Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Thanksgiving dinner at Denny’s

After all, there’s a lot less cooking and cleaning up after an evening out

Not if hipsters can help it!
Not if hipsters can help it!

Dear Hipster:

I have been preparing elaborate Thanksgiving dinners at my house for and with a core group of friends and family for some time now. I think this would be my fifth or sixth year hosting... if I were to host. The thing is, I am straight burnt out on planning, prepping, cooking, and baking a gigantic meal, particularly as I feel the self-imposed need to do better with every passing year. There are only so many clever ways to rethink green bean casseroles and baked sweet potatoes! This year, I thought I had stumbled on a glorious solution to the problem: we should all go out to a restaurant that’s serving Thanksgiving dinner. For me, it would be an obvious break from toiling and laboring; but notwithstanding that, I thought it would be kind of cool to celebrate the holiday in an alternative fashion, as people might do if not chained to their domestic lives, perhaps. Since dropping this suggestion, I have been met with more or less the same response, something along the lines of “OMFG not cool, bro!” from everybody. Personally, I don’t see how this moral outrage is justified. Is there something awful, of which I remained heretofore blissfully unaware, about visiting a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner?

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Kyle B.

Rest assured, popping out for turkey carnitas and cranberry margaritas at your favorite Mexican-Midwestern fusion restaurant remains safely Hipster AF.

Time was, many restaurants closed on Thanksgiving day. Sure, Denny’s and Waffle House were always open so long-haul truckers could get a hot meal, but mainstream citizens would have seen it as perverse to be anywhere but gathered together with family. That has changed — in my opinion, because of hipster trends.

Ever since the earliest days of the American hipster diaspora, when pioneering hipsters abandoned the insular small towns of their youths for then-unpopular urban centers throughout the nation, groups of on-trend hipsters have found themselves scattered far from home and family come the fourth Thursday of November. Many sought solace among their own kind, organizing potluck Friendsgivings where nobody had to humor a vaguely racist grandparent. Others distanced themselves still further from convention, descending on their favorite trendy restaurants and demanding full service on Thanksgiving day.

Mainstream family types quickly realized the hipsters were onto something. After all, there’s a lot less cooking and cleaning up after an evening out, and it’s always easier to humor a jerk relative if you can order more pumpkin pie Manhattans with a sidelong glance at the table server. The trend of dining out on Thanksgiving has steadily grown, and now it seems as if every fashionable restaurant offers some kind of a Thanksgiving dining experience, often thoroughly hipsterfied. Going out for Thanksgiving has morphed from something for sad, lonely losers into a chic and acceptable alternative holiday tradition.

Of course (there’s always an ‘of course’), this is all old business in a new hipster package. During the Gilded Age, wealthy toffs routinely headed to fancy hotels for elaborate Thanksgiving buffets. The idea of the home as the center of Thanksgiving seized hold of Middle America only after World War II. Thus, like so many things, hipsters have rediscovered the past and given it a 21st-century makeover we can all enjoy.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Eating dinner while little kids mock-mosh at Golden Island

“The tot absorbs the punk rock shot with the skill of experience”
Not if hipsters can help it!
Not if hipsters can help it!

Dear Hipster:

I have been preparing elaborate Thanksgiving dinners at my house for and with a core group of friends and family for some time now. I think this would be my fifth or sixth year hosting... if I were to host. The thing is, I am straight burnt out on planning, prepping, cooking, and baking a gigantic meal, particularly as I feel the self-imposed need to do better with every passing year. There are only so many clever ways to rethink green bean casseroles and baked sweet potatoes! This year, I thought I had stumbled on a glorious solution to the problem: we should all go out to a restaurant that’s serving Thanksgiving dinner. For me, it would be an obvious break from toiling and laboring; but notwithstanding that, I thought it would be kind of cool to celebrate the holiday in an alternative fashion, as people might do if not chained to their domestic lives, perhaps. Since dropping this suggestion, I have been met with more or less the same response, something along the lines of “OMFG not cool, bro!” from everybody. Personally, I don’t see how this moral outrage is justified. Is there something awful, of which I remained heretofore blissfully unaware, about visiting a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner?

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Kyle B.

Rest assured, popping out for turkey carnitas and cranberry margaritas at your favorite Mexican-Midwestern fusion restaurant remains safely Hipster AF.

Time was, many restaurants closed on Thanksgiving day. Sure, Denny’s and Waffle House were always open so long-haul truckers could get a hot meal, but mainstream citizens would have seen it as perverse to be anywhere but gathered together with family. That has changed — in my opinion, because of hipster trends.

Ever since the earliest days of the American hipster diaspora, when pioneering hipsters abandoned the insular small towns of their youths for then-unpopular urban centers throughout the nation, groups of on-trend hipsters have found themselves scattered far from home and family come the fourth Thursday of November. Many sought solace among their own kind, organizing potluck Friendsgivings where nobody had to humor a vaguely racist grandparent. Others distanced themselves still further from convention, descending on their favorite trendy restaurants and demanding full service on Thanksgiving day.

Mainstream family types quickly realized the hipsters were onto something. After all, there’s a lot less cooking and cleaning up after an evening out, and it’s always easier to humor a jerk relative if you can order more pumpkin pie Manhattans with a sidelong glance at the table server. The trend of dining out on Thanksgiving has steadily grown, and now it seems as if every fashionable restaurant offers some kind of a Thanksgiving dining experience, often thoroughly hipsterfied. Going out for Thanksgiving has morphed from something for sad, lonely losers into a chic and acceptable alternative holiday tradition.

Of course (there’s always an ‘of course’), this is all old business in a new hipster package. During the Gilded Age, wealthy toffs routinely headed to fancy hotels for elaborate Thanksgiving buffets. The idea of the home as the center of Thanksgiving seized hold of Middle America only after World War II. Thus, like so many things, hipsters have rediscovered the past and given it a 21st-century makeover we can all enjoy.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Eating dinner while little kids mock-mosh at Golden Island

“The tot absorbs the punk rock shot with the skill of experience”
Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader