Medium Rare will fry your Thanksgiving turkey for free
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Photo courtesy of Medium Rare
Free Thanksgiving turkey fry-ups are back at Medium Rare in Cleveland Park.
Why it matters: Owner Mark Bucher's community cooking service — now in its 16th year — safely fries hundreds of turkeys each Thanksgiving, and also cooks donated birds for those who can't afford to prepare them.
How it works: Anyone with a raw, thawed turkey between 8-12 lbs. can get in line outside Medium Rare for a free deep-fry. Donations are suggested to Feed the Fridge, Bucher's hunger-solving nonprofit.
- Bucher says the queue starts at 8am and runs through the afternoon, with around 50 volunteers cooking birds in a rented fleet of fryers.
Between the lines: The event started in 2007 as a public safety service of sorts, when turkey frying was all the rage (as were deep-fry disaster videos).
- It morphed into something bigger when families started bringing donated turkeys that they didn't have the means or tools to cook.
The first year, Bucher tells Axios, he got a thank you note from a family in a shelter who received a free turkey.
- "It said, 'Thank you, without you, we wouldn't have been able to have Thanksgiving.' That was the beginning."
Stunning stat: Around 20 people showed up for the first fry. Now Bucher is ready for 700 to 1100 turkeys this year. He's promised to fry any of the birds Giant donated to local families.
- In addition to the fry, Bucher and his Feed the Fridge team are making 3,000 Thanksgiving meals to deliver to homebound seniors — a holiday tradition he started during the pandemic, and that planted the seed for his nonprofit.
The bottom line: For Bucher — who celebrates Thanksgiving with his family after the tough work is done — it's about building community.
- "You've got the 75-year-old grandmother from Southeast who took the bus with a turkey on her lap, to the family in Great Falls who just wants to get out of the house on Thanksgiving Day," Bucher tells Axios.
- "Nobody knows who anyone is. We give away cider. We've got the parade on. Everyone's just talking."