SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — Skipping the parties and bar-hopping but want to ring in the new year with a special dining experience, featuring multiple courses and cocktails?
Plenty of local eateries are offering prix-fixe menus for New Year’s Eve, most showcasing the chef’s and kitchen staff’s chops in elevated ways. Some restaurants are adding in wine pairing options, too.
Below are a few prix-fixe suggestions to consider, just make reservations ASAP before they’re filled.
Happy New Year!
Caprice Bistro
1 Market St. • $55 per person
A three-course French New Year’s Eve is in store at Caprice Bistro. The downtown bistro is offering its menu for $55 a person. Diners can also add on foie gras terrine for $15.
There are four starters to choose from, including: frog legs, lobster bisque, petite charcuterie and salad Nouvel.
Five entrees are up for grabs: duck “duet,” consisting of pan-seared breast and confit; salmon “en croute”; Bourguignon beef short ribs; waterzooi, a seafood stew in herb cream; or braised lamb shank.
Dessert will be a triplet of homemade sweets.
Reservations are available here.
Circa 1922
8 N. Front St. • $75 per person
For more than 20 years, Ash Aziz’s downtown dining spot, Circa 1922, has been a go-to for culinarians. The restaurant’s NYE prix-fixe menu has multiple options for its first and second courses, with dessert consisting of a flourless chocolate torte, chantilly cream and fresh berries.
The meal will start off with the choice of arugula salad, lobster bisque, tuna tartare, oysters on half shell, beef carpaccio, chargrilled octopus or house made gnocchi.
The main dish covers all palates, with choice of: filet mignon, bone-in Heritage pork chop, crab-and-spinach-stuffed flounder, seared sea scallops, swordfish Bouillabaisse or wild mushroom tagliatelle.
Reservations should be made by calling 910-762-1922.
Dram Yard
101 S. Second St. • $95 per person, $50 supplemental wine pairing
In downtown Wilmington, Chef Jordan Keen’s New Year’s Eve tasting, with optional wine pairings, consists of five courses and bread service. It will kick off with milk bread and koji butter, followed by a choice of yellowfin crudo (cucumber, wasabi root, pickled tomato, shoyu) or beef tartare (green apple, shallots, capers, black garlic dijon). The second course will consist of blue crab arancini service with kimchi and yuzu custard, followed by sunchoke and parsnip soup, topped with black truffle.
The entree will be a choice of hamachi roulade (shrimp, herbs, trout roe, crème fraiche) or Painted Hills beef Wellington (wild mushroom duxelles, country ham, chicken liver pate, puff pastry). Diners will cap off the evening with a chocolate tart, served with garam masala ganache, pistachio ice cream, and espresso panna cotta, or Asian pear bread pudding, made with brioche and served with miso caramel and Nueske’s bacon semifreddo.
Reservations are available here.
Epicurean Bistro
1978 Eastwood Road • $49.99 per person
Sweet n Savory’s sister restaurant near Wrightsville Beach has a five-course menu offered for $49.99 per person.
It starts with crostini topped with Calabrian chili tapenade and whipped goat cheese, followed by Hoppin’ John salad — featuring black-eyed peas, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno and spices, served with seared scallops.
Course three will feature slow-braised short ribs over polenta and stewed greens, then lamp lollipops over ponzu-glazed bok choy. The evening will end with berry branita and Prosecco.
Far From France
1474 Barclay Pointe Blvd. #201 • $75 per person
Wilmington’s newest expanded French restaurant has a special NYE planned. For $75 per person, five courses will be served.
The small-bite starter includes a black-eyed peas salad with a glass of Champagne. A soup course comes after, with choice of lobster bisque or tomato basil, followed by a salad — either Lyonnaise, served with poached egg on a bed of frisée or a chevre chaud, to include goat cheese, Parma ham and pine nuts on baby greens.
The main course will be one of three options: 6 ounces of beef tenderloin filet with bordelaise, roasted fingerling potatoes and mushrooms; oven-roasted chicken breast with jus and lentils; or 6 ounces of roasted corvina, with lemon beurre blanc and butternut squash purée.
Dessert will be a choice of yule log chocolate sponge cake with mousse and ganache or Red Velvet cake.
Flying Machine Oyster Bar
530 Causeway Drive T-1 • $75 per person
Wrightsville Beach’s newest oyster bar is bringing in 2024 with a four-course menu for $75 per person. It starts off with an oyster draped in gold mignonette then a choice of white-wine duck ragu tagliatelle with fennel or a collard and black-eyed pea bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes.
The second course includes a choice of lobster bisque with creme fraiche, dill and chives, or oysters Rockefeller soup. A salad option is also available, featuring baby frisée, julienned baby corn, carrots, radishes, green beans, almonds and Zinfandel vinaigrette.
The third course will have three choices: petite filet in a toasted peppercorn demi-glace with sweet potato mash, charred leeks and cauliflower; scallops with mini risotto cakes, pomodoro, grilled asparagus and soy glaze; or florentine ravioli with butternut squash cream sauce, roasted tomatoes, green onion and broccoli sprouts (a chicken addition is optional).
Two desserts will be offered: chocolate tiramisu or spiced cheesecake with gingersnap crust and currant jelly.
The Green House
1427 Unit 106 Military Cutoff Road • $54 per person
Wilmington’s fine-dining vegan restaurant is California dreaming for New Year’s Eve with a four-course menu including fresh ceviche, fennel soup, collard wraps, finished off with lemon bars. It’s $54 per person and the restaurant has a full wine and cocktail menu, as well as a non-alcoholic beverage menu featuring healthy alcohol-free spirits.
Reservations can be accessed here.
JohnnyLuke’s KitchenBar
5500 Market St. • $75 per person
A three-courser will be served in midtown at JohnnyLukes KitchenBar. It will kick off with oysters Rockefeller before a Surf and Turf arrives at the table. The entree includes an 8-ounce filet, topped with JL’s famous crabcakes, soaked in rich and creamy béarnaise sauce. It’s served with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled rapini.
Dessert will consist of homemade créme brulée, topped with chantilly cream and strawberries served with champagne.
Dinner is served 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and reservations can be made by calling 910-769-1798. No substitutions are offered on the menu.
Olivero
522 S. Third St. • $150 per person
Wilmington’s new Spanish-Italian-New Orleans fusion restaurant is offering a five-course dinner for New Year’s Eve. It opens at 5 p.m. with the last seating available at 10 p.m.
Chef Sunny Gerhart has devised five courses, featuring seafood and hearty meats on the regular menu, while being vegetable-forward on a vegetarian option.
The dinner starts with smoked oyster, topped with tonnato and Spanish Baerii caviar. The vegetarian version will be grilled Castelvetrano olives, goat cheese mousse and piquillo pepper.
It’s followed by a course of nduja bocadillo — a spicy, spreadable pork salami, served on a baguette with Basque cider, Manchego and date marmalade. The pork will be replaced by King Trumpets for vegetarians.
Entrees will include North Carolina crab tortelloni, with Vermouth-melted leeks, chermoula and smoked trout roe — or non-meat eaters will have a ricotta-filled pasta prepared the same way, except the roe is replaced by smoked caper butter.
It’s followed by grilled little gems and chicories, served with Bagna cauda — anchovies, garlic and olive oil (miso Bagna replaces anchovies for vegetarians) — roasted garlic croutons and winter vegetables. Bahart spiced short ribs will be the last course served with caramelized onion latke, whipped toum and arugula. Vegetarians will receive a Baharat-spiced cauliflower, also served with caramelized onion latke.
Reservations can be made here.
Pinpoint
114 Market St. • $80-$140 per person
Downtown Wilmington’s fine-dining restaurant on Market Street has multiple options for a six-course dinner; it’s priced $100 or $80 for vegetarians. There is a $40 upcharge for a wine-pairing component.
The night kicks off with oyster shooters, including the briny bivalve in blood-orange vinegar, pickled fennel, smoked pickled carrots, lime oil and aji dulce granita. Course two will consist of butternut squash ravioli, made with cinnamon-brown-butter pasta, ricotta, Parmesan pistachio lemon brown butter, fried sage and saba.
The salad course is confit beet, with cremont, pickled mustard seeds, dill, parsley and citrus, followed by kampachi crudo, featuring blood-orange-honey vinaigrette, pickled ginger, fennel, arugula and lemongrass oil.
The entrees for the evening consist of either dry-aged ribeye, served with royal trumpets, bourbon-mushroom purée, charred broccoli and Emmental mornay, or quail with brandy chestnut purée, Brussels and jus.
Dessert is an orange Swiss roll, with kumquat jam, candied almonds and vanilla mousse.
When making reservations, be clear if a vegetarian is joining to inquire about those options. Dinner is served from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; reservations can be made here.
Seabird
1 S. Front St. • $100 per person
Downtown Wilmington’s fine-dining seafood restaurant from Chef Dean Neff has a four-course menu, which also includes a welcome toast. Each course has three options to choose from.
Course one: lobster fra diavolo cavatelli and anchovy breadcrumbs; a black trumpet soup with black walnut and sherry cream; or a spiced duck Terrine with artichoke caponata and Calabrian chilis.
Course two: yellowfin tuna tartare tartine with pickled beech mushrooms, yuzu kosho aioli, egg, mache and ponzu vinaigrette; chicken liver mousse with cava gelee, sweet pickles, rose mustard and charred sourdough; or hedgehog mushroom Lyonnaise with chicories, roasted shallots, apple, maple-mustard vinaigrette and poached egg.
Course three: Alaskan halibut in parchment paper binchotan charred chicories, sunchoke caponata and uni beurre blanc; mushroom-crusted dry-aged Brasstown beef strip, creamed sofrito greens, potato pave and truffle bordelaise (add half lobster thermidor for $30); confit of rutabaga with seared dandelion greens and roasted pear skordalia.
Course four: Cheese Shakerag blue, vegan ice cream or Baked Alaska.
Upgrades are also available, including caviar service, with crisp potato chips and accompaniments parfait: 1 ounce White Snake River Sturgeon Caviar (ID), $150; 1 ounce Marshallberg Osetra Caviar (NC), $150; both and smoked trout, $300.
An add-on seafood tower is available for $99 or oysters by the dozen, served with Cava granita are $4 each, including North Carolina’s Shellem Wild from Masonboro Island, Seabirdie from Stones Bay and James River from Maine.
The Second Glass
1540 S. Second St. • Tickets: $75-$125
In the South Front District, The Second Glass has a four-course menu available for $75 a person, but to add in a wine pairing it’s $125. Vegetarian options are also available.
Chef Ryan O’Janpa starts off the meal with an amuse bouche of potato latke, served with pistachio “cheese” and pickled root vegetables.
The first course is soup or salad: Watercress soup with lemon oil and bread crumbs or local lettuces, featuring pickled shrimp, citrus and sherry vinaigrette. Course two comes with mushroom fricassée, coconut milk, beetroot and pine nuts, or choose a pine nut-encrusted chevre, served with braised fennel and apples.
The main course options are: butternut squash stuffed with quinoa, Swiss chard and walnuts; duck confit with aged-cheddar risotto and cherry jus; and Brasstown beef NY Strip with duck fat fingerlings and broccolini.
The fourth course will include dessert — the choice of chocolate panna cotta, served with coconut milk and Luxardo cherries, or olive oil cake with creme anglaise, candied plums and apricot.
Reservations can be made here.
South Beach Grill
100 S. Lumina Ave. • $69 per person
A four-course menu has been created by South Beach Grill Chef Brandon Bozeman. He is shining Southern light on the first bite, with an amuse bouche of devilled egg, topped with Osetra caviar from Marshallberg Farms in Yadkin Valley, North Carolina. Course number two is either traditional She Crab soup or a Low Country salad made with local lettuces, roasted sweet potatoes, pickled cranberries and sour cherry vinaigrette.
A choice of two entrees comes in a filet of beef tenderloin, with mash, haricot verts and bordelaise sauce or North Carolina’s fresh catch, made with chestnut bread pudding, winter greens and wild onion soubise.
The meal is finished with a choice of eggnog bread pudding and peppermint ice cream or dark chocolate mousse with raspberry compote and fresh cream.
Reservations can be made by calling 910-256-4646.
Three10
1022 N. Fourth St. • $90 per person
Brooklyn Arts District’s seafood restaurant is offering a four-course NYE dinner and champagne toast for $90 per person. Each course has a regular offering and a vegetarian/gluten-free option.
The menu kicks off with an amuse bouche (“small bite”) of truffled gougere (puff pastry) or foie gras gougere, followed up with a first course of either mushroom dumpling with XO sauce or tuna tartare.
There will be a winter salad or lobster bisque served thereafter, with entree course consisting of a choice of butternut squash risotto, grouper with potato pave or short ribs with polenta and mustard greens.
