OK, I’ve found a few restaurant websites with their menus up for Thanksgiving so far.  Feel free to add a comment for anything that you’ve heard about and I can add it to the body of this post.  Check back for more links as I will add them when I find them.

The Bavarian Inn is having a special Thanksgiving menu this year.  For some reason, I expected it would be a buffet, but it’s not.

Brewer’s Alley is having a 3-course “pre fix” menu on Thanksgiving from 11-4, not a buffet like last year.

The Cracked Claw is having a Thanksgiving Buffet from noon-4PM.

Dutch’s Daughter’s website appears to be down but they have traditionally had some sort of buffet for holidays.  Not sure about Thanksgiving though.

The Comus Inn is having a buffet from noon-6PM.  At just under $50.00, that’s a bit steep for me but it sounds delicious!

The Carriage House Inn in Emmitsburg is having a buffet from 11AM-4PM.

Last year, we posted about Thanksgiving Out and since then, two restaurants we mentioned,  both G. Hunter’s and Mealey’s  have closed.

Have you heard of any other special Turkey Day menus?

Great Train Robbery is going to be playing at the Frederick Moose Lodge,  828 E. Patrick St. on Saturday, November 14th.

GTR has entertained audiences for over 2 decades all along the east coast, releasing 8 albums,
and  playing over 5,000 shows at colleges, festivals, fairs, corporate events, and night clubs. The Band has shared the stage with The Allman Brothers, 38 Special, BTO,
The Guess Who, Molly Hatchet, Kansas, Foghat, Marshall Tucker Band,
Charlie Daniels Band, Blue Oyster Cult, Blackfoot, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Wow, all those bands listed are like a blast from my teen years!  Here’s the pdf with all the information, including cost and times.

I got an email from Gabe, telling me about an upcoming fundraiser for Kids Are Heroes.

…our upcoming fund raiser for Kids Are Heroes. Actually it is Mary Kate McKenna who was the brains behind this – we are just going along for the ride. She is a DC photographer with incredible skills who recently moved to Frederick. She is offering a great holiday package for a killer price and still sharing half the proceeds with Kids Are Heroes, a local non-profit.  If interested, there are more details on the blog and people can sign up for the slots that are still available here.  This is a great opportunity to get some wonderful pictures by a true professional at a very reasonable price, and give back at the same time.

For all the details, check out this post on Gabe’s blog.

Once again, I learn of a new (to me anyways) establishment through the blue, ValPak envelope.  This time, it’s for a wine store in Mt. Airy called Vino 100.  Located at 1311 S. Main Street, Vino 100 promises “100 great wines for $25.00 or less”.

So many of us enjoy wine. How often, though, do we experience the frustrations of buying wine? Wine stores are all too often intimidating, snobbish and expensive, or are designed as wine “superstores” where the quantity of wines is overwhelming and the quality of wines and the service provided is underwhelming.

According to their ValPak ad, they offer wines by the glass, wine accessories,  cheese and cigar selections, specialty beers, and private parties.

The coupons offered are $3.00 off any 2 bottles of wine and 10% off a 1/2 case.  They also have a wine club membership.

In honor of tomorrow’s spooky day let’s all light a virtual campfire and tell each other spooky stories.

Try to stick to spooky stories you have heard (or that have happened to you) about Frederick and the surrounding area. But any old spooky story will do in a pinch.

Ready, set, boo!

I’ve never been a fan of November with its  dark evenings (don’t forget to “fall back” your clocks before you go to bed on Saturday night!) and cold, dark mornings and the whole beginning of winter thing.  I’m sure some of these upcoming events will snap me out of it and as always, feel free to add any events that you know about in the comments.  For a more complete list, check out the calendar of events at the Frederick Tourism website.

On selected dates in November, check out the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Jekyll and Hyde.

A new and shocking version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of depravity, lust, love and horror. On the fog-bound streets of Victorian-era London, Henry Jekyll’s experiments with exotic “powders and tinctures” have brought forth his other self—Edward Hyde.  When Hyde meets a woman who stirs his interest, Jekyll fears for her life and decides to end his  experiments. But Hyde has other ideas, and so the two sides battle each other in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to determine who shall be the master and who his slave.

Events in November at the Weinberg include Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra,  Koresh Dance Company,  Cherish The Ladies,  and the screening of the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street.  Check their website for more November events.  Personally the most intriguing performance for me (and not just because I’m a Finn!) is Circo Aereo: Espresso.

Witty, imaginative and inventive, Finnish circus theatre troupe Circo Aereo is recognized throughout Europe as a pioneer of the New Circus genre. This stunning “theater without words” mixes traditional big-top acts such as juggling and aerial work with innovative cabaret theater, movement and humor. Espresso, a work of astonishing virtuosity and subtle parody, careens at high speed through the labyrinthine annals of circus history. Circo Aereo will delight Frederick audiences of all ages with its enchanting excursion into the glorious realms of circus arts.

Saturday, November 7th is First Saturday with the theme of  A Downtown Open House:

Kick-off the holiday season in Downtown Frederick during the November First Saturday – A Downtown Open House on Saturday, November 7th from 5 – 9pm.  Downtown merchants open their doors till 9pm to share the holiday spirit with shoppers.  Enjoy free carriage rides and hot cocoa along with tons of holiday entertainment throughout downtown!   Also, enjoy guest artists, exhibit openings and special activities at downtown’s many specialty stores and restaurants from 5 – 9pm.

November 11th is Veteran’s Day and the 5th Annual Echo Taps sounds like an amazing thing to see (quoted from the tourism website calendar of events):

Musicians will play Taps from Mt. Olivet Cemetery to Memorial Park, with the last Bugler being on the belfry of Calvary United Methodist Church playing Taps at 11:00 am to begin the ceremonies at Memorial Park.

The Maryland Christmas Show runs at the Frederick Fairgrounds from November 20-29th.

November 27th is Frosty Friday (that link is to last year’s Frosty Friday info, but I included it anyway so that you can read about what Frosty Friday is.  Hopefully the Downtown Frederick Partnership will update their website with this year’s info soon)  and Santa’s arrival in Frederick at Everedy Square and Shab Row.

If anyone has information on restaurants doing a special Thanksgiving menu, let us know.  I’m not having a lot of luck finding that out so far but I’ll keep nosing around.  If we get enough of them, we can do a separate post.

I’m always on the lookout for things to do around Frederick to share with you all. While pursuing the The Next 72 Hours paper this morning this event caught my eye:

Frederick Dooktoberfest Ferret Competition will open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct 31 at Motel 6, 999 W. Patrick St., Frederick. Event will feature more than 300 local ferrets as well as ferrets from across the country. $5 for persons 16 and older, $2 for children from 7 to 15; and free for children under 7. Call 1-888-FERRET-1 for details.

More about the Dooktoberfest here.

The Downtown Frederick Partnership is trying something new this year called Get it Downtown.  The “Challenge Week” will be November 2-7, with one lucky winner receiving a $250.00 Downtown Frederick Gift Card.

Participate in the first-ever Get It Downtown Challenge Week from November 2 through 7 and you may win a $250 Downtown Frederick Gift Card.   With your first purchase at a participating merchant (list of participating merchants coming soon!), you will be provided with a Get It Downtown punch card. Bring your card with you throughout the Challenge Week and receive a sticker for every purchase at participating locations open until 7pm, Monday through Friday, and until 9pm on Saturday . No minimum purchase amount required. Eight stamps complete the card. Once all eight boxes are filled, complete the information required on the back of the card and turn it in to one of four locations. At the end of the week, one completed card will be selected at random and the winner will receive a $250 Downtown Frederick Gift Card.

Locations accepting the completed cards are the Visitor Center at 19 E. Church St, La Paz Restaurant,  Brewer’s Alley and Flights of Fancy.  For more info and where to check back for participating merchants, click here.  And for an updated  list on where you can use the Downtown Frederick Gift cards, go here.

This sounds like fun:

Mother Seton School is hosting its first family fun run at Mt. St. Mary’s College on Nov. 14. They will have a kids dash and free moon bounce, 1 mile, and 5K. There are tons of door prizes donated by local businesses and goodie bags for all who register. Also, anyone who registers for the 5K before Nov. 2, will get a t-shirt (otherwise $5 but need to be ordered before Nov 2). The proceeds of the race will go to Mother Seton’s Bicentennial Fund as they will be celebrating their 200th anniversary of Catholic education this spring!

Thanks for the tip Sara!  If you’re interested in the Fun Run, here is more info.

*Apparently El Ranchero is open in the old El Paso location on Rte.85.

*The old Lonestar restaurant location at FSK mall has a sign on the door saying a Chinese Buffet is coming soon.

*Cameron’s Seafood may not be open yet, but they apparently have a refrigerated container/trailer from which they are selling seafood.  Has anyone checked it out?

*In case you missed it, the Braddock Inn website is up now.

*Ledo Pizza in Urbana is now open.