Restaurants hope to score big as Valentine's Day comes the day after the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl will bring a few firsts next week.

The championship game will be the first played on the second Sunday in February. It also will be the first time the game takes place the day before Valentine’s Day.

Local restaurants that typically rake in big sales for Valentine’s Day and/or the Super Bowl are seeing high reservation numbers, but some say they are still not reaching the rates that occurred before the COVID-19 pandemic that began hitting the United States hard in March 2020.

Some restaurants have changed their pricing or made other changes for Sunday and Monday to adapt to the changed business environment.

"Compared [to reservation numbers] from before, I think it’s a little down," said Roland Mizaku, owner of Piccolo Mondo Ristorante, a 16-year-old Italian restaurant in Huntington.

Valentine’s Day is usually one of the biggest business days of the year for the restaurant, which used to be fully booked for the day two weeks in advance, he said.

"Right now, we still have a lot open," said Mizaku, who said the restaurant is doing more marketing of its Valentine’s Day menu than usual and will open an hour earlier, at 4 p.m., to allow for more social distancing.

The Main Event, a sports restaurant with locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, used to offer a Super Bowl package that included a buffet, but that was nixed because of pandemic health protocols, said Mike Constantatos, owner and manager. It's been replaced with a regular menu offering, he said.

Reservation numbers are strong but not the norm at the venues, which can hold 225 people in Plainview and 400 in Farmingdale, Constantatos said.

"In prior years, we would have a waiting list for tables. This year, it’s more last-minute," he said.

At Your Mother’s House Kitchen & Bar, a family restaurant and sports bar in Garden City Park, there are about 50 TVs, including a 270-inch screen "that’s the biggest draw," said co-owner Ron Neill.

Before the pandemic, the restaurant used to have a $100-per-person fee for a special buffet on Super Bowl Sunday, he said.

Now Your Mother’s House is charging guests coming on Super Bowl Sunday a reservation fee of $50 per person through Eventbrite.com, Neill said. Upon entering the restaurant, customers receive $50 gift cards that never expire, he said.

Reservations are going well so far, with about 80 people booked for a space than can hold 120, he said.

"I feel like in the next couple of days, we’ll be sold out," he said Thursday.

Before the pandemic, Valentine’s Day was the second-most-popular day for Americans to dine at restaurants, with Mother’s Day taking the top spot, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group based in Washington, D.C.

Government-mandated restrictions on public gatherings and consumers’ health concerns amid the pandemic put a damper on celebrations in restaurants last year.

In 2021, 24% of survey respondents, the lowest share in the poll’s history, said they planned to celebrate with an evening out on Valentine’s Day, according to a federation survey of 7,882 adults.

With restrictions being relaxed this year, the number of diners is expected to rise.

This year, 31% of survey respondents, slightly below pre-pandemic levels, said they planned to have an evening out on Valentine’s Day, for a total of $4.3 billion in spending, according to the federation. 

On Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lifted a state mandate requiring masks or proof of vaccination to enter indoor public places, including restaurants, stores, gyms, theaters and offices.

With fewer pandemic restrictions and consumer confidence beginning to return, New York State’s restaurant industry is poised to do better on Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine’s Day than on those days last year, said Melissa Fleischut, president and chief executive officer of the New York State Restaurant Association, a trade association based in Albany.

"I think you’re still going to see a lot of to-go packages, a lot of takeout," she said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.