x
Breaking News
More () »

Valentine’s Day Falls on Ash Wednesday This Year, Restaurants Expect Huge Crowds

LUZERNE COUNTY — Valentine’s Day is five, count ‘em five days away! With it also falling on Ash Wednesday, the reservation books at restaurants in Luzerne...

LUZERNE COUNTY -- Valentine’s Day is five, count ‘em five days away! With it also falling on Ash Wednesday, the reservation books at restaurants in Luzerne County are filling up fast.

Staff at Sabatini’s Pizza in Exeter are gearing up for what they think is going to be one of the busiest days of the year. This upcoming week, Valentine’s Day falls on the same day as Ash Wednesday,  a time when some Christians cannot eat meat but can have pizza!

“This Valentine's Day is going to be a little different than others because for us, as a pizza shop, Ash Wednesday is a pretty big deal and for the both of them to be on the same day it's going to be interesting for us,” Owner of Sabatini’s Pizza, Lindo Sabatini said.

So Sabatini’s is catering to all its customers for this unique calendar quirk with Valentine’s Day beers and festive pies.

“We have been known to make heart shaped pizzas. It's not exactly our favorite thing to do, but if someone wants it, we'll make it,” Sabatini said with a laugh.

Just down the street at the Avenue Restaurant in Wyoming, management made a special menu for that Valentine's Day Ash Wednesday combination.

It has a seafood option and they've ordered extra lobster to meet demand.

“Normally on Valentine's Day I have a high demand of lobster tails and this year with Ash Wednesday mixed in as well, I upped my bar. I'm going to have close to 300-400 tails on hand,” Owner of the Avenue Restaurant, Dave Krappa said.

Avenue customer Eileen Manta is Catholic and says she'll likely make a reservation there.

At first, she was worried about what she was going to do.

“I thought, oh my goodness, what am I going to eat? Because you know what, we're Catholics for the six weeks and what we do for lent is we either have soup and we can't eat meat on Friday's! So it's either pirogies, soup, or pizza. That's our option,” Manta said.

Meanwhile, in Wilkes-Barre, restaurants that also take reservations like Oyster are already getting pretty full.

“We've gotten reservations probably a month ago, but certainly the last two weeks it's picked up heavily,” Owner of Oyster Restaurant Thom Greco said.

If you’d like to dine out on February 14th, restaurant owners suggest booking it now.

Before You Leave, Check This Out