Credit: sveres
I was, admittedly, a bit surprised to learn from an earlier poll that many cVillain readers are married or in serious relationships. I just naturally assumed that anyone who derived perverse satisfaction from discussing aberrational sexual behaviors in haiku late into the night was single, too. I was mistaken, and so pleased to learn we are all freaks of nature together, every one of us. As such, I encourage you lovebirds to get your freak on while exploring all of the beauty and culture our community and surrounding area have to offer. If you think this is a bit early for Valentine’s Day reservations, then clearly you are not a woman. These specials should be booked well in advance. Alternative activities for singles will come at the last minute, because that’s how singles treat the Holiday We Shall Not Speak Of. Without further ado…
Wineries
Veritas Vineyard and Winery
Valentine’s Day Wine Dinner and Party
This is my pick for wineries. A four-course meal paired with wine and dancing in one of the most beautiful settings in the area. Tickets are a very reasonable $55 per person. For reservations, call 540-456-8000 ext. 108. View menu.
King Family Vineyards
Valentine’s Day Dinner
Another stunning mountain view will set the backdrop for King Family’s four-course dinner paired with wines. Prepaid reservations are required, and $100 per person includes tip and tax. Call 434-823-7800. View menu.
Barboursville Winery and Palladio Restaurant
The winery is closed in January, and there is no mention of a Valentine’s dinner on their website. However, it reopens in days, and the world-class restaurant would make for a memorable occasion.
First Colony Winery
Wine and Chocolate Pairing
It is not a Valentine’s event per se, but it sounds oh so sweet. From noon to 4 on Saturday, February 9, learn how to pair wines with chocolate and enjoy a new dessert wine release. No reservation necessary.
Hotels & Resorts
Clifton Inn
Romance Her. Valentine’s Package.
This is my pick for hotels, as the Clifton Inn is already my favorite getaway for a sunset and glass of wine after a long, hard day. The week of Valentine’s, a one night stay, 5-course dinner for 2, breakfast and afternoon tea, and check-in treat (not telling) adds up to a very modest $415 (tax and grat additional). I may have to take myself. To make reservations, call 888-971-1800 or e-mail reservations@cliftoninn.net.
Boar’s Head Inn
Valentine’s Day Package
The package includes one night’s stay, champagne, and tax. At only $207 per room, this is a fantastic deal. Please call 800-476-1988 to reserve. If you do not want to stay overnight, I still highly recommend the Old Mill Room for dinner or brunch on any special occasion. View menu.
Keswick Hall
Romance Package
Keswick is a T+L Top 100 hotel again this year, and a stay there promises to be more luxurious than one can even imagine. The package includes champagne and chocolate, a couples massage, three-course dinner, and breakfast. They say money doesn’t buy love. They have not been whisked away to Keswick. View rates.
Natural Bridge
Valentine’s Day Package
Packages start at $199 per couple and include a choice of spending February 14 or February 15 in the hotel, tickets to see the Natural Bridge, dinner at the Colonial Dining Room, wine and cheese, and a breakfast buffet. For reservations, call 800-533-1410 or book online.
Wintergreen Resort
Romantic getaway specials
I ski for the apres-ski. I like Wintergreen resort, and let’s be honest, there is nothing more tantalizing than being surrounded by snow, glowing in the dark, with steam rising off the surface of a hot tub. The website doesn’t specify what the specials include, so please call at 800-926-3723 to learn more.
Massanutten Resort
“Special deal”
Nothing is posted on Massanutten’s website about Valentine’s Day, but a Google search produced results in Washington, DC’s craigslist: a FREE three day stay? As the word “receive” is spelled incorrectly, I suspect this could be too good to be true. Guys, if you do this, be sure to tell your honey-bunny you’re getting a great deal. We ladies always need help in the way of realistic expectations (and make it up to her with an amazing dinner and “dessert”).
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Tagged as: Central Virginia, Charlottesville, Date, Food, Holidays, Ideas, Restaurants, Restaurants/Bars, Valentine, Valentine's Day, Valentines, Wine
This whole thread is gonna make a sad panda.
Has anyone done one of these packages or dinners before?
The Wingnutette (Mrs. Nut?) and I were gifted a wine dinner at Clifton Inn once which was FANTASTIC, so I will always vouch for that place. I’m actually interested in ideas for a non-alcoholic (I know, I know) V-day option, as V-day is a mere 60 days away from the projected arrival of the Junior Nut (or the Peanut, as it were). Anyone have any Family-Way-Friendly ideas?
Have to avoid making ‘package’ and ‘dinner’ into a lewd joke now that I am a baptist.
Somebodies done this package…for dinner before.
Actually i just went to mas last year for valentines day, and it was quite lovely. I would recommend getting there early.
I got your back b’yo
Hallelujah!
As single guy, I must confess that it is tough to see happy couples walking arm in arm, giggling over drinks, and sharing a fine dinner. It’s tough every day. That’s why I think it’s just plain cruel to designate a special day for society to scream from the rooftops: “You’re a sad sack singleton and you’ll never find love!”
That said I do not begrudge the happiness of others. I am happy for you and I say with all the love I can muster, “I hope you get food poisoning.”
xoxo
PS Oh and he’s cheating on you
If the company’s right. I’m good with box wine and cheese doodles! I’m sort of down on the idea that Valentine’s Day somehow means that I, or my significant other, is supposed to shell out big bucks to prove our love/like/mutual tolerance. For me, it’s about the person. Not the arbitrary recognition of a day picked out by others.
That said, some of these sound like fun! But I’m betting they are a helluva lot easier to obtain on a day other than Valentine’s Day.
this is cruel, lilith. just plain cruel.
that said, i went to keswick for a post-valentines day sunday brunch two years ago (both my date and i had to work on valentines day). although we weren’t part of any package deal, we told our server that we were celebrating v-day, and he took great care of us (i.e. dessert on the house, flowers for me, etc.). we had an amazing time, so i can only imagine how fun it would be on the real valentines day.
Wait… that smell is love? I thought I was in the Woollen Mills.
The cynic in me would say it’s kind of like hitting an Irish bar on St. Paddy’s, going out on New Year’s eve, brunch on Mother’s Day etc. With the crowds and high prices you’re not likely to get value and see these places at their best.
kcb, that’s not a cynic in you, that’s called a “voice of reason.”
silmo is the grinch of valentine’s day. or scrooge, whatever.
and i think valentine’s day is great. it’s the only night of the year you can go out and know with certainty that everybody else in the bar is there for exactly the same thing. leave your pretense at home tonight!
Smells musky in here…
i must have some sort of premonitory something. cause i knew i didn’t want to open this today. valentine’s day.
fine, get it over. at least i will have visitors!. of course, they are a couple… hrmph.
You left out the Belgian beer dinner at Satellite. Also if you’re looking for the most romantic of Valentine’s Day dinners, with the Inn at Little Washington so close, maybe that’d be a good opportunity to take advantage. Just make your reservations three years in advance, please. As an added bonus, it’ll get you the hell out of town so the rest of us don’t have to…
i begrudge other people their happiness.
but last valentine’s, we made fondue at home. (the good thing about being in a relationship with an unemployed loser was that he could spend all day cutting the apples etc. so when i got home from work everything was all ready for me to eat!) it was romantic & best of all, we didn’t have to deal with other people.
I left out ALL local restaurants’ Valentines plans, actually. This was plenty of work for one sitting– probably two hours on Saturday and another half hour last night. Not to whine. Huh huh. But I will cover them.
On that note, local restauranteurs, PLEASE e-mail me your plans for the 14th to cvillainlilith@gmail.com. *cough* FREE ADVERTISING! *cough* Must be something in the air. Oh. Love, right. That.
I think my comments are being blocked right now!
Nevermind.
Doof, I didn’t forget– I chose to leave out ALL local restaurants. Winery dinners and inns were more than enough for one sitting– more than two hours of internet searches and meticulous formatting and diction on Saturday evening, plus another half hour late last night. Restaurants, on that note, please send me your plans for Valentine’s Day to cvillainlilith@gmail.com and I will include them in my local piece.
Hint hint, free advertising.
You don’t have to be happy to go on a date on Valentines Day. I am happy now wifr my wife, and we don’t celebrate V-Day. However, plenty of people in terrible relationships are forced to attend a “romantic” dinner because society tells them they must, and people believe what society tells them.
The world is flat, people.
and eating raw cookie dough will give you worms.
So much bitterness. I usually say “fuck it all” and just get hammered at bars. Usually turns out to be a good time though.
lilith @19
You mean we have to go through “punish the singles” again on this board?
Color me blue.
Tim, ditto! Have had some really memorable Vdays, memorable-special, memorable-awkward, memorable-awkward-again, and I think the key is for everyone to have no expectations. Two years ago, a bunch of us girls got together and did a S&TC marathon each drinking straight from our own bottles of wine by the end of the night and bawling when we got to the finale. If you want to imagine that we had a tickle fight, then yes, we had a tickle fight. Last year, drunk at bars. (Speaking of Mellow Mushroom.)
But I guarantee you some guy just made a phone call and made a reservation at one of these places. Just doing some public service!
Ahh Tim. That’s a nice sentiment but I am trying to be a responsible drinker… probably why I have sunk into a deep depression. I think the romantic dinner thing is sweet and nice. And I now I am going to curl up in a ball under my desk and cry.
PS Are we throwing you a party?
PPS: Anyone have a cigarette
Oh and btw when is VDay?
Apparently everyday from here til the fourteenth of february on this board….
Damn. Does that mean it’s sorta like Hanukkah and I need to give a gift every day? ‘Cause I totally didn’t sign up for that.
Here, I’ll give the non-singles a little hell.
If you’re seeing a woman you’re lukewarm about and you break up with her within two weeks of Valentine’s Day, she can and will find a cruel and unusual way to punish you and publicly humiliate you to prevent you from being eligible for getting laid in this city ever again. It is probably worth sucking it up and sticking it out with her.
But, its the “in love” we begrudge “Lukewarm and about to break up” is closer to single than in love. So more like heck than hell.
Just sayin.
Lilith, I’m imagining that there is a story attached to that advice. Drinks. You and me. Sweetbreads, optional.
Also, please be kind and not do the breakup thing on a weeknight, when someone needs to go to work the next day, after calling together all her girlfriends for a necessary drunken cryfest which lasts until the wee hours of the morning and leads to really nasty results when you felt well enough to drink, but not eat, the night before.
I have a date with like 4 or 5 hotties tonight! See you at Live Arts!
Right you are again, Yo.
Guys, if you’re gonna break up, do it now. Nothing better on VD than a bunch a women on the rebound.
/not really a misogynist just an asshole
/not really an asshole just in a self-loathing mood
No story! Common sense.
Breaking up with chicks before V-Days, Birthdays, and any present-expected holidays is definitely a great way to save money. Her tears = your new TV.
ouch gobbler. priceless.
Ah yes, Mellow Mushroom on Valentines Day. Gotta love their “special room.” Depending on who you are lillith, maybe we got it on in there? (A guy can dream, can’t he?)
I think your Sex and the City + wine marathon is the single girliest thing that has ever been done. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Here’s an ‘on-topic’ question that bears on my current (not) dating situation in no way at all. How soon before VDay do you have to meet someone to actually be in a position to have to do something special, …or else? Lets say for example I met someone tonight and we hit it off (always the optimist)… would there be an obligation on my part to start planning some elaborate VDay evening based around feelings or attraction for someone I hardly know? Would that seem weird to a girl? Or could I just pretend it was just another night? Should one in such a situation make up a fake ‘out’ like having to work, previous plans, etc, just to avoid the obvious pitfalls?
Bit of trivia: My grandfathers middle name was Valentine!
@36: I did visit the “special room”!
doof, I thought long and hard about that for at least two minutes.
Bring it up with her first and just ask her if she has plans and if she wants to do something. It’s nice to know a guy isn’t avoiding it. The best way to find out what women want is to ask them. It’s really strange, half the time, we say what we think the guy wants us to want. Fa-REAKS.
If she says yes she has plans but she sounds REALLY interested in you, just do something nice for her that day, call her for a fast meetup to give her a few gerber daisies gathered in a bow. If you’re less sure, just call her and tell her she’s hot. I don’t know. But some attention would be good.
If she says she doesn’t have plans and doesn’t want to do anything, chick only has herself to blame if she’s disappointed.
If she wants to do something, remind her that every restaurant is going to be packed and have prix-fixe menus, so you’d love to take her out for a nice dinner another time, but would she be interested in getting a drink off the beaten path, or going bowling? You don’t want to put it into fast forward.
What’s the special room?
It’s always nice to call one’s mother on VD. Mothers like that kind of thing
I’ve always called my mother on my own birthday, to thank her. Of course, I still cash the check she sends!
“Mom, you have VD. I know you were trying to keep it a secret, but I’m calling you on it.”
I agree Silmo. Once my mom obviously had Syphillis, but she never brought it up or seemed to notice, so I called her on it.
I was nice.
Beaten to it!
Bwah! Awesome.
I’m with @12 KCB. Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve are both for amateurs.
On V-Day, give your love a red, red rose;
As if newly sprung in June;
Save your dough on overpriced meals;
Order in and listen to tunes.
(Apologies to Robbie Burns)
@37: Doof,
Mrs. Nut and I met about two weeks before V-Day a few years ago and spent the ensuing days getting to know each other quite well through email, text messages and phone calls, as I was on the road for work and she lived in NoVA. A spur-of-the-moment 1.5 hour road trip started at 7:00pm the night of V-day (a Monday) was the first of many commutes that I made until I convinced her that she belonged here. It was just about the most “special” thing I’ve ever done for an S.O. and was pretty early on.
Aww!
wingnut, that’s so sweet i feel bad posting my “v-day is stupid” opinion now… but i will anyways…
i’ve always thought v-day is kind of a crock. i have an innate aversion to the hallmark quality of it all. and whether in a relationship or not, putting such high expectations on some random day seems silly. as currently among the singletons, though, i like the going out and having some fun despite the coupley-ness everywhere. sure beats moping at home about being single…
THANK YOU Stanley and Yo
Trillian:
V-Day is indeed a stupid, manufactured holiday that’s promoted to sell cards and candy (and hot-house roses at extreme markup). That being said, that particular V-day was a good one for me (and Mrs. Nut). And all it cost me was a couple of tanks of gas and splitting a pizza and bottle of wine. I think we watched (get ready to cringe and throw things) “Love, Actually”.
I…like “Love Actually.”
/scurries to hide before her indie cinema cred is reposessed
phew! glad it’s not just me being single and bitter. and i can absolutely see how v-day can be sweet and low-key, it just so often gets blown way out of proportion.
and i kind of like “love, actually” too. the fact that it doesn’t all turn out happy happy in the end saves it. i’m only slightly ashamed.
trillian, are you by any chance going to be at the cafeteria later?
all signs point to “yes.”
dunno bout trillian, but I might be there… heh.
Next tues is the cafe mardi gras fat tuesday party, which was outta control last year. Hmmm…Shit, next week Im there tues, wed and friday…
You all are gonna get sick of my electronic ass, if you are not already.
@28: Why do I have to keep turning on my own?! In reflecting on this, I actually have been pink-slipped close to the holiday. At the time, I thought the impending holiday was speeding up the inevitable. Oh well. I didn’t do anything mean, I’m pretty sure I just cried and ate ice cream a lot.
/notabitch
belmont yo, you know, before we knew each other, I contributed to that craziness! Someone had a private party, and now I know you were DJing. A guy friend and I were having so much fun at South Street that when it died down early, we went searching for a party. Escafe. Whoever’s party it was ushered us in and we started dancing and smoking. So then we thought 216 would be a party, went there, closed. Then we thought the corner would be a party, we cabbed there, nothing. Buzzkill. Shoulda stayed at the cafeteria.
well played stanley. there goes my only good VD joke…
i’m with trillian (and i cried at “love actually” and am not ashamed to admit it), but even when i’m in a relationship it’s just another day - i hate the brouhaha and the pressure and the fact that a card company is telling me that if i don’t rain gifts upon the person then given the privilege to share my bed exclusively, then our “relationship” is meaningless. every day should be a chance to express your… affection? for someone, not just the 14th of february.
however, wingnut: awwww.
@59: OH! No I didn’t. Silmo, you’ll love this. I didn’t wallow at all. I rebounded. It was spectacular. So yes, guys, it’s okay to break up right now and loose sex-hungry kittens on the city for Silmo et al. I’m done talking about this now.
If everyone followed this simple idea the parties would be bigger and fatter. Its like new year’s eve, everyone thinks the grass is greener at another bar and you end up spending most of your time in transit.
God damn that place needs to kick a few bucks for a disco ball and a fog machine… then we’d get it crackin. I gots some new stuff Im excited to try out tonight… yay! Can’t wait. Hump Day Bumpin Babies.
lillith, are you having a conversation with yourself? I’m confused.
And I like “Love Actually.” Yeah, that’s right…
I own “Love, Actually.” On the bandwagon…
Someone talk to Lilith.
(Finger on nose) Not it!
Lillith mostly ignores my posts.
Only ’cause you mis-spell her name. She can get a little ‘Stanley’ when you do that.
Only happens when I’ve had too many siips. She should be more forgiving about that. I mean, the extra “l” only appears when I am shaking with the passion of the extremely informative and insightful post I am making.
Ahem.
Heh. I’m so honored to be an adjectival descriptor!
Stanley, you comin’ out to the cafeteria later? Buster? Tim?
Should be 5 or 6 villains there at least.
70: Maybe. If I can convince dijonbray that he’s not too broke to come out with me.
This post makes me queasy. I can only read it for fellow villains’ cynical and ridiculously funny comments.
I couldn’t help but notice someone shortening this waste of time day to VD…it seems appropriate. Girls, my advice, don’t torture men by making them purchase, plan, or kiss-ass just to get some.
I officially declare February 14th get wasted and “love the one you are with” day. Aka, pick a person, pick a drink, and see where it goes.
lu: can i pick you?
doof: play rehearsal + mountains of work + early class tomorrow = i’m in for the night. lame, i know…
lu is my crush!
i’m a lover, not a fighter. we can share!
Now, now boys, first come first serve. There wouldn’t be any sharing anyway…Thor is all talk.
what if he knew i wasn’t a boy?
going back to my reading now, i promise…
dearest villains - thanks for letting me bust in your party at the cafeteria this evening. y’all kick ass. like, for real.
wish i didn’t have to get up ever so early and go to work tomorrow, but alas, to bed with me!
silm, hips, lilith and shenanigans, thank you for the hot making out we did at live arts, had awesome time watching Goat with you villains. Trillian, maude, it was nice to finally meet you.
Lilith thanks for cheek kiss.
Yay C. Come back soon!
Ha! Habit. You may be shocked to hear it, but it’s not often I have a beautiful woman coming in for a…
Wow. What a night.
See the Goat!
you gave me the cheek. I cried on the way home.
Yo! Jeebus loves us after all! We’re not gonna be alone on VD!
linky poo
(dibs on “Fisty”)
Hahaha! Oy, I think I may love you.
oy, that is awesome! now I have a date lined up, thanks buddy!
Oy Thank you
farky farky…. oy?
[…] posted his V-Day picks for singles (I especially enjoyed the recommended music pairings), and I promised mine with the honeymoon suites. So for those of us enjoying self-love on […]
[…] Love is in the air: Special people take their dates to wineries and bed & breakfast place. Learn where. […]