All you really need for a great New Year's Eve toast is great friends. But it doesn't hurt to add great food to the equation. Here are our picks for this year's top tables:
Amada
217-219 Chestnut St.
www.amadarestaurant.com
Our usual special-occasion motto is "You can't go wrong with Amada -- unless you don't do pork." But this year, Jose Garces' flagship is offering a vegetarian tasting menu in addition to the usual.
La Calaca Felize
2321 Fairmount Ave.
www.lacalacafeliz.com
This Fairmount hot spot is always festive -- the name, after all, means "the happy skeleton." It's sending off 2012 with two tasting menus ($40 and $55) brimming with treats such as duck barbacoa tacos and rum-soaked pineapple cake.
Zahav
237 St. James Place
www.zahavrestaurant.com
Zahav sparkles even more on New Year's Eve, when its little perch above Old City seems to put you miles away from that girl crying about her heels. Chef Michael Solomonov is serving up two tasting menus, which you can add wine pairings to.
City Tap House
3925 Walnut St.
www.citytaphouse.com
The beauty of the NYE open bar is that you really have nowhere to go but up in the New Year. City Tap House's goes for $65 and puts you squarely in University City, which isn't a bad thing if you're doing an open bar on Dec. 31.
Alla Spina
1410 Mt. Vernon St.
www.allaspinaphilly.com
Marc Vetri's Italian gastropub is featuring "champagne-like beers" on tap -- and considering this is Marc Vetri, we're guessing this doesn't mean High Life.
Talula's Garden
210 W. Washington Square
www.talulasgarden.com
Can't deal with going out on New Year's Eve? Talula's hears you -- it's serving its eight-course tasting menu ($100) Dec. 28-Jan. 1. On the highlights reel: chilled lobster salad with pink grapefruit and tarragon, seared snapper and oxtail mac-and-cheese.
Valanni
1229 Spruce St.
www.valanni.com
Valanni has three seating options for you, but we've got to vote for the VIP package:?It includes an open bar, a bottle of bubbly and a chef's selection of snacks ($125).
Bar Ferdinand
1030 N. Second St.
www.barferdinand.com
There’s more to this party than David Ansill’s six-course Spanish feast ($70) — although that would be enough. Stick around for flamenco dancing and a midnight toast complete with the “Twelve Grapes of Luck,” a Spanish tradition where you eat a grape for each toll of the clock in the name of prosperity.
