Merrimack Valley Magazine

This holiday season, spend less time cooking and more time with family, as restaurants and businesses across the Valley make Thanksgiving dinner easy. Although uncertainty seems like the norm, one thing you can be certain about is that these local business have your back when it comes to serving up a delicious turkey dinner. Traditionalists will not be disappointed, and those looking for unconventional meals have plenty to choose from.

Below is a list of spots that are providing Thanksgiving meals and specials. Order soon — many places have a cut-off time for preorders. And stay posted with each week’s Eight Great Things To Do This Weekend, where we will be including a growing list of local restaurants and businesses.

Artisan Chef Catering Co.
With a full meal set for 15 people, Artisan Chef Catering Co.’s Thanksgiving package is perfect for large families (or families looking to have seconds, thirds and fourths). The full package has everything a turkey dinner needs, including a 22-pound turkey, dinner rolls, homemade gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and much more. The half meal package includes a 14-pound turkey and all the necessary sides (feeds 8). Save room for dessert; there are cream pies, apple crisp and cheesecake! Order by Nov. 18 at (978) 970-0212 or by visiting here.

Buono Bistro Restaurant
With Buono Bistro Restaurant, customers can dine in-house or take their meal to go. Buono’s menu features white and dark meat with traditional stuffing, herbed corn, whipped potatoes and more. Visit here to place your reservations and orders.

Cakes by Erin
Pre-order your favorite Thanksgiving desserts — pumpkin, apple and chocolate cream pie; large and mini cupcakes; and apple cider donut cake — by Nov. 21. These treats are fun, festive and so well crafted you’ll almost feel bad for digging in! Click here for more.

Cobblestones of Lowell
Priced and packaged for two, Cobblestones of Lowell offers everything couples need for Thanksgiving dinner. Start off with a butternut squash bisque with toasted pumpkin seeds, pickled apple and five-spice creme. Then, feast down on a main coarse of roasted turkey with stuffing, gravy, roasted potatoes, dinner rolls and house-made cranberry sauce. After, finish off the night with sweet potato cheesecake. To order or to see a complete Thanksgiving menu click here.

The Common Man
This Thanksgiving, The Common Man is offering you oven-roasted turkey breasts with house-made pan gravy, whole berry cranberry sauce, signature stuffing, country mashed potatoes, sweet bread, pumpkin pie with cinnamon whipped cream and much more. Place your order here by Nov. 20.

Grazie Italian Restaurant
Whether you want to dine in or take out, Grazie has you covered this Thanksgiving. Chow down on carved turkey, butternut squash, green beans, apple pie, cranberry stuffing, buttermilk mashed potatoes, and the list goes on. Place your order or reservation by Nov. 23 at (978) 455-0054 or by visiting here.

The Homestead Restaurant & Tavern
The Homestead Restaurant and Tavern is now accepting Thanksgiving reservations. With a multitude of meal options, there’s something for everyone in this diverse Turkey Day menu. You can make reservations and takeout orders by clicking here.

Jocelyn’s Mediterranean Restaurant & Lounge
Jocelyn’s will be open Thanksgiving Day from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. by reservation only. Dive into some roasted turkey, homemade mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, stuffing, whipped butternut squash, cranberry sauce and pita bread. Orders can be made for take out as well. Visit here to make a reservation.

Mission Oak Grill
This Newburyport-based eatery is offering in-house dining for your Thanksgiving dinner. Book your reservations now to enjoy a selection of savory entrees, decadent desserts and one-of-a-kind company. Mission Oak Grill is offering all the Thanksgiving essentials and more this holiday season. You can make a reservation by clicking here.

The Paddle Inn
The Paddle Inn is offering a Turkey Day package perfect for individuals. Get mashed potatoes and gravy, delicata squash with goat cheese, pomegranate cornbread stuffing, Brussels sprouts with bacon, Paddle Inn dinner rolls with maple butter, and a choice of apple, pumpkin or bourbon pecan pie. Buyers can choose to add a herb-roasted turkey. Order by Nov. 23 at (978) 572-1242 or by visiting here.

Purple Carrot Bread Co.
Purple Carrot Bread Co. wants to bring you fresh home-cooked food that you can simply heat up and serve. The Full Turkey Dinner Meal includes dark and white meat fully roasted and carved, as well as sage turkey gravy, bourbon cranberry sauce, pie (pumpkin, apple or cranberry apple), bread stuffing, and your choice of three additional sides. Order at (978) 455-4188 or by visiting here.

Seaglass Restaurant and Lounge
Seaglass’s Complete Turkey Dinner Package serves 6 to 8 guests and includes Thanksgiving essentials like roasted Brussels sprouts, gravy, mashed potatoes and, of course, plenty of turkey. Seaglass’s special also offers plenty of sides, dinner wines and Chef Harley’s gourmet hot d’oeuvres. Order by Nov. 25 at (978) 462-5800 or by visiting here.

Shaw Farm
Looking for a fresh and local turkey for Thanksgiving? Shaw Farm has what you need. These hormone-free, farm-fresh birds are from Jordan Farm in Rutland, Mass. To preorder yours by Nov. 19, visit here.

Simply Elegant Catering
If you’re looking for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, look no further than Simply Elegant Catering. Ready to feed six people, this meal package includes all of the classics: mashed potatoes, butternut squash, glazed carrots, dinner rolls, and a 12-pound roasted turkey with traditional stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Save room for pumpkin pie and bread pudding. Order by Nov. 20 at (978) 372-7329 or by visiting here.

Tuscan Market
For traditionalists, the Whole Roasted Turkey Dinner includes a carved 12-pound roasted turkey, insalata mista, maple-roasted sweet potatoes, mascarpone whipped potatoes, and more (feeds 6-8 people). Tuscan Market’s Standout sides showcase an artisan Italian twist with prosciutto-stuffed shells, green beans with almonds, and acorn squash cups with sage crema. Order by Nov. 23 at (603) 912-5467 or by visiting here.

Andover Classic Wines
No Thanksgiving meal is complete without wine. Just for the holidays, use promo code THANKSMVM for $5 off your next $50+ purchase at Andover Classic Wines. You can visit here to see a full selection.

Artisan Bread-makers in the Merrimack Valley

At once a relatively simple and incredibly important food nearly everywhere in the world, the story of bread is deeply intertwined with the story of humans as social beings; that we cannot truly “break bread” alone is exemplified in the art, literature, song, history and traditions of virtually every people and culture. Bread brought people together in the ancient world, and it brings people together now.

Cheryl Holbert, owner of Nomad Bakery in Derry, N.H., has built a thriving business around this principle. A New Jersey native with Persian and Jewish roots, Holbert worked as a journalist and studied art and tapestry design before teaching herself how to bake: “I started baking because my house felt empty. I was a journalist, busy. I had my own apartment. I was homesick. My Polish grandmother was an amazing baker; growing up, there was always bread on the table. Always. So I started to try to re-create that.”

Holbert immersed herself more and more in the history and craft of bread baking. “I started to make a place at the table for that interaction that only bread allows,” she recalls. “I was baking just for my family then, but I would stay up until 1 a.m., reading recipes, studying the bread of other cultures. I truly became smitten with the cultural importance of bread.” Eventually she began drawing on her training in tapestry to “handweave” loaves of challah with incredibly intricate designs that became a unique signature of sorts. After several years of increased demand for her work from family, friends and her community, and after formal training at the King Arthur Flour baking school in Vermont, in 2013, Holbert decided to leave her job at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., and commit to bread baking full time. “I felt like there was a path unlived in me,” she says. “And it was that passion for bread. I had to make a decision … and I chose bread.”

Cheryl Holbert of Nomad Bakery. Photo by Kevin Harkins.

Since then, Holbert has continued to gain momentum. Along with her coveted challah, Nomad Bakery now produces various specialty ciabattas, three varieties of sourdough, barbari (a traditional Persian flatbread), and seasonal novelties such as Turkish bagels and spelt dark-chocolate-pecan cookies. Most products contain no more than five ingredients.

Holbert does all her baking at home — Nomad is a New Hampshire homestead food operation. She routinely sells her breads at the Derry Homegrown Farm & Artisan Market and at local establishments, such as The Grind Rail Trail Cafe in Derry, Benedikt Dairy in Goffstown and Restoration Cafe in Manchester. She also offers baking classes periodically, and is currently writing a book on challah design.

When asked what it is that makes bread such a special food to produce and share, Holbert says: “Connecting to things that have been a part of the world for so long is so important, especially in today’s political and cultural climate. Bread has a sensory value unlike anything else. In sharing bread, we’re reclaiming something. That is why I do it. It all comes full circle to the tables I sat at — bringing to my community that sense of belonging at the table, that sense of coming together.”

In Lowell, Purple Carrot Bread Co. co-founders Alaina and Doug Brackett are also artisan bread bakers, and their mission is to provide more people with authentic bread and real food. Like Holbert, baking wasn’t the couple’s first vocation. Doug, who was working as a restaurant manager, learned to bake while living above Five Loaves Bakery in Spencer, Mass. “I asked Doug one night, ‘Where can we get good bread?’ And when we couldn’t think of anywhere, we decided to make it ourselves,” Alaina recalls.

Purple Carrot Bread Company opened its doors in the spring of 2018. They specialize in European-style breads and pastries, and have hearty breakfast and lunch offerings on sale at their Merrimack Street location. Photo by Kevin Harkins.

What started as a simple experiment slowly grew, as Alaina and Doug’s breads — which often include nothing more than water, salt, yeast and flour — gained popularity, and soon they began selling it at farmers markets. In April 2018, Purple Carrot Bread Co. opened its doors as a cafe and eatery on Merrimack Street in downtown Lowell. Impressively, every item on the menu is made from scratch, from hearty stews to salad dressings and condiments. “It isn’t necessarily easy to do this, and it’s incredibly time-consuming,” Alaina says of Purple Carrot’s “real food” philosophy. “But we do it because we believe in changing the process of how food should be made, and in changing the types of foods that should be available to people.”

Rustic breads are the heart of Purple Carrot’s menu. “Country Blonde” (a simple white bread), Kalamata olive, rosemary and garlic ciabatta, and “Seeded” (consisting of pumpkin, flax and sunflower seeds) are among the more popular offerings. “Many people notice a difference immediately in the taste and quality of our breads,” Alaina says when asked about the nuances of their products. “They start noticing how much sweeter supermarket breads are in comparison, or how much faster these breads will become stale if not cared for properly, due to the lack of chemicals and preservatives. It’s fun seeing that awareness grow in people that this is food. This is how it’s supposed to taste.”

For those seeking more sources of locally-crafted artisan breads and other baked goods in the Greater Merrimack Valley, Annarosa’s Bakery in Salisbury, presents a third option. Jane Kenny and Bill Malatesta, Annarosa’s owners, began baking bread in 2000, and have since expanded their production to include specialty pastries and savories. Their breads include organic seeded sourdough, Kalamata olive levain, organic rye vollkornbrot, cranberry brioche and many other interesting Old World staples.

Nomad Bakery
Derry, N.H.
(603) 560-5238
NomadBakery.com

Purple Carrot Bread Co.
Lowell, Mass.
(978) 455-4188
PurpleCarrotBreadCo.com

Annarosa’s Bakery
Salisbury, Mass.
(978) 499-8839
Annarosas.com

MVM’s Special Thanksgiving Eats

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