From Ella Fitzgerald to Barry Manilow to Diana Krall, numerous singers have posed the question “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” The “jackpot question” closes Frank Loesser’s popular song of the same name. And although written in 1947, the tune remains relevant.
“You feel social pressure to do something,” said Jayla Boire of Greenville. “Afterward, everyone asks you what you did, and you want to say you did something fun.”
Celebrants aren’t the only ones feeling some pressure. Today, restaurants and venues seeking to capitalize on the New Year’s hoopla have to be many things to many people. And they’re not just targeting adults. Pint-sized revelers also want to throw confetti and their toot horns – they just want to do it all before bedtime.
Judging by the amount of activities for adults and children, there’s enough to satisfy most people’s holiday preferences, which have changed considerably over the past 15 years.
Casual, Flexible and Fun
New Year’s Eve in Delaware once meant party clothes, high-priced prix fixe menus and four-to-five hour commitments in a club, restaurant or rented hall. “It used to be a black tie affair,” agreed Dan Butler, owner of three restaurants in Delaware and Chester County, Pa.
Today’s more dressed-down occasions partly stem from an overall trend. People don’t gussy up for an everyday restaurant dinner let alone pull out the sequins and suit jackets for New Year’s, he said.
Many customers are also balking at paying for multiple courses and party packages. Xavier Teixido of Harry’s Hospitality, which owns and operates four restaurants in New Castle County, credits the millennium celebrations for the more low-key approach.
“It was the dagger that killed it,” said Teixido, who opened Harry’s Savoy Grill in 1988. “It was a New Year’s of unfilled expectations. Everything was so expensive and over the top.”
Longtime restaurateur Kevin Reading agreed. Reading remembers when he opened Espuma in 1999. Back then, high-end restaurants offered big-ticket meals. “I started feeling like it was ‘gouging night,’” he said.
By the time he opened Nage in 2004, he was “done with that. People should be able to go out without feeling like they’re being beaten up by the check.” His current restaurant, Abbott’s Grill in Milford, which in December opened a Laurel location, is offering the regular menu plus indulgent-worthy specials.
At the seven beach restaurants under the SoDel concepts restaurant group, New Year’s Eve is also business as usual. “It’s all a la carte and you can leave when you want,” said owner Matt Haley. “We don’t hold anybody hostage.”
Domain Hudson in Wilmington is mixing it up with a limited a la carte menu and four- or six-course fixed-price menus. Unlike some restaurants, there are no timed seatings. (Traditionally, restaurants on holidays did two seatings.)
While Domain Hudson prefers that the entire table order a fixed-price meal, it’s not required. “We just want to satisfy the guest,” said owner Mike Ross.
Although Harry’s Savoy in Brandywine Hundred still offers only a fixed-price menu on New Year’s Eve, Teixido has trimmed the courses from five to four. “People are sensitive to being overcharged,” Teixido said. “They want a value.” Offering fewer courses result in lower price tag.
At 14 Global in Bethany Beach, guests can opt for four courses or just three, a difference of $10 per person.
That’s Entertainment
While food is important, it’s the entertainment that matters the most to celebrants like Boire. She said her decision as to where to spend New Year’s Eve often boils down to who is playing where.
Restaurants with a separate lounge or bar area have an advantage: They can satisfy partiers in one area and diners in the other. In Reading’s Milford restaurant, for instance, the pub area is hosting a DJ and, later, a breakfast buffet. There’s no cover.
At Dan Butler’s Piccolina Toscana in Trolley Square, the lounge offers a party package, but it’s flexible. For $40 in advance or $50 at the door, guests have access to an open bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres. Ther will also be dance music, spun by DJ Zip, strating with 70's music and progressing decade by decade from there. If the elect to dine first, they get $20 off the dinner check. Those who aren’t interested in the open bar only pay $20.
Butler’s Deep Blue Bar & Grill in downtown Wilmington is running similar package. At his restaurant in Chadds Ford, Brandywine Prime Seafood & Chops, guests also get a midnight brunch.
At Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, founder Sam Calagione will spin records at the first seating, which starts at 6 p.m. There’s another seating featuring vinyl at 8:30 p.m. And at 10 p.m., the band the Bullbuckers takes the stage.
This year, World Café Live at the Queen is offering two separate concerts: the Spinto Band in the upstairs space and David Bromberg in the downstairs space. (The concerts have two different fees.)
Kids’ Stuff
World Café Live at the Queen is also showcasing the band Trout Fishing in America. That concert, however, is for early birds: It starts at 11:30 a.m.
Part of the Peanut Butter Jams series, the concert is for kids, who will “countdown” to noon instead of midnight. “It’s the last one in the series for the year, and it’s a nice way to end it,” said Brittany Noonan, marketing coordinator at World Café Live at the Queen.
The venue will spread mats on the floor so kids can dance, and there’s a kid-oriented buffet in the morning. This is the third year for the countdown event.
It’s the fourth year for the Noon Year’s Eve celebration at the Brandywine Zoo. The event, which runs from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., features a “resolution” station, where kids can post their commitments for 2014 on a chalkboard. There will be games, crafts and photos opps in front of a sparkly disco ball. Come noon, the kids will toast 2014 with cider.
At the nearby Delaware Children’s Museum, kids will also count down to noon at an event called “New Year’s Rockin’ Noon,” which starts at 11 a.m. with a dance party. “You put a little music on and kids go crazy,” said Nicole Kindbeiter, director of marketing.
The children will make their own noisemakers, and they can also stomp on 750 feet of bubble wrap. Come noon, they’ll toss confetti into the air.
These events fill a void left when Wilmington in 2010 discontinued its annual First Night event, which was geared to families. Dover discontinued its version in 2011.
Daytime events are often more palatable to parents. Many are off work and the kids are out of school. “They’re looking for something to do during the day,” Kindbeiter said.
Prefer to celebrate after the sun goes down? On New Year’s Eve, Longwood Gardens is augmenting its “A Longwood Christmas” promotion with strolling performers and a holiday carol sing-along. Performers include a barbershop quartet and hand bell ringers.
For families who want to stay up late, there’s an “anchor drop” in front of the Lightship Overfalls on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal at Front and Shipcarpenter streets, with activities starting at 11 p.m.
Kennett Square with ring in the New Year by dropping a 700-pound, stainless steel replica of a mushroom from a crane. No special children’s activities are planned, but the Funsters will perform at the festivities, and there’ll be food vendors on the sidewalk. (Broad Street will be closed between Cypress and State streets.) Some merchants will stay open late for the event, which starts at 9 p.m.
Organizer Kathy Lafferty, owner of The Mushroom Cap, said many area parents plan to wake their kids to watch the toadstool descend.
On New Year’s Day, families can get a brisk start to 2014 by taking a dip in the water at the Fenwick Freeze, which benefits the Fenwick Island Lifeguard Competition Fund. The chilly outing starts at 10:30 at the Bayard Street Beach.
On the warmer side, join Delaware State Parks for the First State, First Day, First Hike program. Activities vary, so check the website for information.
This program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.