In this holiday season, the word on Purchase Street is “gravy.”
Gravy intimidates even the most experienced chefs, said Claire Hassi, who has owned Rye Country Store for 36 years. Some order entire turkey dinners, some just desserts. The cooks cook and the bakers bake, she said.
But everyone wants gravy.
Julie and Justin Kim, owners of June and Ho for the last three years, agree. For weeks before Thanksgiving, they were boiling up the broth, including turkey necks. Everyone wants gravy.
Businesses that provide food for the holidays are at their busiest right now. It began with Thanksgiving (as Julie Kim says, there are so many different traditions for Christmas and Hanukah, but everyone celebrates Thanksgiving). And now it will continue right up through New Year’s.
The Kims have been working alongside their crew for long days in their upstairs kitchen. When they bought June and Ho, a store that has served the community since 1942, they pledged to keep June’s passion to feed local customers.
“It is our honor to be in this community, and we kept the old-fashioned way,” Julie Kim said.
As Thanksgiving fades and Hassi counts up the number of orders of stuffing, sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes she sold (along with apple pies), she turns her attention to Christmas.
The Rye Country Store started in the 1940’s as a meat market. Nowadays, she places turkey orders with an upstate farm, and notes with a smile that Christmas is, “All over the place. It can be a Christmas ham, or beef, or fish.” And always potatoes au gratin. All those dishes are suited for brunch or dinner, or Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or Christmas night.
She makes it all and knows what it is to be truly thankful. During Hurricane Ida in August, 2021, her kitchen was lost to the flood. With the help of local electricians and plumbers she rebuilt a new, state-of-the-art kitchen in six months. Her customers are regulars, some for many years, and she knows their tastes — like the woman from Rye, said Hassi, who “wants butternut squash soup, always.”
Down the road, Martha McQuire is standing behind a raft of orders at Jerry’s Post Road Market. Jerry’s has been a Rye institution since 1937, when Martha’s in-laws, Jerry and Marie McQuire, opened the store. Their daughter Mary Slater has been the owner since 2013.
Just before Thanksgiving, the orders were flying. Tastes have changed, she said, with more of a demand for ham and shrimp cocktail, even at Thanksgiving. What hasn’t changed is that their turkey feast, with ready-to-go sliced turkey and mashed potatoes and all the trimmings, is available in the few days right before Thanksgiving. McQuire pointed out that for years, many customers have been buying for their own families, and also buying individual dinners to give to someone in need or alone.
For Christmas, the Jerry’s specialty is Irish and English Christmas treats. McQuire is already are getting ready and taking orders for plum puddings, now known here as Christmas puddings, mince pies, iced Christmas cakes and shortbread, and English candies only available at Christmas. She will, as always, meet the demand for various pastas, fillet of sole, sliced steak, and whole lasagna meals.
Over at June & Ho, Christmas means a bone-in ham ready for a Christmas presentation, said Justin Kim. The platters are popular, especially smoked salmon and cheese platters, he said, adding that smoked salmon tartare is always popular as family and friends gather.
When you’ve settled down for your holiday meals, these busy food purveyors finally get a rest too. The McQuire family has Thanksgiving at Kelly’s Sea Level on Midland Avenue. Yes, Jerry’s provides the Thanksgiving food for Kelly’s, but the traditional dinner is served to them as customers. They will be joined by extended family, including Kathleen McQuire, who owns Post Road Market Wine & Spirits next door to Jerry’s.
Julie and Justin Kim gathered with family in New Jersey, bringing some of the food made in their upstairs Rye kitchen. Thanksgiving means traditional foods, even as people move toward roasted vegetables, especially organic, and more sweet potatoes, Julie Kim said.
And Hassi cooked at home, remembering the days her boys played football and then all gathered around her table.
Hassi, the Kims, and the McQuires expressed gratitude for the community of Rye and their repeat customers. They are glad they can make plenty for all, accommodate last-minute requests, and send home extra food with their employees.
The gravy flowed for Thanksgiving, and now behind the twinkling white lights adorning Purchase Street, these Rye businesses are preparing to fill the bellies of their local customers at Christmas.
