Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It’s the official start to my holiday season, and it always has the best (and most) food. Family can make the holidays complicated for some, but I’m lucky to have a close knit group of friends and family that I look forward to celebrating with each year. I can’t think of anything better than getting to spend time with loved ones while enjoying food, cocktails, and laughter.
And oh, the food. Of course there’s turkey, but my favorite dishes are always the sides. I can’t be the only one who strives to assemble the perfect bite of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, right?
But here’s the thing: I can’t remember a Thanksgiving when my family didn’t cook a huge meal. I always have a great time celebrating with family and friends, but I’m sure I end up spending almost half the day running back and forth to the kitchen, elbowing my mother as we try to strategize which dish goes in the oven and how soon to carve the turkey.
As a family, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to deliver a delicious meal with the perfect balance of classics and a little something new thrown in each year. The exhaustion finally hits as the dishes pile up in the kitchen, and I begin to wonder if we’ll ever have a clean pan again. For a holiday, Thanksgiving never feels like much of a day off.
My family has decided to try something we’ve never done before– we’re going to go out to eat for Thanksgiving. Plenty of people do this every year, but somehow it never occurred to me that we could let someone else cook for a change. This year we’ll be trying the long-standing Thanksgiving Buffet at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham.
“The buffet has been happening for many years, but this is my third year doing it,” shared Director of Food and Beverage, Doug Metzger. “It’s such a fun day that the same servers come back year after year to take part. From Blaine to Burlington, families travel to the hotel for their Thanksgiving dinner.”
“We do have some hotel guests join us,” shared Director of Sales and Marketing, Kanami Fujita. “But it’s mostly locals who attend. Many come back every year, and we’ll be hosting it in the ballroom this time to make room for even more guests.”
“There aren’t many lavish spreads these days, but ours is a true grand buffet,” shared Metzger, and after reviewing the 2016 menu it’s easy to see why the Thanksgiving buffet at Four Points by Sheraton has such a committed following. In fact, I’m already planning my visit.
I might choose to start (or punctuate) my meal with a few of their many accompaniments, including assorted savory salads, peel and eat shrimp, imported and domestic cheese display, fresh sliced baguettes and gourmet crackers, a selection of fresh fruit, and vegetable crudité with dipping sauce. I’m a sucker for a good cheese board, so I have a feeling I’ll need to pace myself here.
Are you getting hungry yet? I know I am.
Next, I’ll likely move on to the chef’s carving station, which will feature local, organic roasted turkey with brown butter and sherry-herb gravy, and garlic-crusted prime rib with au jus and creamed horseradish. I’ll have my work cut out for me at the buffet where the hot sides will include buttermilk whipped yukon gold potatoes, salted caramel glazed sweet potatoes with pecan-granola topping, traditional bread stuffing with herbs, smoky paprika green bean casserole with goat cheese and crispy onion straws, exotic mushroom and wild rice risotto with sun-dried tomatoes and basil, and herb-encrusted Atlantic salmon. That perfect stuffing-mashed potato-green bean casserole bite is sure to be a particularly delicious one this year.
And as if I won’t already need to be rolled out of the hotel ballroom at this point, I’ll still have to contend with the massive dessert buffet, towering with cookies, macaroons, brownies, mini cheesecakes, tartlets, rice pudding, yogurt parfaits, The Desmond Hotel’s famous bread pudding with vanilla sauce, caramel Granny Smith apple pie, southern pecan pie, and – of course – traditional pumpkin pie.
If all of that has you ready to solidify your holiday plans, the 2016 Thanksgiving Buffet at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham will be held upstairs in their ballroom on Thursday, November 24, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Drop-ins are welcome, but table reservations are recommended for groups.
Already committed for Thanksgiving? Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham also serves similarly lavish buffets for Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day. Follow Four Points by Sheraton on Facebook to make sure you know the details of those feasts as they’re announced.
Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham
714 Lakeway Drive
Bellingham, WA 98229
360-671-1011
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