GOOD CHEER, NEW YEAR
Whether it was disco, deco or Greco, lively locals greeted the New Year in style. The dawn of 2002 featured a variety of fun-filled but low-key theme celebrations.
After a tense and uncertain year, a lot of revelers decided to stay close to home. Some enjoyed private bashes at their own abodes, while others headed for their favorite local hang.
At BeauRivage continental elegance was the order of the day.
“We had a ball,” says owner Daniel Forge. “A great menu and a packed house. It was the best New Year’s celebration we’ve had in 20 years.”
It was a Greek treat over at Tony’s Taverna where Tony Koursaris pulled out all the stops. His menu featured 20 Mediterranean specialties including five types of dessert, Greek music and a parade of belly dancing beauties baring their naked navels.
They got into the swing of things at Granita where the Roaring Twenties was all the rage. The place was decked out in deco splendor with a sea of flowing black and white fabric, oversized balloons and silver tables all aglitter.
The faithful tucked in for a four-course feast, which included hot potato stuffed with caviar and crme fraich, crab claws with mustard cream and caper sauce, chestnut ravioli, rack of venison and a full platter of those decadent desserts. Wolfgang Puck was there in person to make sure foodies had their fill.
People were hanging with the homies at Guido’s where the usual suspects took to the dance floor for a little 1970s-style bootie bumping. The unenthusiastic disc jockey came right out of a Rob Reiner flick–high on polyester, low on charm. Despite his best efforts, the joint was jumping all the same. Everyone, including the older folk, started busting loose with moves that came straight from the silver screen.
They rocked out to everything from “YMCA” (“Wayne’s World”) to “Disco Inferno” (“Saturday Night Fever”) and my personal favorite–“Hot Stuff” (“The Full Monty”). If you weren’t there to witness a gaggle of sixtysomethings doing that low-fisted, pelvis pushing, “Hot Stuff” hip thruster, the visual was priceless, and I always try to do my part to encourage its success.
And so it went ’till the midnight hour. At the stroke of twelve, it was over. 2001 went out, not with a bang, but with the mild tooting of toy horns, a cloud of confetti and an uneventful drive home. If all this doesn’t strike you as terribly exciting, just remember–we’ve been through real hell, some thick and some thin.
But where we are going beats where we have been. There are good things to come, so turn the page, take it from me, I burned the sage.