Five Points – Thanksgiving Day 2011

Eating in a restaurant on Thanksgiving Day was a first for me this year, but made all the better by having a wonderful friend like DLS with which to share it. 

Though I was a few minutes late – due to trains running on funny schedules! not my fault this time! – we were seated almost immediately.  Surprisingly, the restaurant was fairly empty, though I’d expected 2pm to be busy time – isn’t that when most people eat Thanksgiving dinner?  In any case, as soon as we sat down, a few items were brought over for us to munch while we browsed our choices. 

An assortment of pickled veggies: loved the cauliflower, the carrots were good too but the cauliflower was pickly sweet. 

Parker house rolls with honey butter: yum.  The honey was light but still present in the background. 

Fruit compote that included apricots and I think figs or dates.  I’m not a big apricot person so I tried a piece and then stopped immediately.  I think DLS liked it though. 

He opted for the maple roasted butternut squash soup with yogurt and aleppo pepper as his starter.  I tried some and found it exactly what I expected, with a lot of spice – not hot-spice, just spices in it – but didn’t think it was all that interesting.  I’m not entirely sure what he thought, as he seemed to grow tired of it rather quickly. 

For my starter, I went with the Nantucket bay scallops over a celery root puree and a citrus butter sauce.  The celery root puree really added a nice base for the airy scallops, and the tang from the grapefruit supremes was lovely.  I enjoyed this dish immensely, and DLS enjoyed the bite I allowed him (hahaha). 

A few minutes after our starters were cleared, this extremely tart cranberry sauce appeared.  I’m not much for cranberry sauce except for leftover sandwiches, but DLS seemed to enjoy it, though he expressed surprise at how tart it was – which he explained, “Oh I’ve only ever had the canned stuff.”  Oh, DLS…

For his main, DLS chose (em, was persuaded to choose) the Niman Ranch braised short rib over poppy seed spaetzle, spinach, crispy onions and gremolata.  The spaetzle was very weird – it tasted like mini mushrooms, chewy.  But the short rib was really tender and incredibly tasty – though it hadn’t been his first choice, DLS was happy I’d suggested it. 

For the table, we had baked sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.  I thought the sprouts could have used a little more seasoning, while the sweet potatoes were OK.  I really wanted mashed potatoes, but I’d known going in what I was getting since I’d looked at the menu when we made the reservation. 

As for my entree… duh! Vermont free range turkey, cornbread-scallion jalapeno stuffing with giblet gravy- the stuffing was very tasty, especially with the very good gravy.  Unfortunately, the turkey itself was rather bland without the gravy, and the white meat was ever so slightly dry, though the dark meat was moist.  Overall, the platter was tasty enough though, and I finished it happily. 

For dessert, DLS had the gingerbread soaked in rum.  A little too much rum. 

I had the apple crostada, because the description included the magic word: frangipane.  While the crostada was quite lovely – a crisp, slightly sweet crust, with spiced apples inside – the frangipane did not make its presence obvious to me, so I passed over the rest to DLS.  I was pretty full at this point anyway, and happy with our meal. 

Yvo says: Understanding that this is a once a year menu – and that they likely change it year to year – I had a lovely time at Five Points, with fantastic service.  Our server smiled the entire time, and did not seem phased to be working on Thanksgiving Day at all.  I’ve eaten at Five Points before this – brunch, mostly – and really enjoy the place overall.  So though you can’t go and get what I had above, you can definitely go and enjoy brunch or a regular meal there, and know you’ll be in good hands. 
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