New Year's Eve Dining in The Pete

By Sally Burnette on December 21, 2012

New Year’s Eve is one of the best nights of the year: good food, friends, lots of alcohol. The problem often isn’t how to spend it, but where to spend it. Here are some options:

Fancy:

1. Bella Brava

Excuse the terrifying clown-king-kidnapper (photo from Flickr user Visit St. Pete/Clearwater)

This restaurant is amazing. It’s Italian (in case you didn’t get that from the name), but with a modern flair, so you feel cool going to it. The food is ridiculous– everything is good, even the bread and butter they give you (fo free!). They have a bar with a really good drink selection, and the staff are generally great even when confronted with large parties of drunk college kids. So, if you’re feeling fancy, go ahead and make a reservation! I’m sure they’ll fill up quickly.

2. Cafe Alma

(photo from Google)

Cafe Alma is another great place downtown. It advertises as a tapas restaurant, but it’s really not. When I went for the first time, I ordered as if it were tapas (so a bunch of different things), and I got enough food to serve the whole world. So, order like it’s a regular restaurant. Because it is. Also, their drinks are 2 for 1, which is a must for New Year’s. Call and make a reservation now!

Janky, but delicious:

3. Vito & Michael’s

Beautiful. (photo from Google)

Cheap, fast, open late, good food. This is the perfect place to order from in bulk before celebration begins, as it makes perfect drunk food. The restaurant itself is pretty sad, definitely not somewhere where you would want to hang out, but if you’re planning on getting pizza/pasta for a home or hotel party, this is the place.

4. Tijuana Flats

(photo by Flickr user hyku)

Another cheap alternative to eating in a real restaurant, Tijuana is good, because they have a sweet salsa bar and beer. You can also gorge inside and then get some to go for the ball-dropping. They also cater, if you’re into that.

But, whether you end up sipping cosmos at Bella Brava in your cutest, sparkliest dress or slinging back a handle of Skol with a Vito & Michael’s pizza in your grossest, I-hate-myself-iest t-shirt, hopefully your 2013 will be an amazing, lottery-winning, relationship-healing, goal-reaching extravaganza!