With the holidays in full swing San Diego offers many varied choices to celebrate the New Year. Many hotels offer rooms so you can ring in 2010 and not worry about a DUI.  Check with your favorite places for their holiday events and here are a few more to consider:

**Downtown, the restaurant Suite & Tender at the Se San Diego Hotel offer a New Year’s package of dining, drinking, and dancing.  The “Night in Tokyo” includes a four-course, wine-pairing menu complete with a Champagne toast. Then choose to dance to a lives band in the ballroom or pulse the night away with DJ’s music at the Siren pool deck. Spend the night at the hotel that offers six different packages, some featuring a Hangover Spa service for two, complimentary breakfast, and overnight valet services, each with tickets to either the pool deck or the ballroom. For reservations and information, call 619.515.3000.

**In La Jolla, Nine-Ten’s Jason Knibb and dessert wiz, Jack Fisher cook up special three-and five-course prix-fixe dinners ($55 to $75 without wine pairing) on New Year’s Eve. In keeping with their ongoing commitment to creating innovative cuisine using only the freshest local ingredients, the chefs’ New Year’s Eve Dinner menus will feature the bounty of the season and the best of the harvest. Click here to see the complete New Year’s Eve dinner menu.  For information and reservations: 858.964.5400 or online.

**The Winesellar & Brasserie in Sorrento Valley features a $75 three course menu with lovely choices that include among others vanilla poached lobster salad, smoked goat cheese tortellini, skate wing and rack of lamb. Seatings from 5:00 – 10:00 pm.   For reservations please call 858-450-9557.

**If you’d rather get out of the city and try your luck at the slots, take a short drive to Lakeside and make it a mini vacation at Barona Resort & Casino.  The Ranch House will serve an all-you-can-eat New Year’s feast priced at $29.95 per person. The special buffet menu will be offered from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Check their website for their other restaurant offerings.

**North Park’s Splash features their second annual wine/finger food pairing for $45.  If you’re partying at home they can help you with your wine selections.

**Rainwater’s on Kettner a San Diego steak and seafood institution for 20 plus years will close New Year’s eve.  It’s all about the over-crowded market that is the Gaslamp, and the desire to reopen closer to their clientele, many of whom live in La Jolla. Buzz will keep you posted when they find their new location.

**Euro Food Depot is new and primarily an e-commerce business specializing in hard to find foods from France and Europe.  During the holidays, they are open to the public Saturday, December 12^th and 19^th (9:30am to 3pm) and Wednesday, 23^rd and 30^th (3:30pm to 6:30pm). They are committed to selling rare imported foods at competitive prices (after all, they are a depot…) and can special order products as well.  Expect to find (as I did) sherry vinegar, a variety of French mustards, olives oil and cornichons, boudin noir and boudin blanc and other sausages, pates, prosciutto and a growing selection of cheese from France. After the first of the year they will sell online. 6370 Lusk Blvd., #F102, 858-452-9200.

**In  La Jolla, those who love to cook their own steak while smoozing at the grill with friends, can now do it at the latest Cohn restaurant, La Jolla Strip Club, in the old Trophy’s location in UTC.  With nearly 100 vodkas, all of which are $7, and a fun big bar, as well as a couple of pool tables on the patio, this venue speaks to the 21 to 45 year-old demographic. 4282 Esplanade Ct., in the Costa Verde Shopping Center. 858-450-1400.  Open for lunch weekdays, dinner daily.

**San Diego is a tough place to find good take out food that doesn’t come from a large supermarket.  The tiny PrepKitchen is worth noting and does some very good food for takeout or casual patio dining.  This is Whisknladle’s second location and both places feature seasonal, local and artisanal dishes. Buzz recently bought  a pine nut and raisin spiked eggplant caponata with the vegetables finely diced and not overcooked, a gently truffled chicken salad with raisins and a faro salad with grapes and walnuts and a drop dead chocolate brownie topped with  salted caramel…an intense and very good dessert.  PrepKitchen also features sandwiches, green salads, soups and entrees such as PK meat loaf with beef, Fontina cheese mushrooms and fresh herbs ($13.50), roasted fresh catch ($17.95) and hand made pasta at market price, among others. While the salads or snacks as they are called are all quite good, my only minor note would be the overuse of raisins, nuts and grapes in each. They carry Framani cured meats (though they also make their own that you’ll find at Whisknladle) and a few artisanal cheeses—a cheddar from Fresno and a lovely French sheeps milk.  Their cheeses are $5 per quarter pound; those  snacks are all $5 for 8 ounces, enough to serve two and the entrees all come with a side of vegetables or starch. 7556 Fay Ave, across from Vons, 858-875-7737. Open from 11am to 9pm.

Do something nice for others this holiday season.  Get down to Little Italy’s Mercato on December 12 with food for chronically hungry kids who don’t have food for the weekend.  Well-known local food bloggers Caron Golden and Alice Robertson are spearheading this year’s drive that is part of the San Diego Food Bank.  Essentially, for about $6 a week, the program fills backpacks with kid friendly snacks so the children have food for the weekend.  All the program info is here and if you’d like to donate money, Caron and Alice have a special link so that all donations go directly to the backpack program.  Their monetary goal is $5000 and they are half way there, but foods  such as peanut butter, mac and cheese and raisins as well as neutral colored backpacks are welcome on December 12.