Naples restaurants notice fewer Thanksgiving reservations than usual

Many people are deciding whether to travel for Thanksgiving or stay put.

Along 5th Avenue in downtown Naples Friday, restaurants told us they aren’t seeing as many reservations as they would normally get on thanksgiving week.

With people gathering in smaller groups at home, the smaller turkeys are a hot commodity at the store.

“We planned to go back to Colombus, and last Sunday, we canceled our trip to go back,” Andy Coen said.

Coen and his wife would love to see their huge family, but they want to play it safe.

“We just decided to stay here, stay at home and have dinner, Janice and myself,” Coen said.

Others in Naples are making similar decisions for Thanksgiving.

“I’m going to help my mom, just my mom and my dad prepare a small meal for them in their home,” Jo Coleman said. “They usually love to have our entire family over, but I’ve convinced her that’s not a good idea.”

With families gathering in smaller groups, they are in need of smaller turkeys. That is why, if you go in the stores, you may see the smaller birds are going faster than the big ones.

“It makes sense if people are adhering to the smaller meal prep,” Coleman said. “Then, it makes sense the large turkeys won’t be popular this year.”

With more people deciding to skip traveling, restaurants such as HobNob Kitchen + Bar downtown are noticing the trend.

“We see the traffic is here, but inside the restaurants, we aren’t quite seeing the business coming back as we have in previous years before,” said Jeremy Caprari, with the Hobnob.

The CDC recommends you have smaller Thanksgiving meals with your families this year. If you decide to gather a larger group — they suggest everyone wear masks and people bring their own plates and utensils.

Caprari is hopeful things will pick up soon.

“We’re getting calls for New Year’s and December,” Caprari said. “It looks great at this time. We’re hoping it will start moving forward to stay open.”