Local Business
| News | Sports | Business | Weather | Opinions | Archives | E-mail Us |

Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1998

Restaurants offer Thanksgiving-to-go with all the trimmings

Jeffrey Tomich
Staff Writer

   Call it Thanksgiving '90s-style. More and more, Americans are forgoing hours of cooking and cleaning and running to their favorite restaurant for turkey and trimmings.
   The home meal replacement business has blossomed in recent years as people work longer hours and spend less time in the kitchen. Thanksgiving Day is no different.
   For $25 and up, a number of Corpus Christi restaurants and grocers are offering turkey dinners to go. Standard equipment usually includes a whole turkey and enough stuffing and gravy to feed six or more hungry in-laws.
   Variations come with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes or a pumpkin pie, and some offer side dishes a la carte.
   Though some traditionalists may scoff at the notion of pre-prepared Thanksgiving meals, it seems turkey-to-go is here to stay.
   "Fifteen years ago, Thanksgiving Day was not a big day for restaurants," said Dee Haven, a spokesman for the Coastal Bend Restaurant Association and chairman of the hospitality management department at Del Mar College. "That's definitely changed."
   While busier lifestyles and growth in the number of households with two working parents are partly responsible for the trend, Haven suggests there's another root cause for the rise in sales of takeout turkey.
   "The practice of cooking in the home is kind of becoming a lost art," Haven said. "I think we've got more families now where nobody in the home can cook (and) doesn't want to."
   Reasons aside, state and national polls suggest restaurant owners and managers can expect Thanksgiving Day sales to continue the upward trend.
   A survey by the Texas Restaurant Association indicates restaurant operators planning to be open Thanksgiving Day expect sales to rise an average of 32 percent this year.
   A separate National Restaurant Association poll of 1,000 adults found more than one-third who plan to eat their Thanksgiving meal at home said they would buy at least one prepared food item from a restaurant or grocery store.
   And Thanksgiving Day take-out business is more than just gravy for restaurateurs.
   Nearly two-thirds of Texas eateries open for Thanksgiving will provide complete to-go dinners, according to the state trade association. Owners and managers of those establishments expect take-out sales will average about 22 percent of their receipts for the day.
   At the Luby's on Alameda, Manager Bob Wilkinson believes turkey and ham takeout dinners will make up 50 percent of the restaurant's business on Thanksgiving.
   Luby's is one of the restaurant chains that's helped pioneer to-go Thanksgiving dinners. Wilkinson estimates sales of takeout turkey dinners have doubled in the last decade at the Alameda location, where employees will cook 80 full turkey dinners this week.
   "It just keeps growing every year," he said.
   Brad Padgett, general manager of the Black-Eyed Pea in Corpus Christi, expects take-out meals to account for two-thirds of the restaurant's sales on Thanksgiving.
   "We will have quite a bit of dine-in business as well," he said.
   Like most restaurants open Thanksgiving Day, the Black-Eyed Pea will have turkey on the menu for its dine-in customers, too. The restaurant also will package single-serving meals, Padgett said.
   While some restaurants have been preparing to-go Thanksgiving meals for years, others like Woody's Steak and Seafood Grille on South Staples Street are giving it a try for the first time.
   Kristy Labanca, director of banquets and catering for Woody's, said the response has been strong. By noon Monday, she had a dozen orders for turkey dinners and was expecting more.
   Certain area restaurants require reservations for takeout Thanksgiving dinners; others are ready and willing to accommodate last-minute requests.
   

Closing

A pair of Restaurant Row establishments have shut their doors recently. Ruby Tuesday's, 5414 S. Padre Island Drive, closed several weeks ago. Ninfa's Mexican Restaurant at 4551 SPID. closed Nov. 13. Officials for the restaurant chains confirmed the closings but didn't say why they were ending their respective runs in Corpus Christi.

Two of three Chief Auto Parts stores in Corpus Christi have closed, including the location at Moore Plaza. The move follows the chain's $280 million sale earlier this year to Autozone Inc., the nation's largest auto parts retailer, which already had 11 locations in the Coastal Bend.
   

Et cetera

Absolute Communications Inc., also known to customers as Discount Telephone, 3801 S. Padre Island Drive, has been selected a ChoiceCom agent for Coastal Bend markets. The company sells communications service and equipment throughout the Coastal Bend.
   On Retailing is published each Tuesday in the Staff Writer business section. Items for submission include new, relocated and expanded businesses and retailing trends. Items for consideration should be submitted to: On Retailing, Corpus Christi Staff Writer, P.O. Box 9136, Corpus Christi, Texas 78469; e-mail Jeffrey Tomich at tomichj@scripps.com; fax items to (512) 886-3732; or call (512) 886-4316.

Post your comments on this story in our forums.

---

  © 1998 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.