Your Guide to New Year’s Eve in NYC

Reach for your iPhones and pocketbooks — we’ve got your New Year’s Eve planned, from Casablanca to down-with-2016 revelry.

Nightlife

BangOn!NYC: Time & Space
Brooklyn location TBA, 9 p.m.
bangon-nyc.com, $60+

Inside a massive, secret warehouse space (revealed once you buy tickets), you’ll enter 2017 through outer space, surrounded by a gigantic solar-system installation and other intergalactic experiences: fire-breathers, aerialists, art installations, and food vendors. And, of course, lots and lots of DJs, including Thomas Jack, The Him, Dimond Saints, and Loosid. If you prefer your parties quiet, there will also be a silent disco. — Mary Bakija

Dances of Vice: Parisian Follies
Grand Prospect Hall, 8 p.m.
263 Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, dancesofvice.com, $75+

For those who’ll settle for nothing less than decadence, Shien Lee’s entertainment troupe Dances of Vice never fails to go all out, and then some. Their annual New Year’s Eve party is this year called “Parisian Follies,” a tribute to the notorious cabarets of France (the Folies Bergère, Moulin Rouge, and Casino de Paris) as well as a celebration of Paris’s golden age (from the 1890s through the 1920s Années Folles). Dress in your best and enjoy a “Grande Spectacle” of burlesque, opera, vaudeville, and, of course, cancan dancers. Guests can summon the green fairy with absinthe in a re-creation of Montmartre nightclub Le Chat Noir, or opt for dinner with a buffet of French cuisine. — Heather Baysa

F#CK 2016
Brooklyn Bazaar, 9 p.m.
150 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, bkbazaar.com, $40+

You know what to do. John Oliver knows what to do. We all know what to do. “F#CK 2016” promises a fitting good riddance to a year that destroyed everything in its path. Bring your lousiest memory from 2016 to the Brooklyn Bazaar, write it down, and shred it with the confetti maker; the results will be blasted sky-high at midnight. Frolic across three floors of fun with musical performances by Titus Andronicus, High Waisted, and Toys in Trouble. Take the opportunity to retreat into childhood on the seesaw and in the ridiculously fun ball pit. And toast complimentary midnight Champagne to wash away the bad taste of 2016. — Heather Baysa

Future Perfect
House of Yes, 10 p.m.
2 Wyckoff Avenue, Brooklyn, houseofyes.org, $50-$90

There’s no better way to say sayonara to 2016 than by envisioning the future — the new-and-improved future you, specifically. At House of Yes’s “Future Perfect” gala, the eclectic Bushwick performance venue invites guests to “adorn your flesh to fit your perfected future self,” which is artist-speak for reinvention through dressing up and partying. Throughout the location’s three rooms you’ll find DJs, energy cleansing, an elixir bar (and open bar), illicit-activity-friendly hidden spaces, and a night-capping “Midnight Moment of Manifesting Excellence.” Not sure what that means? Let future you find out. — Jill Menze

Great Gatsby Cruise
Pier 36, 9 p.m.
299 South Street, Manhattan, greatgatsbynewyears.bpt.me, $165

Imagine a modern-day Jay Gatsby who, instead of throwing lavish house parties on Long Island, hosts a booze cruise and spins Top 40 and EDM on the Hudson. If the combo sounds appealing, look no further than this Great Gatsby-themed New Year’s Eve cruise, which sets sail from Pier 36. Dapper guests in Roaring Twenties attire will enjoy an open bar, unlimited food, electronic tunes, and a special view of both the ball drop and Statue of Liberty-adjacent fireworks. Last year the event sold out, so don’t let the dust settle on your top hat for too long. — Jill Menze

The Rub
The Bell House, 10 p.m.
149 7th Street, Brooklyn, 718-643-6510, thebellhouseny.com, $60

Monthly dance party the Rub happens to fall on New Year’s Eve this month, which means the Bell House blowout will be one for the books. At almost fifteen years and going strong, the Rub is still drawing mobs of sweaty dancing fools looking to get down to a slick mix of hip-hop, funk, and soul. Join DJ Ayres and DJ Eleven plus special guests as they close out 2016 in style. The ticket price includes a Champagne toast at midnight. — Jill Menze

Speakeasy Party
Ukrainian Institute of America, 9 p.m.
2 East 79th Street, Manhattan, 212-288-8660, ukrainianinstitute.org, $125-$150

In a hedonistic city on a hedonistic night, there is good news for altruists: It is possible to party charitably. The Ukrainian Institute’s New Year’s Eve celebration benefits the preservation of the institute’s home, the Fletcher-Sinclair mansion on Fifth Avenue. Built just before the turn of the twentieth century, the building — a National Historical Landmark — will be transformed into a Twenties-themed speakeasy for the night, complete with open bar, hors d’oeuvre buffet, and midnight Champagne toast. Make sure to stop by the in-house exhibition on the Ukrainian Constructivist Alexander Archipenko for a peek at the Twenties from another perspective. — Pac Pobric

World of Wonder
Brooklyn Winery, 9 p.m.
213 North 8th Street, Brooklyn, 347-763-1506, store.bkwinery.com, $150

One of Williamsburg’s finest wine bars will transform into a fantastical “World of Wonder” this New Year’s Eve. For $150, this Brooklyn Winery event will give you access to a four-and-a-half-hour open bar (serving the winery’s own wine, top-shelf liquor, beer, and specialty cocktails — plus a Champagne toast!) as well as hors d’oeuvres, dancing, and a custom photo booth. Designed in collaboration with G! Designs, Rebecca Shepherd, and Rose Red and Lavender, the mystic-forest-themed wonderland is sure to rack up those Instagram likes. — Jill Menze

Film

Casablanca
Film Forum, 7 and 9:10 p.m.
209 West Houston Street, Manhattan, 212-727-8110, filmforum.org, $8-$14

New Year’s Eve is a time for glitz and glamour, and nothing shines quite like the golden age of Hollywood. Casablanca turns 75 this year, so celebrate its diamond anniversary with Rick, Ilsa, Sam, Louis, and everyone out in the desert. Here is a melodrama that never gets old, and the accidental nature of the film’s success — it was unknown until the final day of production whether Humphrey Bogart’s and Ingrid Bergman’s characters would end up together — demands an extra layer of appreciation. Round up the usual suspects and see it again tonight with a free glass of bubbly at these evening shows. Here’s looking at you, 2016. — Heather Baysa

Happy Hour
Museum of the Moving Image, 1 p.m.
36-01 35th Avenue, Queens, 718-777-6888, movingimage.us, $15

Happy Hour’s five-hour-plus running time will obviously concern some, but Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s rewarding, understated drama uses its length to extend sympathetic attention in every direction. The film focuses on four middle-aged female friends and their professional and romantic commitments, often depicted in mundane settings: restaurants, bars, living rooms, book talks, spa trips, and even an extended “energy focus” workshop. Following in the tradition of the everyday dramas of filmmakers like Yasujiro Ozu and Hirokazu Kore-eda, Hamaguchi allows conversations to play out in real time, blurring character thoughts and philosophical musings (in a mode similar to Richard Linklater) and allowing antagonistic characters to reveal their good intentions. — Peter Labuza

Hook
Nitehawk Cinema, 11 a.m.
136 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-782-8370, nitehawkcinema.com, $12

Generally derided upon its release and never exactly reclaimed in the two and a half decades since, Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991) is primed for reappraisal. This Peter Pan-grows-up tale fulfills both sides of its ripe conceit, anchored at one end by some of the director’s most visually imaginative sequences — its action particularly impresses — and at the other by a touching emotional resonance. The parent-child scenes, for one, have no business being this observant in a big-scale blockbuster. But Hook has always been first and foremost a showcase for the inimitable talents of the late Robin Williams, who perfectly captures the once-displaced, now-revived character’s senses of resignation and rediscovery. — Nick Newman

The Lobster
Museum of the Moving Image, 4:30 p.m.
36-01 35th Avenue, Queens, 718-777-6888, movingimage.us, $15

If you take nothing else away from The Lobster, you will still have seen what is perhaps cinema’s all-time funniest shin-kick: It’s from Colin Farrell, aimed at a little girl, and somehow totally justified by the plot, which as you might’ve read involves a society where uncoupled adults, wholly valueless, are literally put out to pasture. The kick is also pretty much the least sadistic example of shocking nastiness in The Lobster, or indeed in the work to date of Yorgos Lanthimos, whose Dogtooth likewise trafficked in maxillofacial trauma. Lobster presents yet further evidence of the director as master of his own sui generis parallel universes — it’s not hard to imagine a cult following forming as we speak — even if its ending couldn’t be more Greek. Pretend it’s not on Amazon and catch it here; you’ll need the fresh air to clear your head after. — Mike Laws

When Harry Met Sally…
Nitehawk Cinema, 11:30 a.m.
136 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-782-8370, nitehawkcinema.com, $12

It’s almost 2017, and Nora Ephron’s infamous question has been answered again and again — of course a man and a woman can just be friends, if they both want to. But let’s say you’re lonely on New Year’s Eve day, roaming around Central Park by yourself. Go ahead, have what she’s having. Take the opportunity to remember all the things you love about When Harry Met Sally this December 31 at Nitehawk. Grab a friend, or a “friend,” and steel yourself for the night of debauchery ahead with the food and drink specials on offer at this brunchtime screening. — Heather Baysa

Food & Drink

Cienfuegos + Mother of Pearl
9 p.m.-2 a.m.
95 Avenue A, Manhattan, 212-614-6818, cienfuegosny.com, motherofpearlnyc.com, $130+

To kick off 2017 in rum-friendly fashion, head to the East Village for a joint party by tiki spot Mother of Pearl and its upstairs neighbor, the Cuban-inspired Cienfuegos. The party will encompass both bars, with each passing around appetizers that fit its theme. (Bonus for herbivores: Mother of Pearl has an all-vegan menu.) The open bar will also include beer and wine, along with a Champagne toast at midnight. If you want to end the year feeling tropical but can’t swing the plane ticket, this is your party. — Alicia Kennedy

Dante
5 p.m.-2 a.m.
79-81 MacDougal Street, Manhattan, 212-982-5275, dante-nyc.com, $85+

Greenwich Village landmark Dante has been in business since 1915, always operating with an Italian flair. In 2015, it was handed over to Australian owners, but it’s remained true to its origins, famously serving an incredible list of Negroni variations. This year, the bar was named to 2016’s “World’s 50 Best Bars” list, so one can expect its New Year’s Eve bash will be both delicious and fun. The $85 sit-down menu — expect truffles and decadent seafood dishes — includes a welcome cocktail and a midnight toast. — Alicia Kennedy

Distilled
9:30 p.m.-3 a.m.
Distilled, 211 West Broadway, Manhattan, 212-601-9514, distilledny.com, $125+

You might know Tribeca bar and restaurant Distilled for its complimentary popcorn, served with a delicious sprinkling of what it calls “magic dust.” The menu there also offers pub fare and an extensive roster of meaty and vegetarian-friendly American food. On New Year’s Eve, you can sample these signature dishes on an unlimited basis, along with an open bar until 1 a.m. There will be a midnight toast, music, and party favors, plus live projection of the ball drop. — Alicia Kennedy

Empellón
7 p.m.-12 a.m.
230 West 4th Street (212-367-0999) and 105 First Avenue (212-780-0999), Manhattan, empellon.com, $95+

Turn your New Year’s Eve into a bona fide fiesta at Alex Stupak’s notoriously fun and experimental Empellón restaurants, which excel at modern Mexican. The flagship West Village taqueria will host two six-course taco tastings (the earlier seating is $95; the later, with Champagne toast, is $135), where you’ll find things like wagyu beef in black-pepper mole and lobster slicked with sea urchin butter tucked inside fresh warm corn tortillas. You can also reserve the intimate chef’s counter at Empellón Cocina in the East Village, where Stupak and his cohorts will concoct an impressive multi-course tasting menu befitting the special occasion. — Zachary Feldman

Glasserie
5:30 p.m.-2 a.m.
95 Commercial Street, Brooklyn, 718-389-0640, glasserienyc.com, $90+

Party in style at Sara Conklin’s industrial-chic Israeli restaurant, Glasserie, set inside a former glassworks on the outskirts of Greenpoint. Until 7:30, celebrate with a selection from chef Eldad Shem Tov’s à la carte menu of modern Mediterranean cooking, which leans toward the experimental with dishes like shredded rabbit tacos and a flaming fish meatball. After 7:30, Shem Tov and his crew will put together a $90 five-course prix fixe meal (with Champagne toast) that includes local fish crudo and dry-aged steak. Sweeten your new year with orange-blossom doughnuts and rose-scented custard while jamming out to live music, which kicks off at ten and continues till late. — Zachary Feldman

The Rainbow Room
8:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.
30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th floor, Manhattan, 212-632-5000, rainbowroom.com, $295+

Ring in 2017 sixty-five floors above midtown at New York City’s Rainbow Room, where guests can get down to live music on the landmarked dancefloor. Tuck into canapés and enjoy a four-course prix fixe meal while surrounded by ornate crystal curtains in the historic, cavernous dining room; the temptations include big-ticket items like lobster salad and dry-aged beef, all topped off by a Champagne toast at midnight. The $595 blowout is a black-tie affair; if you’d prefer a less formal celebration, the Rainbow Room’s Bar SixtyFive will host a Champagne and caviar soirée for a relative “bargain” at $295. — Zachary Feldman

Rebelle
5 p.m.-2 a.m.
218 Bowery, Manhattan, 917-639-3880, rebellenyc.com, $65+

At this spacious Lower East Side neo-bistro, Branden McRill, Patrick Cappiello, and chef Daniel Eddy will kick off their New Year’s celebrations with a slew of prix fixe options, starting with a perfectly reasonable $65 three-course meal featuring the same kind of stylish and well-composed French fare that’s made the restaurant a destination for Francophilic oenophiles. Enjoy live jazz with your dinner or find someone to make music with at the $95 open bar, which begins at midnight. In addition to tony fare like scallops with ginger cream and roast duck with white beans, pastry chef Morgan Reeds’s sweets — including bay leaf panna cotta — are appropriately festive. — Zachary Feldman

Virginia’s
7 p.m.-1 a.m.
647 East 11th Street, Manhattan, 212-658-0182, virginiasnyc.com, $95+

At Virginia’s, a cozy and posh East Village respite encased in white brick, chef Matt Conroy weaves together greenmarket ingredients into smart and playful New American dishes like charred sweet potatoes with horseradish and blue cheese. He’s devised a $95 New Year’s Eve menu to mark the occasion, featuring six courses of luxe ingredients like Kumamoto oysters (under cucumber ice and shiso leaves), bay scallops (with capers and citrus), and suckling pig (next to apples, cabbage, and pickled mustard seeds). Consider your lily gilded with supplements that include a black-truffle celery root velouté and a “surf and turf” of short rib and lobster in fingerling potato purée. — Zachary Feldman

Westlight
9 p.m.-2 a.m.
111 North 12th Street, Brooklyn, 718-307-7100, westlightnyc.com, $225+

Nestled high above Williamsburg on the 22nd floor of the towering William Vale hotel, Westlight, Brooklyn’s hottest new rooftop bar, is hosting a New Year’s Eve bash (starting at $225) with an open bar featuring specialty cocktails like “The Crusher,” a spiced and fruity mixture of gin, amaro Nonino, elderflower liqueur, blueberry, and lemon. In addition to a Champagne toast at midnight, expect passed canapés from chef Andrew Carmellini, who’s in charge of all the food at this modern luxury hotel known for its killer views. If Westlight’s bar menu is any indication, you can expect to nosh on everything from duck carnitas tacos to crispy potato skins decked with caviar to kale spring rolls. — Zachary Feldman

Music

Anbessa Orchestra
Barbès, 10 p.m.
376 9th Street, Brooklyn, 347-422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com, $20

Expect one of the evening’s more joyfully intimate celebrations to break out in the cozy back room of this Park Slope boîte, as the Anbessa Orchestra tears through hits from Ethiopian music’s late-Sixties/early-Seventies golden age. Anbessa are led by guitarist-composer Nadav Peled, inspired by producer Francis Falceto’s ongoing Éthiopiques series of CD compilations, and named after the magisterial lion of Amharic culture. The seven-piece outfit deploys rolling grooves and funky horns in songs like Assefa Abate’s “Yematibela Wef,” adds twangy surf guitar to Ali Mohammed Birra’s “Nagatti Si Jedha,” and more than credibly expands the template with remarkably faithful originals. — Richard Gehr

The Bad Plus
The Village Vanguard, 9 and 11 p.m.
178 Seventh Avenue South, 212-255-4037, villagevanguard.com, $150

This trio — bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer Dave King — famously broke the “rock” barrier at this club fourteen years ago by covering the likes of Blondie, Nirvana, and Black Sabbath. They’ve also been dependably jubilant New Year’s Eve regulars since 2008. After concentrating on original material for their past few albums, the Bad Plus returned to their conceptual roots with this year’s It’s Hard, a refreshingly perverse all-covers collection that has the group bopping all the way from Ornette and saxophonist-composer Bill McHenry to Johnny Cash, Kraftwerk, and Prince, all while remaining as witty and idiosyncratic as ever. — Richard Gehr

Kamasi Washington
Brooklyn Bowl, 8:30 p.m.
61 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-963-3369, brooklynbowl.com, $65-$75

Composer and saxophonist Kamasi Washington’s three-part The Epic, released last year on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, lives up to its name with nearly three hours of impeccably arranged jazz certain to move aficionados and skeptics alike. And move is the key word: Layered with nods to soul and funk, Washington’s music has all the thrust needed to get you out on the dancefloor at Brooklyn Bowl (or, at least, shimmying down its lanes). Whatever your New Year’s Eve plans for the rest of the evening, start the night with Washington and opener the Budos Band — it’s gonna be epic, man. — Hannah Stamler

Marc Ribot Trio
Issue Project Room, 10 p.m.
22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn, 718-330-0313, issueprojectroom.org, $30

Marc Ribot has quite the endearingly eclectic c.v. On more than twenty albums, he has nimbly moved between avant-garde and jazz circles; his deft, flexible guitar work can be heard on tracks by Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, John Lurie, and John Zorn. He’ll ring in 2017 at Issue Project Room with bassist Henry Grimes — who played with free-jazz giant Albert Ayler many moons ago — and drummer Chad Taylor. If it’s anything like the trio’s excellent 2014 album, Live at the Village Vanguard, you’ll be treated to a mix of standards and Ayler tunes revived, reinterpreted, and remade. — Tanner Tafelski

Phish
Madison Square Garden, 7:30 p.m.
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, 212-465-6741, thegarden.com, $75-$90

The band completes a four-night run in this big, bouncing room with its 39th show — and 10th New Year’s Eve showcase — at what has become its de facto home away from home. Last year, the quartet began the third night of its MSG residency with a long, undulating, electronics-enhanced jam from within a tall, luminous hourglass across the arena floor from the stage. They eventually returned to their proper place for another hour’s worth of space-rock, dad-rock, prog-rock, “Auld Lang Syne,” and the constantly searching, uniquely off-register neoclassical rock they’ve been honing for more than four presidential administrations. — Richard Gehr

Snarky Puppy
Irving Plaza, 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.
17 Irving Place, 212-777-6817, irvingplaza.com, $50

Brooklynites by way of the University of North Texas jazz program, this ceaselessly hustling and ever-evolving little big band reclaims the regrettably abandoned territory where sophisticated jazz meets funky dance music. Led by composer-bassist Michael League, Snarky Puppy dazzle without a lot of obtrusive razzle. As heard on the group’s recent Culcha Vulcha, League keeps things taut yet grooving with propulsive percussion, playfully polyester analog synth lines, snazzy horn charts, and the occasional Brazilian tinge. Catch them here as either a classy prelude to year-end hoopla or an after-midnight bacchanal. — Richard Gehr

Thurston Moore + Okkyung Lee + Ikue Mori + John Zorn + William Winant
The Stone, 8 p.m.
Avenue C and 2nd Street, thestonenyc.com, $30

Spend some of the last hours of 2016 with a few juggernauts in avant-garde music. Downtown icon John Zorn has been putting on New Year’s Eve improv concerts for a few years now at his Alphabet City music and performance space, the Stone. In the past, Fred Frith (Henry Cow), Mike Watt (Minutemen), bassist Bill Laswell, and many more have jammed with him. Joining Zorn this year are returning collaborators Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), cellist Okkyung Lee, and drummer Ikue Mori. Rounding out the killer group is percussionist William Winant, a fresh face to these year-end concerts. — Tanner Tafelski