Well, it's happened again. You waited too long to make reservations at a restaurant on Thanksgiving, and now they're all booked up. Ha ha, no they're not. Not this year. But perhaps, for some reason, you want to cook dinner at home anyway. It's Thanksgiving day and you've got everything ready except... What? Butcher's twine? Cornstarch? Cocktail Onions? A turkey?

God, it almost seems impossible that you won't need a grocery store on Thanksgiving. Fortunately, you've got options:

• Most Safeway stores are open till at least 6 p.m. it wouldn't hurt to call ahead just to be double-sure, but when we called around, we didn't find any that closed any earlier. The 24-hour ones seem to be closing at 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next day.

• The three Whole Foods in town are open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, with extended hours earlier in the week.

• The 24-hour Cala Foods on Nob Hill will close at 6 p.m. Thursday

• The three Delano's IGA stores in the city are open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday.

There may be more hot shopping action that we missed. If you have a tip, please don't hesitate to get in touch. And happy Thanksgiving!

[Photo: Via katmere/flickr]

You've got just over a week, folks. Seven days and a few hours to pull together a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner by which all your friends and family will judge you. Are you really ready to do this? Yeah, we didn't think so. Honestly, it's not worth it. Instead, make them all jealous of how unconventional and urbane you are by going out to a restaurant on turkey day. You'll remember, we made some suggestions last week. Here are a few more last-minute picks.

• Americano Restaurant and Bar is doing a traditional, family-style dinner for $75 (children $25), for which they're doing three seatings, at 2 p.m., 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. A reservationist said today that the 6 p.m. seating is already full, so if you're interested you'd better call soon.

• Aurea is doing a four-course prix-fixe for $75 ($35 for children). They are still accepting reservations at all hours for the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. menu.

• Ducca has their regular menu available, plus a three-course Italian dinner featuring "Sonoma Turkey Involtino (root vegetable farcia, caramelized brussels sprouts, cranberry and gravy)" for $65. The only time they're booked right now is exactly at 6 p.m.

• In a fit of self-restraint, Epic Roasthouse leaves beef off their Thanksgiving menu. They're serving a four-course prix-fixe for $85. You'd better act fast, though. A reservationist just said they've only got one more table open: A two-top at 4:30 p.m.

• For those seeking a more reasonably priced, traditional Thanksgiving dinner, the Franciscan Restaurant offers a three-course menu for $30 ($20 for children).

• Another mid-range, straightforward option is Home, which has a traditional, three-course meal for $40 ($20 for children).

If you're vegetarian, or just feel like sparing a turkey, Millennium is offering a five-course, prix-fixe menu featuring tofu turkey. OpenTable showed they have some openings left, but it's filling up.

• Finally, Stinking Rose is offering a traditional, three-course turkey dinner for $30 ($20 for children). Our question is, why would you ever want a traditional turkey dinner at Stinking Rose? No crazy garlic? No sleeping on the couch afterward? Our advice is to skip the turkey and go straight for the 40-clove chicken, or it's a waste of time.

If you still haven't found the perfect place, and you want more options, OpenTable has a gigantic list of open restaurants, both in the city and region-wide. There's also the San Francisco Chronicle's ongoing roundup. Between all of us, you have got to be able to find somewhere everybody likes.

Previously:
Holiday Hearburn: Thanksgiving Restaurants In San Francisco [MenuPages: San Francisco]

[Photo: Via katmere/flickr]

Welcome to the first installment of our holiday-season series, Holiday Heartburn, where we look at restaurant alternatives to home holiday meals from Thanksgiving to New Year's. Today we're doing the first of what will probably be a few Thanksgiving installments.

It's a stressful, confusing time of year, as much as it is joyous and reflective and all that other nonsense. Between now and January 1, you're going to have to remember more little details, plan or attend more events, and do more selfless acts than you probably did all year at work. A huge part of the stress is buying, cooking, and hosting that enormous thanksgiving dinner.

But what if you didn't have to do that? We know money's tight, but it may be worth it to you to spend a little more and have that whole stupid mess taken care of by dining out on Turkey Day. If simple tradition is what's keeping you at home and chained to the stove, we are here to assert that you're not going to offend any pilgrims if you let somebody else bring you your turkey and stuffing.

Many restaurants around town will be open, and a good chunk of those have special holiday menus. We've been doing our best to collect some highlights. Here's what we've got so far, in alphabetical order:

• Balboa Cafe has a special Thanksgiving menu complete with Dungeness crab cakes, calamari and filet mingon. Oh, and they have turkey, too.

• Cafe Majestic features a full, five-course prix-fixe menu for $65, featuring lots of fall favorites such as pumpkin soup, but strangely, no turkey. (Sigh) Whole roasted poussin with braised swiss chard, cippolini onions, bacon lardoons and whole grain mustard sauce will have to do the trick.

• Cote Sud is doing a four-course prix-fixe for $50. Francophiles can get a frog legs starter before their classic turkey and cranberry sauce.

• If you want to get sort of hokey but also, admittedly, really fun, you can take a Thanksgiving bay cruise with Hornblower Cruises and Events. They're offering buffet and seated dinners for $105 for adults, $63 for children. Check out the menu and book a reservation here.

• The press rep for Level III said they are doing a special, $46 prix-fixe, in addition to their regular menu, but so far it is not up on their site. Watch that space!

• Mecca is doing a $45 four-course menu. The roasted beet salad looks so good they listed it twice!

• XYZ isn't doing a prix-fixe, but they do have a special menu, which includes a fantastic-looking sage and olive oil roast turkey.

• And if you want to do something to feed the soul as well as the gut, you can volunteer overnight Wednesday at Mission Beach Cafe to assemble or deliver about 1,500 bag lunches to those living in the city's homeless shelters. It sounds like fun, and will make that roast turkey or house-made Dungeness crab cake all the tastier come Thursday.

[Photo: Via katmere/flickr]

T.G.I.F, Ladies and Gents. We had one heck of a week and we can’t help but anticipate a night of further tomfoolery considering the following:

1. Halloween will be running amuck without the confines of the Castro to keep things predictable.
2. Critical Mass.
3. It’s raining.

The only really promising thing on the list is the rain and not just because California is about to revisit the early 90s with its frightening lack of water (we have fond memories of bricks in toilets, buckets under faucets, and 3 minute showers), but also because it means menus across town will start to adjust accordingly.

We’ve actually been hoping for some precipitation and a drop on the thermometer because colder weather means we have an excuse to wear more clothing, but more importantly, it means we also have the excuse to drink more hot beverages.

It’s supposed to rain through the weekend and if you’re planning on being out in the rain in your "sexy" [read: skimpy] costume tonight you may want to check out our suggestions for concoctions sure to warm you up.

If it’s a hot cocktail you’re after, Toronado serves mead when it gets chilly, Luna Park does a Hot Buttered Rum, and The Buena Vista has their famous Irish coffee.

For an innocent, yet richly delicious cup of hot chocolate, check out Tartine Bakery for a house-made recipe, or one of the many hot chocolate bars in town including Bittersweet The Chocolate Cafe on Fillmore, CocoaBella Chocolates in the Marina (they also have a location in the Westfield Mall Downtown), Christopher Elbow Chocolates in Hayes Valley and the recently opened Coco-luxe Confections on Upper Haight.

Even Starbucks is getting in on “Artisan” cocoa with their new Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolates—we had a sample of the Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate and surprisingly didn’t see much need for improvement (the smoked sea salt is a nice touch) except maybe calorie intake.

So while we have our Mouseketeer costume all ready to go for tonight, it won’t take much to convince us to trade in the mouse ears for fuzzy slippers and cuddle up indoors with some cocoa and a copy of "It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

Toronado [MenuPages]
Toronado [Official Site]
Tartine Bakery
Tartine Bakery [MenuPages]
Tartine Bakery [Official Site]
Luna Park [MenuPages]
Luna Park [Official Site]

[Photo: Via P_R/flickr]

Okay, we'll admit it. We're not the biggest fans of St. Patrick's Day. It's nothing against the Irish. We share that blood, too. Our beef is with the green-tinted throngs that see March 17 as a good excuse to drink themselves so stupid that we risk tripping over their unconscious bodies on the sidewalk, or worse, that we have to put up with the same three shouted bars of the Danny Boy for half an hour on BART. Learn the words, already!
But, since someone else did the footwork already, we might as well direct you to Zagat's little Irish bar guide--if only as a primer on where not to go this weekend if you don't want to get into a drunken brawl with some red-faced frat boy who thinks it's pronounced "An-Bow-Dran [sic]"
Also, here's a link to Menupages' own list of 15 Irish restaurants in the city. It might be a bit more tolerable to celebrate the Emerald Isle with a plate of lamb stew, a Guinness and a loaf of soda bread on the 18th, than with a room full of sweaty, surly drunks sitting in your corned beef on the 17th.

Get in Touch With Your Inner Irish [Zagat's]
Irish restaurants in San Francisco [Menupages]
Photo credit: Zurika [Flickr]

Everybody's got a story about Halloween in the Castro. Everybody. We're not even going to link them all. Click on any news outlet and you'll see. We'll just link the Weekly, which points out that, sanctioned or not, the large crowd that will doubtless flood the Castro tomorrow will likely flood the doorways and gutters of the Castro with a little something of their own.

Also, the buzz on SFist comments is that Harvey's is going to be open, despite city government's bully-ragging.

Your Halloween Closures [SFist]

Halloween in the Castro: Where Will Everyone Pee? [SF Weekly]

Photo Credit: Duffergeek

Not a moment too soon, some of our local food writers are chiming in with ideas for the holidays. We appreciate that Christmas and Hanukah haven't gotten much of a mention. Call us old fashioned, but we cringe at the sight of blue-and-silver or green-and-red-flecked decorations before Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Zagat’s wants you to enjoy that languid holiday in the comfort of someone else's dining room. And not a family member or dear friend, either. If you follow their advice, once the tryptophan kicks in all you'll have to worry about is getting a credit card onto the bill and finding your way home. A welcome relief from the hours of gravy-pot scrubbing that normally characterize the latter half of the day for at least a portion of the family.

A little more imminent, one of our favorite cornerstones on the booze beat, Camper English, ran an article in the Chron on Halloween cocktails last Friday. He's got a nice, booze-related blog, Alcademics, which apparently is part of a larger site he's designing.

Our question, though, is why does one need to change the name of the Bloody Mary (Rye: Bloody Scary) to make it more halloween-y? I mean, the cocktail is named after a queen who made her name torching people in the name of Catholicism. There's also that children's game where you can conjure Bloody Mary in the mirror and then she comes and kills you. And Rye doesn't think all this is macabre enough?

Turkey Day Dining Options [Zagat]
Scaring Up Halloween cocktails [SF Chronicle]

Photo Credit: Jdesign