Valentine's Day Planner: When you go down on one knee, try not to knock over the Cliquot
![]() |
| Not on the V-Day Menu at Trina |
Miss Lonelyhearts advises you to make your dinner reservations no later than the end of this week. Depending on how superstitious you are, you might get creative and celebrate V-day on Friday night the 13th, avoiding the crush of canoodlers, particularly if you're planning to propose (although I admit, it sounds pretty risky). This article from Gourmet should put budding proposal plans in perspective: Skip trying to plant the ring in her pudding (one woman actually swallowed a one-carat diamond) and for a best-case scenario, propose at home, then go to dinner. That'll help avoid any embarrassment if she turns you down, and maybe the happy in-laws-to-be will even pick up the tab. After the jump, a short list of restaurants with special V-Day menus or prices:
- Sublime in Fort Lauderdale is doing a vegan V-Day dinner for $75 per person for a four-course dinner plus $25 for a caviar and champagne supplement. The menu includes tomato bisque, Garden of Eden salad, "beef" bourguignon or gourmet mushrooms en papillote, and Sublime "cheesecake." Seatings from 5:30 to 10.
- One of our favorite places for romance, Josef's in Plantation is putting on a fancy 5-course meal that includes a choice of options. Here's what would put me in the mood: Lump crabmeat cocktail, lobster ravioli, chopped salad, veal chop with wild mushroom marsala and baked mac n' cheese, a dark chocolate tart, and a glass of homemade orangecello. Cost is $85 per person and requires a $50 deposit at the time of reservation.
- Lola's in Hollywood rolls out a three-course meal in shades of rouge: a raspberry bellini to toast with; seared ahi tuna with red cabbage and red pepper slaw, or, red beet salad with poached pears and candied pecans; red chili crusted filet mignon, or, seared chilean sea bass with red lentil pancakes; and finally a red velvet cupcake or red rhubarb pie. Price is $65 per person.
- Trina Fort Lauderdale wants you to do it early, so you'll have some energy left over later for, you know... Their sunset "Lovebirds" special is only $39; after 6:30 the price for a menu with additional choices rises to $59. Chef Brian Kaye's Menu of Love includes asparagus veloute or stuffed squid; arugula or baby watercress salad; a main course choice of lobster risotto, stuffed jumbo shrimp with peekytoe crab, or a grilled lollipop veal chop; and a choice of desserts.
- Finally, if you're on a budget, the Banyan restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure has a prix-fix that'll fix you up. $35 per person gets you a salad, surf n' turf, snapper, or grilled NY strip steak, a free glass of bubbly, and a choice of four desserts.

































