🦃 Special edition: Thanksgiving, at home or out | Let’s Eat

Right now, you’re either deeply into your Thanksgiving plans, or you’re saying, “I still have plenty of time.” This special edition of “Let’s Eat” is for both kinds of people. Follow along here for shopping tips, easy recipes with a distinctively Philly flavor, the best in Thanksgiving-themed sandwiches, and fun places to take your out-of-town friends who want to see what’s new since their last visit.

📷 Share your holiday cooking photos with us. Include a few details, and we’ll publish our favorites in a future edition of the newsletter. Email them here, and — as our lawyers said — “be sure to tell them to read the boilerplate at the bottom of the newsletter.”

❗I’ll be back in your inbox Wednesday with the regularly scheduled “Let’s Eat.” I’ll have the details on what might be Philly’s hottest new restaurant.

— Mike Klein

If someone forwarded you this email, give thanks and sign up for free here.

🍷 What are you looking for now? Wine, baked goods, sausages, fresh veggies? Jenn Ladd scoured the region and tells you where to find everything for your feast or your host.

🥫Where are the best values for overall food shopping in the region? Henry Savage used an 18-item shopping list and visited 12 major supermarkets. The results are eye-opening.

😋 How about Thanksgiving to go? Hira Qureshi offers suggestions there, too, including pastelillos and pasteles.

🦃 Where to find a fresh turkey? It’s getting late, but we have options, including kosher and halal birds.

We made the most Philly Thanksgiving meal possible, including pho-spiced turkey, birria tacos, not one but two versions of hoagie stuffing, cranberry water ice, and, of course, potatoes au Gritty. Youse gotta see these.

Your guests could use a punch. James Beard Award-winning bartender Toby Maloney worked on a holiday recipe with Inquirer columnist Craig LaBan (shown above). The concoction, pairing apple brandy and aged rum, gets its magic not just from the flavor but from what Maloney calls “brightness.”

We found 14 great distilleries in the area, whether your tastes run to whiskey, rum, vodka, or moonshine.

Seeking bottles from small distilleries? BOTLD, arguably Philly’s most creative liquor store, will open its second retail location this weekend at 117 S. 13th St. in Midtown Village. BOTLD, launched last year, bypasses the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s monopoly on wine and spirits sales, which tends to exclude many smaller distillers.

🥳You may have friends and relatives coming to town. I’ll tell you where to take them, in an exclusive rundown of more than 40 new spots for drinks and food.

❓ Can you create a Thanksgiving meal out of Wawa’s menu? Stephanie Farr did just that.

🥪 Seven tasty Thanksgiving-theme sandwiches for you to try (not including the Gobbler from Wawa).

🧂 Where are the restaurants open for dine-in on Thanksgiving? Hira Qureshi has the info.

🍕 The day after Thanksgiving is a prime pizza day. Here are our favorite shops in Philly right now.

🥖Cheesesteaks helped put Philly on the map. No turkeys here. Just our favorites.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

⚖️Here’s that boilerplate: By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

Happy Thanksgiving!