THE CROWD:

The phone rang at the front desk of the Balboa Bay Club and Resort. It was a quiet morning a few days before New Year’s Eve. The receptionist answered in her usual cheerful tone and asked the man on the other end of the line how she could help him.

“I understand that you are having a formal New Year’s Eve party in your ballroom,” he said. The receptionist responded affirmatively and asked the man if he would like to be transferred to reservations.

“My parents are looking for an elegant traditional New Year’s Eve dinner dance, with champagne at midnight, a big orchestra, hats and streamers, and all the works,” he told the person taking reservations. She told him that he made the right call, and the young man reserved two spots in the ballroom for his parents. They were driving down from Los Angeles because he could not find a traditional, formal New Year’s Eve celebration at any of the finer hotels in a city of more than 10 million people, which is known as the “entertainment capital of the planet.”

Times have changed. The black-tie formal dinner, complete with a 25-piece orchestra, is very definitely a dinosaur on the social calendar. Super expensive to plan and to pull off, and costly to attend, what was once obligatory in almost every fine hotel and club in Southern California and certainly around the country now stands as a unique and rare reminder of an annual social event that was a “must do” for many well-heeled Americans.

At the head of the Balboa Bay Club team is hotelier Henry Schielein. Trained in post-war Europe in the authoritative, uber-detail-orientated standards of excellence demanded by the German and Swiss traditions, Schielein has become a legend in the food and wine industry for his events that recreate the glamorous days gone by. For Schielein and his staff, there is simply no other way to celebrate New Year’s Eve but in the grand tradition.

Draped in red satin with a tall silver candelabra on every table, the Balboa Bay Club ballroom was a scene out of a Hapsburg Dynasty affair. At each place setting a welcome invitation created out of black paper cut to resemble a tuxedo jacket opened to an ecru-colored salutation printed in formal script heralding the night’s procession and menu. It was tied with a red satin bow.

The crowd arrived post 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve for a cocktail reception sampling passed hors d’oeuvres prior to being seated at the elegant tables.

Dinner service began with a truffled Porcini mushroom bisque “en croute,” followed by a limestone lettuce salad, a pallet cleanser of rose petal sorbet, and an entrée of grilled filet of beef and Maine Lobster.

Wines flowed during dinner, including a host of outstanding California varieties that began with Domain Chandon Etoile and also included such selections as the Reserve Chardonnay from Chateau St. Jean and from the private Rosenblum Viohnier “Kathy’s Cuvée” in Santa Barbara County.

The party was punctuated by dancing until midnight as guests attired in New Year’s Eve glamour shared memories on the dance floor at the final moments of 2008. Schielein hosted the party with his beautiful bride, Carol, and his son Ryan.

Guests included Peter and Sharon Buffa, Bette Jackson, Gail and Ron Soderling, Dielta Mac Neil and Gregson Hall, Sonny and Diane Jensen, and celebrity jeweler to the stars Mardo Ayvazyan and his chic blond bride, Seya.

Newport philanthropists Sandra Segerstrom and John Daniel of Newport Coast enjoyed the evening along with David and Grace Meyer, Virginia Mangione and Lou Sabatasso, Frank and Shirley Ionoco, Larry and Dawn O’Rourke, Lisa McGill and Dr. George Brennan, John Dietsch, Nila Trider, and Lloyd and Ethel Edwards who had come from Los Angeles courtesy of the generosity of their son in order to experience once again a traditional New Year’s Eve celebration.

Ten seconds before midnight, the countdown began as couples gathered on the enormous dance floor positioning themselves for the perfect midnight kiss.

As 2009 dawned, the orchestra played “Auld Lang Syne,” and the club’s wait staff in formal attire poured Laurent Perrier Brut.

“Here’s to a better year in 2009.”

A collective sigh was heard throughout the crowd as hugs were exchanged and hope for a renewed sense of optimism spread through the ballroom by the bay.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.