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“Except for the fact that we’re here, this restaurant could be in Korea,” observed my sensible, midwestern mother-in-law as she peered around the bustling, majestically situated dining room at Gaonnuri, which opened several weeks back on the 39th floor of 1250 Broadway, overlooking Koreatown and Herald Square. My mother-in-law has never been to Korea, as it happens. As far as I know, she had never been to a Korean restaurant before. She does not know what kimchee is, and if she did, she’d probably seal it in a Tupperware container and confine it to the nearest hazmat bin. My mother-in-law has never experienced the glories of mandoo dumplings or sweet japchae noodles or bibimbap. She isn’t a fan of red meat, or barbecue in general, and on the rare occasion that she does order a steak back home in the suburbs of Detroit, she instructs the kitchen to broil it at such a high heat that the end product has to be cut with the proverbial hacksaw.

Everyone knows there’s more to Thanksgiving than the bird. There’s family dynamics; there’s the seemingly warring flavor profiles of all the other fixings; there’s football. And there are plenty of opportunities throughout the day to sip, toast, guzzle, and slurp, whatever your chosen libation. But that’s just it: Although turkey is incontestable, what you drink with it is not. In the absence of hard and fast rules, we consulted the beer, wine, cider, and cocktail experts on what to quaff at every critical juncture, from basting the bird to the ritualistic gobbling of the leftover-turkey sandwich. While there is no one perfect pairing for the entire feast day, there are plenty of great suggestions, courtesy of Belinda Chang, head beverage honcho for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Culinary Concepts; master sommelier and Corkbuzz co-owner Laura Maniec, who’s got a soft spot for bubbly; PDT cocktail maestro Jim Meehan; and Hayley Jensen, beer sommelier at Taproom No. 307.