Central Jersey Eateries and Shows Set New Year’s Eve Celebrations

Restaurants across Central Jersey plan New Year's Eve events on Dec. 31. Options include fine meals, comedy acts, and music.

Catherine Lombardi and Stage Left Steak in New Brunswick will seat guests from 4:30 to 11 p.m. Fireworks burst at midnight outside the windows at Monument Square Park. Expect truffles, champagne, caviar, and surf and turf.

The Frog and the Peach serves its a la carte menu from 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. with octopus carpaccio with XO, crab-crusted Dover sole with champagne butter, and black truffle-crusted rack of lamb. This spot has served diners since 1983.

Ram & Rooster in Metuchen offers $175 seatings from 5 to 9 p.m. with an eight-course Chef's Tasting Menu — taro fritter, mackerel crudo, snow crab wontons, salt bread, Hokkaido scallop, smoked duck, wagyu steak, dark chocolate and lemon cake.

Orchard Park by David Burke in East Brunswick has two seatings. The first runs 4 to 7 p.m. with a $98 three-course prix fixe menu, while the second goes 8 to 11 p.m. and costs $165 for four courses. That later seating includes a live DJ, photobooth, party favors, and a champagne toast at midnight.

Red Horse by David Burke in Bernardsville seats guests from 5 to 10:30 p.m. A $115 prix fixe four-course menu awaits. An After Dinner Ball Drop Celebration costs $25 per person with a dinner reservation and lets you join the CC Coletti Band in the Fenwick Ballroom.

Luca's Ristorante in Somerset plans a $79 three-course meal with calamari, meatballs with pine nuts and raisins, ossobuco, 50-layer lasagna, and tiramisu. The BYOB spot has exposed brick walls, Italian murals, and an old grape press.

The Strauss Symphony of America performs its Salute to Vienna concert at the State Theatre in New Brunswick starting at 5 p.m. The two-hour show celebrates Johann Strauss Jr.'s 200th birthday. Dancers from the Europaballet St. Pölten in Austria will perform. Tickets cost $51 to $157.

Stress Factory Comedy Club will bring headliner Dov Davidoff. The $68 7 p.m. show includes tickets and a full dinner buffet. The $118 10 p.m. show adds an open bar, a full dinner buffet, a champagne toast at midnight, and dancing after the show.

New Brunswick hosts fireworks for the 16th year between 11:30 p.m. and midnight at Monument Square Park. A DJ spins tunes before fireworks shoot off the roof of The Heldrich Hotel.