Tri-Cities Eateries Ready to Welcome Thanksgiving Diners

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JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) – If you’re looking to skip the kitchen chaos this Thanksgiving, numerous eateries throughout the Tri-Cities are gearing up to host festive feasts for the community.

Behind the scenes, restaurant teams are bustling with activity as they prepare to deliver a memorable holiday dining experience.

Tri-Cities restaurants serving on Thanksgiving Day 2025

In the previous year, The Kitchen at Grace Meadows Farm welcomed 1,800 diners. Currently, they’ve received 60 preorders for complete meals and 800 orders for individual Thanksgiving menu items.

Owner Meredith Redman shared that their team started preparing the feast a week in advance to ensure everything is perfect for Thursday’s celebrations.

Stockyard in Bristol is joining in on the cooking as well.

The venue hosted its first Thanksgiving in 2024 after recently opening, seeing 75 people dine with them.

Owner Felicia Hughes said the kitchen has been hard at work preparing to serve preordered meals, 60 reservations and separate walk-in parties.

“Turkeys will go on the smoker here about 10:00 tonight, and we’ll smoke some of the turkeys all night, and then we’ll bake some of that,” she said. “We have eight turkeys and four hams to go on, and we’ll feed them until it’s all gone.”

Stockyard will also host bingo and line dancing on Thanksgiving night. Hughes said it’s a typical yet special day at the venue.

“Music is playing in here every day from the moment we open, whether that night we have line dance or we have a real band,” she said.

Redman said waitstaff is double the amount needed on a typical Saturday night. She said it takes a team to make the festivities run smoothly.

“Generally on a busy Saturday night, we may have 60 employees on, but for Thanksgiving we have more than 100,” Redman said. “The great benefit is we also call in our family members and friends and we’re like ‘hey, you want to go to work?’ So we try to get in as many people as we can on that day, as many warm bodies as want to help, we welcome it.”

Hughes said diners aren’t just customers. They become family.

“I feel like there’s people that don’t get to have Thanksgiving with family or don’t have family at all,” she said. “Our doors are open because, if you’re not family already, by the time you leave, you’re family.”

Redman said she’s grateful for staff and guests for sharing in the holiday with the establishment.

“We want to support families,” she said. “We want to make them excited to come here. We want it to be an experience. Being able to be open for Thanksgiving allows people to come in and enjoy each other, rather than focusing on the mess, the cleanup, the preparation. Instead, they’re just focused on the family aspect of it.”

The Kitchen at Grace Meadows Farm will be open from noon until 5 p.m. and Stockyard will be open noon until 10 p.m. Neither establishment requires reservations.