M.M. Cloutier
From hosting all-night carousing with music and dancing to offering special dinner menus, Palm Beach’s restaurants are set to welcome New Year’s Eve revelers on Dec. 31.
While some will feature their regular menus with specials, others will showcase menus with three, four or five courses.
Celebrants looking to party into the evening will find plenty of opportunities, with live music, DJs, party favors and Champagne toasts.
Advance reservations are a must for New Year’s Eve dinner at the island’s restaurants, but not if you plan on simply dropping by for a drink at the bar.
It’s worth bearing in mind that, though generally understood, prices, including for multi-course menus, don’t include tax and gratuity.
Ready to ring in the New Year? Here are some options:
HMF at The Breakers
One of the most lavish New Year’s Eve galas will be held at HMF at The Breakers from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
The vast dining-and-drinking social destination, with a 2,000-bottle wine wall and soaring ceilings, was once home to The Breakers’ historic Florentine Room.
At $1,000 a person, HMF’s New Year’s Eve party will feature a special menu with “culinary presentations to surprise and delight,” hotel officials said, plus entertainment that will include a 12-piece band with vocalists.
Other features: a midnight Champagne toast and a balloon drop.
Swifty’s at The Colony Hotel
At the hotel known affectionately among its fans as the Pink Paradise, New Year’s Eve promises to be an evening of “dining, dancing and sophisticated mayhem.”
At the hotel’s poolside Swifty’s restaurant, festivities from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. ($799 a person) will include a four-course dinner by executive chef Tom Whitaker and his team, plus a premium open bar with specialty cocktails and Champagne.
After dancing the night away, look for a midnight Champagne toast followed by culinary treats. The dress code? “Glamorous,” hotel officials said.
Florie’s at the Four Seasons
The New Year’s Eve celebration at Florie’s ($680), the restaurant by Michelin-starred Mauro Colagreco in partnership with the Four Seasons, includes a cocktail reception, a Champagne bar, canapes and a four-course dinner with wine pairings.
Later, a DJ for dancing, a Champagne toast at midnight and passed hors d’oeuvres are set for an after-party to which Florie’s celebrants will have access, Four Seasons officials said.
Dinner seatings between 7:30 and 10: 30 p.m. will feature such courses as langoustine tartare with radish salad, yuzu gel, caviar cream and herb oil; and Wagyu beef filet with braised squash, crystallized watercress salad, citrus powder and sauce Perigord with black truffle.
La Goulue
In addition to a special five-course dinner menu, La Goulue’s New Year’s Eve will feature a DJ, party favors and a Champagne toast at midnight.
The dinner ($275), with seatings at the French bistro from 5 p.m. on, starts with an amuse bouche of wood-oven bay scallop with Altima Caviar and gold leaf.
Among the selections in the five-course dinner: Maine lobster saffron risotto with steamed baby vegetables; and imported Japanese A5 Kobe beef striploin with shallots, sherry vinegar, frites and string beans.
Dessert: Choose between frozen-meringue cake with raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream, or a dark, white and milk chocolate “decadence” with chocolate/coffee shavings.
Café L’Europe
Two dinner seatings will be offered at Café L’Europe on New Year’s Eve, when features will include multicourse menus, music and dancing.
The first seating from 5 to 7 p.m. is $295 a person and includes a photo booth, live piano music, party favors and a glass of champagne.
Among the entrees: Dover sole, veal chop and lobster fricassee.
The second seating, from 8 to 9:30 p.m., features a five-course dinner ($425), plus a portrait artist in action, a photo booth, a DJ, dancing, a glass of champagne and party favors.
Along with such entrée selections as filet mignon and lobster fricassee, look for such desserts as a trio of souffles as part of the second seating’s five-course menu.
Meat Market
Meat Market, the contemporary steakhouse, which also features seafood galore, is hosting a New Year’s Eve “Black and White Ball.”
Guests are encouraged to wear their finest black-and-white attire as they “plunge into a world of glamor and luxury,” the restaurant’s officials said.
Pricing starts at $350 a person. Tables are sold with a set number of seats.
The evening, which starts at 9 p.m., will feature a special menu, live music and dancing. At midnight, guests will be treated to a Louis Roederer Champagne toast.
A portion of the proceeds is set to benefit The Children’s Cancer Center in Sarasota.
Flagler Steakhouse
From 5:30 to 10 p.m., Flagler Steakhouse, on the second level of The Breakers’ golf-and-tennis clubhouse, will offer a three-course New Year’s Eve menu for $425 a person.
Seating includes the dining room and an al fresco golf course-view terrace, which also looks out toward downtown West Palm Beach’s skyline.
Steakhouse classics will be featured on the special three-course menu, plus seafood selections. Flagler Steakhouse also is known for dishes inspired by Italian cuisine.
The Seafood Bar
With an expansive Atlantic Ocean view through floor-to-ceiling windows, the Seafood Bar, with interior appointments reminiscent of a yacht, has planned a special three-course menu for New Year’s Eve.
Offered from 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., the menu is $400, but children 12 and younger may enjoy it for the special price of $125 between 6 and 7:30 p.m.
On New Year’s Eve, there is a two-hour dining limit for guests with reservations between 6 and 7:30 p.m.
Café Boulud
The French restaurant plans to celebrate New Year’s Eve with special menus offered at two different seatings.
An early seating (5 to 6:30 p.m.) will feature canapes and a three-course menu for $210 for adults and $80 for children younger than 10.
From 8 to 10 p.m., canapes will be followed by a five-course menu for $445 for adults and $160 for children younger than 10.
The early-seating menu includes such entrée selections as prime-grade beef tournedos with spinach, confit shallot, porcini mushrooms and truffle jus, and an oven-roasted cauliflower dish with piquillo, hazelnuts, capers and lemon zest.
Wild brill “queen of the seas” served with caviar, vermouth and sea bean, and prime-grade beef Wellington “Rossini” with spinach, foie gras and truffle jus are among the entrée selections during the second seating.
Almond
Two New Year’s Eve dinner seatings are planned at Almond, with the second featuring live music and more.
The first evening seating any time before 9 p.m. will feature the restaurant’s regular a la carte menu with specials highlighting caviar, truffles and stone crab.
A “super-deluxe” five-course menu ($150 a person) is planned for a 9 p.m. seating with party favors, a Champagne toast, live music and dancing.
“That only-at-Almond style of merriment, conviviality, warmth and bonhomie will ensue,” according to Almond co-founder Eric Lemonides.
Locals are welcome to drop by Almond at any time during the evening for snacks at the bar and variously priced specialty cocktails.
LoLa 41
Dinner specials are on tap throughout New Year’s weekend at LoLa 41, where globally influenced fare takes center stage.
Along with LoLa 41’s regular menus, the dinner specials will be offered Dec. 29 through Jan. 1.
Caviar “crispy rice” ($40) with Royal Ossetra Caviar, crème fraiche, egg-yolk mousse and chive is among the specials.
Others: seared toro sashimi ($65) with sea-salt flakes, kimchi Wagyu tallow and black garlic aioli; and dry-aged New York strip steak ($75) with lobster butter, tempura Japanese yam and truffle salt.
Chocolate mousse torte ($17) with raspberry Prosecco compote is set for the dessert special.
Eau Palm Beach Resort in Manalapan
Celebratory New Year’s Eve dinner events are set for Eau Palm Beach.
At Italian restaurant Polpo, the Palm Beach sister to the same-named restaurant in Greenwich, Connecticut, guests can enjoy a four-course New Year’s Eve dinner ($150 a person) or a five-course dinner ($165).
Seatings are available between 5:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Wine pairings, party favors and a midnight Champagne toast are offered with Polpo’s five-course New Year’s Eve menu.
Eau’s Angle restaurant, with its underlit amber-and-onyx communal table, will offer special menus at two seatings.
A four-course menu ($150) comes with seatings from 5:30 to 7 p.m.; a five-course menu ($255) is for seatings from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.