Medina County restaurants making Thanksgiving manageable

Throughout the pandemic, restaurants have found creative ways to keep both their businesses afloat and customers happy and fed. One of those ways being large-serving, family-style meals that can be picked up at restaurants. With Thanksgiving this week and the remainder of the holiday season around the corner, that creativity and those family-style meals quickly turned into a necessity for restaurants in Medina County. While the ordering window for Thanksgiving meals is closed, Corkscrew Saloon, ParTake Kitchen, and Blue Heron Brewery and Event Center are among the restaurants playing chef for hundreds of families throughout the county this week. "We know it's a hard time for families," said Kahdar Soussou, owner of Blue Heron, 3227 Blue Heron Trace, Montville Township. "I've had some customers call and order this meal that have said, 'Thank you. We didn't want to go into the craziness of the grocery store to get the ingredients to make it at home.' " This isn't the first time Blue Heron has done Thanksgiving carryout or family-style meals. Last year was the business' first Thanksgiving offering and dating back to March, Soussou has been providing these types of meals to families who were either unable to go out due to the pandemic or didn't want to go out and get the ingredients to cook at home. In under two weeks, Soussou said he sold out of the over 350 pre-portioned meals and estimates they will likely feed over 3,000 people. As they have operated throughout the year, Blue Herron will provide the meals completely with no contact. "It's extremely satisfying and extremely humbling at the same time," Soussou said. "To be able to say that the Blue Herron is going to be on lots of Thanksgiving dinner tables this year is something that we can be proud of. Not just us, there were a lot of other places in Medina that were doing something like this. It got to the point where I was referring people to other Medina restaurants once we sold out. "The Medina community absolutely came together on this." Another local spot that saw overwhelming, and somewhat unexpected support was Corkscrew Saloon, 811 W. Liberty St., Medina. Ryan Marino, chef and owner, said it only was within the last week they decided to offer this kind of meal. Those clamoring for it did not disappoint. "We weren't really planning on doing it but so many of our customers were calling and asking us if we would," Marino said. "We started saying, 'Sure, we can do that for you,' and it became a thing. Just in a few short days, now we're making 250 turkeys (for complete dinners)." Marino said while takeout is something Corkscrew has long offered, the pandemic has led them to dabbling in delivery and offering large meals as well. Over the last four to five months, Marino said, Corkscrew has done several weekly-feature family meals. He said being able to provide help in the form of food to as many families as they are able is a great feeling. He is thankful to the community for its continued support as well. For ParTake Kitchen, 236 N. State Road, meals like this are simply another day at work. ParTake, which opened in August 2019, specializes in pre-packaged meals which change every Wednesday. Orders are taken through the following Saturday and then picked up throughout the following week with reheat instructions. "We did it last year and had a lot of fun doing it," owner/chef of ParTaake Laura Kanieski said. "We thought we had to do it again this year because everyone is doing takeout and we're the takeout queens." Prior to orders closing, ParTake had sold 247 turkey dinners along with numerous individual sides to fit family needs. Kanieski also offered a family-style Italian dinner that can be picked up at the same time for those that might not have a house full of Thanksgiving leftovers afterward. She said with the pandemic there was an added sense of necessity for ParTake to once again serve the community. "This year, the pandemic kind of hit us in a different way because everybody knows that's what we do," Kanieski said. "People and customers can never come into our kitchen, it's always been curbside. We just said that people really need this and we have to do it." Contact reporter Jack Kopanski at (330) 721-4063 or jkopanski@medina-gazette.com.