Valentine's Day

[RockADS21]

One of the bigger dining out holidays of the year is just around the corner - I was interested in where everone is planning on going. Most places have a special/limited menu from my experiances. I will be taking the wife to Pierre's in Morristown.

[Rosie]

I will have Valentine's information on Table Hopping With Rosie 1/22.

[glenn]

Maybe I'm a tad negative and unromantic, but in my view that's the worst day of the year to go within 100 yards of a restaurant.

[Wiener]

Mom's Day is not far behind....Funny story. About five years ago, my college room-mate from Minnesota was conducting business in Deleware and wanted to meet for dinner on a Friday night. I live up north but had a place in North Wildwood at the time. Not having seen him in ages, I thought it would be fun so I drove down, leaving my wife with the kids and also giving me the chance to put some shingles on the house from winter storms. In other words, to put the weekend to good use.

Turned out that I made a reservation at one of the finer restaurants in Cape May and my friend agreed to take the ferry and meet me there. Turned out it was Feb 14th and the place had chocolate roses at each table, wandering musicians, and heart shaped entrees and pastries. Quite a funny scene. You should have seen the looks we got. I think I would have been only a bit less uncomfortable had it been my wife, who was with me. It was really quite over-done.

[Rosie]

Wiener---LOL

Where do you like to dine with your wife?

[ranitidine]

I'm not sure which "holiday" deserves the sobriquet of amateur night more, New Year's Eve or Valentines Day. I believe on remaining home on both occasions. The latter is nothing but a conspiracy concocted by the greeting card, candy, flower and restaurant industries. Why, the man wasn't even a saint!

[maggiethecat]

The latter is nothing but a conspiracy concocted by the greeting card, candy, flower and restaurant industries.  Why, the man wasn't even a saint!

But at least, he was a saint once, and had an actual saint's day!

Not like...(struggle to overcome urge to use foul language) Sweetest Day! That really is a created-by-the greeting card/floral/chocolate industry holiday.

That said, we never go out on Valentine's Day. A card, a nice meal chez nous, a little prezzie. Flowers, maybe.

[culinarian247]

I've scheduled three days in a little place up in Napa, CA with my wife. We're having dinner at the French Laundry that evening (02/14). I hope she's pleased.........

[maggiethecat]

I've scheduled three days in a little place up in Napa, CA with my wife. We're having dinner at the French Laundry that evening (02/14). I hope she's pleased.........

If she isn't ,I'm sure that you will find many eager substitutes here at eGullet!

[culinarian247]

I may have to fly my "mom" in from NYC to go!!! Wadda ya say, mom???

[RockADS21]

I agree with those who feel that Valentine's day is corny and greeting-card store driven and probably not the ideal day to dine out, but I also think there is still somewhat of a romantic touch to the dining experiance on the day. We sometimes go out - more often stay home but when we do go out we normally like to go to a place that we had previously been on a "regular" night to see what type of menu they offer among other things that you typicaly wouldnt see. That is why we chose Pierre's this year - as the last time we were there was probably a year ago and since the chef tinkers with the menu there daily I am sure he will come up with something interesting for that day...

Edited January 14, 2003 by RockADS21 (log)

[TheBoatMan]

All you cynics out there are ruining the fun. Sure you can tout that it’s all about flower, chocolate and greeting card sales. You all should lighten up a bit, its Valentines Day. So restaurants pull out the special menus and hike the prices, its all part of living in America. I see the Ryland Inn and Nicholas are both offering valentines tasting menus. I would find it hard to believe these restaurants will do anything less than provide an extremely fine dining romantic Valentine dining experience. But then again you could stay home, cook your own meal and be smug in the fact that you're too smart to be taken advantage of by price gouging. So bust out of your mold folks and surprise your loved one, take them out to eat somewhere special. You are on this forum because you like to eat out aren’t you?

"To the romantics and sentimentalists of the world, February 14th represents a day to reflect on love, friendship, romance, and maybe even a little lust. To the skeptics and cynics, Valentine's Day is nothing but a reason to stick your head in the sand and loathe those who believe there is something to celebrate."

Edited January 14, 2003 by TheBoatMan (log)

[Marlene]

For whatever reason, Valentine's Day ranks right up there in importance to my husband as our anniversary. So I'm having a day at the spa that day and then we will be going somewhere for dinner. I never know where until we get there. Hubby always takes care of the arrangements for this dinner and surprises me.

[birder53]

Our experiences with dining out on Valentine's Day have convinced us to make it a special evening at home. The restaurants are overwhelmed and it shows in the service and food. It probably also depends on where you choose to dine. If the restaurant limits the reservations it accepts to what it can realistically handle, it could be a lovely evening. We also decided to eat out at the last minute one mid-week Valentine's Day at a local place we frequented. They were accepting diners without reservations. Big mistake and we should have known better. It was mobbed, but we waited and finally ate. The waitstaff were racing around the room like it was a track! The kitchen was slow, they ran out of several dishes and the atmosphere was manic!

My worst Valentine's Day dinner was in Chicago in the early '80s. I had a business trip that landed me and a female co-worker in town around 5:00 PM on Valentine's Day. We ended up waiting a long time in the Watertower(?) mall outside some chain restaurants until our name finally came up on one of the lists @8:00 PM. It was a Mexican restaurant. We were surrounded by loving couples in a dimly lit room feeling more than a bit out of place, but very hungry. Our server began a long, romantic recitation of at least 6 "specials for two" that evening. We each received a rose. I think we were the only table to get two roses We drank a lot, which helped, and laughed hysterically by the time the special "desserts for two" were recited at the end of the meal. Our server was a bit unnerved at this point. We didn't care at all! I was not happy to be away from my husband that day and the situation we ended up in was comical, but I remember it every year.

Moral of the story - stay home!

[Helena Robinson]

First of all, THANKS to all of you who sent/posted good wishes! I have been lurking, albeit infrequently, as my time online has been limited of late (though it's increased over the past month).

As for Valentine's Day... Not sure what we'll be doing yet, though we hope to go out. However, one of our cars and STS have been "eating" the portion of the AMEX that would ordinarily be allocated to dining out.

(On top of that, Im still unemployed - so I'm spending most of my online time jobhunting - and Ken's job may disappear at month's end. )

Having said that...

Last year's V-Day dinner was at Lahiere's in Princeton. First time we'd been there in years, but the advertised menu looked appealing. Had a lovely time despite the fact that the kitchen was overwhelmed and couldn't keep up. (The server, who was aggravated by the kitchen's delays, comped us an after-dinner drink.) It was enough to convince us to return some other time...

As for Mother's Day... We had a wonderful dinner at Nicholas last year. My mom was skeptical about the place ("We don't eat at places like this..."), but wound up loving ever bit of it.

Looking forward to Rosie's list...

Edited January 15, 2003 by Helena Robinson (log)