Print edition: 
1. Let a restaurant smoke your bird: As always, many local barbecue restaurants will sell birds already smoked, available for pickup on Thanksgiving Day. Jet Bar-B-Q at 1100 E. Third St. (316-262-7299) will allow customers with reservations to pick up 12- to 14-pound birds hot from the smoke pit. (They run about $30.) Call your neighborhood restaurant now to check on availability and make a reservation.
2. Let a restaurant make your whole meal: Yia Yia's Eurobistro at 8115 E. 21st St. will sell customers a Thanksgiving dinner that includes three sides, turkey and gravy, rolls and pumpkin pie for $18 a person. Make reservations by Tuesday.
3. Let a restaurant have a day off, for goodness' sake: The Beacon, a favorite downtown diner, originally posted signs announcing it would be open on Thanksgiving Day, but managers have since thought better of it. The restaurant will be closed after all.
QUICK BITES
Dishes for wishes
Through the end of November, local Applebee's restaurants are participating in a fundraiser called "Dishes for Wishes." Each time a diner orders an Ultimate Trio appetizer sampler, a 12-ounce rib eye, a Real burger or a dessert shooter, Applebee's will make a contribution to the Make-A-Wish chapter that grants wishes to children throughout Kansas.
You've gotta try it
Reader John Dye wrote to express his ardent appreciation of Burritos El Mexicano , a restaurant built in a former A&W building at 1712 E. 47th St. South. The restaurant is family-owned, and the food is excellent — especially the taco salad, Dye said. Also on the menu — a variety of Mexican breakfast plates, breakfast burritos, tostadas, tortas, tacos and enchiladas. The restaurant, which opened nearly a year ago, is open from 7 a.m. to midnight daily.
Hello, goodbye
A roundup of restaurant comings and goings from the past week:
* Let's Be Frank, the hot dog place at 2425 E. Douglas, is closed during an ongoing dispute with the landlord. The windows are papered over, and the owners are trying to decide what's next.
* Fresh Roast Coffee, a wholesale coffee supplier at 3700 E. Douglas in Clifton Square, has started selling already-brewed coffee and biscotti. It's open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily except Sundays.
* Mike's Wine Dive should open in the recently vacated Caffe Posto space at 4714 E. Douglas by March 1. It will be owned by Jimmy's Egg franchisee Whitney VinZant and some partners, who haven't shared details beyond that the dive will offer wine and food.
