemon juice, Amargo Bitters)