By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Nov 09, 2017 at 5:56 PM

Why celebrate a regular Thanksgiving with the usual relatives when you can celebrate Hanksgiving with your relatives, friends AND America's dad, the one and only Thomas Jeffrey Hanks?

That's the question you will have to ask yourself next week when the Avalon and Lakefront Brewery bring Hanksgiving – a celebration dedicated to the two-time Oscar winner and star of Carly Rae Jepsen's "I Really Like You" music video – to Bay View on Wednesday, Nov. 15, headlined by two screenings of the beloved 1998 comedy "Big" at 7 and 9:30 p.m.

It wouldn't be a fitting film feast without food, so there will be turkey served at Hanksgiving – no, not "Inferno," but a special Hanksgiving poutine with house-cut fries topped with roast turkey, cheese curds, turkey-sage gravy and fresh cranberry relish (not quite mom's typical dried-out turkey and cranberry sauce plopped out of a can ... my apologies, mom), all served with a Lakefront Brewery beer. Those pun-derfully themed Lakefront options include:

  • Steinless in Seattle (Riverwest Stein)
  • You've Got Ale (IPA)
  • David S. Pumpkins Lager (Pumpkin Lager)
  • Zoltar Speaks (SHop Centennial IPA)
  • Life is Like a Keg of Double Chocolate Stout (My Turn Latif Organic Double Chocolate Stout)

General admission for "Big" is $5, but the full package, complete with Hanksgiving dinner and a beer, will cost $20. For more information on tickets and details, visit the Avalon's website

So come, celebrate one of the few remaining not-terrible men in Hollywood, enjoy a cornucopia of gravy-soaked food and maybe even get a picture with the "Big" guy!

OK, so maybe just a cutout. Still more lively than "Larry Crowne" though!

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.