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It would be nice to settle in at newly redone Aubergine (624-8578)—just the new cheese cave alone is incredible—for New Year's Eve and graze through transcendent tastes like the sablefish mousse with winter radishes and warm cuttlefish with roasted beet, smoked roe and shiso.

It would also be expensive.

The four-course first seating is $105—or $200 with wine pairings—and the six-course with Champagne and pairings is $290.

Chauffeured pick up in the shop's S Class 350 BlueTec Mercedes Benz, though, is complimentary.

In the swell of promotions for the last night of what was to be our last year on Earth, two other promotions caught my eye, partly because they appear on a traditionally dark and quiet Central Avenue, and partly because they're refreshingly different. And more affordable.

Happy Girl Kitchen (373-GIRL) knows how to throw a pickle party, so that's exactly what it's doing 6-9pm Monday, Dec. 31. They lay out all the ingredients for all sorts of exotic preservation and guests fill jars for $5 a pop (admission is free).

Heaping plates of lasagna, salad and garlic bread, meanwhile, go for $15, and cocktails, mocktails and dessert run $4-$8. I'm eyeing the housemade hard cider with Champagne yeast.

And since Happy Girl's get-down is designed to end early—with the New York ball drop transmitted live at midnight Eastern Time—you can hop right down the block in time for kick-off at il vecchio (324-4282), which goes 9pm to midnight.

The "Roman banquet" gala dance party includes live Latin and rock by Foolish Pleasure plus endless antipasto, salads, lasagnas and dessert for $50.

Starting Monday, Jan. 21, il vecchio has another appetizing idea coming.

Noon to 1:30pm, it's a "worker's lunch" for $9. No ordering from a menu or anything. Salad comes when you sit, you can reload on it if you want, then comes the frying pans of pasta, both vegetarian and meat-driven choices, tableside, for your choosing.

Every weekday it'll be a different pasta featured, but every Monday will be the same dishes, and a menu will be available to plan visits by taste according to the day of the week. So risotto fans will quickly figure out what day is theirs and so on.

"Pity those poor French people who don't have pasta," owner Carl Alasko says.