Times Square Too Far? Try Long Beach

Times Square comes to Long Beach on New Year’s Eve, and if you love to party (but hate to pay for it), this is where you’ll want to be. For the second year, more than 10,000 people will gather at the intersection of Pine Avenue and Broadway to welcome in the new year. Festivities (from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.) include two live bands, a laser and pyrotechnic Midnight Countdown, confetti, food and souvenir vendors, and a beer and wine garden. In conjunction with the event, many local restaurants are offering special dinner packages, and the Blue Line has extended its rail hours to 1:30 a.m.

Dress code, says Pat Phillips of Downtown Long Beach Associates, will be loose--everything from mink to sweats.

The price? $3 if you buy the ticket from downtown Long Beach merchants. Tickets are also available at all Ticketmaster outlets for a slightly higher price . . . $5, plus service charge. For information, call (310) 436-4259.

DOWNTOWN, PART II: The World’s Largest Pep Rally begins at 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29. It’s called Touchdown Downtown, and it kicks off a weekend of festivities for the 1993 Super Bowl, which will be held in Los Angeles this year. Downtown Los Angeles (bounded by Figueroa, Temple, Hill and 8th streets), becomes an all-night party, featuring food, arts and entertainment (bands, street performers, etc.). “It will be like a big block party,” says Ron Salisbury, owner of Sonora Cafe. “Hopefully,” he says, “this will show people that it really is safe down here.” For more information, call the 24-hour hot line number at (213) 612-4886.

SOUTHERN NIGHTS: Brad Johnson and his partners Norm Nixon and Lou Adler have hired Jeanette Holley, former chef at O-Toto, to cook at Georgia. Their Southern-themed restaurant, in the Melrose Avenue space formerly occupied by Pomegranate, will open next month. But the big news is that Johnson has hired legendary New York chef and Southern cookbook author Edna Lewis as a consultant. The 76-year-old Lewis refuses to fly, so Johnson is going to New York to escort her back to Los Angeles on the train.

SLAM DUNK: Wilt Chamberlain, who owns the 2-year-old Wilt Chamberlain Restaurant in Boca Raton, Fla., is going national. The Wilt-themed restaurants will be the basketball great’s answer to the Hard Rock Cafe.

Mark DeAtley, director of operations, refuses to say where the restaurants will be, but did say the company was interested in coming to California. “We are a restaurant/entertainment center,” he says. “We don’t consider ourselves a sports bar.” Of course, there are 40 televisions and four 10-foot big screens in the restaurant. “It’s very subtle,” he says, “very Wilt.” Wilt memorabilia at the Florida branch include the 56-year-old big guy’s trophy for breaking the NBA scoring record and his retired jersey from the Philadelphia 76ers.

Considering Wilt’s notorious autobiography, maybe the chain’s motto will be “more than 25,000 served.”

AND THEN THERE WERE 7: Has David Willhelm sold his interest in downtown’s Kachina Grill? No, says a spokesman for Orange County’s busiest chef: Zuni Grill, Barbacoa, Bistro 201, Cancun Cafe, Kachina, Diva, Topaz Cafe (see First Impressions). Wilhelm’s management contract with the restaurant expired and was not renewed. “It’s totally copacetic,” the spokesman says. “David just doesn’t have to run up to L.A. anymore.”

BARGAINS: Fashion mavens aren’t the only ones daring enough to mix plaids and checks. On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, Carroll O’Connor’s Place is running this special: dinner and tickets to the long-running musical comedy Forever Plaid at the Canon Theater. The check is $45 per person, and diners have a choice of eating before or after the 8 p.m. curtain. . . . The $88 special Peking Duck Set Menu at Sam Woo Seafood in San Gabriel feeds eight people seafood soup, Peking duck, sauteed vegetables, bean curd hot pot with barbecued pork, sauteed sole, wok-baked lobster with garlic and sweetened cream soup.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: Don’t tell Ted Landreth miracles can’t happen. Two weeks ago the spokesman for the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition called to say his all-volunteer group was desperately trying to find a restaurant to feed the homeless a hot meal on Christmas Day. Landreth says the response was immediate and overwhelming: Many restaurants offered to help. Hosts for this year’s dinner were: the Improvisation, West Hollywood; L’Orangerie, Beverly Hills; Millie Riera’s Seafood Grotto, Redondo Beach; Playboy Enterprises; San Gennaro, Brentwood, and the Smokehouse, Burbank.