This is the Big One, Elizabeth...

I am stressed, I am exhausted, and I am totally hyped out.

Tomorrow (actually, today) is Valentine’s Day.

In some recent episode of "Kitchen Nightmares," Gordon Ramsay says that there are two days a year when your restaurant should be full… If it’s not, then you might as well close your doors.

Mothers’ Day. And Valentine’s Day. Those are the two days.

For all intents and purposes, this will be our first Valentine’s Day at the café. Yes, we owned the place a year ago, but we were still in that "change of ownership" stage. We had a terrible crew and an awful menu. So rather than drag people in only to have them hate it and never come back, we sort of took a pass on Valentine’s Day. We were open, but we didn’t much tell anybody.

This year, we are in an entirely different place. So, in an effort to prove—to whom, I’m not sure—that we are not quite ready to close our doors, we have decided to advertise a Valentine’s Day special.

Candlelight Dinner. Four courses (nothing fancy…but four courses, nonetheless…)

We are not taking reservations. Because…um…we don’t know how. And rather than cock it up, we figure we’ll just go with the old first-come, first-served thing. And see how it goes.

I have absolutely NO idea what is going to happen. We could be swamped. We could be extremely disappointed. No way of knowing, without a book full of reservations.

What I DO know is that we are the least expensive Valentine’s Dinner to be had in Columbia County. I didn’t plan it that way…it just happened. And "cheap" is one way to really draw a crowd ‘round these parts.

I don’t know whether to be stoked, or scared shitless. I’m trying to lean toward stoked…