Comments (0) BEST THANKSGIVING DAY ESCAPE - 2007

Thanksgiving Day Buffet at Wrigley Mansion

Unless you're John-Boy Walton or Martha Stewart — or a glutton for emotional punishment — you're probably ambivalent about Thanksgiving. There's that enforced familial interaction (blah) and the infernal "dead turkey clock" that keeps ticking off the passing years. For example, if you've only eaten 10 birds, you're probably safe for a while longer — yet there's that yawning eternity of Thanksgivings looming ahead. If you're 75, you're reached the downhill slope of the turkey hump, but the Grim Reaper is sharpening his scythe.

Death by gobbler is gonna get you either way, so why not go out in style? The Wrigley's annual Thanksgiving feast is style personified. Get a load of these offerings from last year's menu: baby lamb chops with a mint glaze and grilled salmon with a roasted red pepper coulis. Even the turkey — slathered with cranberry chutney — is life-affirming. What price mental health? A mere $27.50 to $55, which we'd consider cheap at twice the price.