The week of Thanksgiving, downtown Nashville turns into a reunion. Flights land at BNA, college kids roll in from Knoxville and Murfreesboro, and somebody always wants one night on Lower Broadway before the family dinner. If you’re looking for thanksgiving dishes Nashville friends can pass around a crowded table that week, Boqueria Fifth + Broadway has a playful answer: keep the shape of the holiday meal and swap each part for a Spanish small plate.

One thing to know before you plan. Boqueria Fifth + Broadway is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, 2026. We’re open with regular hours Monday through Wednesday of that week, back with regular hours on Black Friday (when brunch is served alongside the regular menu), and open as usual the weekend after.

So think of this as a guide to the other six days: each Thanksgiving role mapped to a dish on our menu, the week’s hours in one table, and what to order for an early-week Friendsgiving, a Wednesday-night kickoff, Black Friday brunch or a weekend dinner with relatives.

Key Takeaways

• Thanksgiving week hours: regular hours Mon to Wed (Nov 23 to 25), closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thu, Nov 26), regular hours with brunch plus the regular menu on Black Friday (Nov 27), and regular hours Sat and Sun (Nov 28 to 29).
• The holiday table translates neatly into tapas: Roasted Chicken or a paella in the middle, Patatas Bravas for the potatoes, Crispy Sweet Potatoes for the casserole and Churros or Crema Catalana for the pie.
• The best Friendsgiving nights are early in the week, while everyone is still in town, and the Wednesday before the holiday, when old friends are finally home.
• Black Friday brings brunch and the regular menu together, a good break after shopping or a morning of leftovers.
• We sit at 5005 Broadway Place, just off Broadway, a short walk from the Ryman and Bridgestone Arena.

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1. Thanksgiving Dishes Nashville Friends Can Share, Spanish Style

Every Thanksgiving spread has the same cast. There’s a big centerpiece, a potato dish, something green, the bread, a sweet-tart cranberry moment, a board to nibble before dinner, the pie and the toast. Spain has a stand-in for nearly every one, and the Fifth + Broadway kitchen cooks them every night it’s open.

Here’s how a Friendsgiving or holiday-week table lines up on our menu.

Thanksgiving role	Boqueria dish at Fifth + Broadway	In plain English
The centerpiece	Roasted Chicken (half or whole)	Roast chicken with lemon, herbs and salsa verde, a bright green herb sauce
The Spanish showpiece	Seafood, Short Rib or Vegetable Paella	Saffron bomba rice cooked in a wide pan, with a crisp bottom layer called socarrat
The rich roast	Secreto de Ibérico	The “secret cut” of the Ibérico pig, seared, with white romesco and a sherry-honey reduction
The potatoes	Patatas Bravas, Tortilla Española	Crispy potatoes with spicy brava sauce; a thick Spanish omelet of eggs and confit potatoes
The sweet potato casserole	Crispy Sweet Potatoes	Crisp sweet potatoes with mojo verde (a green herb sauce), spicy yogurt and cilantro
The greens	Espinacas a la Catalana, Grilled Broccolini	Spinach with garbanzos, pine nuts and golden raisins; broccolini with ajo blanco and almonds
The roasted vegetables	Escalivada	Fire-roasted eggplant, red pepper and onion with labne yogurt and focaccia
Bread and stuffing	Pan con Tomate, Croquetas	Toast rubbed with tomato and garlic; creamy fried croquettes
The cranberry moment	Bacon-Wrapped Dates, Croquetas de Jamón with quince purée	Sweet, salty and a little tart, the job cranberry sauce usually does
The pre-dinner board	Aged Manchego, Aged Mahón, Jamón Serrano	Spanish sheep’s milk and cow’s milk cheeses with cured ham
The pie	Churros, Crema Catalana, Orange Olive Oil Cake, Basque Chocolate Cheesecake	Fried dough for dipping, burnt-sugar custard, a citrus cake and a chocolate cheesecake
The toast	Sangría, cava, sherry	House sangría, Spanish sparkling wine and fortified wines from Jerez

The Crispy Sweet Potatoes simply trade the marshmallow topping for tangy herbs and a little heat, and the Bacon-Wrapped Dates, stuffed with almonds and Valdeón blue cheese, hit the same sweet-and-savory note as cranberry.

2. The Centerpiece: Roasted Chicken, Paella and the Socarrat Debate

In most families, the carving is the moment everyone stops talking. At a Friendsgiving downtown, two dishes can claim that spotlight.

The Roasted Chicken is the closest cousin to the holiday bird, finished with lemon, herbs and salsa verde. Get the whole one for a big table and set it in the center. No one has to wash the roasting pan.

Paella is Spain’s showpiece: saffron, bomba rice and socarrat, the crunchy, caramelized layer at the bottom of the pan. That crust starts the same friendly arguments as the crispy edge of the stuffing. We make three:

• Seafood, with monkfish, sepia (cuttlefish), squid, shrimp, clams and mussels.
• Short Rib, with braised short rib, Turkish figs, Piparra peppers and roasted bone marrow. The figs give it a late-fall richness that suits the season.
• Vegetable, with eggplant, broccoli, peas and piquillo peppers, so the vegetarians at the table get a centerpiece too.

For the friend who always wants the dark meat, the Secreto de Ibérico is the move: a buttery, marbled pork cut with a sherry-honey reduction and patatas paja, which are crispy potato straws.

Ask for your paella early and graze on small plates while the rice cooks. To practice at home before the holiday rush, our older post on holiday paella de mariscos walks through a seafood version.

3. Sides, Sweets and the Toast

Most people’s favorite part of late November is a side dish, and our tapas menu is basically a long list of very good sides.

Two kinds of potato. Patatas Bravas come with salsa brava, pimentón (smoked paprika) and garlic allioli, a Spanish garlic mayonnaise. Tortilla Española is gentler and cuts into wedges. Get both to please the mashed and roast-potato camps.

Something green. Espinacas a la Catalana gets a burst of sweetness from golden raisins. Grilled Broccolini comes with ajo blanco, an almond and garlic sauce. The Escalivada arrives with focaccia, doubling as bread.

Bread and stuffing energy. Pan con Tomate is the Catalan bread basket, and croquetas, Serrano ham with quince purée or mushroom with truffle allioli, play the comforting role of stuffing.

The pie course. Classic Churros come with dulce de leche, hot chocolate or Nutella. Crema Catalana, a lemon-scented custard under crackly sugar, is Barcelona’s custard pie. The Orange Olive Oil Cake is bright, and the Basque Chocolate Cheesecake is for chocolate loyalists.

The toast. Open with red, white or rosé sangría, clink with cava, then close with a nutty Amontillado or a dark, raisiny Pedro Ximénez sherry.

4. Thanksgiving Week Hours at Boqueria Fifth & Broadway

Here is the whole week at a glance, so you can plan your gathering around the days we’re open.

Day	Boqueria Fifth + Broadway
Mon to Wed, Nov 23 to 25	Regular hours
Thu, Nov 26 (Thanksgiving Day)	Closed
Fri, Nov 27 (Black Friday)	Regular hours, brunch + regular menu
Sat to Sun, Nov 28 to 29	Regular hours

We’re closed on Thanksgiving Day. Every other day of the week is fair game, and here’s how we’d use it.

Early-week Friendsgiving (Monday to Wednesday). Plenty of friend groups scatter for the holiday, so the start of the week is your window. Book a Monday or Tuesday dinner, put a paella and a whole Roasted Chicken in the middle, and do the gratitude round over sangría. If a few friends would rather host at their place earlier in the week, you can order to-go through the Order Online link on our location page for that early-week gathering at home.

The Wednesday-night kickoff. The night before Thanksgiving is when everyone is finally back and nobody has to cook yet. A table of tapas and a round of Shishito Margaritas, our shishito-pepper tequila cocktail, makes an easy home base before a walk down Lower Broad.

Black Friday brunch. On Friday, November 27, we’re back to regular hours, with brunch on the menu alongside the regular menu. It’s a natural stop after a morning of shopping or a welcome change from a fridge full of leftovers.

The weekend after. Relatives often stay through Sunday, the turkey is gone, and the hosts are worn out. Saturday and Sunday are regular days for us, so bring everyone downtown and let our kitchen do the work.

5. Holiday Week Downtown: The Ryman, Broadway and Family in Town

Fifth + Broadway sits in a very specific corner of Nashville. Our location page describes it as being in the heart of downtown, just off Broadway, where locals, tourists and concertgoers meet over paella, sangría and Spanish small plates. During Thanksgiving week that mix gets even better, because half the room is usually hosting the other half.

A few scenes we see every November:

• Your parents fly in early and want to see the Ryman Auditorium, the “Mother Church of Country Music,” a short walk away. Dinner before the show needs to be good and reasonably quick.
• Your crew has a game or a concert at Bridgestone Arena and would rather sit down to a proper meal than eat a stadium hot dog.
• Your friend group is splitting up for the holiday, so you’re squeezing in a Friendsgiving on Monday or Tuesday before the airport runs.

For show nights, the Pre-Theatre Menu brings our quickest tapas to share: Pan con Tomate or Pimientos de Padrón (blistered shishito peppers), two tapas per person such as Gambas al Ajillo (garlic shrimp), then Orange Olive Oil Cake or Classic Churros.

Your holiday-week plan	What to order	Why it works
Two of you, a Tuesday night off from hosting	Pan con Tomate, Crispy Sweet Potatoes, Bacon-Wrapped Dates, Half Roasted Chicken, Crema Catalana	A full holiday meal in miniature
Parents in town before a Ryman show	Pre-Theatre Menu for each person	Quick shared tapas with dessert included
Four friends, Wednesday-night kickoff	Short Rib Paella, Patatas Bravas, Espinacas a la Catalana, Croquetas de Jamón, Churros	One showpiece plus the classic sides
Six to ten at an early-week Friendsgiving	Whole Roasted Chicken, Seafood or Vegetable Paella, Tortilla Española, Grilled Broccolini, a cheese and jamón board	Something for picky eaters and adventurous ones
A group that wants zero decisions	The Classics or The Boqueria Experience Chef’s Menu	The kitchen builds the spread, paella included
Black Friday or the weekend after	Brunch Feast	Family-style brunch, portioned to the table

That last row suits visiting families. The Brunch Feast is family style: your table picks two tapas and three brunch dishes, portioned to your party, then churros. Torrija, a crispy Spanish French toast with blackberry compote, and the Brunch Paella, with roasted chicken, chorizo and farm eggs, are natural picks. Our brunch menu also lists Unlimited Drinks packages.

6. Visit Us in Fifth & Broadway

Boqueria Fifth + Broadway is at 5005 Broadway Place, just off Broadway in downtown’s busiest few blocks. The room is built to feel like a Barcelona tapas bar: lively at lunch, a local favorite for happy hour and stylish at dinner.

Downtown fills up fast in late November, so plan ahead:

• Three to four weeks out: pick your night (Monday to Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, Black Friday or the weekend after) and count heads. For a big party, reach out through the Fifth + Broadway events page. The team hosts music industry dinners, bridal brunches and game-day gatherings, so an office Friendsgiving fits right in.
• Two weeks out: reserve, and choose à la carte or a Chef’s Menu.
• At the table: ask for the paella early and open with Pan con Tomate and sangría.

Our earlier guide to group dining near Fifth + Broadway has more ideas for large tables. And for the friend who hosts every year, Boqueria gift cards make a thank-you to hand over at your early-week Friendsgiving.

Conclusion

Thanksgiving was never only about the turkey. It’s the crowded table and the passing of plates, and tapas do that by design. At Boqueria Fifth + Broadway, that means Roasted Chicken or a paella in the middle, Patatas Bravas and Crispy Sweet Potatoes around it, and churros for the pie course.

Remember the holiday schedule: we’re closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, and open with regular hours the rest of the week, including Black Friday brunch alongside the regular menu. Pick your night, round up your people and reserve a table. For the full menu, visit the Boqueria Fifth + Broadway location page. We’ll have the sangría poured.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Boqueria Fifth + Broadway open on Thanksgiving Day?

No. Boqueria Fifth + Broadway is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, 2026. We’re open with regular hours Monday through Wednesday of that week, on Black Friday (November 27) with brunch and the regular menu, and on the weekend of November 28 and 29.

What is the best night for a Friendsgiving downtown during Thanksgiving week?

Monday through Wednesday, November 23 to 25, all run on regular hours. Early in the week works well when friends are leaving town, and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is ideal for catching everyone who just got home. Reserve ahead, since downtown is busy that week.

Is brunch served on Black Friday?

Yes. On Black Friday, November 27, Boqueria Fifth + Broadway is open regular hours and serves brunch alongside the regular menu. The family-style Brunch Feast, Torrija and the Brunch Paella are all on our brunch menu.

Does Boqueria serve turkey?

Turkey isn’t on our menu. For a similar centerpiece, try the Roasted Chicken, available half or whole, or share a paella. The Secreto de Ibérico is a richer option for a smaller table.

Can I book a Friendsgiving for a large group?

Yes. Reserve a table for smaller groups, or contact the team through the Fifth + Broadway events page for larger parties and private gatherings on any open day of the week. For parties of 6 or more, a taxed 20% service charge will be added.