Don’t drop the ball on your New Year’s Eve dinner plans–reserve a seat at one of these swanky Dec. 31 dinners today!
Le Café Miche
Satisfy your craving for fine French cuisine by dining at Le Café Miche this New Year’s Eve. For only $90, Chef Claus Hjortkjaer is offering a fantastic four-course dinner and party complete with funny hats, live entertainment and champagne. (However, the price does not include tax or gratuity, so be sure to bring a little extra.) The menu begins with your choice of lobster bisque or duck consommé with wild mushrooms. For the entrée, you have a choice of beef Wellington, roasted loin of lamb, duck à l’orange or grilled Chilean sea bass. For dessert, there’s Le Café Miche’s special "Auld Lang Syne" dessert. We aren’t sure what that is, but rest assured, it will be tasty. There are three different seating times at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Reservations are strongly recommended.
Chama River Brewing Company
Chama River Brewing Company has plenty of holiday spirit to go around.
Executive Chef Stephen Shook will make sure your last meal of 2006 is one of the best. $65 covers dinner, live music, dancing and a champagne toast at midnight (add $15 for a flight of freshly crafted Chama River beers, and $32 or $45 for one of two wine flights). Starting at 8 p.m., enjoy a five-course meal beginning with pan-seared scallops with parsnip-apple purée and fennel slaw with vanilla butter. There are two entrée choices, one being pan roasted chicken supreme with roasted red pepper butter, warm greens and potato cake. Finish up with chocolate terrine with bruléed bananas. Reservations are a must, so call ahead.
Graze
Amuse your mouth at Graze! In addition to their regular menu, they have a $50 prix fixe menu that will begin service at 5 p.m. Choose between consommé with smoked chicken and julienned vegetables or an Elis arugula, salt-baked pear, blue cheese and port vinaigrette salad. Entrée choices include seared, chile-rubbed pork tenderloin over black beans, topped with a tropical fruit relish or a mushroom tartlet with walnut purée, topped with a frisée and dried apricot salad. Seating is limited and reservations are encouraged.
The Kitchen Angels’ Black And White Ball
This New Year’s, do something that’s as good for your stomach as it is for your soul. Santa Fe’s Kitchen Angel’s are hosting a New Year’s Eve Black and White Ball to raise money for those in need. $150 per person covers dinner, dessert, two drink tickets, wine, live entertainment by Brother E. Clayton and the Mighty Soul Deacons and a champagne toast at midnight. Each table will also receive antipasto with various meats, cheeses, veggies and breads. The menu includes sausage-stuffed pork loin, butter sage boneless chicken thighs, baked white fish and tiramisù, coffee and biscotti for dessert. Dinner and festivities begin at 8:30 p.m. and last until 12:30 a.m. For tickets, reservations and additional information, contact Kitchen Angels.
Pars Cuisine
If your New Year’s resolution is to try new things, Pars Cuisine is definitely the place to go for a truly unique dining experience. Their New Year’s package includes an appetizer, entrée, dessert, glass of champagne, live music and belly dancing. Some of the entrée choices include chicken kababs, beef and lamb gyros or a vegetarian falafel plate. Dinner is from 5 p.m. until midnight and is $38 per person or $70 per couple. Call for reservations.
Scalo
The staff at Scalo never cease to amaze us. Their four-course New Year’s dinner has everything you need to start the year off right. You’ll get three choices for each course, including seared diver scallops with American caviar, local field greens with winter vegetables, Anjou pears and hazelnuts, Colorado lamb saddle with semolina gnocchi, olives and goat cheese, and for dessert, vanilla bean and pistachio semifreddo with sun-dried fruits. Seating begins at 5 p.m. and is $55 per person. For a total of $80, you can have a flight of four wines paired with each course, which is quite a deal. Call for reservations.
Zinc Wine Bar And Bistro
Zinc Winebar and Bistro rings in the New Year with casual elegance.
Zinc offers several options to help ring in the New Year. From 4 to 11 p.m., dinner will be offered in the main dining room. That menu highlights some of their signature dishes (beef tenderloin with Maytag mashed potatoes) as well as a few prepared especially for the holiday (oyster trio on the half shell followed by New Mexico lamb chop). Downstairs, the Cellar Bar will serve a four-course prix fixe menu featuring crab bisque, duck confit egg roll, grilled salmon and assorted chocolate truffles, as well as many other fantastic dishes. The cost is $60 per person (includes live classical music and wine pairings), but reservations are required. To end the night, the Chris Dracup Band will perform funk and blues from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The cost for that is $10 and includes party favors and a champagne toast at midnight. Seats are first come, first served, so get there early!
