Putting the giving in thanksgiving

Good company: Complaining about relatives on Thanksgiving is a time-honored American tradition, but a far worse fate would be having nowhere to go and nothing to eat. To prevent this from happening to roughly 200 Sacramentans, the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association is hosting a free Thanksgiving dinner on November 22 at Rainbow Park.

“Last year, we handed out 15 to 20 turkeys to people in the neighborhood,” said spokesperson Monti Hall. “But this time, we decided to step it up.”

The increased effort comes for a few reasons. The MLKNA wanted to provide a free meal for those experiencing homelessness, but also, at other events, workers learned that many families run out of food a week or two before payday, Hall said. So they invited and plan to feed roughly 80 people from Pacific Elementary School and SETA Head Start.

Beyond allowing for deeper bonds to form between neighbors, Hall said, these events also connect guests to services that provide much-needed food, housing and health care. He said the MLKNA also used their connections with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, county Supervisor Patrick Kennedy’s office, Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services and more to rustle up the food and volunteers needed for the dinner.

“It’s about fellowship, getting to know your neighbor,” he said. “It’s a very diverse neighborhood. We have immigrants from every country you can think of, recent refugees from Syria. And so the idea is: We’re all in this together and there are agencies and people that want to help, so you’re not alone.”

Armenian duo: Armenian food sits at a tasty crossroads of Slavic, Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, and the greater Sacramento area just scored two new locations.

In Citrus Heights, the Armenian Grill House (5925 Birdcage Centre Lane) serves up beef-and-chicken dumplings ($4.99), shish-kabobed meat including pork ribs ($9.99), tri-tip ($13.99) and grilled lamb ($13.99) as well as the cold Grecian appetizer sarma doulme—spiced rice wrapped in grape leaves ($3.99).

In Rancho Cordova, there’s Yummy Kabob (3667 Recycle Road) run by owner and chef Suren Arakelyan, who offers shawarmas of grilled chicken breast as well as layered beef and lamb ($8.50 for a soda and a shawarma-stuffed wrap). He also serves lamb loin kebab plates ($14.99), fresh-made khachapuri or cheese-filled bread ($2.49), and chicken kotlet ($8.99), a sort of meatball that’s enhanced with butter and dill.

DevICE Blocks: Device Brewing Co. announced on November 12 that they will open a taproom in spring 2018 below the trendy new Ice Blocks apartments. The R and 16th Street location will be more central than their current brewhouse (8166 14th Avenue) that’s east of Tahoe Park.