Restaurants, cafes gear up for year-end festivities

Sudibyo M. Wiradji, The Jakarat Post, Jakarta

As the year is almost coming to an end, people start to think of how and where to celebrate the arrival of the New Year, while public parks, hotels, restaurants, cafes and other entertainment centers are busy preparing different kinds of parties to welcome the memorable day.

People have their own ways of celebrating welcoming in the New Year. Many go out for noisy celebration and many others prefer a quieter evening at home with their family and friends.

In Jakarta, people have a tradition of celebrating the year- end in public amusement parks like the Ancol Dream Park and the Beautiful Indonesian in Miniature Park (TMII).

Almost every year, the two centers organize the celebration of the year-end with dangdut musical shows and fireworks extravaganzas in an open arena. Dangdut is a kind of popular music with a strong rhythm reminiscent of Hindi and Arabic music.

Customarily, crowds love to dance to the beat of dangdut. The show reaches the peak when the clock strikes midnight, with the city governor leading the fireworks extravaganza accompanied by the sound of trumpets blown by the people in the audience.

And on Dec. 31 of this year, the two parks will once again celebrate the coming of the New Year with dangdut music concerts and fireworks shows.

There are also those who prefer staying at home for New Year's Eve. With more television stations available, people take pleasure in spending the evening at home, watching TV with the family. TV stations provide various entertainment programs from music concerts, dance shows and comedies.

While many flock amusement parks and many others stay at home to celebrate welcoming in the New Year, there are those who go out for a dining experience at restaurants or cafes in hotels or outside hotels.

For those wishing to have a memorable year-end dining experience, Jakarta's restaurants and cafes are preparing special events and menus in different styles, flavors and atmospheres to make your dining experience beautiful and unforgettable.

At Kinara Restaurant in Kemang Raya, South Jakarta, for instance, visitors will have an exclusive lobster dinner with champagne cocktail and live romantic music for about Rp 150,000 per person. While enjoying dinner, guests will be treated to an Indian musical performance featuring India's top singer Sunil Kumar. Accompanied by typical Indian acoustic instruments, such as sitar and flutes, Kumar will present love songs.

The restaurants' rooftop or Chandra Garden offers a special drinking experience for guests. The restaurant will serve various kinds of alcoholic liquors at Rp 300,000 per person for boys and Rp 200,000 per person for girls. The price includes free flowing alcoholic drinks all night long, plus fireworks and a dance show.

Following the success of Playboy Party I presented in October of this year, Kinara is once again preparing Playboy Party II featuring Bunny dancers for those wishing to welcome 2005. Playboy Party II will be held at the restaurant's Club Fez. Guests will not only be treated to dance performances by Bunny dancers, but also see a fashion show featuring sexy dresses.

In line with theme Playboy Party, the dance and fashion show will feature sexy dress that will help create a 'warmer' evening, said Kinara Restaurant's Assistant & Marketing Manager Mia Farahziska.

Entry ticket are Rp 50,000, including free shot and champagne toast.

EurAsia Restaurant on Jl. Darmawangsa 9, South Jakarta, focuses more on presenting food for celebrating the New Year's end instead of events.

To welcome 2005, EurAsia Restaurant serves two selections of a Special 3-Courses Dinner for Rp 200,000 per person.

If you select Menu "A", then you will have Roost Beef with Thickened Gravy, Creamy Potato Gratin and Sauce Vegetables as main course. For dessert, you will have Eurasian Bread Pudding with Warm Vanilla Custard.

Set Menu "B" offers Grilled Salmon Steak with Butter Lemon Sauce, Saute Potatoes and Cauliflower Baked with Cheese as main course. It also offers Crepes with Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert.

If you wish to experience a year-end party with exotic and romantic dining in a natural style and flavor, you can, for example, experience it at the Planet Hollywood Jakarta Restaurant and bar on Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta.

The restaurant interior will be transformed into a night in deep forest, with exotic and somewhat mysterious nuance. The interior will be decorated with real and artificial trees, with videos screening wild animals, with animal sounds being heard here and there.

Jungle Party 2005 was chosen as the theme of the New Year Party because many people in crowded and hectic Jakarta wished to enjoy a natural setting, said Planet Hollywood Jakarta's Assistant Sales & Marketing Manager Diah Tri Hastuti.

The party will start at 9:30 pm. To enliven the dining atmosphere while awaiting the New Year, the cafe will present a musical performance featuring Neo and The Band, with singer Dewi Sandra. Billed the sexiest singer in town by a local magazine, Dewi Sandra will present her hits, with the Alpha Plus Dancers as a backdrop.

Diah said that guests who have dinner at the restaurants will be entitled to enter a lucky draw with prizes ranging from electronic items like a set of plasma TV, DVD player and handset, to hotel vouchers and a tour package.

She said that winners would be announced after the countdown. First winner will receive a tour package, including a round trip ticket to Genting Island, Malaysia and two-night stay in a hotel in the island.

Entry tickets are Rp 650,000. The price includes a gala dinner and an opportunity to win the lucky draw. Entry tickets for the bar, excluding gala dinner, are Rp 150,000 per person.

Particular cafes provide longer times to celebrate the year- end for party enthusiasts.

The Hard Rock Cafe on Jl Thamrin, Central Jakarta, for instance, will offer two-night-non-stop party to welcome 2005. The party starts in Hard Rock Cafe in Jakarta on Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. and will be continued in Bali until Jan. 2, 2005.

Tickets for non-stop party are sold per package. Package AA, for instance, costs some Rp 4.2 million. The package includes a round trip ticket, two-night stay in a five-star hotel in Sanur, transportation fares, an entry ticket to Double Six, Dreamland Amusement Park and Hard Rock Cafe in Jakarta and Bali.

With the theme "Hard Rock Cafe Sensational Class Trip to Paradise City", the Cafe expects at least 150 party-goers to join the program, according to the Cafe's public relations staff Rei Fiantika.

Entry ticket for year-end festivity at Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta costs Rp 200,00 per person. The price includes a glass of champagne and a standard glass of an alcoholic drink.

Party-goers will be treated to progressive and R & B musical performances featuring Yovie and the Nuno, with top singers Mario Kahitna, Ronnie Waluyo and Baron. Local DJ Riri and Australia's Dj Kasey Taylor are expected to energize the evening, said Rei.