New Year's Eve 2015 in DC for Two - Fancy, $200 per Person - Where to Book, and When?

[ktmoomau]

Hubby and I recently have been working non-stop with weekends taken up by various commitments we enjoy doing, but has made for not much time for just a nice night out for the two of us.  So we probably will go out for NYE.  I know, I know, overpriced yadda yadda.  We would love to do Rogue 24, but that seems like it may be a bit too expensive although I am sure it will be lovely, we will try to get there on another night.  I would like to go somewhere fancy-ish though and am willing to spend up to about $200 per person before tax and tip.  The grill room is $350 per person for a five course menu so that will probably be a non-NYE night we go there.  I emailed Momofoku to see if they still had tables as that looked good.  There seem to be no reservations anywhere I really want to go after 5:30 or the price tag like the above is just really high, I didn't realize I was booking so late...

Thoughts on other good places that still have reservations?

From opentable.com I see:

2941

Centrolina

Equinox

Fiola (I wish Fiola Mare had a later opening, but only at 5:30 pm, but maybe I can rezhound that one)

Garrison

Osteria Morini

the Oval Room

Proof

Restaurant Eve

I love the Source but we have gone now for two really big occasions, they knocked it out of the park, but still it might be too repetitive? But we haven't been since the re-do.

Sushi-Ko

What places don't use opentable these days?

[DonRocks]

I suspect that, like usual, there will be day-of cancellations, as selfish people multi-book in advance, before deciding what their final plans are (just hope that they're *un*selfish enough to cancel the reservations they don't use). Your odds of finding something will increase if you wait until Dec 31 to book, but so will your anxiety.

I do things like this *all the time*, as I'm a natural-born procrastinator, and depending on the situation, have between 75% and 95% success rates - the more flexible you are, the better your odds will be in finding a last-day cancellation. Also, if you don't mind sitting at bars, you're probably going to be able to just walk right in to wherever you want to go, albeit not at 10PM.

Even places that *do* use OpenTable probably aren't using it for their prime times on New Year's Eve, so your best bet is to call the restaurant, and don't take lack of availability on OpenTable as the truth.

Your list of restaurants runs the gamut "from fusty to festive," so you should decide what type of atmosphere you're looking for - some of these places seem much more likely to get rowdy and shout, "Happy New Year!" than others.

[Bart]

Last year my wife and I had a 5:30 reservation at Rose's (I specifically picked an early time so we could get home early, blah, blah, blah)

Anyhow, just as a joke, when we got to the door I said we didn't have reservations. The woman at the desk said we could go right up to the bar and eat. I was shocked, but appearently the upstairs bar is always first come first served even on NYE.

That may be an option for you.

[Genevieve]

Foodwise, I'd go for Garrison. 

[ktmoomau]

Well Momofoku it is hopefully because they were very nice via email and found an opening for us, so getting info over to them to finalize. It isn't MKs favorite menu ever, but it should be nice and it wasn't outrageously expensive.