Americans expect to spend an average of $175 on Thanksgiving dinner this year, according to a new Nielsen survey. At least one Oakland restaurant has shaved that price significantly, offering their Thanksgiving Family Feast that serves four to six people for $110.
Owners at the upscale Buttercup Diner in the city’s Jack London Square for Thanksgiving week expect to sell at least 200 preordered, take-home-and-heat dinners, each with 2 pounds of slow-roasted turkey breast, cornbread sage stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh vegetables, turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, Caesar salad and pumpkin or pecan pie.
“We looked around to see what everybody was charging, what you get … and we were trying to position ourselves,” says Ben Shahvar, one of five family members who own and operate one of Oakland’s last family-style diners. Started in 1988 by his parents, David and Debbie Shahvar, Buttercup Diners are in Oakland, Vallejo, Concord and their newly-remodeled Walnut Creek location.
The Buttercup Diner in Jack London Square has celebrity status of sorts. In 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden made a campaign stop at the diner with some 70 news outlets covering his visit. In 2013, Buttercup Diner won a Mercury News taste-off for the best pumpkin pie, one of Debbie Shahvar’s many family recipes featured on an extensive menu.
Debbie and David Shahvar spent years in the restaurant business before buying their first Buttercup Diner in Walnut Creek more than three decades ago. Their children — Ben, Jessica and Jonathan — help run the diners and Jessica, who lives in Oakland and attended culinary school, helps with recipe development.
Buttercup’s Thanksgiving Family Feast will be available for preorder at all locations next week from Monday through Wednesday while supplies last. The restaurant’s locations will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. For information or to place orders online, visit buttercupdiner.com.
Rockridge restaurant: The long-shuttered Claremont Diner has new life as Oken, an Asian-American eatery focused on Korean and Japanese cuisine at 6200 Claremont Ave. in Oakland.
Firehouse update: The Herculean effort to reopen the storybook Montclair Firehouse as an art center has reached a milestone.
The city of Oakland has granted real estate agent Nancy Lehrkind and her nonprofit board a right-of-entry lease, which means they’re allowed to clean up the long-shuttered station on Moraga Avenue. Volunteers are invited to clear weeds, rake leaves and throw a large amount of debris left by squatters into dumpsters outside.
“The interior cleaning is not for the ‘squeamish,’ ” says Lehrkind, who urges each volunteers to wear sturdy shoes, a face mask and heavy gloves. To volunteer this week anytime from 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday or Saturday, email info@montclairfirehouseartscenter.org.
Ginny Prior can be reached at ginnyprior@hotmail.com and followed on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and at ginnyprior.com.