LOUISVILLE, Ky. — During the holiday season, there’s a lot of stuff to juggle. One of those daunting tasks could be whipping up and preparing that holiday meal.
What You Need To Know
- Restaurants have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Louisville's Fork and Barrell offers large take-home holiday meals
- The $175 packages can be reheated at home and feed six people
- Fork and Barrel plans on expanding in mid-December
Luckily there’s an option for folks to look into. Geoffrey Heyde, the executive chef from Louisville’s Fork and Barrel, suggests take-home dinners.
“It's a solid deal. Everything is cooked and ready to go. All they have to do is put in the oven and heat it up,” said Heyde.
Here’s a quick snapshot of what you can expect for the Christmas dinner. It will include staples like honey glazed ham, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, country style green beans, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, gravy, dinner rolls and an apple pie.
Heyde said that finding a restaurant that offers a similar feast to take home and heat up limits the amount of time and stores you’d have to visit.
“They can feel comfortable coming to the restaurant. We are wearing masks. We are social distancing. We are doing the things we need to and all they have to do is come in, pay us, take home and enjoy it,” Heyde said.
It’ll set you back about a $175, but Heyde says it’s plenty of food for six people, which is under the CDC’s recommended holiday dinner limit. Besides helping limit your exposure to COVID-19 by having to spend less time at busy stores, it’s also a way to help support local restaurants that have fallen on hard times during the pandemic.
“Since March, we are down about $200-250,000 this year in sales. It’s been a challenge to make sure all my staff have been taken care of whether they were furloughed and now back on staff,” said Heyde.
For Thanksgiving, Fork and Barrel sound out quickly with their Thanksgiving take-home dinners. Heyde says that they are opening another restaurant in the middle of December, which should help prepare more meals that will be available for folks to order.
He recommends you check out either his take-home dinners or check out some of your favorite places to see if they’re offering something similar to keep businesses alive.
“I really want everyone to support their local restarts and their favorite restaurants,” he added.
Heyde said that he plans to open up the Morning Fork December 16th. He said that this breakfast and lunch place will help provide more refrigeration and cooking space to handle the demand for holiday take-home dinners.