NYE FTW

30 best New Year's Eve parties and events in Houston to toast 2024

Four Season Houston throws two chic soirees.

Four Seasons Houston/Facebook

Houston, we made it. As we bid farewell to an eventful 2023, myriad spots around the city are ready to ring in the new year with chic, fun, cocktail-and-Champagne-fueled soirees. Many hotels are offering staycation packages for a fun — and convenient — way to celebrate and chill.

As always ridesharing and responsible partying is advised. Stay safe, and here's to a happy 2024.

Four Seasons Houston, lovingly known as "Houston’s living room," will throw two big bashes. Bayou & Bottle, the bustling downstairs Bourbon and Whiskey bar, will host a New Year’s Eve party will BELLOSOUND DJ, a midnight Champagne toast, party favors, and a photo area for those first 2024 IG pics. The fun runs from 9 pm to 1 am. Tables and booths start at 1 am; private event rooms are also available. Reserve seats here.

Meanwhile, Bandista, the swanky Four Seasons’ 1920s-style speakeasy hidden behind a bookcase, will host an intimate party. Guests who score one of the 20 coveted seats can enjoy the artistry and attention of some of Houston’s best bartenders — plus a whole new cocktail menu. The a la carte evening includes party favors and a midnight Champagne toast. 9 pm to 1 am; seats start at $50; reserve here.

Bandista Four Seasons Houston Steal away to an intimate party at Bandista in Four Seasons Houston. Photo courtesy of Four Seasons Houston

Berg Hospitality’s New Year bashes

All Berg Hospitality’s New Year’s Eve celebrations include live music, Dom Perignon Champagne specials ($75/glass or $295/bottle), food and drink specials, a complimentary glass of Telmont Champagne with an entertainment fee, festive décor, and party favors. Call ahead or book online at the these hot spots:

The Annie Café & Bar will be open on New Year’s Eve from 11 am-3 pm for brunch service followed by three seatings that evening for a spectacular celebration featuring The Richard Brown Band from 7 pm-midnight.

Turner’s is hosting its fourth annual New Year’s Eve bash in true New York City style with live music by Thomas Cokinos, with two seatings at 6 pm and 9:15pm. Black tie attire is encouraged as you ring in 2024 under a sea of gold balloons.

Emilia’s Havana is hosting its second annual Havana-style New Year’s extravaganza. Enjoy a bossa nova-style house band from 8-11 pm followed by a live DJ who will spin tunes until 2:30 am.

Annabelle Brasserie will be open all day on New Year’s Eve for a festive brunch or fab evening featuring a DJ plus strings combo performing from 7 pm-1 am. Or join in the next day for the inaugural New Year’s Day Hangover Cure brunch.

B&B Butchers & Restaurant is back for the New Year’s Eve celebration where a DJ and strings combo will be spinning tunes upstairs from 10 pm-1 am, leaving plenty of time to dance the night away after dinner.

Benny Chows is hosting its first New Year’s Eve to ring in 2024. Enjoy a festive lunch from 11 am-4 pm or dinner featuring a DJ and sax combo playing from 8:30 pm-1 am.

B.B. Lemon will be open all day New Year's Eve, so stop in for brunch or dinner service. No need to get all dressed up — come in for dinner or a late-night snack and enjoy a laid-back evening of celebrating with DJ Mohawk Steve spinning tunes.

Trattoria Sofia is set to be open all day for a festive brunch or evening featuring Houston's favorite piano player and singer, Bubba McNeely, who will be performing on the patio from 9 pm-1 am. Recover with the New Year’s Day Hangover Cure Brunches, available at the above restaurants except Turner’s, Emilia’s Havana, and Benny Chows, on Monday, January 1, 2024.

More New Year’s Eve fun

Children’s Museum Houston’s Rockin’ New Year’s Noon rings in the New Year at the stroke of noon with ball drops, just like in Times Square! Artistic talents will spotlight this celebration complete with noon countdowns, activities, and DJ dance parties. 10 am.

Lawless, the downstairs hot spot in the historic downtown Rice Hotel, will host a chic party where guests can enjoy a premium bar, chef appetizers, a live DJ spinning throughout the night, and a midnight Champagne toast. Stroll the grand Rice space and snap pics under the chandelier or on the terrace overlooking the downtown skyline. Reserve tickets here.

Break the rules at Lawless. Photo via Lawless Houston

True Anomaly brewery will be closed to the public for its special New Year's Eve celebration. Admission include a five-hour open bar with a premium selection of draft beer, exquisite wines, refreshing champagne, and handcrafted specialty cocktails. Nosh on heavy hors d'oeuvres, have fun with the party favors, hit the dance floor, enter for a chance to win door prizes, and toast 2024 with the midnight toast. Dress to impress with cocktail or party attire.

La Colombe d’Or, the majestic Montrose mansion hotel and tower, invites revelers to the mansion’s big Centennial with an elegant New Year’s Eve fete. Ring in the 2024 with specialty cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, cigars and scotch, a live DJ, dancing, and more! Don't miss the Telmont Champagne toast at midnight. Make it a staycation with a New Year’s Eve package starting at $599 per night plus tax and including two general admission tickets. Ask about other specialty New Year’s Eve packages.

La Colombe d'Or Hotel - Bar No.3 interior Bar No. 3 at La Colombe d'Or is a stylish place to celebrate. Courtesy of La Colombe d'Or

C. Baldwin Hotel will take the part back to the Prohibition days with Prohibition Nights. Look for fully stocked bars, gourmet light bites, party favors, burlesque performances, and a live DJ playing classic and current hits. Party guests who also stay at the hotel will enjoy express entry, exit, and re-entry to the event, and more. Tickets start at $110.

Traveler’s Table, the globally inspired restaurant, will serve up a sumptuous, four-course New Year's Eve dinner — think Viet oysters, salmon tartare, crispy pork belly, and more. Reservations are highly encouraged.

The Decoy will have a NYE celebration with $100 bottles of premium spirits, along with $5 Blue Lagoon and Branch Water signature cocktails, all day long. Dance into the night with a live DJ at 9 pm, and a complimentary champagne toast at the stroke of midnight. 11 am.

Chapman & Kirby’s throwdown will include four rooms of entertainment with heated, covered patios, a 360-degree photo booth, three bars, noisemakers, party favors, tiaras, hats, foil horns, hookah service and cigars, a laser show, hors d'oeuvres and light bites, and a midnight toast.

Hilton Americas Houston will throw a Gatsby-inspired soiree dubbed Gatsby's House New Year's Eve. Expect four hours of complimentary drinks, four areas to mingle, three top-rated Texas DJs, two VIP areas, party favors, and a casino night with prizes.

J-Bar-M Barbecue's New Year's Eve Whole Hog Party, an exclusive ticketed culinary journey, is limited to 100 guests at $40 each. The festivities will be enhanced by live music, including a performance by The Mighty Org. 11 am.

Albi Houston's unforgettable NYE party rings in the New Year with sophistication and style. It will be an evening of exquisite dining, champagne toasts, and entertainment that will set the tone for a memorable start to 2024. 5 pm.

Flying Saucer Draught Emporium will have a NYE Murder Mystery. Kicking off with a complimentary welcome beverage, the two-hour, interactive murder-mystery will wrap up at 10pm, so you will have plenty of time to ring in the New Year. 7 pm.

MB Speakeasy’s NYE celebration will have a ‘70s disco theme. A fantastic DJ will spin the best disco hits of the 70's and 80's. There will also be a complimentary champagne toast, where you can take home a commemorative champagne flute. 7 pm.

Redemption Square will host their annual New Year's Eve party on the lawn. This event will feature live music, entertainment, and fireworks at midnight to ring in the new year. 7 pm.

Numbers Nightclub will have the biggest and best NYE party in town with a $2024.00 cash balloon drop at midnight. And don’t forget about the complimentary party favors and champagne toast, also at midnight. 9 pm.

POST Houston’s NYE celebration will be a live one. Experience panoramic skyline views, multiple cirque performers, complimentary caricature drawings, live DJs, a live band, and a fireworks show at midnight by one of the best pyrotechnic companies in Texas. 9 pm.

Southside Sporting Club’s New Year’s Eve Party will kick off with free entry until 10 pm, accompanied by a complimentary drink for those who RSVP in advance. DJ Stevo will be curating an unforgettable New Year's Eve experience that promises to keep the energy high well after midnight. 9 pm.

Bar Louie is hosting a can’t-miss, 24K gold celebration. Indulge in a food and drink package for two that includes two appetizers, six drink tickets and midnight champagne toast. Tickets for the late-night celebrations are $100 and can be purchased online or at the door. 10 pm.

Hotel ZaZa Memorial City and Museum District always throw a raucous NYE bash. Guests are encouraged to dress to impress in their finest cocktail attire to enjoy live entertainment and photo-ops throughout the evening. Wine, beer, and cocktails will be served, along with hors d’oeuvres. 10 pm.

MaKiin invites you to a sensational New Year's Eve Glam Gatsby Party. Immerse yourself in an unforgettable evening filled with live entertainment, the beats of a talented DJ, and a complimentary champagne toast as the clock strikes midnight. 10 pm.

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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