An Italian Autumn Table for Your East Side Friendsgiving

Most lists of Thanksgiving dishes East Side diners find online look the same: a turkey, a fixed menu, a single seating. But the flavors people actually crave in late November are broader than one bird. Squash and brown butter. Something roasted at the center of the table. Bitter greens, crispy sprouts, warm bread, a pear with sharp cheese, and a dessert everyone pretends they have no room for.

At Rosemary’s East, 350 1st Avenue, our seasonal menu already reads like Thanksgiving translated into Italian. The restaurant sits where Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village meet the avenue, a few blocks from Gramercy and the East Village, with a big dining room, a terrace, a spritz bar and a wine bar lounge. It’s a natural home for the Friendsgiving, the reunion dinner and the Thanksgiving-week get-together that happens on the days and weekends around the holiday itself.

This guide walks through the autumn plates on our East Side menu, how each one lines up with a classic Thanksgiving dish, how to build a shared menu for a crowd, what to pour, and which room fits your group.

Key Takeaways

• Rosemary’s East has an autumn menu full of Thanksgiving flavors: Butternut Squash Soup, Agnolotti di Zucca, Crispy Brussels Sprouts, Prosciutto e Pera and a Roasted Half Chicken.
• It’s built for a Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving-week group dinner, not a single plated turkey. Order family style and pass everything around.
• Parties of 1 to 10 book on Resy, groups of 11 to 16 can request the Communal Table, and bigger gatherings can ask about The Speakeasy, The Greenhouse, The Pantry or a full buyout.
• Menus change with the season, so check the current East Side menu before you plan, and call the team with any questions about holiday-week dates.

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1. What Are the Thanksgiving Dishes on an Italian Autumn Table?

A Thanksgiving spread is rarely about one dish. It’s the combination: something roasted, something from the squash family, something green, a basket of bread and a long dessert course. Italian cooking has its own version of each, and in autumn our kitchen leans right into them.

A few plates on the East Side menu this season fit the mood especially well.

Butternut Squash Soup. Finished with hazelnuts and brown butter, it’s the warm first spoonful of the season: earthy, sweet, a little nutty.

Agnolotti di Zucca. Handmade pasta filled with butternut squash, with truffle crema and aged balsamic. If one plate tastes like late November, this is it.

Roasted Half Chicken. Prosciutto and peppercorn spice, swiss chard and chicken jus. This is the roast at the center of our table.

The supporting cast. Crispy Brussels Sprouts cacio e pepe, Broccoli Rabe, Rosemary Potatoes, Roasted Beets, a Tuscan Kale salad with butternut squash, and focaccia for the bread basket. Then Olive Oil Cake, Tiramisu or Chocolate Torta for dessert.

These dishes are on our current menu, and menus change with the season. Before you plan a group dinner around a specific plate, check the East Side menu.

2. Which Classic Thanksgiving Dish Matches Which Italian Plate?

Torn between a traditional Thanksgiving and an Italian dinner? Here’s how we’d translate a familiar holiday spread into dishes from the Rosemary’s East menu.

Classic Thanksgiving dish	Rosemary’s East counterpart	What carries over
The roast at the center	Roasted Half Chicken, prosciutto and peppercorn spice, swiss chard, chicken jus	A golden roast with pan juices
Squash soup or sweet potatoes	Butternut Squash Soup with hazelnuts and brown butter	Sweet squash, toasty nuts, rich butter
A special side everyone fights over	Agnolotti di Zucca with truffle crema and aged balsamic	Squash, cream and a little tang
Roasted Brussels sprouts	Crispy Brussels Sprouts, cacio e pepe	Crisp edges, salty cheese, pepper
Cranberry sauce	Prosciutto e Pera with red wine poached pear and gorgonzola	Sweet fruit against something savory
Green bean casserole or sautéed greens	Broccoli Rabe with pepperoncino, garlic and lemon	A green, slightly bitter counterpoint
Roasted potatoes	Rosemary Potatoes with rosemary salt	Crispy, herby comfort
Dinner rolls	Rosemary’s, Caprese or Black Truffle focaccia	Warm bread to tear and pass
Pie	Olive Oil Cake, Tiramisu or Chocolate Torta	A sweet, shareable finish

You’ll notice there’s no turkey on that list, and that’s honest: there isn’t one on our dinner menu right now. If your group misses it, the Roasted Turkey panino (stracchino, apple, honey mustard) shows up at weekday lunch and weekend brunch, which makes a fun nod to the season over a Saturday meal.

3. How Do You Plan Thanksgiving Dishes East Side Friends Will Share?

A Friendsgiving works best when nobody orders their own plate. Order for the table, set everything in the middle, and let the meal unfold course by course. Here’s a shared menu built from Rosemary’s East dishes, sized for a group of about eight to ten.

Course	What to order	Tip for a group
Bread	Two or three focaccia, mixing Rosemary’s with Black Truffle	Roughly one focaccia for every four or five guests
First course	Butternut Squash Soup, Whipped Burrata, Prosciutto e Pera	Something warm, something creamy, something sweet-salty
Salad	Tuscan Kale or Farmers Market Greens	A bright plate to balance the richer dishes
Pasta	Agnolotti di Zucca, Mushroom Cavatelli, Pappardelle ragù alla bolognese	Seasonal, earthy and hearty, one each per four or five guests
The roast	Roasted Half Chicken, plus Steak Tagliata for a bigger crowd	Carve and share at the center of the table
Sides	Crispy Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli Rabe, Rosemary Potatoes, Roasted Beets	Order generously; sides go fast
Dessert	Olive Oil Cake, Tiramisu, Chocolate Torta	Two or three to share, plus gelato or sorbet for anyone who wants their own

Pace the meal. Ask your server to bring the courses in waves, so there’s time to talk between plates.

Plan for every guest. Gluten-free pasta and a gluten-free pizza crust are available, which makes it easier for a mixed group to share. For vegetarian guests, the Mushroom Cavatelli and several of the vegetable sides are meat-free; ask your server to confirm ingredients. Let your server know about allergies or dietary needs when you sit down.

Add a pizza if you like. A Cacio e Pepe or Stinger sourdough pizza slices up easily for a crowd.

For groups of 11 to 16, the Communal Table comes with its own seasonal prix-fixe menu, so the planning above is mostly done for you. Ask the team what it includes when you request a date.

4. What Should You Pour With an Italian Friendsgiving?

Every Thanksgiving table needs a toast, and Rosemary’s East has a whole bar to help you make one.

Start at the spritz bar. The Rosemary’s Spritz (Cappelletti, frizzante, orange peel and rosemary) is our signature, bright and a little bitter, which is exactly what you want before a big meal. The Bicicletta and Hugo Spritz are good alternatives.

An autumn cocktail. The Hazelnut Old Fashioned, with bourbon, hazelnut and a bitters blend, echoes the hazelnuts on the squash soup. It’s a cozy pick for the colder nights of November.

Bubbles for the toast. Rosemary’s Prosecco, Franciacorta and Lambrusco are poured by the glass. Lambrusco in particular is a classic match for roast chicken and cured meats like the prosciutto on the pear plate.

Red and white for dinner. Our list is all Italian, with plenty of wines by the glass. For the Pappardelle and the roast, a Chianti, Nebbiolo or Barbera d’Alba has the structure to keep up. For the squash dishes, try a Verdicchio or Rosemary’s Bianco, a Falanghina from Campania. A chilled Frappato from Sicily is a lovely middle ground for a table that likes a lighter red.

Zero-proof, too. Not everyone at the table drinks, and the non-alcoholic list is just as thoughtful: the Salento Spritz, Ghia Sour, Hugo Fizz and Non #1 Bollicine Rosato let every guest raise a glass.

5. Which Room at Rosemary’s East Fits Your Friendsgiving?

The East Side restaurant has more ways to host a group than our other locations, a natural fit for a Friendsgiving that keeps growing. Here’s how group size lines up with the spaces, based on our large parties page.

Group size	Space	How it works
1 to 10 guests	A table in the dining room or near the spritz bar	Book on Resy (OpenTable is also offered) and order à la carte
11 to 16 guests	The Communal Table	Request online; includes a seasonal prix-fixe menu
Up to 20 seated / 25 standing	The Speakeasy	Semi-private, by inquiry
Up to 30 seated / 35 standing	The Greenhouse	Private dining room, by inquiry
Up to 40 seated / 50 standing	The Pantry	Semi-private, by inquiry
Up to 130 seated / 200 standing	Full venue buyout	The whole restaurant, by inquiry

The long table (11 to 16). The Communal Table is the closest thing we have to a classic holiday table: everyone together, with a seasonal prix fixe so nobody has to negotiate the order.

Your own room (17 and up). The Speakeasy suits a cozy gathering, The Greenhouse is a private room for an office Friendsgiving or an extended-family dinner, and The Pantry works well for a mingling crowd. The Wine Bar Lounge is also available for events.

To start planning, visit the East Side private events page. Thanksgiving week is a busy time for group dinners everywhere in the city, so reach out early.

6. What’s an East Side Friendsgiving Like in Stuy Town, Peter Cooper and Gramercy?

Rosemary’s East is a neighborhood restaurant first. Many of our guests live a few minutes away, in the brick towers of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village, along the side streets of Gramercy, or just south in the East Village. That’s what makes it such an easy place for a Friendsgiving: half your guests can walk.

The Saturday before. For a lighter version of the holiday, gather for weekend brunch. Mascarpone Pancakes with warm orange caramel, Lemon Ricotta Bombolini, and the Roasted Turkey panino make a seasonal spread, and the aperitivo service adds mimosas, frizzante or an Aperol spritz for the table (full table participation requested, with a one-hour limit).

A morning at the market. Before dinner, take a walk west to the Union Square Greenmarket, where late autumn means squash, apples, pears, kale and root vegetables piled high. It’s a good way to work up an appetite.

A walk by the river. East of the restaurant, Stuyvesant Cove Park runs along the East River, a quiet stretch of green for a stroll before or after dinner. On a crisp November afternoon, it’s a lovely place to catch the light on the water.

Then end the walk at 350 1st Avenue with the first round of spritzes.

For more on the neighborhood around the restaurant, read our earlier guide, Rosemary’s East: Exploring Gramercy & StuyTown, and for more seasonal cooking, see A Taste of Fall at Rosemary’s.

Conclusion: An Italian Autumn Table for Your East Side Friendsgiving

The best Thanksgiving dishes East Side friends can share aren’t always the expected ones. At Rosemary’s East, the season shows up as butternut squash soup with brown butter, squash agnolotti with truffle crema, crispy Brussels sprouts, poached pear with gorgonzola, a roasted half chicken at the center and focaccia for the bread basket. Add a spritz and a few desserts to share, and your Friendsgiving feels familiar and new at once.

From a party of four to a party of forty, there’s a table for you at 350 1st Avenue, from a regular booking on Resy to the Communal Table, The Speakeasy, The Greenhouse, The Pantry or the whole restaurant. Browse the East Side menu, find hours and directions on the Rosemary’s East location page, and book your Thanksgiving-week dinner early.

Frequently Asked Questions