What goes on after Thanksgiving? Shopping, sure. And you can watch a game, or go ham on some leftover turkey. But ask any local: Los Angeles — world class city that it is — offers much, much more. This week, Off-Ramp focuses on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
5 post-Thanksgiving activities that have nothing to do with football or shopping
Sure, you can go shopping, watch a game, or go ham on some leftover turkey. But ask any local: Los Angeles — world class city that it is — offers much, much more.
This week, we offer some thoughts on what many Angelenos do with the days and weekend after Thanksgiving. A few suggestions:
1. Go see some fancy cars
Set in downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Auto Show is a perennial post and pre-Thanksgiving activity for Angelenos of all stripes. Centrally located at the L.A. Convention Center, it's an affordable, fun way to spend time out and about while avoiding mall parking lots.
KPCC's Steve Proffitt produces our transportation podcast The Wheel Thing and has been a regular at the Los Angeles Auto Show for decades now. "It's not a bad ticket, you know. It's probably as cheap as going to the movies," says Proffitt.
Visitors can see new Toyotas and Fords before they show up at the dealerships, they can nerd out on classic models on display, or they can revel in the strangeness of ultra high end vehicles they might never see again: Aston Martins, hybrid race cars, Lamborghinis and more.
2. Get married
Google "Weekend after Thanksgiving" and one of the first suggestions you'll get is "weddings." Yes, apparently people do this. Mostly you'll find soon-to-be newlyweds hemming and hawing at the pros and cons of a post-Thanksgiving wedding. Pro: It's a great opportunity to host an event during a time family comes together anyway! Con: It's rude! People won't come!
A user named "Sportybee" said in one message board thread on the topic that she was a Maid of Honor at a wedding on Thanksgiving Day — and that she left early to go see her family. The drama!
Burbank resident Kaitlin Funaro attended a post-Thanksgiving wedding in the Bahamas, of all places. A small destination wedding, few people declined, and nobody grumbled at the location.
"Personally, I thought it was great. Because you get a built-in vacation," says Funaro. "I mean, frankly — Thanksgiving happens every year. And it's not like the most thrilling of holidays. So I was perfectly happy to take a year off to drink in a pool."
3. Yes, you can still volunteer
There are more people handing out meals on Thanksgiving than any other day in Los Angeles. Did you miss it this week? It's fine, really. There are plenty of organizations that can still use your help — financial or otherwise.
Take the House of Ruth — an agency for women who've been subject to domestic abuse. The days after Thanksgiving bring in more people seeking their services than the holiday itself.
"We usually don't see a spike of clients coming in on Thanksgiving Day," says Pat Bell, House of Ruth's development director. "All of the relatives are there, friends might be there around the dinner table. An abuser's gonna be on their best behavior."
But after visitors are gone, violent episodes can return.
House of Ruth has both donation and volunteering opportunities, you can find out more here.
4. Get creative with leftovers
"I don't think fresh turkey is my very favorite thing," says Piero Selvaggio, chef and owner of Valentino Restaurant in Santa Monica. "But I like cold, leftover turkey to play with."
Selvaggio attacks leftovers with gusto. Try a turkey ribollita — a hearty tuscan soup — served in turkey broth with shredded dark meat, bread and kale.
Tired of turkey sandwiches? Bruschetta might be your answer: toast some bread, chop tomatoes, basil and garlic — slice thinly some dark and white turkey meat on top and, voila! Bruschetta.
There's more, of course — ground turkey ragu over a pasta, turkey cutlets, turkey meatballs.
5. ...Or get rid of them quick with a party
KPCC receptionist Rebecca Murray sent us this note:
My dad always threw a big party on the weekend after Thanksgiving. He’d make turkey stew with all the leftovers and I could not STAND the smell of it. It would cook for at least a day, so the entire house would smell and it would boil down so much that he could suck the marrow out of the bones. Everybody else loved it but I never ate it – I don’t think anyone was surprised when I turned vegetarian at 14.
We got on the line with Rebecca and her dad, Mac Murray, to talk about The Big Smell. Turns out, she was right about the smell. Mac was making turkey stock for his famous turkey stew that was consumed by scores of people every year during their open house in the days after Thanksgiving.
But Mac is also an Episcopal priest, and he says feeding the needy is one of his parish’s specialties.
What are your favorite post-Thanksgiving traditions or outings? Let us know on our Facebook page, or in the comments below!
Giving victims of domestic violence a belated Thanksgiving — The House of Ruth offers safe haven
"We have heard many times that this Thanksgiving meal in our shelter with other women and their children is the first time they've ever not had to deal with the tension, or the worry of getting beat up after the meal's over."
— Pat Bell, House of Ruth
While many spend the weekend after Thanksgiving decompressing from arguments with siblings and spouses, some women have to pack their bags and take their children to an undisclosed location for the holiday weekend. They make dinner with other families who have fallen victim to domestic violence.
For almost 40 years, the House of Ruth has been a domestic violence agency that provides emergency shelter for people in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. The agency's director of development, Pat Bell, says the House of Ruth also offers case management, counseling and prevention education in schools.
The organization takes its name from the Biblical figure Ruth, whom Bell describes as "a woman who helped other women." When we interviewed Bell, we met her at the Outreach Center, because the address of the shelter has to be concealed.
"When a woman decides to leave an abusive relationship, it's important that she maintains her safety. The abuser will do quite a bit to search for the woman... so we don't disclose where our shelter is located," says Bell.
We asked if the House of Ruth sees an influx of new clients on Thanksgiving.
"We usually don't see a spike of clients coming in on Thanksgiving Day," replies Bell. "All of the relatives are there, friends might be there around the dinner table. An abuser's gonna be on their best behavior."
Within a few days though, after visitors are gone, violent episodes return, and that's when the shelter's numbers increase.
Of course, some families are already in the shelter by the time the holiday comes around, so the House of Ruth holds a communal Thanksgiving dinner.
"There was a family that came in... We'll just say that the mom's name was Susan, and she came in with her three kids. They were sad that they weren't gonna have Thanksgiving with their family." The kids told the shelter's children's counselors that Susan loved baking. The House of Ruth bought ingredients to surprise her with. "And she got up that Thanksgiving Day, and she went to the other women who were preparing the turkey and all the other things that go with the meal, and the kids were really excited when they got to walk into the meal and say 'Oh my gosh! There's mom's pumpkin pie!'"
Some past clients eventually come back to volunteer at the shelter's Thanksgiving meal.
"It's usually not the year after," says Bell. "More distance needs to take place, because the whole process of fleeing an abusive relationship, starting over, getting yourself reestablished; those wounds are still there emotionally, and coming back a year later is usually too soon, because they're gonna see other women that are going through it, and it's still raw for them."
Three years later however, women will emerge from their private lives to help out at the holiday.
As to why Bell is passionate about the House of Ruth and its Thanksgiving tradition, Bell says, "I believe that everyone should have a happy house. I know that many relationships experience arguments and disagreements, but when it crosses the line into abuse; whether it's physical abuse, or emotional abuse, downgrading a person, I don't think that people should have to suffer through that. So I work here because if we can just save one life, then we're doing our job."
If you want to help, the House of Ruth has posted a holiday wish list for their clients.
5 Every Week: Big sandwiches, big pipe organs, float in alone in the dark
Behold: five great things you should do in Southern California this week, from art to food to music to an adventure we’ll call the Wild Card from the makers of the 5 Every Day app. Get this as a new podcast in iTunes. If you want five hand-picked things to do in Los Angeles every day, download the free 5 Every Day from the App Store.
ART: William Pope.L's dueling exhibits
Last Spring, the conceptual artist William Pope.L rigged a 54-foot American flag to fly grandly across the Geffen Contemporary — with the help of some industrial fans. Now, he’s keeping up the pace with a pair of solo shows across Los Angeles.
One half is in Culver City, at Susanne Vielmetter Projects. It’s called "Forest," and it features works from the ’90s to now. The other, “Desert,” is at Steve Turner Gallery in Hollywood, and it features new sculptures, photographs, and a new film about the longest boxing match in history.
Pope.L even recorded GPS-style driving directions, explicitly tailored to get you from one gallery to the other, which you can download from the show’s website.
He truly thinks of everything.
CITY: Natura day spa
https://www.instagram.com/p/96XD1vH-cW/
How often is too often to go to the Korean spa? Once a month? A week? Just asking for a friend.
We've wasted whole days inside the warm, receiving walls of Koreatown's various jjimjilbang, rationalizing our decadence with the assumption that we're saving water by bathing communally.
Wi Spa is our first and favorite for all-around pleasure, but Natura on Wilshire's a solid number two—particularly if you find yourself going it alone, or get creeped out by all the little kids running around.
It's smaller, cheaper, and wholly divided on the binary — no unisex cross-over room — plus they've got a green tea pool.
And one more major difference: unlike lots of 24-hour K-Town spas, Natura closes.
So, assuming you're not nocturnal, it's a fine place to take off all your clothes, sit in various bodies of hot and cold water with dozens of indifferent naked strangers, and marvel at the diversity of the human body.
FOOD: Bay Cities Italian Deli
Just get the Godmother.
Bay Cities Italian Deli, in Santa Monica, has an extensive menu of delicious-sounding sandwich options—the fresh caprese, a hot chicken parm, a black forest ham—but those in the know will tell you they're all just window-dressing for the deli’s signature.
Mortadella, Genoa Salami, Ham, Prosciutto, Provolone, and some kind of magical hoodoo on fresh, crisp-crusted bread. The Godmother of all Italian sandwiches.
It's a take-a-number kind of joint, and lines can get long here, so word to the wise: there are readymade Godmothers with the works ripe for the plucking right at the counter.
Get in, get out, mangiare.
MUSIC: First Congregational Church Organ
The First Congregational Church in Westlake has two claims to fame:
- It’s the city's oldest Protestant church.
- Perhaps more surprising, is that it’s home to a massive pipe organ.
In fact, First Congregational’s organ is allegedly the largest musical instrument in any church in the world. It has more than 20,000 pipes, and it totally consumes the grand gothic interior of the church.
Music on this thing is more felt than heard.
Feel it for yourself on any given Sunday, when heretics and believers alike are welcome to come hear the "Great Organs" boom across the pews during the weekly prelude to Sunday service.
WILDCARD: Float Lab
A disclaimer: this is not for everyone.
For some, the idea of spending two uninterrupted hours just floating in tepid salt water alone in the dark is a kind of nightmare thought-prison.
For others — and we're looking at you, psychic explorers — this is actual transcendence.
Float Lab is a cash-only isolation chamber spa in Venice, where the more metaphysically inclined can book a two-hour block in a silent, dark, oceanic womb for $40. Small tab for diving between liminal states and deep into your subconscious until you're not sure where the water ends and you begin.
Remember: It's only as boring as you are.