It's gude to be merry and wise,
It's gude to be honest and true;
It's gude to be off with the old love
Before you are on with the new.
—Anonymous, courtesy of Anthony Trollope (British novelist), 1857
We are all gude at this time of the year, or soon will be, right? We only have to frogmarch our bad habits — the ones we love too much — out of our lives and pledge ourselves to new ones. At least that's what Trollope's quote suggests.
I bet one thing Trollope wished he could put behind him was his surname, which resembles the word "trollop" — slang derived from the German word trolle, meaning wench, but most often associated with "prostitutes," according to the dictionary.
But I digress.
New Year's is meant to be merry. It's the one holiday that practically everybody feels obligated to celebrate in some form, even confirmed party haters. After all, as we reach the calendar's turning point and prepare to shed the old and take up the new, before we take vows of sex-, drug- or booze-moderation, start strict diets, or become betrothed or married, why not indulge first in a little lighthearted partying?
Celebrating New Year's doesn't mean simply getting smashed either. Those of us who cook our way through the holidays are reaching culinary overload: We have had enough of temperamental electric carving knives, burned cranberry nut bread, and spilled silver dragees. We are ready to put down our oven mitts and wooden spoons, and let the pros do the honors.
To that end, I have listed a few celebratory adventures (of the wine and dine variety) you might want to try this New Year's Eve.
Consider Kelly's…for Just About Anything, along Dunedin's Main Street. The restaurant plans to serve from its regular menu on New Year's Eve, while whetting your appetite with a few fancy specials, such as filet with foie gras (market price, but typically about $25) and smoked rumaki scallops ($18). Restaurant patrons will be given free admittance to the Chic-A-Boom Room, site of the main festivities; others pay a $10 per person cover charge. L'il Pearl and Fat Daddies (blues) entertain, and the restaurant supplies noisemakers, hats, champagne for toasts, and a balloon drop at midnight. The lounge is open till 2 a.m.
If you leave to party elsewhere, you can return to Kelly's at dawn for an unusually accomplished early-morning feed, beginning at 8 a.m. New Year's Day. I pity the kitchen staff members who have to drag their protesting corpses into work that morning to fix breakfast — but better them than you or me! My particular breakfast favorites include seafood omelet ($7.99), fruit smoothie ($2.79) and oat bran banana flapjacks ($6.29).
Weekly Planet's 2003 choice for Best of the Bay Holiday Hangout, Saffron's Caribbean Cuisine in St. Pete, is planning its usual, off-the-charts blowout. Saffron's will serve from the restaurant's regular menu until 9 p.m. At 9:30 p.m., the New Year's Eve party buffet begins.
For $35 per person, plus tax and tip, Chef Edyth will provide jerk chicken, turkey, ham, dirty rice, rice and beans, soup, green salads, dessert and beverages. Some people even bring their kids, as the restaurant provides a "Kiddies' Corner," complete with babysitter, while the adults do something more relaxing than parenting. The restaurant also supplies a live band, hats, noisemakers, balloons, champagne for toasting, plus a full breakfast at 2 a.m. It is one heck of a bash.
Tampa's Profusion Restaurant is offering a "3-2-1 Champagne and Wine Dinner" for New Year's Eve, meaning you get a three-course meal, two glasses of wine and one glass of champagne, for $48.88 per person, or $38.88 for those who forego alcoholic beverages. For the first course, the restaurant offers eight choices, such as roasted corn, an excellent lobster risotto, or crab bisque; for the second course, diners can choose from seven choices, like glistening, wok-tossed shrimp and scallops, or curried chicken; three desserts will be offered, two of which will be fresh fruit tart and a homemade sorbet trio.
One of my favorite Ybor City restaurants, La Terrazza, is doing a New Year's Eve dinner including appetizer, main dish and dessert with coffee for $30 per person, from 6 to 10:45 p.m.
Cha Cha Coconuts Tropical Bar & Grill has probably the best view of any bar or restaurant in the entire Bay area, since it sits five stories atop the St. Pete Pier, a quarter-mile out in the velvet blackness of Tampa Bay. However, its food is mediocre — flavorless black beans, burgers made from poor-quality meat, dog-eared fruit decorating watery drinks. So, if poor fare would ruin your evening, go elsewhere. Note to management: The locals might be more enthusiastic patrons of your establishment if the kitchen did a better job.
Still, its scenic charms are undeniable. Step outside onto the adjacent observation deck, and it's possible to experience a double set of fireworks: St. Pete's show cascading above, and — on a clear night — the burst of light and color that is Tampa's fireworks across the bay. On one side, St. Pete's towering skyscrapers dazzle, and on the other side is the faint, jeweled glow of Tampa across the bay.
The restaurant plans a New Year's Eve luau, with 40 or 50 appetizers, an open bar, live music, hats, champagne, noisemakers and party favors, priced at $50 per person. Dress warmly, as it's cold that far above the bay.
If the starry glamour of the bay at night appeals to you, but you'd rather be in Tampa, try StarShip Dining Yacht's floating cocktail party, a cruise on a new, specially designed, $7-million, 180-foot yacht. Board at 10 p.m. New Year's Eve, and celebrate until 1 a.m., with open bar, champagne, party favors, and a decent spread of hors d'oeuvres, raw bar, carving stations for roast beef or ham, cheese and vegetable and pasta stations, and desserts. Diners must be 21 years or older; the cost is $99 per person, plus tax and tip.
At midnight, the captain will position the ship so its passengers get a spectacular view of Tampa's fireworks, a memorably dramatic burst of color and concussion, mirrored in the bay's glassy surface.
Happy holidays!
Chic-A-Boom Room, Kelly's … for Just About Anything, 319 Main St., Dunedin, 727-736-5284 or www.kellyschicaboom.com.
Saffron's Caribbean Cuisine, 1700 Park St. N., St. Petersburg, 727-345-6400 or www.saffronscuisine.com.
Profusion Restaurant, 2223 N. Westshore Blvd., Tampa , 813-353-8400.
La Terrazza Ristorante Italiano, 1727 Seventh Ave., Ybor City, 813-248-1326.
Cha Cha Coconuts at The Pier, 800 Second Ave. NE, St. Petersburg, 727-822-6655.
StarShip Dining Yacht, 603 Channelside Drive, Tampa, 813-223-7999 or www.starshipdining.com.
Contact Food Critic Sara Kennedy at sara.kennedy@weeklyplanet.com, or 813-248-8888, ext. 116.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2003.