LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — Love won't be the only thing in the air this Valentine's Day weekend at Carmen's Restaurant inside the Radisson Hotel in Scranton.
Among the staff, there will also be a feeling of relief. This is the first time the restaurant will be open since the pandemic began.
"It's going to be exciting. The staff's excited, I'm excited. We've been in almost like a long winter's nap," said Stan Murphy, Carmen's executive chef.
Tables in the dining room are set up and spaced 6 feet apart, and the reservation book is almost filled up.
Staff members decided Valentine's Day weekend was the perfect time to reopen because it's mostly smaller tables, which makes it easier to spread them out, and it's more manageable on a busy night.
"You want to be busy if you're going to reopen. You don't want to reopen to an empty dining room, so that was another reason we thought of Valentine's Day. And then that also helps get the word out, and hopefully, it just carries from there," Murphy said.
At Rossi's Restaurant in Archbald, owners Anthony and Karen say they've already had to turn people away for Saturday night. That's not abnormal for the holiday weekend, but this year, it's because of the 50 percent capacity limit set by the governor.
"Valentine's Day is like New Year's Eve. It's one of those holidays that you don't have to advertise. People are going to call you, and you are going to have to turn away because everyone wants to eat at the same time. But this year, when you're turning them away, and you have an empty table, that hurts."
The Rossis say profits from Valentine's Day weekend usually get the restaurant through the slower winter months.
"That's in a normal winter. This year, with all the to-gos, in the restaurant business, your profit items like your drinks, your desserts, your sodas, you don't sell that now with the pandemic because you're selling to-gos, and they don't get that because they have it at home."
But at least on this Valentine's weekend, the owners are glad there will be customers actually eating inside their restaurant instead of at home.