TOC, Digested: Province, Charity, and Alterna-Thanksgiving

• Interesting: Province has been open for exactly one month and five days. And Tamarkin is already on the scene with an official review. Fortunately for everyone involved, it’s a good one: The food is across the board delicious, and — in Tamarkin’s words — “when a dish disappoints it’s not because it’s bad, but because it can’t compete with the more aggressive food on the table.” That’s the opposite of damning with faint praise. It’s … praising with faint damnation?

• Tamarkin and Shouse, kind souls that they are, have rounded up a septalogue of do-gooder foodie gifts. From charity cupcakes from Bleeding Heart Bakery to a meal subscription at First Slice that also provides meals to needy Chicago families, there’s a lot of good to go around.

• Wondering what chefs are doing to riff on the ol’ Thanksgiving classics? Judy Sutton Taylor knows: there’s Thanksgiving In A Sandwich at The Goddess & Grocer (that’s turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, lettuce, and sage mayo on sourdough — we’d call it The Morning After); there’s a cranberry sazerac at the bar at Big Jones; and M. Henry offers some tantalizing pumpkin empanadas.

[Photo: Bocadillos at Province. Photo by Laurie Proffitt Photography]

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TOC, Digested: Province, Charity, and Alterna-Thanksgiving