Appetite for New Year Has Revelers Popping for Treats

On New Year’s Eve the crowds were elbow-to-elbow at gourmet counters from Brentwood to Pasadena, stocking up for that special midnight nosh and tipple: caviar by the pound, bottles of champagne, and platter after $40-platter of artfully arranged sushi.

At Santa Monica Seafood on Thursday, holiday shoppers in search of the perfect lobster stood patiently in a line that store manager Michael Cigliano said averaged about 110 people long for most of the day. The fish emporium sold 400 jars of caviar.

At Brigg’s Wine and Spirits in Brentwood, where Dom Perignon was the champagne of choice, customers had loaded up on so much caviar by noon--10 pounds in all--that the store had to restock for the evening crowd. Owner Frank Sharafi said he sold 30 cases of champagne.

Jane Scott, waiting at the meat counter at Bristol Farms in South Pasadena, seemed briefly overwhelmed by the demands of the upscale holiday appetite. For her evening’s entertaining, she had already paid $130 for six pounds of stone crab claws to serve as appetizers. Now she was looking for steaks and seven kinds of dessert--one for each of the guests she expected.

Nearby, Charles Kaplan of Sylmar filled his basket with $300 worth of caviar. Why so much caviar? “To show my affection for the people I am going to be with,” he said.

That was the sentiment underlying Jim Anderson’s shopping list as well. The Monrovia social worker was spending $350 on vintage red wine and champagne for his New Year’s Eve celebration. “It is a little more than usual,” he acknowledged. “It is the New Year and, like Prince said, we have to party like it is 1999.”

Store director Martin Deveau said that people were looking for the best and not worrying too much about what it cost--like the Australian lobster tail at $35.99 a pound. Eight sushi chefs started work at 6 a.m. to chop, slice and roll enough sweet rice, mahi-mahi, tofu and eel for the 275 large platters customers had ordered.

“They tend to splurge now just to bring in the New Year and maybe new hope,” Deveau said.

Traffic was so heavy in and out of Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake that clerk Joseph Corado left the store to direct cars and carts around each other. Inside, seven cash registers were ringing in the New Year as lines of shoppers snaked down the aisles, arms and carts brimming with last-minute bottles of champagne, gourmet cheeses and crackers.

“It always gets crazy like this on New Year’s,” Corado said.