Great American Bites: It's Thanksgiving every day at Hart's Turkey Farm
— -- The scene: Next Thursday, Americans will consume one-sixth of all the turkey eaten in this country annually, over a billion pounds, in just one day. After the Thanksgiving parades and football games and the last slice of pie, many will forget about turkey except as a sandwich meat for the next 364 days. But not in Meredith, New Hampshire, where it is always Thanksgiving, all year round.
A popular tourist destination, Meredith sits on New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee, which since 1771 has billed itself as "The Oldest Summer Resort in America." Hart's history is not quite as old, but it certainly is rich. In the late 1940s, the Hart brothers moved here to begin farming, and by 1953 they had found their niche raising turkeys. The next year they added a 12-seat restaurant to their turkey farm, hence the name, serving sandwiches and turkey dinners. It was a runaway success and by 1965 had become so popular that the Harts gave up farming, but continue to source their turkeys from individual farmers who meet their quality standards.
Today Hart's Turkey Farm is a big white complex of a building with huge parking lots on either side. It has a bit of a truck stop feel, minus the gas and showers, with a large bustling gift shop at the entrance, selling both house made foodstuffs and tourist kitsch. Hart's is one of a handful of such colorful multi-generational success stories left in the country, and like most of them, it has been expanded and re-expanded more times than anyone remembers, with the result being lots of small dining rooms, with simple, wood-paneled walls and a practical New England feel. Each room features walls adorned with what the restaurant humbly suggests "may be" the world's largest collection of turkey-themed plates and platters. The rooms combine to seat more than 500 people, yet there is often a line out the door - at lunch and dinner. On a typically busy day, they sell more than a ton of turkey, 40 gallons of gravy, 1,000 pounds of potatoes, 4,000 rolls, and an impressive 1,000 pies. In 2008, customer demand led the Harts to open a second location in Manchester, N.H., which is currently closed and being renovated into a combination motel and restaurant.
Reason to visit: Turkey, turkey, more turkey - and pie a la mode.
The food: If you can imagine it being made of turkey, Hart's has it on their huge menu. Appetizers include turkey potstickers with Asian dipping sauce, turkey nuggets, turkey tempura, turkey quesadillas, turkey chili, from-scratch turkey soup, and a house signature, turkey croquettes. Entrees include turkey (pot) pie, turkey livers, turkey marsala, turkey tips, turkey meatloaf, turkey divan, turkey parmesan, spaghetti with turkey meatballs, turkey and broccoli Alfredo, and a long list of turkey sandwiches, from classics with stuffing and cranberry to jerk turkey burgers, reubens, and even a Philadelphia-style turkey cheese "steak."
Non-turkey eaters are in luck too, as there are dozens of appetizer, soup, pasta, burger, sandwich, and salad choices, plus tons of main courses from the Ranch Specialties and Sea Specialties sections of the menu. Since this is New England after all, in season (summer) they offer a wide variety of fresh seafood like lobster rolls and fried-clam platters. The hardest thing about visiting Hart's may be deciding what to order: There are five different varieties of club sandwiches alone.
But most people come for one of the signature traditional turkey dinners, basically Thanksgiving on a plate. This is Hart's mainstay and comes in three sizes, from small (1/4 pound of turkey) to jumbo (over a pound of meat), sliced and served with cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, along with choice of fries, homemade whipped potatoes, or rice pilaf, and a choice of butternut squash puree, broccoli, beets, or raw-apple slices. All the platters are available as white-meat only for a surcharge, and a fourth option is the jumbo drumstick dinner (from a 35-pound turkey!) in lieu of the sliced meat. Everyone gets a combination of homemade dinner rolls and corn bread, and Hart's signature table garnish is a grated carrot relish served with saltine carrots. It is very old school. It is also a bargain: The jumbo drumstick dinner with all the sides is just $10.99.
Part of what makes Hart's appealing is the attentive friendly small-town service and the unique atmosphere, and part is the novelty - you just don't go out for turkey much. The food itself is also quite good, especially since almost everything - except notably the canned cranberry sauce - is made from scratch. The stuffing is very good, the whipped potatoes are rich and decadent, and desserts are excellent, with a wide array of pies and cakes and several flavors of delicious homemade ice cream.
If I lived near Hart's I would probably go regularly and work my way through some of the more esoteric menu items like the Jamaican-jerk turkey burger, but for most visitors, the appeal is the chance to relive the most gluttonous feast day in our nation, at any time of year.
What regulars say: "The place is indeed a New Hampshire institution. I have childhood memories of the huge, always full parking lots," said Gregg Cerveny, an administrator at Dartmouth College who grew up in nearby Laconia.
Pilgrimage-worthy?: If you are in New Hampshire's Lakes Region, it is worth seeking out.
Rating: Mmmm (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $-$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: Original, 233 Daniel Webster Highway (Rte.3), Meredith, NH; 603-279-6212; hartsturkeyfarm.com/
Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a BBQ contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com.