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New Year's Eve

hjshorter

By hjshorter
in D.C. & DelMarVa: Dining

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hjshorter

hjshorter

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Posted

We have a babysitter for the 31st, for the first time since our daughter was born. We're thinking of going out to dinner but can't figure out where. Chances are pretty good that a lot of places are booked already, but it can't hurt to make some phone calls, right?

So, I thought I would ask the board - where are you going to ring in the new year?

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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Malawry

Malawry

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Probably not what you wanted to hear, but I don't believe in going out for New Year's Eve. Meanwhile I still haven't figured out my own plans...and probably won't get it together until after Christmas.

If I just had to dine in a restaurant and was trying to figure out where to go and I had the cash I'd probably shoot for a place like 2941 though.

Rochelle Reid Myers aka "Malawry"

Diary of a Cooking School Student

Foodblog: 34 Hungry College Girls

Foodblog: Expecting a Future Culinary Student

Lots of Everything

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hjshorter

hjshorter

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I haven't been out for New Year's Eve in probably 10 years. Before kids we always had a party for all of our friends.

But, since my mom is watching the kids and we didn't get a chance to celebrate our 5th anniversary back in September, I was thinking a nice dinner might be in order, and then back home in time to watch Dick Clark. :smile:

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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bilrus

bilrus

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We went out the last two years - Ten Penh and the Caucus Room, but were planning on staying in this year and making our own nice dinner out of the French Laundry Cookbook.

BUt our plans changed and we will now be in St. Louis for New Years and driving back on New Years Day. Hopefully good food and some of my friends from back home will be in the plans.

Bill Russell

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Mayhaw Man

Mayhaw Man

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We'll be going to a small, but very nice, party with close friends and home before midnight. Blast up the atmosphere with a few (but very large :shock: ) fireworks and toast midnight and go to bed. Especially this year, as Mrs. Mayhaw has been in the hospital this week for surgery and won't be able to do much for about three weeks (except boss me around while she is heavily under the influence of various pleasant for her and not so pleasant for us painkillers :hmmm: ). So far this surgery has cost me a new TV, half a day under the house running cable for the new tv, a new disposal, carpet runners for the hardwood floors in our entrance hall, and some internet shopping done by her that is probably going to be more expensive than a few days in the hospital :shock: . They should have "post operative shopping insurance" as it costs more than the medical bills. :angry:

Living in New Orleans kind of means that New Years Eve is, by rule, amateur night. The Sugar Bowl falls on New Years Weekend and there are tons of tourists in town (don't get me wrong, we and I, love tourists-they are our economy) and they seem to be hell bent on getting totally ripped and acting like, well, tourists.

New Years Day will bring a large meal (peas, cabbage, etc.) for anybody who wants to stop by and lots of kids around the house. I usually end up loving the first day of the New Year. Casual company and great, casual food is what life is all about IMOH.

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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SWoodyWhite

SWoodyWhite

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Hmmm...

Up here in Rehoboth Beach, I'm going to have to make a list of what places are open and work from there. I know the Purple Parrot is having festivities, since we were over there for Happy Hour a couple of nights ago, but it sounded as if they are already sold out! (This in a town that a few years ago closed up for the season in September! Those days are over, folks!) Time to start digging through the Cape Gazette to find out what's going on.

Whatever we do, it will probably be an early night for us, since der Brucer, my other half, flies back to the left coast for two weeks starting New Years Day. Who knew that would be when he'd get the best price?!

We'll not discriminate great from small.

No, we'll serve anyone - meaning anyone -

And to anyone at all!

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=Mark

=Mark

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I usually end up across the street at a neighbor who originally hails from the UK. Lots of great food and drink, great real wood fire in the fireplace, and several interesting English traditions that involve all the menfolk leaving the house before midnight, carrying around lumps of coal and blowing of trumpets and other assorted noisemakers at the appointed time...

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

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JPW

JPW

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We'll be dining at home.

I usually put together a tapas/meze menu for Mrs. JPW and myself and the occasional stranger/orphan/family member who walks in off the street.

Midnight is toasted with the remnants of our wedding champagne. The brand of which I can't recall, because it is a very average wine, but special to us. With only two bottles left, I will have to find something new to drink next year.

On the plus side, I am going to dig into the stash of Shotfire Ridge Shiraz which I've accumulated. Should go great with the chorizo a la plancha dish which I've copied from Jaleo.

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

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hillvalley

hillvalley

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SWoodyWhite is right....most places at the beach are booked for New Years. A friend and I are headed to her apartment in Bethany Beach and couldn't get a reservation anywhere.

We also agree with Malawry in that really, it is just a Wednesday night and not worth all the hype many people put into their celebration.

So instead we are going to have a mercury meal at our apartment: Oysters on the half shell, lobster, steamed clams and caviar. Since we felt guilty about not having any vegetables we have decided to try Alice Walters recipe for wilted mixed greens with procuitto. We will wash down our meal with my special wasabi bloody mary's and a bottle of Champagne.

Happy New Year. Hopefully 2004 will be a year full of peace, health and happiness for all.

Mark, will Chef Richard do anything special for his staff that night?

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

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Busboy

Busboy

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Usually on New Year's Eve, we put a bottle of Stoli in the freezer and splurge on some caviar. My New Years have been starting out much better since I stopped going out the night before.

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government.

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Al_Dente

Al_Dente

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Mark, will Chef Richard do anything special for his staff that night?

I think he's renting some porn.

Man, hot tea through one's nose does not feel good.

peak performance is predicated on proper pan preparation...

-- A.B.

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hjshorter

hjshorter

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We also agree with Malawry in that really, it is just a Wednesday night and not worth all the hype many people put into their celebration.

That's great, but like I said, we're taking this as our chance to celebrate our anniversary without the kids, and wanted to hear what others were doing as inspiration - not get a lecture about how overhyped it is.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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bilrus

bilrus

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Posted (edited)
We also agree with Malawry in that really, it is just a Wednesday night and not worth all the hype many people put into their celebration.

That's great, but like I said, we're taking this as our chance to celebrate our anniversary without the kids, and wanted to hear what others were doing as inspiration - not get a lecture about how overhyped it is.

In all seriousness (and it seems like the DC members are particulalry giddy today) - the biggest advice I would give, given the fact that we are all into food more than noisemakers around here, is to look for places that aren't doing some sort of fixed or limited menu.

If you can find a nice place that isn't cranking out simplified versions of their biggest sellers, you'll be much more likely to enjoy it. That said, neither of our most recent New Year's Eve's at restaurants have been too bad. It's not quite the "teeming with people" rip-off if you stick to the Food and stay away from the Party.

Edited by bilrus (log)

Bill Russell

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hillvalley

hillvalley

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Posted
We also agree with Malawry in that really, it is just a Wednesday night and not worth all the hype many people put into their celebration.

That's great, but like I said, we're taking this as our chance to celebrate our anniversary without the kids, and wanted to hear what others were doing as inspiration - not get a lecture about how overhyped it is.

Wasn't a lecture, just stating my opinion, which I assume is allowed here.

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

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Marlene

Marlene

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We are going to Ruth's Chris here in Toronto with another couple. We'll be staying downtown at a hotel overlooking City Hall and we'll take a bottle of champagne to open at midnight.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Alex

Alex

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We'll be in DC visiting my cousins, but won't be at a restaurant. I'll be making a kick-ass dinner for them (his b-day is Dec 31) and we'll be drinking some spectacular wines from their cellar. We'll be eating out other nights, though -- probably Tuesday at Lavandou and Friday at Zaytinya.

If we did go out on NYEve I'd want to be someplace romantic at midnight.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

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"A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which you realize that you are trapped in a world almost entirely devoid of reason. Laughter is how you release the anxiety you feel at this knowledge." -Dave Barry, humorist

 

Read to children. Vote. And never buy anything from a man who's selling fear. -Mary Doria Russell, science-fiction writer

 

When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set. -Lin Yutang, writer and translator

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maggiethecat

maggiethecat

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I'll be eating the meat protein and (perhaps?) sushi masterpieces of Col Klink at the ever-welcoming party headquarters of guajolote and flaca. I'll be sampling the various and magnificent culinary offerings of Heartland eGulls. Tippling with Nero, dancing to the music of Mixmaster Matthew.

I'll meet Batgrrl! And I'll be raising toasts to my eGullet friends all over the globe.

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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