You can’t swing a streamer in town without hitting an event or venue where you can ring in the new year.
Here are some highlights of the evening festivities guaranteed to score a midnight smooch:
* Light the night during Denver’s explosive firework displays at 9 p.m. and again at midnight above the 16th Street Mall, the Mile High City’s mile-long pedestrian promenade.
Between the fireworks shows there will be DJs, live music, magicians, balloon artists and outdoor ice skating while horse-drawn carriages clatter up and down the street.
For information on New Year’s Eve packages and deals at some of Denver’s finest hotels, ranging from the luxurious to the budget friendly, go to www.milehighholidays.com.
* The Children’s Museum of Denver will ring in New Year’s Eve like New York’s Times Square with ball drops every hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Children of all ages can count down the ball drops, watch confetti plash the plaza, and make fireworks with their feet when they jump on massive sheets of bubble wrap. Free with admission.
* The Denver Zoo is hosting “Bunk With the Beasts,” where parents can leave their kids to explore Zoo Lights and celebrate sleepover-style in a safe environment. The evening includes pizza, snack and breakfast for $65 per member or $75 for non-members.
* The Colorado Symphony Orchestra will keep New Year’s Eve classy with a Vienna-themed selection of waltzes, polkas and classics beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Boettcher Concert Hall. Tickets are from $25 to $88.
* The Grand Hyatt Denver knows how to party on Dec. 31 with a premium open bar, buffet supper, champagne toast at midnight, party hats and favors and balloon drops in three ballrooms. Entertainment from The Nacho Men and Denver’s Best Dueling Pianos. Tickets are $139 per person for the party only, or $399 for two party tickets and overnight hotel accommodations. Tickets available at Blacktie (of course). https://www.blacktie-colorado.com/online_sales/rsvp_ticket_purchase.cfm?rsvpid=6837
* The Crowne Plaza Denver International Airport Convention Center, Colorado’s largest hotel event space, is throwing a NYE Block Party with the takeover of seven hotels within walking distance. Tickets are $49 to $79.
* The newly renovated McNichols Building in Civic Center Park will turn into a speakeasy to ring in the New Year. Ticket proceeds will go to the S.O.U.L. Foundation’s projects in Uganda. Admission is $75.
* Dance in the New Year at a massive celebration at the Colorado Convention Center, the biggest and most extravagant venue in Denver. Tickets are $50 to $150.
* The annual White Rose Gala at the Hilton DoubleTree DTC is a night of living theater where you are part of a musical and theatrical performance. Tickets are $59 to $499.
* All of the Bonanno Concepts restaurants, owned by Chef Frank Bonanno, will be open New Year’s Eve with some serving special menus to celebrate the birth of 2013.
Mizuna and Luca d’Italia at Seventh and Grant will serve chef’s tasting menus with optional wine pairings. At Luca, Executive Chef Hunter Pritchett has created a seven-course menu. At Mizuna, Chef Stephen McCary will orchestrate a stunning six-course prix fixe menu.
Osteria Marco on Larimer Square will serve a three-course prix fixe menu from Executive Chef Burton Koelliker. Across Larimer, cocktail enthusiasts looking for a snazzy spot with live music are invited to Green Russell, which will host the Scott Grove Quartet for the evening.
Reservations are highly recommended at each restaurant: www.mizunadenver.com, www.lucadenver.com, www.osteriamarco.com and www.greenrusselldenver.com.
* 1515 Restaurant on 1515 Market St. is ringing in the new year with a tantalizing tasting menu created by Chef Garren Teich, inspired by famed Chef Auguste Escoffier, who created the first-class menus for the Titanic.
The early seating reservations taken from 5 to 6 p.m. Dec. 31 features a decadent three-course menu for $40 per person (not including tax and gratuity), and late seating reservations beginning at 6 p.m. features four courses for $60 per person (excluding tax and gratuity).
Guests at both seatings will receive a complimentary glass of champagne and musical entertainment. Reservations are required by calling 303-571-0011 or by going to http://www.1515restaurant.com/index.php/new-year-s-eve.
* Bring in the New Year with local vocal Hazel Miller and her band at Coohills, 1400 Wewatta.
Coohills is featuring three options for the event: Enjoy a casual evening in the bar with a limited a la Carte menu for $40 per person or $75 per couple cover charge.
There’s also a special prix fixe menu in the main dining room with early seating reservations between 5 and 6:30 pm for a five-course meal at $75 per person (not including tax and gratuity).
Or late seating reservations starting at 8 pm, featuring seven courses with music and dancing to the soulful sounds of the Hazel Miller Band for $135 per person (not including tax & gratuity).
The band will perform from 8:30 p.m. till 12:30 a.m. Reservations: 303-623-5700 or at www.coohills.com.
Sandy survivor support
Join Denver’s New Jersey transplants from 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday at Vesper Lounge on Seventh and Grant for “Operation Sandy Rescue,” a fundraiser to benefit the Westfield Rotary Club in New Jersey for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.
The cost is $20 at the door with 100 percent of all entrance fees, food and liquor sales going to the charity.
The event is brought to you by Jersey girls and boys Wendy Aiello, (Vesper owner) Frank Bonanno, Phil Cortese, Sean Duffy, Ken Fellman, Carmine Iadorola, Michael Kearns, Sean Kenyon and Gene Sobczak.
Jackson’s joins Celebrity Lanes
Celebrity Lanes, the 40-lane bowling alley, kid zone, arcade, tap house, sports grill and outdoor bocce ball facility that opened at Centennial Center (on the northwest corner of East Arapahoe and South Parker roads) last year, has changed the restaurant operator to Jackson’s All American Sports Grill.
Kelmore Development is the owner and developer of the project. I’m told that the bowling alley is busy, and that now, thanks to Jackson’s, so is the restaurant space. The project is a $13 million 50,000-square-foot family entertainment center.
Eavesdropping on a wife and her husband: “How do you like this outfit?”
“It’s fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Well, it’s not cut down to your navel or up to your hip, so it’s ‘just’ fine.
Wife leaves the room.
Did you hear that I have a new column, “Mile High Life,” in Colorado Community Media’s 17 weekly newspapers circling Denver? Be sure to like my Facebook page! Also, here’s where you go to get my column emailed to you Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I’m now the social-media liaison for the Mile High Chapter of the Colorado Restaurant Association, so read my latest restaurant news there. My email: penny@blacktie-llc.com.
Comments are closed.
Leave a comment