Dallas-area restaurants hunker down for onslaught of Valentine’s Day marriage proposals

by Teresa Gubbins

We all know the cliche: Couple goes out for romantic dinner on Valentine's Day. Champagne, steak, salad, and lastly, the gooey chocolate dessert -- cloaking a diamond ring. The restaurant turns quiet. The woman says yes. Applause.

Damned if the cliche isn't true. Dallas restaurateurs confirm that, against all common sense (and good taste), people actually do this kind of thing on a regular basis.

"Proposals on Valentine's Day are not at all unusual," says Karin Kelly, who owns Saint-Emilion in Fort Worth with her husband Bernard Tronche. "Our menu is on a blackboard, and we had one situation where the groom asked if he could write his proposal on our blackboard. So when we wrote the menu that night, we left a space in the middle and, when they arrived, he wrote it in there. At least half the restaurant applauded after it happened -- they knew about it because they saw it on the blackboard. He even got down on his knee, which is noticeable since we have a tiny dining room."

Sullivan's Steakhouse in North Dallas expects at least two proposals on Saturday, says chef Kenny Mills.

"We've had two people tell us they're going to be proposing at the restaurant," he says. "When they made the reservation, they asked, 'Will it be possible to have a nice table?' They ask the waiter to present the ring on the tray with the dessert."

Last year, Mills was asked to write out a proposal on plates.

"We had a guy who asked 'Will you marry me?' on four plates, one word on each plate. Which I wondered, Does that mean she’s marrying me because I wrote the plates? Everybody stops to look. When the restaurant gets involved and we make it into a show thing, carrying out a dessert platter with the ring, everybody knows what’s coming. I usually make a raspberry-chocolate torte -- that’s the one I use for special occasions, and this year I made extra because I have a feeling people are going to ask for it."

Charlie Palmer spokeswoman Cindy Howard expects to witness a proposal on Saturday since her reservations indicate one table in which flowers will be delivered.

"One guy who proposed here wanted to have the ring put in the drink," she says. "It was going to be a cocktail on the rocks. I said, 'Just for safety purposes, we're worried it will be some type of a choking hazard.' He said, 'No, this is very big, there's no way she could miss it.' I guess he was pretty confident about the ring he bought."

The handling of the ring is actually a bit of a minefield, says Bernadette Fisher, owner of Angelo's in Lakewood.

"There's been a few times when it made me very nervous," she says. "I made sure my eyes were on it at all times. If it's an expensive ring and something happened, it would be me that would have to take care of it."

Customers often request that the ring to be hidden in the dessert, says Taco Borga, co-owner with his wife Dunia of La Duni.

"They always say, 'Oh, hide it in a cupcake' -- but it's not a good idea to serve a cake with a ring," he says. "What if the bride starts choking on it? You end up having to do a Heimlich on her."

Proposals or not, Valentine's Day is the No. 1 day of the year to dine out, but even with that, the volume of business this year has restaurateurs floored.

"They're saying there's a recession, but where is the recession?" asks Jean-Michel Sakouhi, of The Vault in Fort Worth. "We're booked from the minute we open at 5 p.m. to 11 nonstop -- it's 80% couples."

"We sold out for Saturday two weeks ago, and then Friday, and now it's even spilling over into Thursday," says Avner Samuel of Aurora, where his staff is polishing up the silver cloches in anticipation. "I'm very surprised with this economy. The two best days for any restaurant are New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day, and this New Year's Eve was lame. Valentine's Day has become a whole lot more important."

Charlie Palmer isn't accepting any more reservations, and spokeswoman Howard hasn't been able to find alternative places to recommend.

"To help out our guests, I've called around to the other nice restaurants nearby and everyone's booked," she says.

But Cowboy Chow in Deep Ellum takes the cake: They'll be hosting a wedding on Saturday for Lara Gago and Steve Rogers, who count Cowboy Chow's sibling Twisted Root Burger Co. as their favorite place. That's where Rogers proposed; they've moved to Cowboy Chow because it's a bigger space.

Performing the ceremony: Chef-owner Jason Boso.

"You can get ordained online, I just went and did it -- I'll be presiding in my chef's jacket," he says.