Despite Y2K, Nightspots Zero In on New Year’s

At the posh 2087 restaurant in Thousand Oaks, New Year’s revelers will toast the new millennium with a retrospective of the century’s cocktails, including Prohibition-era bathtub gin.

At Oxnard’s exclusive Tower Club, guests will usher in the 21st century atop the 21-floor Dean Witter Tower, dining and dancing in a mock lunar rocket terminal.

And at the Ojai Foundation, participants in a ritual-oriented celebration will meditate in silence for the final hour of 1999, with coyotes and owls providing the only live entertainment.

In modes of expression ranging from decadent to reverent, thousands of county residents will be stepping out to publicly commemorate the new millennium.

But in a sign that Y2K is making people jittery, many will be sticking close to home in small gatherings of family and friends.

Jim Jevens, economic development consultant to the city of Camarillo, is passing on the New Year’s gala at Las Posas Country Club, where he is a member. Instead, he and his wife, Donna, plan to entertain four couples at their home.

“I get the impression people are not wandering too far from home, 1/8because 3/8 of a little bit of tentativeness over this Y2K thing,” said the longtime Camarillo resident. Citing a concern about computerized electronics in cars going haywire at midnight, he added, “It’s amateur night. I’d just as soon not be out on the streets.”

Lifelong Oxnard resident Karin Speights and her husband, Robert, are hosting a murder mystery party for nine guests at their home. Their friends, from Oxnard and Ventura, will arrive dressed and acting in character.

“It’s a nice way to keep everybody home, and people won’t have to drive too far when it’s over,” said Speights, the marketing director for Honda and Lexus of Oxnard.

Still, the big night will lure plenty of people from their homes, and businesses that cater to the party-goers will be putting on some flash.

The members-only Tower Club will be transformed into a lunar way station with mock excursions to Mars and Venus. Guests will be feted with a six-course dinner and French wines. They will also be entertained by a comedian, a magician who will travel from table-to-table, and a band that will play throughout the evening.

The affair, which Oxnard Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Don Facciano has dubbed “the hottest ticket in town,” comes at a steep price: $250 per person. But the party has been sold out since July, and General Manager Robert Lopez is promising his 167 guests a great time.

“I can’t wait, it’s going to be great,” said the native Frenchman in heavily accented English. “Everything has to be perfect if you’re charging $250 per person. . . .I know the food will be, but also the timing and the service must be too.”

About 400 guests will congregate for the private bash at the Thousand Oaks restaurant 2087. The party, hosted by a local couple who prefer to remain anonymous, will feature 10 bars serving drinks from the different decades of the 20th century. For the Roaring ‘20s, it will be champagne, and in honor of the 1990s, California wines will be poured.

Popular food from different decades will also be featured, like Waldorf salad from the 1930s, and sushi as the delicacy of choice from the 1980s.

Guests will be entertained by a 10-piece band and a laser light show, and the restaurant will beam in a satellite feed of the clock striking midnight in cities around the country.

The general manager of 2087, Charles Bruchez, would not reveal the price of the party, but he said the hosts have spared no expense, including outfitting the restaurant for the evening with new tables, chairs, linens and lighting.

“Let’s just say they have made me very happy,” he said.

In what the Ojai Foundation is calling a more contemplative and thoughtful way of entering the new millennium, New Year’s guests at the retreat--which sustained minor damage in the recent Ranch fire-- will sit in a sweat lodge in an act of purification, a spokeswoman said.

“You leave things you don’t want anymore in the lodge,” said Maha raj Khalsa. “It’s as if you’re reborn for the new millennium.”

Participants will then sit for an hour in quiet meditation up to the time the clock rolls over into the 21st century.

Khalsa said she had expected more interest in the $255 program, but assumes people are nervous about traveling over the holiday.

Echoing that assessment, Donna DePaola, promoter of the Millennium Masquerade at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, said she and her partners have scaled back their expectations over the number of people who will attend the event.

Originally, they planned on 2,000 to 3,000, but now expect around 900. Costumes will not be required.

“I think people decided they just wanted to stay local,” said DePaola, the deputy mayor of Ventura.

The party will feature midnight fireworks and swing and country western bands. There will also be a casino with black jack tables and roulette, and a buffet of hors d’oeuvres served throughout the evening.

“If people are drinking, we want them eating,” DePaola said.

But through Wednesday, only 250 or so tickets had been sold. Tickets are $49 for adults and $25 for children under 12.

The Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort is also scaling back its party. After receiving a tepid response from potential patrons, the hotel recently lowered rates and eliminated a four-day minimum required stay, spokesman Patrick Ward said.

“Everyone wants to stay at home, or they don’t want to spend that much money,” Ward said. “Even Las Vegas 1/8hotels 3/8 have dropped their rates.”

The resort’s New Year’s gala promises four kinds of musical entertainment, buffets throughout the hotel, and a balloon drop and champagne at midnight. Tickets are $250 per couple.

At the Hyatt Westlake Plaza in Thousand Oaks, tickets are still selling for either dinner and live entertainment at $205 per person or a DJ and hors d’oeuvres for $110 per person.

General Manager Scott Vandenberg expects a sellout crowd. Last year, he said, 1,400 people showed up--most were county residents. The hotel has sold about 800 tickets so far.

For a night of celebration that ends before midnight, the Conejo Pops Orchestra will offer a concert featuring opera arias and songs from all-time favorite musicals such as “West Side Story.” Ticket prices for the concert, which will end at 10:30 p.m., range from $18 to $50.

Despite all the hype over the much-anticipated night, some businesses hosting parties are expecting a fairly routine New Year’s celebration.

The Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley anticipates the same 150 to 200 people it hosts each New Year’s.

Rachel Needham, director of catering for the club, said she is not surprised with news reports asserting that many people are avoiding travel to faraway locations for New Year’s Eve.

“Coming off of Christmas, how can you afford some of the prices they are asking for?” Needham said.

Nick Taylor, owner of Nicholby’s Night Club in downtown Ventura, said he expects a full house on New Year’s, but is not offering a glitzy party. Papa Nata, a local band, will reunite for the evening, and tickets are $25.

“We’re not putting on airs--there are no $100 tickets here,” he said. “We’re doing a celebration of the community.”