Valentine’s Day at The Acton Jazz Café

In the life of a restaurant, Valentine’s Day is a big day. Much like Mothers’ Day and New Year’s Eve, it is a holiday often celebrated by making plans to go out for a special evening. Just how special that evening will be is a responsibility that I take seriously.

It has to be romantic, musically and visually lovely, tasty, appealing, stress-free, well priced, well planned and well staffed.

This year, Valentine’s Day fell soon after a spate of really challenging weather obstacles. We had lost a lot of concerts to the snow and in this year’s economy. Seeing that February 14 fell on a Monday night this year, I had to make a decision, without benefit of a crystal ball, but with the benefit of a wonderful regular music-loving clientele, and a roster of great regional musicians.

We are normally closed on Monday nights. So, should we do it? Of course!

I asked legendary pianist Harvey Diamond to bring his eloquent trio and to feature his beautiful and talented daughter, jazz vocalist, Hannah Rose Diamond, to entertain us. He said, “oh yes! We’ll do a whole evening of love songs!”

Accompanying them were drummer, Scott Goulding, of Brighton, and bassist, Bruce Gertz, of Melrose. The music was gorgeous, start to finish. The band played without a break for more than two hours while patrons dined, listened, leaned in close to one another and got up to dance.

I started my day early by taking a long look at the reservation list: almost all, not unexpectedly, parties of two. I redesigned the dining room into a grid of diamond-shaped tables for two and decorated with ruby red napkins, freshly printed menus, and candles in snifters.

Bartender, Lorenzo, commented that Hannah Rose picked a perfect opening song: You Turned The Tables On Me!

Many other beloved old tunes followed: It Could Happen To You, Don’t Explain, Out of Nowhere, Pennies From Heaven, Charlie Chaplin’s poignant classic, Smile and many others. 

There was an appetizer display in the corner with red roses, assorted cheeses, a mini salad bar and delicious fall-off-the-bone chicken wings.

I think chicken wings are sexy! Great date food!

For dinner, our chef grilled steaks with mushroom sauce and salmon with lemon dill butter. The vegetarian option was our famous Spinach Pesto Lasagna. Everyone seemed to love the food. For dessert, we had a special treat: mini-chocolate Heath Bar cakes from Alvincia’s Ultimates, a local dessert bakery specializing in fancy gooey pure chocolate creations. I enjoyed carving hearts out of strawberries to decorate them.

We also designed some new cocktails especially for the night: The Chocolate Raspberry Kiss, The Almond Joy, and The Caribbean Love Potion.