By DCist contributor Amy Monroe

According to popular lore, D.C. is a town of transients who call somewhere else home. Need support for this common theory? Just look at the mass exodus of residents who will exit the District today in name of spending Thanksgiving in their “real” hometowns.

But some D.C. dwellers stay behind. For those who do but who don’t want to have Thanksgiving dinner in a hotel restaurant, the dining options are generally two: dine alone in your apartment while watching John Madden dole out turkey leg trophies; or dine with a hastily assembled group of similarly D.C.-bound friends while watching John Madden dole out turkey leg trophies.

DCist insists that either of these options may be fun when paired with the right wine in the right quantity. To that end, we have drawn up a list of Thanksgiving-appropriate small- and large-format options for the single diner as well as the group diner.