Thanksgiving has many dimensions at restaurants

Chef Jan Birnbaum and his staff had just finished working a grueling Thanksgiving holiday shift years ago, cooking and serving Thanksgiving dinner at the Campton Place Restaurant in the Taj Campton Place Hotel, when the idea dawned on him.

"At first, I thought Thanksgiving meant I had to be at home with my family, doing the family thing," says Birnbaum, now executive chef at San Francisco's Epic Roasthouse. "But I looked around in the kitchen, and thought, 'We gotta do something.'

"It seemed unnatural to me that we just did what we do as craftspeople. We entertained the rest of the world on yet another holiday, but we were all orphans, we were all there together, and we didn't celebrate."

Today, while most people have the day off, many restaurant employees are working. Thankfully - pun intended - most restaurants seize the holiday's familial focus to give real meaning to their daily staff meal, fittingly called "family meal," or celebrate the holiday in other communal ways.

"Restaurant staffs tend to be family anyway, the way we work as a team," says Ken Frank, chef-owner of La Toque in Napa. "Thanksgiving is one of those days where, for some, we're the only family they've got."

Most restaurants open today serve a holiday-themed family meal - turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie - but for some staffers, it's a time to play the role of customer, albeit briefly.

"Thanksgiving family meal is different from run-of-the-mill family meal in that, among other things, we eat what the customers are eating," said Frank. Today is one day when his cooks and waiters also sit down to eat in a private dining room instead of crouching on milk crates.

At Epic Roasthouse, Birnbaum tacks on four or five extra turkeys to the day's order for his family meal. Each staffer can bring one guest, with the understanding that everyone will dress for the occasion. No grimy aprons and checkered pants.

"I sort of represent the father figure around here these days," Birnbaum said, "and I'm going to insist - maybe not a necktie, but it's going to be like old times."

Perhaps serving others is in this community's blood, which may be why Douglas Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg started his own Thanksgiving tradition last year. Cyrus is closed for the holiday, so Keane, with his wife, two partners and 30 volunteers cooked a traditional Thanksgiving meal for 80 homeless families. This year, they're going to do it again at Keane's new steakhouse.