Getting Your Restaurant Ready for Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day– the second busiest day of the year for restaurants–is fast approaching. In less than a week, restaurants all over the country will be overrun by thousands of lovebirds who crave delicious food and a romantic ambience. As a restaurant owner or manager, it’s your responsibility to ensure couples fall in love with the meals and décor your restaurant offers on their special day.

Love At First Bite

Pleasantly surprise dining couples by altering your menu to include special foods that are natural aphrodisiacs. Start your diners off with a tasty appetizer that incorporates vitamin- and mineral-rich asparagus. Avocados are also a great choice and have been considered ‘love foods’ since the Mayans used them 1700 years ago. For an entrée, you can’t go wrong with delivering oysters on one of our elegant seafood serving trays. High in zinc, oysters are renowned for their aphrodisiac effects. Don’t forget to also throw in a few red peppers, which stimulate ‘feel good’ endorphins and are the perfect color for the holiday.

No Valentine’s Day meal is complete without dessert. With several delicious options to choose from, there’s no crime in offering more than one. Said to have been used by Aztec emperor Montezuma for its aphrodisiac effects, there’s a reason chocolate is such a popular Valentine’s Day gift. Dark chocolate contains phenylethylamine, a compound that boosts serotonin levels and also contains caffeine. Our catalog carries an assortment of  chocolate molds that enable you to give your homemade chocolate unique a shape. Bananas are another great dessert option, as they are filled with nutrients that boost the male libido. Fitting the red color of the holiday, watermelon relaxes blood vessels and boosts energy levels.

Serving red and pink food will further immerse your diners in unique Valentine’s Day ambiance you’ve created. Foods like tomatoes, shrimp, salmon, strawberries, and red-skinned potatoes are perfect for the holiday. Shaping food is another common practice that can help enhance a Valentine’s Day dinner. Simply shaping oysters to look like a heart or arranging the asparagus you serve as an appetizer to spell “LOVE” will be appreciated by your diners. Although it’s great to add small touches, it’s essential to do so without compromising the quality of the food.

Drink to Your Heart’s Content

Make sure to stock your  wine buckets and  wine racks with plenty of red wine for Valentine’s Day! Not only does red wine match the holiday’s color, but it is also an aphrodisiac that increases blood flow and improves heart health. Enabling your patrons to relax and enjoy themselves, red wine increases a women’s libido and a man’s testosterone levels. However, drink too many  glasses of red wine and these positive effects quickly diminish. Make sure to stock up on wines with lower alcohol content so your diners can split a bottle for optimal results.

Another option for restaurants that boast large selections of wine is to offer free wine tasting on Valentine’s Day. Many couples share a passion for wine, so this type of promotion provides extra motivation for wine-loving couples to choose your restaurant over the competition’s.

Renaming your shots and cocktail beverages to reflect the holiday is another idea that many restaurants embrace. Drinks that feature red and pink mixers like grapefruit juice and cranberry juice are perfect candidates for name makeovers. For example, rename your Bloody Marys to be something like ‘Cupid’s Potion.’

The Perfect Scent

Utilizing flowers, incense, and scented candles can help you establish a great-smelling environment that sets a romantic tone within your restaurant. But it’s also important to find a good match between your chosen scent and clientele. Boosting the mood and energy of patrons, jasmine is ideal for restaurants frequented by older diners. On the other hand, lavender helps diners relax and is perhaps best suited for young couples who are possibly spending their first Valentine’s Day together. Other popular scents include ylang ylang, which helps relieve tension, and sandalwood, which is a well-known aphrodisiac.

Music for the Mood

Serenade your diners with the sounds of pleasant background music. The key word here is background, as couples’ conversations will be their main focus during their Valentine’s Day dinners. You can’t go wrong with instrumental genres like string quartets and classical music. If you want to really impress your guests, hire a string quartet or piano player to perform live in your restaurant. Just make sure the music’s volume remains low enough for your patrons to easily converse.

Creating an Ambiance with Lighting

Whether you want to illuminate your restaurant with overhead  lighting,  candles, or a combination of both, it’s important to maintain a romantic ambiance for Valentine’s Day. Dimmer lighting is especially effective in this regard. Candles, whether scented or not, can also really enhance the romanticism of your restaurant’s ambiance. Regardless of how you choose to create a romantic atmosphere, your diners will appreciate you going the extra mile to honor their special day.

Planning the Day and Leveraging Social Media

The Valentine’s Day plans of your restaurant should be made well in advance of the actual holiday. This will give you ample time to inform your customers of holiday specials through mail, email, social media, your website, and any other outlets. Twenty days prior to Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to start getting the word out.

If you’ll be featuring a special menu just for the Valentine’s Day, you can post it on  Twitter,  Facebook, or Instagram to let your diners know. Since certain couples can’t dine out on Valentine’s Day, many restaurants extend their holiday specials to the following weekend. This allows busy couples to properly celebrate when their schedules allow them to.

Show Your Gratitude

Thank your diners for spending their Valentine’s Day at your restaurant by giving them a small gift that commemorates their night. Personalized wine or shot glasses that display the date and your restaurant’s name are inexpensive ways to show your appreciation. If you want to give something a little more extravagant, wine bottles and boxes of chocolate are also great options. Sending diners away with gifts will encourage them to return to your restaurant for future Valentine’s Day dinners, as well as meals throughout the year.