Tighten your belt but let loose

This New Year’s Eve, you can bid farewell to $200-a-ticket bashes and gauche table service and tip your top hat hello to economical cocktail parties, bar ragers with no cover and rambunctious street parties. Some of the best and lowest-cost happenings are taking place in Southern California’s restaurants and un-Hollywood bars, with many offering discounts to draw in customers and give them a bigger bang for the buck.

Our first stop: the dance parties at Gyenari Korean Barbecue and Rush Street in Culver City. At Gyenari, a three-course dinner -- including a glass of Champagne -- is going for $45. Yes, you’ll have to grill your own short ribs, but bibs go well with little black dresses. Afterward, you can get down on the impromptu dance floor, as a DJ will spin the night toward its final toast.

Meanwhile, Rush Street, which is fast gaining a reputation as a serious party destination, is laying claim to what it is calling “the biggest party in Culver City.” Because there’s no cover charge, that may well turn out to be more than just hyperbole. Inside you’ll find music, dancing, a “pole room” for your inner stripper and a free midnight glass of Champagne on the rooftop patio.

If Rush Street’s pole room isn’t lascivious enough for you, you can always take advantage of the generosity of Miss Kitty’s Electro Sex Circus New Year’s Eve party at the Dragonfly in Hollywood. To thank Angelenos for seven years of unstoppable weekly cabaret-style dance parties, Miss Kitty’s Parlour isn’t charging a cover. The theme is “retro sex circus,” and inside you’ll find three areas for dancing, “naughty contests,” flapper girls, lion tamers and dirty clowns.

For a more family-friendly option, try Universal CityWalk’s free block party. The countdown bash features the general hubbub of CityWalk and its many restaurants (there’s sure to be a spectacle on the Saddle Ranch Chop House’s mechanical bull), as well as live music, DJs and fireworks at both ends of the street when midnight rolls around.

In a more traditional restaurant vein, the Border Grill in Santa Monica and Ciudad in downtown L.A. are offering special menus showcasing, as co-owner Mary Sue Milliken puts it, “a roundup of our favorite dishes of the year. Only now we’ve played with them and perfected them. It’s a blast.” At Border Grill, that includes delicacies such as braised pork shank with cranberry pudding, and lobster squash bisque.

There are more ways to save, even if they’re a little more expensive than our other options here. First, if you go before 6:30 p.m., each place offers a four-course menu at a discount -- at Border Grill, it’s $45, as opposed to a five-course menu for $55 after 7 p.m.; and at Ciudad it’s $65, as opposed to $85 for a six-course meal. Second, you can order from the menu a la carte in the restaurants’ bar areas. And third, if you want to stay in and make the party come to you, both restaurants will cater your shindig for as little as $25 a head. “If you don’t want to leave, drive or spend much money, you can definitely do something nice at your house, which is what I would do,” Milliken says.

Rounding off our tour are cocktail parties at the Bigfoot Lodge in Atwater Village and at the Foundry on Melrose. At the woodsy-themed Bigfoot, you’ll find $5 sugar plum fairy shots, a DJ, a free midnight Champagne toast, a faux fireplace and a $20 cover after 11 p.m.

The Foundry will feature a more traditional cocktail party in its suave lounge. The cover is $30, and there will be a live jazz band, a DJ, a free midnight Champagne toast and plentiful hors d’oeuvres. And for something more filling, you can always order from chef Eric Greenspan’s tasty a la carte menu. After all, you don’t want to overdo it and forget all the fun you had. Or do you?

“The best part about New Year’s Eve memories is that there are very few memories left. If you do it right,” says the always lively Greenspan.

Following up on that advice, don’t forget this: From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, Metro is offering free bus and train rides to get you safely home.

jessica.gelt@latimes.com