Roses are red/Violets are blue/We cover breaking news/And press releases too…… here we are again, with part 2 of our Valentine’s press release roundup, more than a dozen ideas for what to do for Valentine’s Day (or the Friday and Saturday before it), neatly arranged for your reading pleasure by type of event. Click on the highlighted links to get phone numbers and so on at MenuPages.
ASIAN
Yusho will offer a special tasting menu, From Yusho With Love (see it here) including grilled oysters, eel terrine, chicken wing, salmon roulade, short ribs and tofu dessert. It’s $50 per person; the regular menu will also be offered.
Takashi will be serving only its special Valentine’s Day menu with an emphasis on sweet, heart— and wild, including oyster with bleeding heart radish, sweetbreads with Japanese mushrooms, seared wagyu beef with braised heart of savoy cabbage, and passion fruit sorbet.
“He Like Steak, She Likes Sushi” is how Roka Akor explains its Valentine’s Day sharing menu, $188 per couple with two glasses of J Vineyards ‘Cuvee 20’$2 25th Anniversary sparkling wine.
Ai Japanese Restaurant and Lounge will have a 4-course Asian Valentine’s couple’s menu Friday, Saturday and Tuesday for $95, with complimentary champagne toast.
ETHNIC
Nana is serving Valentine’s specials from the 10th through the 14th for both brunch and dinner, with special dishes such as fried oyster chowder, duck and rabbit liver pate, wild mushroom and huitlacoche quesadillas, and desserts such as funnel cakes with champagne sabayon, and a plate of chocolates and confections.
There’s just time to submit your entry to the most over-the-top part of Texas de Brazil’s V-Day event: the most extravagant proposal of marriage will be performed with the help of the restaurant’s aerial wine artists. (Send your purple prose to publicrelations@texasdebrazil.com.) Coming back to earth, their V-Day offering is their $46.99 churrascaria style buffet and service… plus the chance to watch whichever proposal gets the full treatment.
Taxim opens Tuesday for a $50 three-course meal with Greek appetizers, a choice of main courses such as lamb shank or its well-known duck gyro, and dessert.
Ceres’ Table has a Valentine’s menu including tuna tartare or seafood risotto, swordfish or duo of beef, and chocolate truffle cake. It runs Saturday and Tuesday, $50 per person.
Sabor Saveur has a 4-course Mexican-French fusion meal for $45, with a complimentary glass of sparkling wine to start. It runs Friday through Tuesday (closed Monday).
FARM TO TABLE
After voting for North Pond pastry chef Greg Mosko to win the Christmas buche de noel contest, we’re pretty sure he’ll do fine by your Valentine’s Day dessert needs, too. North Pond’s Valentine’s Day menu full of good farm-raised stuff is five courses for $110 per guest, with an optional wine pairing for $55 per guest; see the menu here.
Chalkboard’s Valentine’s Day menu is $75 per person with wine pairings, $55 without, and includes a meat and a vegetarian option at each course (so you could either have a vegetarian meal, or just not overdo it). Have to say, a Tandoori-spiced vegetable pot pie was a nice relief after reading the word “scallops” a hundred times doing this.
Bite Cafe will have a three-course dinner including beef heart and your choice of desserts; it’s just $50 for a couple to share.
Niche in Geneva, which serves food from local farmers and its own farm in Elburn, will be serving a three-course tasting menu for $42 and a five course one for $55, with wine pairings at $25, Friday, Saturday and Tuesday.
BEER
Owen & Engine has a V-Day appetizer menu built off Faro cocktails (cocktails using Faro, or young lambic beer— “tart and sweet like affairs of the heart,” they say). The courses are Hearts Afire: Buffalo Chicken Hearts; Oysters & Pearls: Chilled Oysters with Tobiko, Shiso Leaf, & Serrano; Aged to Perfection: Chef’s Selection of Aged, House-Cured Sausages. The appetizer menu (meant to be shared) is $30 and the cocktails (two per course, likewise to be shared) are $30 as well.
Bangers & Lace is also pairing beer with sausage in addition to their regular menu— Ommegang Seduction, with six different malts, setting off fresh venison sausage, celery root and blackberry demi.
Finally, if you’re cooking it yourself, Louis Glunz Beer Inc. suggests some of its favorite beers from its list to pair with common Valentine’s Day dishes:
Chocolate: St. Louis Framboise/Hirter Morchl
Oysters: Porterhouse Oyster Stout
Chocolate Truffles: North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Filet Mignon: Chimay Red
Cheese Fondue: Barley Island Dirty Helen Brown Ale
Caviar: Reissdorf Kolsch
Almonds: New Holland Sun Dog Amber Ale
Foie Gras: Unibroue Trois Pistoles
