You’ve got one month. One month of avoiding store aisles with any pink or red hearts. Oh, and one month until you remember you booked one of these five prime pieces of real estate for Valentine’s Day dining. Good thinking, today-you.
You Require: A two-Michelin-star pedigree and a seat so close to the stoves you might learn
something by osmosis.
You’ll Receive: Side-by-side seating right next to the open kitchen. Points for
same-side-of-table romance, bonus points for elbow Morse code.
You Require: Applewood-smoked ocean trout and Valrhona milk chocolate with
passion-fruit-and-nougat ice cream. Okay then.
You’ll Receive: The corner table, which is practically the only booth in the place.
It’s by the window, so the view of the trout is great. So the view of the street is great.
You Require: Good lighting. Obviously.
You’ll Receive: A round faux-ostrich-leather banquette all the way in the back, where you
can get closer as the artichokes and quail keep coming (it’ll be the normal menu that night) under the dim
pendant lights. Man, your food pics will look great.
You Require: A French accent. So on the off chance Marion Cotillard has plans...
You’ll Receive: Four courses of lobster flan and lavender crème brûlée at the Marina
outpost of Café Claude. In the velvet-curtained booth at the back. It’s a very French velvet curtain.
You Require: Whiskey. And also... nah, never mind, just the whiskey.
You’ll Receive: Two reserved bay-facing stools at the bar, and maybe some fried chicken
and fried alligator to soak up your Valentine’s Day sampling of American whiskeys. Maybe this holiday
isn’t so bad.
