Alex and I had our first date on January 28th, 2007. When Valentine’s Day came around it was awkward seeing as we’d only been dating a few weeks, but we made plans for a nice dinner out together. During dinner, I interpreted some of his actions poorly and, it’s a joke with us now, but we broke up for about 24 hours. We didn’t know it at the time, but our Valentine’s Day “curse” had begun.

I know we had at least one successful Valentine’s Day dinner together in the time we lived in Lexington, but the next one that comes to mind is another doomed occasion. We had dinner reservations in Midway, Kentucky and Alex became as sick as I have ever seen him. The poor man insisted we were going to keep our reservation and tried so hard to get ready even though he was shaking as he got dressed. We were in the car before I was able to convince him to turn around and go home. We intended to go to Midway sometime after that as a Valentine’s Day do-over, but the restaurant we wanted to try closed for good before we got the chance.

When we moved to Colorado, Alex’s first day at his new job was the day before Valentine’s Day. We had lived in Denver all of a weekend at most and there were no dinner reservations to be had. Instead, we found a nice area of town to explore and ended up having pizza for dinner. It was actually kind of fun. The service was good, the pizza was tasty and the atmosphere was quirky, but established (almost like this building used to be a bank?). So, there we were, in a new city, about to be married and having pizza for Valentine’s Day. We enjoyed it.

Famous Pizza. Photo Courtesy of Yelp.

Famous Pizza. Photo Courtesy of Yelp.

The next year, we joked that we wouldn’t have pizza for Valentine’s Day again and made dinner reservations at Deluxe, a fine dining restaurant just a few doors up from Famous Pizza. We arrived, ordered our meal, had a drink and an hour and a half later our waiter informed us that they had accidentally given our meal away to another couple. Do what?!? We told him to cancel our order and that we would be leaving. The restaurant comped what we had been served to that point and gave us a gift card to come back. Less than four months later, they were closed. We walked down the street and had Famous Pizza again.

Photo by Kelly Kaoudis for Westword.

Last year, to the amazement of us both, we had a successful Valentine’s dinner at Table 6. They sat us in a cozy room out of the way of the busy dining area. The decor was lovely with lots of little antique details, the wait staff were friendly, ready to assist us and the food was just delicious. Everything was just right and my hair, makeup and Emma Domb dress, if I do say so myself, were on point!But, it never fails… Several weeks ago we made reservations for Valentine’s Day at a local restaurant that’s on the rise. Tuesday night, Alex received a phone call from them telling us that they had decided to do a prix fixe menu for Valentine’s Day and that the cost, per person, would be $85. When Alex asked what the prix fixe menu would be like, he was told that the chef was limiting that information. Are you kidding me? To do this to couples who’ve made reservations with you this close to Valentine’s Day is just bad business and smacks of greediness. I cannot conceive of rewarding them with our patronage after a stunt like that. Due to their fabulous timing, now we cannot get reservations at any of the other places we considered. C’est la vie. We’ll wing it and I predict our day will be just as lovely as if we’d spent the ridiculous amount they are asking to fill their pockets with rather than ensure a repeat customer.