Local steakhouse to provide 6,000 meals on Thanksgiving

A St. Louis area restaurant is putting the “giving” in Thanksgiving. The restaurant has ordered more than 3,200 pounds of turkey, 2,500 pounds of ham, and 1,500 pounds of mashed potatoes to cook holiday meals for the community.

The Brass Rail Steakhouse in O’Fallon, Missouri, will deliver 5,000 dinners to needy families in the St. Louis area on Thanksgiving. The restaurant also plans to feed more than 1,000 people that day at the restaurant, including first responders, police officers, veterans, homeless St. Louisans, and families who can’t afford a Thanksgiving dinner.

“It’s a labor of love,” says Brass Rail owner Scott Ellinger. “There are so many people out there struggling. O’Fallon was so supportive of the restaurant when we opened it; I thought of it as a way to give back to the community.”

The restaurant started the dinners in 2014 to feed the National Guard during the unrest in Ferguson. The Brass Rail fed 1,300 people that year, and organizers plan to feed more than 6,000 people this year.

The Brass Rail has enlisted the help of more than 700 volunteers in the St. Louis area to help deliver the dinners. Volunteers will deliver meals everywhere from Spanish Lake to Washington, Missouri.

The restaurant is making the food from scratch. The crew will begin cooking on Sunday night and won’t stop until Thanksgiving. In addition to turkey, ham, and mashed potatoes, the restaurant has ordered 1,500 pounds of yams and 1,500 pounds of mac and cheese.

“The first year, someone’s grandma was dropping off cookies that she baked,” says Ellinger. “We’ve had to change the recipes now that it’s 6,000 people, but we’re still looking for those small contributions.”

Anything that the restaurant doesn’t use for the dinners will be donated to local food banks, Ellinger says.

Located at 4601 State Highway K, The Brass Rail will be open from 10:30 a.m.–8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Walk-ins are welcome, and no reservations are necessary.