If you’re already dreading the annual Thanksgiving cooking marathon, Marcel 945 Madison has a rather elegant alternative: let someone else handle the turkey. The Upper East Side restaurant has opened reservations for its Thanksgiving celebration, offering a three-course prix-fixe menu for $185 per person throughout the day.
Located at 945 Madison Avenue, Marcel is bringing a distinctly French touch to the traditional American holiday, with a menu that swaps some familiar Thanksgiving staples for sophisticated restaurant-style comfort food.
Start With Chestnut Soup or Endive Salad
The Thanksgiving menu offers three choices for the first course. Guests can begin with root vegetables served with turkey broth and horseradish, a chestnut and butternut velouté with wild mushrooms, or an endive salad featuring Gruyère Suisse, apple, lardons and walnuts.
It’s a promising start, particularly for anyone who believes Thanksgiving should involve more than simply piling everything onto one plate.
Turkey, Beef or Salmon? Choose Your Holiday Main
For the main course, Marcel is offering roasted turkey au cidre de Normandie, served with grilled Brussels sprouts, pomme purée and mushroom gratin.
Not feeling traditional? The alternatives include filet de boeuf au poivre with green peppercorn sauce and fries, or grilled salmon with fine herb butter and wilted spinach.
There’s also a mushroom gratin featuring mushroom petals, brown butter curry bread crumbs, potato purée, leeks and shallot fondue.
Finish With a Little French Indulgence
Dessert keeps things decidedly European with a classic mille-feuille, featuring vanilla diplomat cream, delicate laminated pastry and caramel.
Thanksgiving reservations are now available through Resy, with service offered throughout the day.
At $185 per person, Marcel is positioning itself as an upscale alternative to the traditional family dinner. No grocery shopping, no kitchen cleanup and, most importantly, absolutely no arguing over who gets stuck making the gravy.
For an Upper East Side Thanksgiving, that sounds like a pretty good deal.
