Want to make your final meal of 2012 a memorable one? There are more prix fixe menus on New Year's Eve in DC then you could pop a champagne bottle at, so we've narrowed the field to 20 festive restaurants offering special dinners to ring in the New Year. Assuming that whole Mayan thing is wrong and the world doesn't end on December 21, that is. Here now is Eater's giant NYE dining guide, offering everything from Mad Men and Pedro Almodóvar-themed parties to menus stocked with dishes like baked Alaska and duck confit lasagna, all washed down with plenty of bubbly.
—Adele Chapin
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Eater's Ultimate Guide to New Year's Eve Dining in DC

Boqueria
Toast with doce uvas at midnight at Boqueria's Pedro Almodóvar-inspired NYE party, which will run from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. The $150 ticket party includes unlimited tapas, sangria, beerand cava, as well as porrón stations, specialty cocktails, costume photo booths, a live DJ, and screenings of Almodóvar films. The tapas restaurant is also offering their $35 prix fixe unlimited brunch tapas and drinks deal daily from December 26 through New Year's Eve.
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Epic SmokeHouse
Pentagon City's new steakhouse offers a $60 prix fixe three course special NYE menu, with seatings from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Offerings include lamb lollipops with smoked tomato chutney, filet mignon and bacon-wrapped scallops, and a chocolate waffle or key lime pie.
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The Source by Wolfgang Puck
Choose between two NYE tasting menus at The Source: a five-course menu priced at $125 per person with an additional $65 for wine pairings, or go all out with the seven-course $150 per person menu, with an additional $75 for wine pairings. Both menus will have courses like Mainelobster har gow, pan roasted giant prawn with crab and egg drop sauce and banana cake with chocolate ganache. For a lighter meal, the lounge at The Source will serve sushi and Champagne all night long, with no reservations required.
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Bourbon Steak Washington DC
Bourbon Steak will host two seatings and two different NYE tasting menus. At 5:30 p.m., the restaurant will serve a four-course tasting menu priced at $90 per person ($135 per person with wine pairings) featuring dishes like Osetra caviar and grilled Gunpowder bison tenderloin. Then at 8:30 p.m., guests at the six-course tasting menu will dine on dishes like local guinea hen and roasted foie gras with brussel sprout leaves and Alba truffles with sea urchin and shaved cauliflower, priced at $175 per person ($250 per person with wine pairings).
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Proof
From Friday, December 28 through December 31, Proof will offer a $95 five-course tasting menu featuring courses like house-smoked duck breast, Mascarpone and ricotta ravioli with shaved black truffle. Add wine pairings for an additional $45 per person or $75 per person forpremium pairings. And on NYE, Proof is celebrating with 40% of all Champagnes by the glass and 1/3 off Champagne by the bottle.
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Marcel's
Marcel's is kicking off their NYE four-course dinner with an amuse bouche of lobster egg with Ostreta caviar, then moving on to courses like duck confit lasagna and roasted monkfish. Therewill be two seatings on December 31, with the first seating running from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at $125 per person and the second seating beginning at 7:30 p.m. for $225 per guest.
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Art & Soul
Party like Betty and Don Draper at Art and Soul's Mad Men-themed NYE party. That means a three course 1960s-inspired Southern dinner menu, live music from the Jeremy Carlstedt Quartet, a complimentary champagne toast and party favors. Sixties-era threads are encouraged, but not required. The prix fixe menu is priced at $75 per person during the firstseating at 5:30 p.m. and then at $85 per person during the second seating at 7 p.m.
Firefly
Head to the recently renovated Firefly for another retro NYE dinner option. The Dupont Circle restaurant will be serving up "Rat Pack"-era specials like Oysters Rockefeller, Lobster Thermidor, Beef Wellington, and baked Alaska. Also available: the "Golden Balls" cocktail,inspired by the tradition of placing clementines in holiday stockings and made with Mandarin Napoleon Liqueur, frankincense infused Peychaud’s bitters, Champagne and an orange paste formed into small balls.
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Bandolero
At Bandolero's all-inclusive "Mexican Cowboy Countdown,” expect a DJ, passed hors d'oeuvres, food stations, and margaritas, obviously. Food service ends at midnight, but the party keeps going till 2 a.m. Tickets for food and drink from 8:30 to 2 a.m. run at $150 per person, and guests arriving after midnight can pay $50 for all-inclusive cocktails, cava, beer, and wine.
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Ripple
The five-course NYE tasting menu at Ripple with dishes like beef loin with crispy marrow and Nantucket Bay scallop ceviche runs at $110 per person or $150 per person with beverage pairings. Check out Ripple’s NYE cocktail, a mix of sparkling wine, cherry bitters, shaved pearand a housemade orange sugar cube.
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Jaleo
At Jaleo in Bethesda on December 31, a live band will help guests usher in 2013. A special NYE chef's tasting menu will be available at all Jaleo locations, along with a glass of cava at midnight paired with 12 grapes, per Spanish tradition. Reservations begin at 8:30 p.m., and the chef's tasting menu is priced at $90 per person at Jaleo DC and $85 per person at Jaleo Bethesda and Jaleo Crystal City.
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El Centro D.F.
The 14th street taqueria offer four seatings for their NYE menu, which includes a beer or traditional margarita, appetizer, entrees like steak asado and chipotle shrimp and churos, flan and tres leches for dessert. The menu is priced at $35 per person from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., $45 per person from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and $65 after 9:30 p.m. — including a glass of Champagne at midnight.
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Tel'Veh Cafe and Wine Bar
Ring in the New Year with a belly dancers at Tel'Veh, which will be serving a prix fixe five- course menu for $75 per person and an additional $25 for wine pairings. Courses will include yogurt pistachio soup, lobster stuffed with crab meat, and herb-crusted rack of lamb.
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The Oval Room
The Oval Room's five-course prix fixe NYE menu ranges from Maine peekytoe crab and charred jalapeno spaghetti to a chocolate tasting or exotic fruit tasting for dessert. The meal is priced at $85 per person or $125 with wine pairings.
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Rasika West End
Rasika West End's three-course NYE menu is priced at $55 for the 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. seating. During the second seating from 8 p.m to 10:30 p.m., an $80 four-course menu will be available. Dishes will include bison roast tenderloin, black cod moilee and tandoori salmon. The menu prices and times are the same over at Rasika in Penn Quarter, with a menu that includes chili scallops and potato lollipops.
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Elisir
Fitting with chef Enzo Fargione's flair for creative presentation, the first dish on Elisir's seven-course New Year's Eve tasting menu is "ham and peas in a toothpaste tube." The $150 per person menu also includes braised veal shank crepinette and black olive-crusted Mediterranean branzino.
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901 Restaurant & Bar
Opt for a four-course menu with two Champagne glasses for $55 per person or an $85 five- course menu with a complementary Champagne bottle at this clubby Penn Quarter restaurant.Dishes include stone crab claw, seared scallop risotto, and grilled beef medallions.
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Mintwood Place
Starting at 6 p.m., with a second seating at 9 p.m., Mintwood Place will serve a special $95 NYE menu including Champagne and deviled quail eggs with wild boar jerkey, foie gras torchon, and butter-poached lobster themidor. Wine pairings are available for an additional $60.
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Poste Moderne Brasserie
A $75 five-course and a $95 seven-course dinner will be served at Poste on NYE, with menu items like grilled quail and escargot. To fit Poste's Parisian cabaret theme, the Potomac Jazz Trio will play from 6 p.m. to midnight, and the staff will wear bowler hats, bow ties, and feather headbands.
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Jackson 20
Go back in time at Jackson 20's annual Roaring Twenties-themed NYE party, featuring a liveband, photo booth, and a three-course $38 menu including Oysters Rockefeller, braised porkosso buco and banana split. Pull your flapper dress out of the closet, because guests who weartwenties-inspired clothing will receive 15% off their check.
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