Inside the Holiday Rush at New York’s Tavern on the Green

In the kitchen at Tavern on the Green, steel vats bubble with wild mushroom and lentil soup. The aroma of sage wafts through the area while trays of stuffing are finished in the oven.

All the while, the 90-year-old institution’s executive chef, Bill Peet, stands at the edge of the scene, checking off to-dos as they’re completed. He has run the kitchen since 2016, two years after the restaurant reopened following a temporary closure.

Four days before Thanksgiving, he tells me, “You’re late to the game. We started getting ready three weeks ago.”

Thanksgiving is the single biggest day of business for the entire year at Tavern on the Green (67th Street and Central Park West) and has been that way for the last decade — as long as the restaurant has tracked numbers. Peet says the holiday also has the highest number of covers.

The establishment serves 1,900 people on Thanksgiving over 12 hours, and reservations are gone within minutes of when they open — two months before the day. In comparison, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day account for 3,200 diners over two days, but Peet says that menu is limited. Of the December holidays, he says, “There are fewer steps to get ready, and we can do it in less than a week,” he says.

A month’s worth of prep

Peet heads to the restaurant’s rear parking lot toward the 65-foot refrigerated trailer he rents during the holiday season. Inside, rows of 180 turkeys brined in sugar and salt rest on shelves, ready to be roasted. For stuffing, close to three dozen plexiglass tubs filled with toasted challah cubes pile to the ceiling.

The kickoff to Thanksgiving, three weeks before the holiday, involves a dozen line cooks cubing and toasting 200 loaves of challah bread, which comprise the bulk of the sage stuffing. The next step is transforming 175 pounds of fresh and dried cranberries into cranberry conserve.

Two weeks prior, Benito Martinez, who had worked for Peet for 26 years, made 90 gallons of gravy and vegan stock for the soup. The pastry team led by Juan Olguin bakes 600 butterscotch tarts and 300 brownies. They also carve, roast, and whip 20 giant pumpkins into a silky mousse.

Four days before the holiday, Peet’s team roasts the turkey breasts most of the way on Thanksgiving Eve, slicing them off the bone and arranging them on trays to finish during service the next day.

A very long day

On Thanksgiving Day, the kitchen springs to life at 4 a.m. for the final stages. That means baking 1900 hunks of cornbread, pureeing mashed potatoes, and finishing the gravy and some vegetables.

But first, at 9:30 a.m., Tavern on the Green’s 150 staff who work the opening shift sit down for their own Thanksgiving feast.

Then, it’s go-time.

Peet walks the servers and runners through every dish, relaying its ingredients and whether it’s vegan or gluten-free.

“By opening at 11 a.m., there’s no time to think,” he says. “It doesn’t slow down from the minute we open until we close at 11 p.m.”

Highlights in between include the second staff meal at 4 p.m. and when his family comes in for dinner. “I get to sit with them for a few minutes,” Peet says.

The price of entry starts at $135 per person for a four-course spread. The lineup includes the soup followed by a choice of three appetizers, three entrees — roasted chateaubriand and grilled salmon, in addition to turkey — three desserts, and two family-style sides.

Parties of eight or more pay $165 a person. They are presented with all of the appetizers, entrees, and desserts family-style, plus a cheese course.

Vegans and vegetarians have a dedicated menu, priced at $95 a head. It offers choices such as a roasted vegetable salad and an acorn squash risotto with sweet pea shoots.

Any misgivings about Tavern on the Green being an overpriced tourist trap can be put into perspective. Given its prime Central Park perch and the restaurant’s history, it is on the top of the list for New York visitors and some locals, too.

Before he ran Tavern on the Green, Peet’s four-decade-plus career includes gigs at the fine-dining French restaurant Lutèce (now closed), where he was the sous and pastry chef for 15 years; he also ran the kitchen at Café des Artistes and Asia de Cuba.

“This isn’t a Thanksgiving meal with forgettable food. It’s the quality of food that I would serve at home to my family times a thousand,” he says.

Plainville Farm in Hadley, Massachusetts supplies the turkeys and raises a flock specifically for Tavern of the Green’s Thanksgiving. The 180 birds are humanely raised and fed a high-quality, hormone and antibiotic-free vegetarian diet. They yield 1,920 portions of breast meat. The thigh is confit and served alongside on the plate.

Peet brings in salmon from the Faroe Islands in the far north Atlantic and cold-smokes it before grilling and makes the sausage for the non-vegetarian stuffing in-house with Berkshire pork. Unsurprisingly, the turkey is the bestseller, followed by the chateaubriand, with 500 orders, and the salmon, which accounts for 300.

The red oak leaf salad with quince surpasses the other appetizers with 1000 portions served, and the roasted Brussels sprouts are the side dish that gets finished the most.

Chocolate bread pudding and pumpkin mousse compete for the favorite dessert with 700 orders each.

Peet leaves just before 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving and hands off the remaining hours to his closing sous chefs.

“I tell everyone to get a good night’s rest. The holiday season is just starting, and the next few weeks will be crazy,” he says. “We don’t get to breathe easy until after January 1st.”