Thanksgiving Eve: It's time to party
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BY MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star
That won’t be a turkey cooking in Kerry Hinkle’s oven on Thanksgiving Day.
No, Hinkle will be more in the mood for, say, frozen pizza. The turkey will just have to wait.
Can’t really blame the woman for needing a few extra days to whip up a feast. Tomorrow night looks to be a near all-nighter for her, after all, given the revelers expected to flood her bar until closing time and leave a heck of a mess for her and her staff to clean up.
Hinkle co-owns Hinkle’s Pub in Rising City, a gathering place of sorts for Southeast Nebraskans looking to take advantage of one of the biggest party nights of the year.
Thanksgiving Eve, a party night, you say?
Oh, admit it. You know you’re going out.
Nothing to do the next day except sleep in and eat, right?
Must be why Hinkle and other bar owners call the Wednesday before Turkey Day one of their biggest nights of the year, comparable only to New Year’s Eve and the night before Easter.
Thanksgiving Eve is No. 1 in Hinkle’s book.
“It’s packed,” she said. “It’s not shoulder-to-shoulder. It’s chest-to-chest.”
Reasons are easy to see.
Not only are most folks free from work on Thanksgiving, but college classes are canceled Thursday and Friday, allowing twentysomethings to head home for a long weekend.
And where else to catch up with dearly missed friends and family than the hometown bar?
Hinkle’s Pub draws people from all over — Shelby, Brainard, Columbus, even nostalgic Nebraskans living in Chicago or Las Vegas, Hinkle said.
Just for them, she’s dreamed up plenty of specials.
There’s the crappy beer special, in which people drink a variety of cheap beers, like Pabst, Old Style and Olympia. There’s the dirty T-shirt special, where the shirts with the nastiest words earn free drinks. And there’s the shot challenge to see who can handle doses of alcohol from Hinkle’s basement.
Let’s just say it’s going to take a triple-sized staff to handle the crowds.
“My husband and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving in a while,” Hinkle said with a laugh.
You’ll hear the same story over at Gibb’s Place in Beatrice, where the crowds usually start building at 8:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Eve.
The bar even hires a DJ for the night, co-owner Pamela Hedges said, and plans to have its full staff on duty.
“This is the place to be,” Hedges said. “If you want to see a friend, they’re gonna be here.
“We keep the people and the drinks flowing.”
Lincoln bars see a boost during Thanksgiving week, too, though their busy nights are Monday and Tuesday, when college students about to head home hit O Street one last time.
The same boom happens in the days before winter break, Iguana’s owner Kirk Scholten said.
The Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving can bring in as much as four times as much business as a normal weeknight, Scholten said.
“It just gets nuts.”
Main Street, too, can double its business in the days before Thanksgiving, owner Jason Kuhr said. The bar draws college students from out of town as well as Lincoln students who go to college elsewhere and are looking to meet up with old friends.
Of course, not everyone goes out.
Hit the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and you’ll find some students are content to stay home with family, get some cooking done ahead of time or put in a few extra hours at work. Some aren’t even going home for the holiday.
Finance and accounting major Bud Krueger, on the other hand, can’t wait to get home to Hastings.
Krueger’s friends from high school scattered for college, and the group now can only meet up over holiday weekends.
Get-togethers the day before Thanksgiving have become a yearly tradition, Krueger said.
This year, there’s a new twist: At last, everyone’s 21.
“All you’re going to do the next day is eat and watch football,” Krueger said. “(Wednesday) is the first day when everybody will be back.
“It’s gonna be magical.”
Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.
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mer wrote on November 20, 2007 11:42 am:
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