Carraba's 'pre-Valentine's Day' idea.

Spaghetti Head

I received this e-mail yesterday and thought it was clever.

This year Valentines Day falls on a Saturday, and many people will avoid the weekend crowds by dining out earlier in the week. That’s why Carrabba’s is offering consumers the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day celebration "Dal Cuore Nights," meaning "From the Heart Nights" at Carrabba's.

(snip)

The Dal Cuore Nights celebration includes a Prix Fixe Menu (Less than $20 per person) and $10 off any bottle of wine, including Ruffino’s Dal Cuore di Carrabba wine, a limited-edition baby Super Tuscan created exclusively for Carrabbass. The prix fixe menu includes an appetizer, entreé and mini-dessert. Featured entreés include Carrabba’s favorites such as Sirloin Marsala, Chicken Bryan, Chicken Marsala, Polo Rosa Maria and Grilled Salmon with the sauce of the day.


Topping off the evening, guests on February 11 and 12 will receive a special Dal Cuore Valentine’s Day Card featuring a “heartfelt” quote. One lucky quote recipient will win a romantic Italian escape for two including 7 night cruise and airfare. Beginning Sunday, March 1, 2009, the winning quote will be revealed on Carrabba’s website at www.carrabbas.com, where complete details are available.

Standard Disclaimer: I'm not getting paid for this, I recieve e-mails from restaurant's marketing firms from time-to-time and will forward them on as they interest me.

I, for one, hate dining out on Valentine's Day with a purple passion. Fortunately my wife can't stand it either. Because of this we typically make it a point to keep our butts firmly at home where I cook or do something else that doesn't involve dining out in overpacked restaurants where inattentive service (due to sheer volume, not any fault of the restaurant) is the norm. Add to that the fact that Val Day is one of the three "special" days of the year (birthday and anniversary being the other two) and you have a recipe for disaster where each customer is expecting a restaurant to live up to dining standards that are impossible to achieve.

Hopefully more establishments take a look at this idea and realize what a good thing it is. Instead of trying to shoe-horn the whole of the dining population into chairs on one night, let's spread this sucker out over the course of a few days.

I'll be grilling steaks on Val Day with blue-cheese sauce and prosciutto-wrapped asperagus with a gluten-free hollandaise. Thursday evening however Carraba's wouldn't be a bad idea. They have a pretty substantial gluten-free menu there as well.