BY KURT RABIN

FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Ever notice how everybody insists on eating turkey--or at least, tofurkey--on Thanksgiving Day? (Well, with the possible exception of those who require honey-baked ham with their turkey.)

That got us thinking: If turkey is such great stuff, the be-all, end-all food for one of our nation's most important holidays, why is it that most of us eat it just once a year?

And why is it that, with chicken places proliferating, there's nary a turkey restaurant to be found? You've got eateries with menus devoted exclusively to fried chicken, rotisserie chicken, barbecued chicken, Peruvian chicken, even Caribbean jerk chicken, not to mention places that do a brisk business in chicken fingers, chicken nuggets and chicken wings.

But no turkey restaurants.

Not so fast! It just so happens there is a turkey place, a turkey-only eatery that uses marinades, rubs and herb butters to infuse gobblers with 15 different flavors.

They're the Baskin-Robbins of poultry! However, Jive Turkey prepares them all the same way--in a style that's become increasingly popular in the American South. They deep-fry them. And most importantly, they ship. In fact, they're the largest purveyors of deep-fried turkeys in the nation.

But, strangely, you won't find them south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Jive Turkey is located in Brooklyn, N.Y., where it also functions as a dine-in restaurant. Besides trading in whole turkeys with such best-selling flavors as honey-pecan and peach-bourbon, they also serve turkey legs, turkey Caesar salads and turkey meatloaf, for both lunch and dinner.

Owner Aricka Westbrooks, 41, left a career in public relations eight years ago to try to get her turkey venture off the ground. Since then sales have taken off.

"The Jive Turkey name resonates with people all over the world," she said in a recent telephone interview. Jive Turkey has been featured on Travel Channel's "Deep Fried Paradise" and "Road Tasted" on Food Network.

"This year is shaping up to be one of our busiest years ever," said Westbrooks, who--between pick-up and delivery orders--expects 4,000 turkeys to be winging their way to customers' tables this Thanksgiving.

The birds, which are fried in pure peanut oil and weigh 10 to 12 pounds before cooking, feed around 10 people, she said. They can be reheated in home kitchens in the "ovenable" bag Jive Turkey provides, along with instructions.