X-mas dinner in North Jersey
 

I know this may be slightly off-topic, but I am looking for a sit-down, festive, Christmas Day dinner for at least eight and possiby eleven people in the Bergen County area. Among the definite attendees are my not-quite-two-year-old nephew, my sister who is not only a vegetarian, but eat about four things (fortunately, pasta with plain tomato sauce is one of them), my mother, who has mobility issues, my husband, who is fussy about the quality of his food, but eats about six things (pasta with plain tomato sauce being pretty much the only one he holds in common with my sister), and my twelve-year-old, who eats everything, but is really fussy about the quality of his food. Does anyone know if the new Maggiano's in Hackensack is open on Christmas Day? I can't get anything off of their website, and I hate calling that chain, since it's difficult to reach a human and often even more difficult to get a sensible answer out of that human. Maggiano's will work fabulously for us, but I'm afraid that if they're not open we'll end up at a diner, which is not only not my idea of fun, but will make my husband complain for four months. Also my kid probably won't eat anything but the pickles. Does anyone have other suggestions? By the way, my husband will not eat Chinese, and my sister will not eat anything in most Vegetarian restaurants, because they serve mostly vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, pretty much none of which she will eat. We really want a fairly traditional Christmas meal, preferably in someplace that will serve pasta. And cooking at home is unfortunately completely impossible, for even more complicated reasons. Help!

I don't know the area restuarants, but what about having it catered? My stove and oven gave up the ghost 3 days before Thanksgiving, with a dozen relatives on the way, and I was able to find someone to cook the whole dinner and bring it over that morning.

Or you might be able to find a hotel with a conference/dining room and set up the perfect menu for your family.

Have you tried www.opentable.com? It might give you an idea of what restaurants are open that can accommodate you and then you can check the menu if it is online. I tried a reservation for 12/25 and under Maggiano’s it says that they can’t accommodate my request, but it doesn’t say it is closed, which it does for other restaurants. If they are brand new, they might not have made a decision yet to be open unless it is company policy one way or the other. They might be waiting to see how much interest is out there – how many calls they get, etc.

Unfortunately, eating at home at all is impossible, or I would just cook at my home and drive it up to Jersey on Xmas Morning. However the hotel idea is a good one, if potentially really pricey (we're not really good for more than twenty-five to thirty a head), but that gives me an idea. Does anyone know if the Clinton Inn in Tenafly is still around (and still running its restaurant)? Strikes me as the kind of meal they used to do.

And thanks for the opentable suggestion, I'll try that.