A romantic Dinner

[Dave Hatfield]

I started a similar topic over in the France forum, but limited the responses to Paris. A pretty romantic place, but not the only one.

The question in this topic is:

Where did you have your most romantic dinner (to date)

or

Where would you go for a special romantic dinner if the world were your oyster and cost/distance were not issues.

Or

Answer both!

Have fun.

[Catriona]

The balcony of our apartment.

A noisy smoky bench in the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech

Nope, scratch that. Disposable barbeque, good food, on Dog's Bay beach in Connemara, June, Sunset.

[Lordof7]

For my wife and I, although we have had better meals, the following will probably count as our most romantic dinner:

The Setting: Two kids just out of college moving to Boston - first experience living together "on our own." I had been there for a bit, but had only enjoyed the city's offerings of Ramen and free pizza at school (I was/still am a graduate student, which = small budget!) To celebrate my honey's graduation, I wanted to take her out for Italian at a nice fancy Italian restaurant. I chose to take her to Maggiano's, in downtown Boston. I picked her up in New Hampshire that morning, helped her move all her stuff into our new place, and then took her out to dinner.

Act I: (Before the fact)

I called to make reservations a week ahead of time I think. "I'd like to make a reservation for <Last name>, two of us." "OK, that should be fine." This should go well - my first experience with a big city restaurant. Ok.

Act II: (The day of the meal)

I called to confirm the reservation. "I'm calling to confirm a reservation." "Ok that's <somebody else's last name>, party of 25?" Somewhat surprised, I enunciated, "no, <my last name>, party of 2." "Ok, <same wrong last name>, party of 25." Hmmmm. I was feeling a little nervous now - but after a few minutes, we get it figured out. My lady and I dress, and head out for dinner. I am really nervous now.

Act III: (The meal)

We arrive after a nice walk in the cool fall air. We have to wait a little bit, and are then seated at a nice sidewall table. The Maggiano's in Boston has an atmosphere that can only be described as classicly elegant American-Italian. Nice low lighting, lots of pictures and classical fixtures, etc. The maitre'd looks like he's straight out of the Godfather. He smiles widely and leads us to our table like we're his old friends. We have a great meal including the parmegiano breadsticks, Eggplant parm for her, gnoccis in vodka sauce for me. We really enjoyed ourselves. The food, atmosphere, sense of adventure (for us!) and the company of each other made it a wonderful evening. At this point I am REALLY nervous, and am practically sweating buckets.

The Finale:

As we are finishing, I start telling her how special she is to me, and how much I love her. I get up from the table, pretending to see something interesting, and pull her to the side of the table. I get down on one knee and pull out the ring I have been nervously playing with all evening, and ask her to marry me. She bursts into tears, hugs me harder then she ever has, and says yes.

Epilogue:

That was the start of our great adventure together (and partly the start of our food adventure together.) Clearly, it will be very hard to top it, although we have done well since. You might be amused to hear that during the difficulty with the resevations, she blurted out "Tell 'em you're going to propose to me. That'll get us the table!" I am pretty sure my heart did stop for a second. I will always remember it fondly, not least because I had definitely lowered her expectations on the proposal front, and managed to catch her absolutely, completely off guard. She later told me as I was telling her all those wonderful things at the end of the meal, that the night would be perfect if I would propose then. Hehe.

[Catriona]

Oh Lord, Lord, that's great.

I was proposed to via the medium of Father Christmas (on horseback) delivering a ring in Martinique. Followed by lunch of lobster, and rum. Sitting in the shade, waiting for the lobsters, the waitress comes out with a big smile, saying "we forgot to turn on the grill for the lobsters", and burst out laughing. Perfect: it gave us time to have another swim!

[Simon_S]

Oh Lord, Lord, that's great.

I was proposed to via the medium of Father Christmas (on horseback) delivering a ring in Martinique. 

←

Yawn. Doesn't anyone have any IMAGINATION any more.

Si

PS