New Year's Eve Dining

Procrastinator's Guide to New Year's Eve Dining: Top choices for a memorable foodie evening

Few nights send more people to restaurants than New Year's Eve. After all, who wants to wake up on New Year's Day to a sink full of dirty dishes, empty champagne glasses and who knows what on the rug? In addition, New Year's Eve is one of those nights restaurant staffs work as a point of pride. They're highly motivated to deliver a great experience to diners.

But knowing where to go can be tricky. After all, pretty much every high-end place in town will run special menus to celebrate. Consider the options below. They all offer delicious food, smooth service and reasonable value. All prices are independent of beverage, tax and gratuity.

Where: Free Press NYE Gastrodome

What: As part of the Free Press NYE concert, eight Houston restaurants will compete in the Gastrodome to demonstrate their twist on classic fair food. Uchi is serving hot dogs, Nara is bringing Korean rice dumplings and Lowbrow will have a twist on Hoppin' John. And George Clinton is playing, which is awesome.

Cost: $50 for a ticket to the event, food items priced $4 to $10

Where: The Pass & Provisions

What: Both of the restaurants under one roof are offering special New Year's Eve Menus. At The Pass, it's a nine-course extravaganza that includes plenty of champagne. At Provisions, there's a four-course prix fixe featuring some of the restaurant's signature dishes.

Cost: The Pass, $195; Provisions, $75.

Where: Restaurant CINQ at La Colombe d'Or

What: Chef German Mosquera will serve his regular ala carte menu with a couple of special New Year's Eve additions: An amuse bouche of langoustine mushroom broth and smoked foie gras; an entree of langoustine browned in layla butter with Petrossian caviar aioli; dessert made with vintage 1990 Crystal champagne.

Cost: Varies by entree. Expect to spend about $100 per person plus tax and tip, depending on wine.

Where: Kris Bistro

What: The restaurant inside the Culinary Institute LeNôtre offers a five course menu of French classics with two seatings. Start with a selection of seafood, continue with beef tenderloin in bordelaise sauce and finish with classic crepes Suzette.

Cost: $78

Where: Artisans Restaurant

What: Six courses of classic French favorites in one of Houston's most beautiful dining rooms. The menu includes foie gras torchon, beef and venison Wellingtons and a classic bouche de Noel.

Cost: $120

Where: Danton's

What: The underrated Montrose seafood spot offers a three-course menu of familiar favorites. Start with a half dozen oysters on the half shell or one of Danton's signature gumbos. Entree options include a 14-ounce ribeye and grilled fish. Finish with white chocolate bread pudding, creme brulee or key lime pie.

Cost: $62

Where: Brennan's

What: This Houston institution will serve a three-course menu of Creole classics and provide some of the best service in Houston. Everyone starts with classic Hoppin' John for good luck before choosing from dishes such as turtle soup, asparagus salad, filet mignon, crabcakes and, of course, bananas Foster prepared tableside.

Cost: Varies by menu choice

Where: 60 Degrees Mastercrafted

What: No $200 burgers on the menu, but chef Fritz Gitschner's tenure at the Houston Country Club ensures he knows how to please a crowd. Both the early and late seatings feature a four-course menu with options that include lobster bisque and Dover sole, but the late seating also comes with live music and goes until 1 a.m.

Cost: $75 for the early seating, $115 for the late seating

Where: MKT Bar

What: This restaurant inside the Phoenicia grocery store downtown is moving the tables out and bringing a dance floor in on New Year's Eve. In addition to light bites and a champagne toast, revelers can groove to the melodic doo-wop sounds of Mad Maude and the Hatters as well as '60s soul, pop and rock 45s spun by DJ Tempty.

Cost: $30 in advance, $40 at the door.

Where: The Tasting Room Uptown CityCentre

What: The three-course menu at this wine bar/restaurant features foie gras torchon to start and butter poached lobster as an entree. Dance until midnight with DJ DelSur. Not hungry? Join in the party and still participate in the champagne toast.

Cost: $55 for dinner, $20 to party

Where: Triniti

What: The elegant restaurant will serve a five-course menu for seatings until 6:30 p.m. and an eight-course menu for seatings after 8 p.m. After dinner, stick around to hear DJ Sun spin starting at 10 p.m. and sip some of the 10 different champagnes that will be available by the glass.

Cost: $65 for five courses; $120 for eight.

Where: Sparrow Bar + Cookshop

What: Party with the Pope at this Midtown restaurant that always features the best locally-sourced ingredients. The four-course menu includes vanilla bean cured salmon, beef cheek tagine, Gruyere beignets, duck "sirloin" and much more.

Cost: $75 for the meal, add wine pairings for $30.

Where: Caracol

What: Hugo Ortega's newly launched Galleria seafood restaurant is already drawing raves. Feel ultra-trendy by going there right now.

Cost: $85

Where: Brenner's on the Bayou

What: This elegant dining room provides the right setting for a top-notch celebration. The four-course menus breaks with the usual steakhouse fare by including lobster rolls, blackened duck breast and chestnut soup.

Cost: $95

Where: The Hay Merchant

What: Keep is casual at this Montrose craft beer bar. Hay Merchant will run happy hour prices all night and will open a nine-liter bottle of Belgian beer St. Feuillien Triple. Champagne toast at midnight.

Cost: Varies by beer, food, etc.

Provisions is offering a four-course, $75 menu that features some of the restaurant's standout dishes.

Photo by © Julie Soefer Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau

Provisions is offering a four-course, $75 menu that features some of the restaurant's standout dishes.

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welcome to paradise

Veteran Houston bartender shakes up the Heights with new tropical bar

Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar exterior

Photo by Eric Sandler

Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.

The woman behind your favorite bartender’s favorite bar has quietly opened a new cocktail spot in the Heights. Called Berwick’s Birds of Paradise, it’s the latest project from Double Trouble owner Robin Berwick.

Berwick tells CultureMap that she began looking for a new project about a year ago. Double Trouble, a coffee and cocktail bar that opened in late 2011, no longer required her full attention. She found an ideal space with the former La Coqueta at 2020 Studewood Street, a standalone building in a prime area of the Heights. Similar to Double Trouble, Berwick took inspiration from tropical destinations for BBOP's (pronounced “be bop”) drinks and design — with some additional flair from the only kind of bar she’s never worked at.

“I might be embarrassed if you print this, but it’s the truth. I have bartended in just about every category of bar: restaurant bar, nightclub, dance club, strip club, dive bar, and Anvil and Poison Girl, the cocktail bars that people knew me from before Double Trouble,” she says.

“The only place I didn’t work that I wanted to was a resort hotel bar. I never want to be responsible for running a hotel, but I wanted to open a bar that felt like it was once attached to a hotel.”

Patrons will notice a screen printed portrait of a woman hanging on one of the bar’s walls. Berwick has decided that it depicts the mythical owner of the non-existent hotel that BBOP is attached to.

“I don’t know her name, but she’s a little spooky and she’s blue. I just look at her and ask her what would she do,” Berwick says.

Berwick worked with Jarred Pruitt and Eli Ashby at Houston builder Pruitt Structures to renovate the space with everything from new plumbing and HVAC systems to a vintage-inspired tile floor and an all-new ceiling treatment. The costs ran a little higher than expected, but Berwick cites her “fantastic investors” who raised the money required to build the bar she envisioned.

Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar interior The building received a comprehensive renovation to become Berwick's Birds of Paraidse.Photo by Eric Sandler

The cocktail menu takes a similarly tropical (not to be confused with tiki) theme. For example, the bar’s frozen cocktail is called La Bruha, after a nickname Berwick received from the tradesmen who helped renovate the bar. “It’s a riff on an El Diablo,” she explains, “Tequila, fresh lime juice, spicy ginger beer, habanero tincture, topped with a layer of elderberry liqueur. The ginger surprises people. It’s got a little punch to it.”

Similarly, the Crocodile Tears Martini gets a little island flavor courtesy of Strange Water, a coconut water created by former Houstonian Yael Vengroff, and Grey Goose Citra vodka. “Everybody’s been saying it’s ‘dangerously drinkable,’” Berwick adds.

BBOP’s tidy food menu is overseen by veteran Houston chef Jacob Pate, whose resume includes Coltivare, Good Dog Houston, and the recently-closed Savoir. Current offerings include chicken wings, a smash burger, and a Bikini Sandwich — similar to a Cubano, Pate gives the traditional Catalan-inspired pressed ham and cheese sandwich a Houston twist courtesy of muffaletta compound butter and tomato condiment.

“On the horizon is a house made sausage dog that I’m excited about,” Pate writes in an email. “At Savoir, we had some fun butchery projects that I would like to build upon where it makes sense. Beyond that, the first priority is figuring out how it all fits in our small kitchen and having fun.”

In addition to food and drinks, Berwick is working with Heights cigar bar Nice Ash to stock a humidor for BBOP. Patrons will be able to smoke a cigar on the bar’s patio. Because people will be smoking (among other reasons), BBOP is strictly 21-plus.

The bar opened quietly on July 4. So far, its customers has been a mix of curious neighbors, Double Trouble regulars, and Berwick’s friends in the service industry. After spending so much time on renovations, she says she’s happy to focus on operating her bar.

“I had been used to this high stress level, waiting for the bottom to drop out [during the renovations],” she says. “When the first guests came in, I relaxed. We know how to make drinks.”

Currently, the bar is open Wednesday-Sunday from 4pm - midnight. Days of service and hours of operation will expand once additional employees have been hired.