The Lemon Tree Café was rammed with lunchtime customers looking to partake in a bit of American-style Thanksgiving turkey dinner yesterday.And not just any Turkey — deep fat fried turkey, which has become hugely popular in recent years.Co-owners Brendan Huttick and Craig Smith said they cooked up 14 turkeys and five hams and business was buzzing.“It was awesome,” Mr Huttick said. “We did catering for over 100 people off-site at five different businesses.”Dozens more came in to the cafe itself for a taste of turkey and all the trimmings including garlic mashed potatoes, ‘grandma’s stuffing’, green beans with crispy fried onions and pumpkin pie.“It was a bunch of Americans and non-Americans kind of getting into the Thanksgiving thing,” Mr Smith said.But the big attraction seemed to be the actually cooking of the turkey.“Brendan was out here deep-frying the turkeys and people were enthralled with watching that,” Mr Smith said. “Fourteen birds — and they’re pretty much all gone!”The pair said they also did their special “Healthy Plate of the Day” for 24 people at a Diabetes Association lecture at the Chamber of Commerce.“That’s a big thing that we’re doing — our Healthy Plate, which is diabetic friendly that we do every day. It’s approved by the diabetes association,” Mr Huttick said.The Healthy Plate is offered at the Lemon Tree every day and the menu for it and other lunch items are posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page every day.When asked how business is, Mr Huttick said there’s good news and bad news.“It’s down. Across the board, restaurants are just down,” he said. “But our catering side of things is up. We’re really, really kicking into catering. That’s daily lunches at places, we did the last three triathlons and She Rox. We do breakfast caterings, corporate stuff, parties — you name it.“So that’s what we’re focused on because it’s just building. Every catering event that we do creates a catering. And just the feedback we’re getting is what’s keeping us growing.”“A lot of people we cater for tell us they’re just tired of going with the other guys. And we just do quality food. Our food is a price, but you’re going to get quality food. You’re not going to get processed turkey. It’s real food. We roast our own meats daily — ham, chicken, turkey — everything’s roasted on-site.”The duo say just about everything’s made from scratch and it’s part of their motto.“I think one of the most awesome things about us is every single day, our menu is made up on the day, completely fresh,” Mr Smith said.“For a cafe, our quality of chefs are fine dining.”While the Lemon Tree does off-site catering, they also do private parties, special events and corporate functions at their Queen Street location.“They hear the name Lemon Tree, but they don’t realise the amazing facility that we have outdoor in the park,” Mr Smith said. “We’re the only place that’s in the middle of a park, in the middle of the city, in the middle of an island, in the middle of the ocean.”After a successful Thanksgiving Day crowd, the two along with the rest of the Lemon Tree Café staff were due to be back up before dawn to open at 4am today to serve coffee, tea and a full breakfast to Black Friday shoppers braving the early morning crowds.With some stores opening at 4am or 5am and staying open late, the two will be at it all day keeping festive shoppers fuelled.“We’ll also be doing doughnuts for late-night shopping out front. And we’ll have mulled wine and hot chocolates tomorrow night until 11 or 11:30,” Mr Huttick said.When asked late yesterday afternoon if they were going to cook Thanksgiving dinner for their own families after cooking all day long, Mr Huttick said, “I’ve got mine all packed up, but my wife’s cooking the rest!”To see daily specials from the Lemon Tree Café, you can visit them on their Facebook page, facebook.com/LemonTreeCafe.