If you’re planning on being alone for Thanksgiving, or just don’t want to cook a big meal, Chuck Brockmann and Frank Bekiri have a deal for you.
And it’s free.
With turkeys provided by Brockmann, and a meal cooked up by Bekiri and his staff, a free Thanksgiving dinner is being offered at Bekiri’s Tasty Café in Eldridge.
The dinner will be served from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. There is no charge, although donations will be accepted.
“We want to make sure that everyone is invited,” said Brockmann, who raises turkeys on his farm just north of Long Grove. “It’s not just for the homeless, or people who don’t have someplace to go. It’s for anybody that wants to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.”
Brockmann is a regular at the popular Eldridge restaurant, and about a month ago he suggested the idea to Bekiri.
“Frank owns a number of other restaurants, and said it doesn’t always work,” said Brockmann. “I convinced him that we should give it a shot.”
Bekiri said it didn’t take much convincing.
“We’ve got a lot of good customers, almost like a family here every morning,” he said.
Brockmann is among the early risers for 5:30 a.m. breakfast who often arrive before Bekiri.
Brockmann said many families, like his, alternate at-home Thanksgiving with other relatives, leaving some years open.
“It made no sense for us to make a big meal. We asked around and a lot of people said they’d appreciate a place to have dinner,” Brockmann said.
Brockmann has been raising turkeys for 30 years. He sent 110 off to be smoked last week, with the balance of his 350 birds meeting their demise on Friday.
The turkeys are smoked in LaPorte City, while the other birds are processed and inspected in Greene, Iowa, and sold fresh. He takes preorders for all of his birds, and he’s close to being sold out.
He said providing meat for a Thanksgiving dinner has been percolating in is mind for some time.
“It just never really came together until the Tasty Café opened up,” he said. “That’s something that Eldridge has needed for a long time.”