Thanksgiving Dishes Chelsea NYC: A Northern Italian Table

Every November the same craving shows up: a golden roast, something buttery and mashed, a side of squash, a slice of apple dessert, and a long table of people you like. If you’re searching for Thanksgiving dishes Chelsea NYC friends and coworkers will actually get excited about, here’s a different way to fill that table. Translate the classics into their Northern Italian cousins, and let someone else do the cooking.

That’s what this guide does. We’ve taken the dishes most Americans picture at a holiday dinner and matched each one to a plate on Da Andrea’s regular Chelsea menu, at 160 8th Avenue on the corner of West 18th Street. It’s a guide for the weeks before Thanksgiving: a Friendsgiving with your building, a team lunch before everyone scatters, or a dinner after a walk on the High Line when nobody wants to touch a roasting pan.

Northern Italy is a natural fit for the season. Emilia-Romagna, where our Bolognese roots come from, is known for filled pasta and for family holiday tables built around pasta made by hand. We make ours in-house every day, so the comfort is already on the menu.

Key Takeaways

• The classic holiday plates all have a Northern Italian match on Da Andrea’s regular Chelsea menu: Galletto Arrosto for the roast bird, Pappardelle with sweet sausage ragout for the stuffing, Butternut Squash for the orange side and Tortino di Mele for the apple pie.
• Chelsea has two things our Village location doesn’t: the Fritto Misto starter and a two-course prix-fixe lunch on weekdays, which suits an office team lunch in the weeks before the holiday.
• Groups of up to 25 can book with a credit card, and groups of 26 to 30 need a deposit. There’s no private dining room; it’s a shared, cozy trattoria.
• Saturday and Sunday brunch covers the leftover-free weekend, with French toast with caramelized apple and Cavatelli alla Bolognese.

Book A Table

Thanksgiving Dishes Chelsea NYC Diners Know, Translated Into Italian

Most holiday tables follow the same script: a roast in the middle, something savory and bready beside it, mashed potatoes, an orange vegetable, a green vegetable, and pie. None of those exact dishes are on our menu, and we’re not pretending otherwise. What the Northern Italian kitchen offers is the same feeling, built with different ingredients.

Here’s how the familiar Thanksgiving dinner dishes line up with what’s on the Chelsea menu right now.

Holiday classic	Da Andrea Chelsea counterpart	What it’s like
The roast bird	Galletto Arrosto	Roasted Cornish hen, roasted potatoes, spinach, pearl onions, rosemary mustard sauce
The big showpiece roast	Stinco di Agnello or Filetto di Manzo	Braised lamb shank on saffron risotto, or grilled filet mignon with spinach, mashed potatoes and truffle butter
Sausage stuffing	Pappardelle	Handmade ribbons with sweet sausage ragout and truffle oil
Mashed potatoes	Scaloppine di Pollo or Filetto di Manzo	Both arrive with mashed potatoes; Roasted Potatoes are also a side
Sweet potato or squash	Butternut Squash	A contorno (side dish) for the table
Green bean side	Spinach Garlic & Oil, Sautéed Broccoli Rabe	Greens with a little bitterness to cut the richness
Apple and cranberry notes	Braciola di Maiale	Grilled pork chop with corn and a golden apple and mushroom sauce
Apple or pumpkin pie	Tortino di Mele	Homemade apple tart with vanilla gelato

The Centerpiece: Hen, Lamb Shank or Filet, and a Pasta Course in Place of Stuffing

Every holiday table needs a star. At Da Andrea, the closest match to the traditional roast bird is the Galletto Arrosto. A Cornish hen is roasted and served with roasted potatoes, spinach and pearl onions, finished with a rosemary mustard sauce. It has the crisp skin, the herbs and the pan-sauce feeling of a holiday roast, sized for one person instead of twelve.

If your group wants something more dramatic, look at the Stinco di Agnello. It’s a braised lamb shank served over saffron risotto. Rice dishes are close to Chef Meliano Plascensia’s heart, and with more than 40 years in kitchens, he gives the risotto real attention. For a classic steakhouse-style centerpiece, the Filetto di Manzo is grilled filet mignon with spinach, mashed potatoes and truffle butter.

Now for the stuffing. In much of Northern Italy, a holiday meal moves in courses, and pasta comes before the main plate. So instead of a bread dressing with sausage, we’d suggest our Pappardelle: wide, handmade ribbons tossed in a sweet sausage ragout with truffle oil. It hits the same savory, herby, sausage-rich notes, and it’s easy to split for the table as a middle course.

Add a Spaghetti Bolognese, the dish Da Andrea was built on when it opened in the early ’90s as a narrow storefront on Hudson Street. Order one pasta per two or three guests, share them family-style in the middle, then let everyone choose their own secondo.

Sides, Meat-Free Plates and an Apple Tart for Pie Lovers

For many people, the sides are the real draw. Butternut Squash stands in for the sweet potato casserole. Spinach Garlic & Oil and Sautéed Broccoli Rabe cover the green vegetable. Roasted Potatoes keep the potato fans happy, and the Chelsea menu adds Zucchine Fritte, crisp fried zucchini that’s easy to pass around.

For guests who skip meat. A few plates on our menu list no meat at all: the Cappellacci Tartufo e Porcini (spinach ravioli filled with truffle mushroom and ricotta), the Gnocchetti di Patate with gorgonzola sauce and arugula, and the Tortino di Melanzane, grilled eggplant filled with mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil. Mention any dietary needs to your server when you order so the kitchen can guide you.

Dessert, Italian-style. No pumpkin pie here, but the Tortino di Mele comes close to the heart of the matter: a homemade apple tart with vanilla gelato. For a full dessert spread, add a Tiramisu, a Panna Cotta with amarene cherries and the Tortino di Ricotta cheesecake. For anyone who swears they’re too full, there’s Affogato.

A Chelsea Afternoon Before the Feast: High Line, Market and Galleries

Our corner of 8th Avenue and West 18th Street sits a short walk from the West Side’s favorite late-fall outings.

Walk the High Line first. The High Line is the park built on an old freight rail line along Manhattan’s West Side. Walk a stretch, come down to street level and head east to 8th Avenue. A plate of Galletto Arrosto or Stinco di Agnello makes a lot of sense after a brisk, windy walk.

Chelsea Market or the galleries. After a few hours grazing Chelsea Market or gallery-hopping toward the river, a sit-down Italian meal and a shared plate of tigelle is the right way to rest your feet.

Start with Fritto Misto. It’s the starter we’d point any Chelsea group to, because it’s only on the menu here, not in the Village: fried calamari, shrimp and zucchini with an avocado mayo sauce. Pair it with the Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto, the fresh-baked Modenese buns with Parma prosciutto that The New York Times “$25 and Under” column featured, and you’ve got the Italian answer to the appetizer board people pick at while the roast rests.

Office teams in the neighborhood. Chelsea is full of offices, studios and agencies, and many teams like to get together before people head out of town for the holiday. Our Chelsea location serves a two-course prix-fixe lunch Monday through Friday, and it’s the only Da Andrea location that does. The first course includes choices like Zuppa del Giorno (the soup of the day), Insalata di Caesar with polenta croutons and Polpettine di Vitello. Second courses include Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Pennette con Melanzane and Filetto di Salmone. It’s a relaxed way to thank the team before the long weekend. Check the lunch tab on the Chelsea menu for the full line-up.

Planning a Friendsgiving in Chelsea or a Pre-Holiday Group Meal

A Friendsgiving in Chelsea at a restaurant takes the dishes, the shopping and the folding chairs off your hands. A little planning keeps it easy for everyone.

Know the group rules. Parties of up to 25 guests can book with a credit card to hold the reservation. Groups of 26 to 30 need a non-refundable deposit. The large group events page has the details. There’s no private dining room; your group dines in our warm, cozy trattoria with the rest of the neighborhood, which is part of the fun.

Book early. The weeks before Thanksgiving fill up fast across the city. Reserve through OpenTable from our reservation page, and if your plans are still shifting, book a table for the likely number and adjust as you go.

Pick the occasion, then the plates. Different gatherings call for different orders. Here’s how we’d approach the most common ones on the Chelsea menus.

Occasion	When to come	Start with	Main plates	Finish
Office team lunch	Weekday prix-fixe lunch, in the weeks before the holiday	Zuppa del Giorno or Polpettine di Vitello	Spaghetti alla Carbonara or Filetto di Salmone	Coffee and back to the desk
Dinner after a High Line walk	An evening in the run-up to Thanksgiving	Fritto Misto to share	Galletto Arrosto with Butternut Squash	Tortino di Mele
Friendsgiving for a crowd	A weekend evening booked well ahead	Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto and Burrata con Basilico	Pappardelle for the table, then Stinco di Agnello or Filetto di Manzo	Tiramisu and Panna Cotta to share
Gallery-night dinner for two	Any evening that suits you	Barbabietole (roasted beet, goat cheese, walnut)	Cappellacci Tartufo e Porcini, Braciola di Maiale	Affogato
The weekend-after brunch	Saturday or Sunday brunch	Insalata di Pera (poached pear, gorgonzola, walnuts)	Cavatelli alla Bolognese, Benedict Parma	French Toast with caramelized apple

Order family-style. For larger groups, share a few starters and two or three pastas, then let each person pick a secondo.

The Weekend After: Brunch on 8th Avenue or Dinner at Home

The long weekend after the holiday has its own mood, and it’s a good time to let someone else make breakfast. Our weekend brunch runs on Saturdays and Sundays. The French Toast with caramelized apple carries the apple-pie mood a little longer. The Polenta Funghi, cornmeal with mushrooms, poached eggs and parmesan, is warm and savory, and the Cavatelli alla Bolognese is handmade ricotta cavatelli in our classic meat sauce.

If you’d rather stay on the couch, you can skip the dishes entirely. Order pickup through our ordering page, or get delivery through Grubhub, UberEats or DoorDash.

Already a regular? Our guide to dinner in Chelsea NYC covers how we’d build an evening on 8th Avenue any time of year.

Conclusion

The heart of the season is the table, not the bird. A Northern Italian restaurant in Chelsea can give you the same comfort as the classic holiday spread: a roasted Galletto in place of the big roast, Pappardelle with sweet sausage ragout in place of stuffing, Butternut Squash and greens on the side, and a homemade apple tart to finish. Add a High Line walk, a Chelsea Market wander or a gallery afternoon, and you’ve got a November outing worth repeating every year.

For directions, see our Chelsea location page, browse the Chelsea menu and reserve a table for your Friendsgiving, team lunch or pre-holiday dinner. We’ll have the pasta ready.

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