That compares to the made-up statistic that a full 7% of Americans enjoy the oft-maligned “New Year’s Eve Without A Date” because at least there’s bands on TV you can watch.
I’m making up those statistics (and I really am just pulling them out of thin air) after reading Bruce Palling in The Wall Street Journal breaking the news that chefs hate V-Day.
You have all of these couples, half of whom do not really want to be there. The boys think they might get lucky, while the girls are wondering how they can avoid such a result,” [chef Michel Roux, Sr., founder of Britain’s romantic three-star-Michelin Waterside Inn] says. “Besides that, everyone is sitting in tables of two, so the restaurant ends up looking like the inside of a bus.”
Restaurants are beset by couples on Valentine’s Day, many of whom (according to some restaurateurs) don’t really want to be there, who sit at a bunch of two-tops until, according to one chef, “…the restaurant ends up looking like the inside of a bus.”
He declares it “the most boring day of the year” for chefs.
But (real stats here) the National Restaurant Association says one quarter of Americans dine out for Valentine’s Day.
So sorry, chefs. Twenty-five percent of us are romantically obligated and we’re going to sit glumly like we’re in a bus with opposing goals for the evening. In your restaurant.
What do you have for us?
It’s kind of funny to Google “Valentine’s Day Restaurant Ideas” because you get this eHow article about aphrodisiacs (which Rowley Leigh, chef-proprietor of London’s Le Café Anglais, says won’t work and will disappoint people) and cutting menus into hearts that I’m certain does nothing for Chef Michel Roux, Sr.
So how do you welcome patrons this 2/14th? Don’t let them know that you’re seething with irritation that the whole restaurant is divided in two and there’s no joy and not much profit in the whole affair.
And maybe things will pick up for the Ides of March.
