Wednesday, December 26, 2007

UPDATED: New Year’s Eve: Party like it’s 2008

By Mike Orren

Updated 04:10 p.m., December 29, 2007

We're pretty proud of our listing of New Year's Eve events around here. At 200+ and growing, we're confident it is the most comprehensive list in town. (Even more so, now.) And, we've had it up since mid December, weeks before all those deadwood publications and their digital offspring.

But with that many events, it may be hard to separate the champagne from the chaff. Here's a look at some of the more interesting entries:

dmhergert

In the New Year, we resolve not to listen to anyone who freaks out over drinking baby pictures.

• The party closest to you: If you're a registered user, you can look specifically for parties near you, so you can minimize the stumble home. Registration is free and painless. (We don't ask a bunch of irrelevant questions.) Plus, it gets you The Daily You and all kinds of other goodies. So do it already! It's a New Year's resolution you can actually keep.
• Early-bird special: The Church is celebrating NYE a day early. Seems odd for all the Goth kids to be chomping at the bit to get into the future, but they do say to "dress to depress."
• Eat your way to the New Year: Nobu is doing a romantic tasting for two for $300. East Dallasites who want to walk home can catch a special dinner at Garden Cafe. Craft has two seatings -- The first seating is perfect for people wanting to go out and party after a nice dinner. Second seating will be a great way to have a nice celebration at the restaurant and the price includes champagne and party favors.
• For the kids: Try the New Year's Parade in Downtown Dallas or spend the day (and night) at Six Flags. Or, get the little buggers out of your hair so you can shake your groove thang by dumping them at the Eisenberg's Skatepark lock-in.
• Catch something new: The new NYLO hotel in Plano is having a party -- a pretty reasonable $100 all inclusive with rooms for two going for another $309. Also recently opened, The Club at the Centrum has two seatings for $50 a head, with dancing at the second seating.
• Break the bank: $799 to party at the W, including dinner and access to The Ghostbar.
• Be a cheapskate: Go to the AAC's plaza area to watch other people who paid to get into the House of Blues on the jumbotron after the Stars game. But those indoor ticket-buyers won't see the fireworks-- Suckers!
• Rock out: You can bang your head with a full bill of metal bands at the Ridglea or catch local faves The Old 97's, The Drams and Boys Named Sue in a rare show at the Longhorn Ballroom.
• Shake the NYE blues: In Grapevine, catch one of the best lineups of local blues you're likely to see any night of the year with Cheryl Arena, Hash Brown, Andrew Jr. Boy Jones and Christian Dozzler. Or, in Dallas, catch Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King at Pearl.
• Be classy: Symphony. Fort Worth Symphony. Dunno if you can get a martini at the Bass Hall, but they do have those adorable individual bottles of champagne.
• Get with the theme: Zaza has a "Heaven and Hell" party, apparently the Catholic rendition, as there are separate rooms for Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Trader Vic's is gonna be a stitch -- "the Trader Vic's Dallas team pays homage to Victor Bergeron, The Grand Master of the Free Spirited Soiree, as they invigorate party goers of past, present & future. With a 70's themed night of disco dancing, traditional Trader Vic's cocktails, and savory menu offerings… indulging behavior will soon ensue."
• Take pictures: Wherever you go, be sure to record it for posterity / blackmail. Submit the photos to our Flickr group, and we'll run them in a gallery on New Years Day or whenever we all recover.
• Stay home: No one can accuse me of not liking a good party. But I very rarely go out on NYE -- too many amateurs out there. The last night of the year will likely find me curled up in front of the fire at Casa OrWell with April, our dogs and cats, a plate of black-eyed pea cakes, a few bottles of bubbly and a movie to keep me awake until midnight. If you're of a similar ilk, check our deals section for some "hooch" specials to help you stock up for the remainder of the year.

Teresa Gubbins contributed to this guide. Tease photo under Creative Commons license from Flickr user antiguan_life. Know of other great parties for the New Year? Let us know in the comments. (If you have links handy, they're much appreciated.)

Related stories

• Dallas Observer print edition time warps to last weekend’s concert listings (Dec. 26, 2007)

See more stories in:

• Holidays > New Year's

Comments

Mike Orren Staff

And now, a word from our sponsor:

9 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Anne Young Fritsche Verified

Thanks, Pegasus News, for a year of the best photo captions in Dallas; latest example is on this page. It made me chortle.

Cheers!

9 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle Verified

If I saw someone drinking pictures of babies, chortling would certainly be in order. =p

<3 PegNews, I keeeed.

9 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

John McClelland Verified

I am going to the Stars game on NYE and hanging out with the $30k millionaires in the platinum section for a change. I scoff at the people who are paying 800 bucks to go to the W.

And several years ago, I did spend NYE at Asian Mint. They have very good food. It's probably the best price to get tanked on if they're still doing their wine pairings :)

9 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Reid Robinson Verified

Shanghai 5, DJ EZ Eddie D, and Plexus Loom will blowing it up at Lee Harvey's on NYE, serenading Chris Jones. No cover, champagne, and PBR toasts! http://leeharveys.com

9 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Rick Yost Verified

I'll be doing one of my favorite things...working the door. :-)

In between the sips, grins, and handshakes, I'll be privately, silently, discussing with my most base-inner-self, "Is there something I can do as a semi-intelligent-human being, to make this world any better, in this new year?" That will most likely be a short conversation, but we'll see.

I hope you all have a Happy "Hey,let's all go out and get stupid"- Eve.

Isn't life grand?

9 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )