High-End Restaurants Finding Creative Ways To Bring Fun Of Valentine's Day Dining Out Into Your Home
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Valentine's Day is this Sunday and many couples will be avoiding restaurants because of the pandemic. Many establishments are finding creative new ways to bring the fun of dining out into your home.
For $48 per person, Icebox Cafe will offer a three-course takeout meal.
You'll get grilled filet mignon and shrimp glazed with herbed butter. The mains are served with potato galette, wilted spinach and blistered baby tomatoes.
The meal also comes with your choice of dessert as well as a glass of prosecco, wine or beer delivered in a sealed container.
Sophie Huterstein's Chicago-based restaurant, The Darling, offers guests everything they need for an at-home date night.
Huterstein said, "It includes all the trimmings, and by all the trimmings, we mean all the things that we try to provide when you come on site."
That includes glasses, candles, flowers, and a bottle of champagne. Huterstein adds it's a "little piece of time where you can escape from being at home."
In Los Angeles, the Frank Sinatra haunt, Dear John's, created classic gourmet TV dinners, a nod to its old Hollywood history.
Pre-pandemic, getting a reservation at Daniel Humm's Eleven Madison Park was nearly impossible. But today, it's easy to enjoy their award-winning food, just not in the dining room.
Humm said a year ago he would have never thought he would be doing takeout.
Humm launched his own take on takeout after the coronavirus outbreak stopped indoor dining. His menu requires customers to finish preparing the meal at home.
"We basically want to give you the tools to cook like us, to set you up for total success. But you are part of getting it to the finish line," Humm's said.
Offerings include a foie gras stuffed chicken with three sides, a chocolate hazelnut tart for dessert, and granola for the next morning.
"The takeout has allowed us to reach many, many, many, more people, which has been amazing," said Humm.
And that's why Humm plans to continue offering takeout even after the pandemic ends.