For the second year, Percy Street is offering a to-go Thanksgiving dinner package that reimagines those food memories with a deft hand: a smoked turkey with corn bread and sausage stuffing, a version of the sweet-potato-with-marshmallow casserole, and O'Shea's best-in-the-city pecan pie.
This year, the chef gets a rare break. All of the to-go orders will be picked up by Wednesday, the restaurant will stay dark, and O'Shea will head home to Maryland for the holiday. And she'll stay out of the kitchen.
"It's a treat not to cook. I get there and poop out on the couch."
If O'Shea is tired, it's no wonder. Percy Street recently opened a stand in the swanky food court at the Comcast Center. She had been spending her mornings there, setting up the line, training staff, and creating a menu of sandwiches using the fragrant and tender meats she smokes at the restaurant.
After the long mornings, she would head back to the South Street flagship to gear up for dinner service, and plan for the Thanksgiving orders that keep rolling in.
Southern cuisine is having a fashionable food moment, and has been creeping into local restaurant menus for a while. But for O'Shea, it's not about catching the latest wave.
"Southern food was always trendy for me," she says. "It's kind of the core of our American food traditions. It's comforting in that sense."
Which is why it can be seamlessly integrated into any Thanksgiving meal, no matter what your family traditions are.
"It's easy," says the chef, in her usual sweet, calming cadence. "You don't need infused oils or high-end ingredients. It's stuff you can find anywhere."
