Ash Croce

NYC really is the city that never sleeps—even on Thanksgiving. (So much for all that turkey tryptophan we’ve been hearing about!) If you plan on taking in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or making your way through all the best things to do in NYC on Thanksgiving, you're also likely to work up an appetite. Luckily, some of NYC’s very best restaurants are open on Thanksgiving Day, allowing both tourists and locals to score a coveted table. Most of the menus offer something at least turkey-ish, although this might be the time to start a new tradition (crispy duck, anyone?). Remember, make your reservation now since spots at these favorites fill up fast. And if we can offer one last piece of advice: make sure to leave room for pie. Updated November 17, 2025: With the coming and going of Halloween, we can now say we are officially in the holiday season. To give you a head start on planning your Thanksgiving dinner in NYC, we've added a number of new restaurants to book, which you should secure before these tables get snapped up. With just a week out left to plan, we recently added Cha Cha Tang and Kokomo to the list, both good options if you are looking to celebrate Friendsgiving at home or out on the town.  RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Thanksgiving in NYC

Thanksgiving in NYC is an especially high-spirited time of the year: from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to Friendsgiving festivities galore to plenty of opportunities to sample the gamut of the city’s best pies. Not looking to set off the fire alarms in your shoebox apartment this year? Well you’re in luck, some of the best restaurants in NYC are open this holiday. Here are some of our favorites. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Thanksgiving in NYC

Update: Over $12,000 was raised to help Simcoe and her owners take care of her medical bills. Simcoe has since been stabilized enough to be able to go home. According to her owners, she’s made “huge progress over the course of her stay at VERG. She’s subdued, but alert, curious, and not in pain.” Simcoe the brewery cat needs our help.  The snaggletoothed icon at Grimm Artisanal Ales who was recently featured on the popular ShopCats Show and prominently in Time Out New York’s 2023 article on brewery cats is in the ER with severe neurological issues. Grimm’s Operations and Distribution Manager, Aiyana Knauer reports on her instagram @nobeersnoparents, that after a scary morning yesterday where the beloved working cat was unresponsive, she began to show signs of improvement. Her human coworkers are now trying to raise money to cover the cost of an MRI and another 24 hours in the ICU via a GoFundMe.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aiyana (@nobeersnoparents) Simcoe is known for her impressive prowess, big personality and friendly attitude. She can be found snoozing on the taproom stereo, snuggled in the rain garden in front of the building, or curled up with a brewer keeping them company on an early morning brew. Often, folks flock to the popular brewery just to meet the famous feline. Her image is on stickers, tee-shirts, sweatshirts, and more.  She was recently featured on the popular TikTok and Instagram sensation, ShopCats Show. In her episode sh

With new app-controlled bins and curbside composting available to Brooklyn and Queens residents, and expansion to the remaining boroughs underway, it has become increasingly easy for New Yorkers to ensure that their food scraps get a second life (although the program has not been without growing pains or controversy).  Even some NYC bars looking to cut down waste have joined in on composting in an unexpected way—by drawing inspiration from extra seasonal ingredients already found in-house, rather than throwing them out.  RECOMMENDED: The 50 best bars in NYC right now According to the National Restaurant Association, the industry produces between 22 and 33 billion pounds of food waste a year. This amount of waste can have obvious environmental and financial impacts. “You really get to see waste at its highest degree when you have guests coming in to pay ridiculous amounts of money,” Tia Barrett, general manager of Hav & Mar, says about fine dining.  Barrett saw an opportunity when designing her bar program to streamline the ingredients coming in, create seasonal harmony on the menu and reduce overall waste. Her Seashore Spritz is made with discarded apple and celery juice made during kitchen prep. Even the unused celery leaves are given a chance to shine as a garnish. And this isn’t the only drink where the menu is utilizing kitchen waste—leftover pickling liquid finds its way into the restaurant’s martini as a brine. Photograph: courtesy Hav & Mar | the Seashore Spritz Acro

At my neighborhood brewery, there is someone I look for first. I’ve been guilty of missing a greeting from the bartender because I’m adamant to find her. Sometimes she’s right there by the door ready to greet folks, other times she’s in the brewhouse supervising work, and sometimes she can be found sprawled across a table snoozing on the job. Her name is Simcoe and she is a tuxedo cat with a snaggletooth and a habit of trying to con patrons out of their cheese, and maybe a little salami (as a treat). She lives and works at Grimm Artisanal Ales in East Williamsburg. Photograph: Kevin Serrano| When Simcoe isn’t working hard on the brewery floor supervising her coworkers and keeping pests at bay, she likes to nap in the rain garden right in front of Grimm Artisanal Ales. Aiyana Knauer says if she were to order a beer, it would be “Grimm Lite for sure…she needs an easy-drinking beer for laying in the dirt.” The “working cat” is no anomaly in NYC. Warehouse cats, shop cats, garden cats, and most famously, bodega cats are common fixtures across the city. As it happens, breweries, with their need to store large amounts of grain—a potential snack for vermin—are a perfect match for cats looking for a place to stay. And sometimes it begins just like that–a cat wanders in and never leaves. But often breweries seek out feline workers to join their ranks. Hard Hat Cats, a non-profit committed to pairing cats who may not be eligible for regular adoption into working situations, has provi