San Diego restaurants are busy making last-minute preparations to host Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
“It's out of control," said Carlos Anthony, chef at Herb and Wood in Little Italy. "It's way overboard, way over the top and really exciting.”
Anthony and his staff have been doing hard work since Monday chopping up veggies, baking pies, and making sure they have everything ready for the restaurant's Thanksgiving feast.
"[We're having] red curry squash, Baja shrimp with a Calabrian chili, and all those amazing Thanksgiving originals that you really want,” said Anthony.
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The restaurant is fully booked for Thanksgiving dinner with a total of 750 dinners on their list.
"It's exciting but it's a bear," said Anthony. "It's a lot of prep.”
Down the street at Farmer’s Table, thanksgiving dinner is also fully booked.
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“It has been great because we have over 2,000 to-go orders come in and we have fully booked dinner tables," said Sara Arjmand, spokesperson for Farmer's Table. "It's going to be super busy tomorrow.”
The long list of reservations, a sharp contrast from last year. But even as things begin to look up for restaurants, there are other challenges that remain.
"We’ve been doing this for 29 years and this year we've had a hard time with supply chain issues," said Arjmand. "We had to order our turkey, our stuffing, our ravioli months in advance.”
Restaurants nationwide and locally are doing what they can to navigate through the ongoing supply chain issues. And on top of that, many continue to struggle with staff shortages.
"We are short-staffed as everyone else is but we are going to do our best and hopefully the guests will understand and be patient and well get through it," said Arjmand.
