My blanket Christmas/Christmas Eve suggestion

[I posted this on Chowhound as well]

As someone who has dined out often on Christmas and Christmas Eve, I have a few ideas--and you cannot go wrong with Chinatown or Da'Bomb (Devon). Still, if you want a more "normal" meal, there is always one place:

Ann Sather's

You know, shockingly, I may be the only chowhound who likes Ann Sathers, but I do, and in its various reincarnations over recent years/chefs/owners, I think it still puts out a "good enough" product. It may not be the finest food in the world, but from roll to creamed peas to cobbler, it is a meal that always satifies me.

There is always a certain bittersweet quality to eating at Ann Sather on Christmas. A mixed crowd, there is a small percantage of families going there for a Christmas dinner, perhaps because their dining room is too small to fit everyone, and there are the various groups that are there, like me, just because it is an open place, but the larger percantage of customers are people who go there specifically because they find comfort there. Sometimes, the tables are small groups of men and woman who have created their own extended families. Other times, and as the area around Ann Sather has changed a lot in recent years so you do not see this quite as much, there are single men and woman who have no place else to go. Like I say, it is bittersweet because Ann Sather makes them all feel welcome and at home, but you have to feel for them because you know they have to leave the place at some point.

I do not know, I gotta say, it frustrates me slightly that Ann Sather is held in such disdain, 'cause I think so highly of the place (which granted is not all food related). It is MY idea for these Christmas/Christmas Eve questions that keep on popping up.

Rob

Ann's web site is here:
http://annsather.com/restaurants/locations.shtml