When it comes to romance (as opposed to sheer unbridled passion) the setting, the temperature, the ambiance ”” all must be in harmony to create the perfect environment. And here”™s another thing: Outside of the movies, it”™s no use gazing into someone”™s eyes if you can”™t hear them speak, and tables for two, where you sit opposite rather than adjacent to or alongside your partner, can create unromantic distance. Here, then, are six restaurants, all of them with round tables, where you can get up close and personal this Valentine”™s Day (Tuesday, Feb. 14):
With its long bar, eclectic art and mood lighting, Polpo restaurant and saloon ”” 22 years old and counting, and now with a second restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida ”” sets the right mood for love, especially in the evening. For one thing, this Greenwich restaurant”™s prerequisite round tables are nicely spaced in its bar room, backroom and upstairs dining room. For another, it has a rather splendid piano. (Even the most jaded among us finds it hard to resist “Besame Mucho” or “Perfidia” played on the ivories.) There”™s no special Valentine”™s menu, but a starter of a dozen oysters, say, or beef carpaccio ”” blood-red and created in Venice in the 1950s for the ravishing Contessa Amalia Nani Mocenigo, herself no slouch in the love department ”” would be the perfect start to a romantic dinner here.
Staying with the Italians ”” they wrote the book on amore, after all ”” the cozy Ron Rosa”™s Risotto restaurant and bar in Thornwood will be running a special “San Valentino” day menu featuring four risottos ”” two of them prepared with saffron. Produced from the crimson stigma of the crocus flower, this famously expensive spice, which costs around $2,500 a pound, has a slightly medicinal taste, while at the same time being extraordinarily subtle and soothing, and has long been known in Iran and those romantic plains of La Mancha, Spain, where the flower is most commonly grown as an aphrodisiac. Feb. 14 would certainly be an appropriate night to put that postulation to the test. “I”™m just mad about saffron,” crooned Donovan back in the ”™60s in his hit song “Mellow Yellow,” and while he was in fact warbling about all kinds of psychedelia, as a genuine longtime lover myself of the pricy yellow seasoning, I”™d nevertheless have to agree with him.
A restaurant I”™ve recently been introduced to, Farmer & The Fish, strikes me as the perfect spot for an intimate Valentine”™s dinner. Actually, there are two restaurants, one in Purdy”™s and one in Sleepy Hollow, both championing locally grown produce, with 75% of it coming from their own farm within the 22-acre Purdy Land Trust in North Salem. The Purdy”™s restaurant itself is located in a beautiful 18th-century house, and the reasonably priced prix fixe Valentine”™s menu will include lobster bisque and Long Island duck breast, with Red Velvet cake for dessert. At the Sleepy Hollow restaurant, meanwhile, oysters once again could be the way to go, with whole roasted branzino or Hidden Fjord salmon (from the Faroe Islands) for a main course. There”™s also a veritable stack of cruciferous vegetables on this menu. I mention this because greens such as Brussels sprouts, kale and especially bok choy are acknowledged as being good for balancing hormones and, by extension (if you”™ll pardon the expression), increasing libido. Let us say no more.
Sensuous black truffles, luscious chocolate, blood orange and passion fruit will all feature heavily on the special Valentine”™s Day menus at The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges, which, with its roaring-fires-log-cabin coziness is a restaurant that exudes romance no matter when you visit, but doubly so on Valentine”™s Day. With its soft lighting by lighting “luminary” Hervé Descottes, a well-considered wine list that steers clear of the “usual suspects,” offering some really exciting choices instead, and staffers who never rush you even though with several sittings a night they might be tempted to, this favorite remains a class act. And do look out for those heart-shaped raspberry Linzer cookies, one of the inn”™s many stylish Valentine”™s Day treats.
Don”™t ask me why but there”™s something inherently romantic about being high up, or at the top of tall buildings. Think of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan meeting at the Empire State Building (“Sleepless in Seattle”™s” homage to “An Affair to Remember”) or Thomas O”™Malley serenading Duchess against the backdrop of the Paris rooftops in “The Aristocats.” If you think height might add spice to your Valentine”™s dinner, try to snag a reservation at the sophisticated Kanopi restaurant on the 42nd and 43nd floors of The Opus Westchester (formerly The Ritz-Carlton New York, Westchester) in White Plains. With an elaborate Portuguese tasting menu and the restaurant”™s heart-stopping views of the New York City skyline, the Hudson Valley and Long Island, you”™ll be guaranteed ”” if not an affair to remember ”” then at least an evening you will be unlikely to forget.
For more, visit polporestaurantgreenwich.com; risotto-restaurant.com; farmerandthefish.com; theinnatpoundridge.com; kanopievents.com.
