The Denver Museum of Nature and Science sold out of its Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in its history.
Normally, the museum — which stays open on Thanksgiving — serves around 200 of the $15 meals for both guests and staff. But this year, they sold around 400 meals (that’s 20 pizzas and 64 turkeys).
“Because we're open on Thanksgiving and we have so many staff and volunteers that are here, I think it does provide a space for community during that time,” Simone Guidry, the museum’s executive chef, told Denverite before Thanksgiving. “They can have that experience here at work — it just makes everybody feel welcome and included.”
The museum has offered the feast since before Guidry started, but she told us she was happy to keep the Thanksgiving tradition going for the few who knew about it outside the museum staff.
But now there’s more than a few.
Denverite wrote an article highlighting the meal the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We called it Denver’s best-kept Thanksgiving secret.
Secret no more. By 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Denverite caught word that the museum had run out two hours before close.
A Denverite reader had written in, “Happy Thanksgiving! We were all very excited to read the story with the tip about the Thanksgiving meal at DMNS but when we got there at 1:15 pm on Thanksgiving it had already been cleaned up and put away!”
For those who scored a plate, the reviews were glowing. Denver Redditor u/Environmental-Gas361 called it delish. Denverite’s own Andy Kenney raved: “Pumpkin pie A+ Cranberry sauce A+ Sweet potatoes A+ Dinosaurs, Lego and space 5 stars”
Guidry said in an email that, “the big takeaway is that the secret is out and we will have to prepare more for next year!”
Even so, maybe get there early for Museum Thanksgiving 2026.
