“Jeff Strauss, who had a hand in popularizing Friendsgiving, is hosting the holiday this year at his acclaimed Studio City gastropub. The veteran TV writer-turned-restaurateur co-penned the first-season Friends episode in 1994 that helped turn the found-family holiday into a new American cultural tradition (and kick off a series of memorable Thanksgiving episodes on the”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Strauss recalls that he was inspired by a group meal he spearheaded while a student at Tufts University in 1981, where he lived alongside fellow future TV writer Jeff Greenstein, who went on to become the showrunner of Will & Grace: “Some people liked going home for Thanksgiving — and some people were dreading it.”
The Friends episode didn’t coin the term Friendsgiving, but it did much to crystallize its ethos in the popular imagination. “I had Monica’s group-mom thing of trying to hold Thanksgiving for everybody, and Greenstein, who was also with Friends at the time, brought up something he knew about me for Chandler’s character, which was that my parents had told me they were getting divorced during one Thanksgiving.” (Strauss and Greenstein later ran the Friends– like Partners — starring Jon Cryer and Tate Donovan — on Fox.)
Chef Jeff Strauss Courtesy of Oy Bar
Strauss spent years working on other TV shows, including a long stint with Reba on The WB. Then, as work dried up, he pivoted to food, another enduring creative interest. First with Jeff’s Table, a popular Eastside sandwich spot, and then at OyBar in Studio City, which inhabits the former Oyster House Saloon. The low-lit, time-warp space — a Paul Thomas Anderson reverie of the bygone San Fernando Valley — has since 2022 developed an ardently in-the-know following for dishes like a Jewish take on poutine (crispy potatoes, wagyu brisket) and a Vietnamese riff on a burger (hoisin ketchup, cilantro).
For his eight-course, wine-paired Friendsgiving feast (Nov. 21-22, $115 per person) the menu is replete with food references and other in-jokes to the first season of Friends. Dishes include a series of tartlets, potatoes several ways, and a duck served with chestnuts, yams and mushrooms. “Something ends up on the menu,” Strauss explains, “the same way it would end up in a script: If it’s personal and it makes me smile.”