In true New York style, a banquet was organized on the subway to celebrate Thanksgiving. Mac & cheese, turkey puree and more sides were handed out to the lucky passengers who landed on the subway directed towards Brooklyn.
The idea, which began from a Brooklyn catering service, stepped up to bring commuters a free Thanksgiving meal. Chef Bea from Bea’s Kitchen in East New York, caught riders of the L train by surprise.
As the reporter of the Washington Post, Jada Yuan, who was present on the scene, recounted, the train came to a halt at the Bedford Avenue Station and passengers were invited to get off. Suddenly Yuan saw people gathered on a a near cart in a celebratory way.
“I was in a different car and when I stepped onto the platform there were all these happy, laughing people scarfing down [mac] and cheese! (They said it was bomb.),” Yuan remembers.
This isn’t the first time that a Thanksgiving dinner catches folks unawares. In 2019, owner Brandi Baxter collaborated with comedian Jodell Lewis and rapper Christopher Dupree to provide Brooklyn-bound L train riders with a “Friendsgiving” experience.
Videos of the meal, complete with collard greens, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes with gravy, went viral on social media, quickly garnering over 152,000 likes on TikTok.
“It was amazing to provide a classic New York City moment,” Dupree told the New York Times after the plans to host similar pop-up subway meals annually were thwarted by COVID. So, for many, Wednesday’s spontaneous celebration was a symbol of life in New York City slowly returning to normal and a rebuttal to those who claim New Yorkers are too busy to care about others.
“Excellent NYC at its best,” one viewer commented on Yuan’s post. “God I love New York,” another replied. And still another declared it the “most heart-warming moment she had ever seen.”
