Valentine’s Greetings of All Kinds, Some Sweet and Some Not So Sweet

The maitre d’ at Silas St. John, a romantic hideaway of a restaurant in Kensington, says that this year’s Valentine’s Day brought something unusual--dozens of couples wanting to celebrate and not being able to.

Dan Kurtanich said last Feb. 14 brought nothing out of the ordinary, meaning he turned no one away. But this year, demand was such that he had to turn down 80 requests for parties of two.

The popularity of the day has compelled Kurtanich to schedule strolling guitarists as well as balloons and roses to complement an already-lavish cuisine.

Balloons, roses, guitars, food. . . . These are the garden-variety endearments of St. Valentine’s Day. Many businesses say this year’s celebration has been bigger--and more profitable--than any in memory.

But many merchants also talk of fielding increasingly strange Valentine requests.

“It must be the times,” said Phil Colclough, a salesman at Balloonatiks, which provides singing telegrams. “I can’t think of anything else to explain it.”

Balloonatiks recently had requests for belly dancers to deliver what one client labeled “a bellygram of love.” Another woman wanted her Valentine’s Day endearment to be warbled by a man dressed as Carmen Miranda, complete with a crown of fruit adorning his head. Another asked a Balloonatiks employee to mount and ride a horse, a la Pancho Villa.

And, of course, there was recently the predictable bouquet of a dozen balloons in the shape of condoms . . . for, as the message went, a really “safe” Valentine’s Day.

Panda’s Flowers in La Jolla gets scores of requests for flowers tucked away in furry stuffed animals--mostly teddy bears, said shop owner Margaret Largura. But, more and more, the stuffed-animal orders are for animals Largura has never dealt with before, that seem odd and somehow inappropriate for Valentine’s Day--alligators, frogs, giraffes. . . . She just shakes her head.

Marianne Palmer of A Beautiful Morning, a hot-air balloon emporium in Del Mar, said Valentine’s Day marks the busiest time of year in her business. She’s fielded about 25 requests recently from men who want to soar above Del Mar and pop the question to their true love.

“It’s hard to say no, when you’re up that high,” Palmer said.

In five years as a chocolate maker, Cricket Abbott has filled her share of peculiar orders for Valentine’s Day.

One year, she made a foot-and-a-half-long Noah’s Ark, stuffed with chocolate animals, for an employee at the zoo.

She’s made chocolate clams, as big as a foot wide, with tiny chocolate claws guaranteed to scratch your face with yummy chocolate smears.

But the weirdest requests of all, she said, are the X-rated kind, which are booming in popularity.

Abbott is one of three partners in Abbott’s of La Jolla, which dispenses chocolate from an outlet on La Jolla Shores Drive. Abbott’s staff has spent a lot of time this year dealing with the X-rated.

“Oh, you know, we do all of the various body parts--kind of a make-your-own chocolate,” she said. “We do about 20 of these a year.”

But, just as Christmas can trigger feelings of loneliness for some, so, too, can Valentine’s Day be a reminder of romance gone wrong.

Bill Brandt, co-owner of Pacifica Florists in Pacific Beach, fielded an especially odd request this year.

“This customer called from out of state and asked us to deliver 3 dozen red roses with all of the tops cut off--he wanted the stems delivered to his ex-wife,” Brandt said. “The card read: ‘Thanks for the three worst years I’ve ever had.’ ”

Brandt said he was saddened by such a request and tried to persuade the customer not to send them--to no avail. As a businessman, Brandt said, he had to relent.

So, it’s especially gratifying to Brandt and his wife when such sales are balanced by a 6-year-old showing up at the counter wanting to send flowers to his grandmother. Even if the kid has pocket change totaling no more than 60 cents, Brandt said, he tries to honor the request.

Some Unusual Requests

More and more, though, he gets requests from people wanting to send extremely suggestive, overtly sexual or outright hostile messages--many of which he says he declines. Brandt’s business allows him a glimpse into private lives; he doesn’t always like what he sees on Valentine’s Day.

One man came in recently and ordered 15 deliveries of roses--seven to his wife, three to her business and most of the rest to family members. The bill came to $763. The man also asked Brandt to send a dozen to “another lady,” with the stipulation that no one else be told from whom they came.

Such orders are common, “and you just pray you don’t get the cards mixed up,” Brandt said.

Beverly McDougal, co-owner of The Grand Tradition, a wedding chapel in Fallbrook, said she conducted three Valentine’s-related weddings this past weekend with three more penciled in for this weekend.

Over the years, she’s had her share of the unusual nuptials. One woman wanted her poodles in the ceremony, and a man insisted that he and his groomsmen be allowed to wear Nike running shoes during the ceremony.

Another man insisted he get to wear patent leather shoes that were bright red--no one could talk him out of it, even if he did look like a clown.

The people at Balloonatiks say the most frequent request, however, is a curious one. More and more people, they say--and these requests are not limited to women--want their telegrams of love sung by grown men wearing diapers.

Supposedly, these gents represent--who else?--Cupid himself. These days, apparently only Cupid walks away embarrassed.