If budgets and cab rides were inexhaustible, these are the five joints we’d be sure to hit up in celebration of 2009.

• Tamayo Mariachi music, tequila shots, and a three-course dinner ($69) wash down 2008 at this modern Mexican restaurant.

• Parallel Seventeen Part party, part dinner, this celebration serves its four-course dinner (braised pork belly and pan-seared striped sea bass, $65–$95) to the beats of local DJs. Plus, a driver offers free rides home.

• Vesta Dipping Grill Avoid the celebratory (and expensive) mayhem by dining at this downtown favorite. Vesta serves its regular menu (at regular prices). We recommend the three-pepper flatiron steak and smoked habanero salsa.

• Il Posto The countdown begins at 5 p.m. with a three-course Italian dinner ($45), and continues with a four-course seating at 7 p.m. ($65) and a five-course meal at 9:30 p.m. ($85).

• The Kitchen On New Year’s Day, head to Boulder for a farm-fresh breakfast and bit of good luck in the form of a traditional black-eyed-pea dish.