Singing the New Year’s party blues

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT-MESA -- Finding a catered party to ring in 2002 may be harder

this New Year’s Eve, as area caterers and party planners say their

business is far from sparkling.

Many said people do not seem as enthusiastic as they were last year to

welcome the new year. The holiday season is traditionally one the busiest

times of the year for party planners and caterers.

Erica Strauss, an event planner with Baker Party Rentals in Costa

Mesa, said she has been working on a “lot less parties this year.”

“We’ve been surprised [by the lack of response],” she said, adding

that they have, however, catered several Christmas parties in the past

weeks.

That generally seems to be the trend this holiday season -- more

family gatherings -- said Richard Zarate, assistant manager at The Party

Staff Inc., a Costa Mesa company that provides chefs, waiters and valets

for parties.

“Response for New Year parties has been kind of average his year,” he

said. “But Christmas parties went up, which was surprising.”

Zarate said the demand for New Year’s Eve events remained the same as

last year, but that was as good as a lukewarm response, because the

demand has shown an upward trend during the last three or four years.

“Every year New Year’s parties would go up by at least 3 %,” he said.

“But that did not happen this year.”

The reason for the dull response is anybody’s guess, Zarate said.

“It could be the events of Sept. 11,” he said. “I think people want to

spend more time with their families and not just celebrate for the sake

of celebrating. People are realizing the value of family.”

Tough times economically could be another reason why people are not

too enthusiastic about 2002, said Steve Pickford, general manager of the

Margaritaville restaurant in Newport Beach.

“People are just slower in spending their money,” he said. “We’re

seeing that a lot of people are waiting till the last minute before

deciding whether they want to have a party or not.”

While he catered to at least half a dozen large parties last year,

Pickford said he is only working on one this year so far.

The restaurant mostly does Mexican buffets for parties, but over the

years they have catered to a wide range of requests from lasagna dinners

to finger foods, he said.

“It may pick up later,” Pickford said hopefully. “It’s just everything

that’s going on in the world right now that’s made people stop and

think.”

-- Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached

at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .