Restaurants Romancing the Couples : Promotions: Recession-weary O.C. establishments are pulling out all the stops to woo Valentine’s Day patrons.

Dohyo, a Japanese-Polynesian restaurant in Anaheim, has made lists of the love songs among its karaoke offerings and has posted them on diners’ tables. Some suggestions for sentimental songsters: “Feelings,” “If” and “My Funny Valentine.”

In Newport Beach, Le Meridien is hosting three days of Valentine’s specials, including selections from the musical “Phantom of the Opera.” And at L’Opera in downtown Long Beach, a violinist and an opera singer will perform tableside on the evening of the 14th.

Local restaurants are promoting this Valentine’s Day like no other in recent memory. Sensing a slight improvement in the economy, they are going all out to woo diners who gave up the dining-out habit during the recession, said David Wilhelm, a consultant and celebrity chef who founded such well-known Orange County restaurants as Diva in Costa Mesa and Topaz at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

Garden Court Cafe, inside the Westin South Coast hotel in Costa Mesa, sent out 2,000 newsletters advertising its Sunday brunch and Valentine’s Day dinner, said Janne Clare, operations manager. Dinner includes mussel bisque, apple pheasant and Champagne sorbet.

“This is a competitive business,” Clare said. “People look for something exciting, a draw that makes a restaurant a special event.”

The recession has hit the restaurant industry hard, especially fine-dining establishments. Their annual revenue has grown by 2% or less during the 1990s, according to the National Restaurant Assn. in Washington. That compares to double-digit annual growth for much of the ‘80s. This year, the industry’s sales are expected to increase by 2.6%, the association has projected--but fast-food restaurants will provide nearly two-thirds of that growth.

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“People are trading down,” said Scott Read, a spokesman for the California Restaurant Assn. in Los Angeles. “Upscale places are offering (discounted) daily specials, and fast-food restaurants have come out with value menus.”

Wok Spirit, a chain of take-out Chinese restaurants, is capitalizing on that trend. Along with its regular inexpensive menu, it is offering a box of chocolate-dipped fortune cookies for $4, wrapped in red cellophane.

Valentine’s Day, however, is one occasion when most restaurants can raise their prices and still draw in the customers, especially at establishments offering extras like a special menu, music, roses and photographs.

“Restaurants really need to max out on an opportunity like Valentine’s Day,” said Richard Martin, a former restaurant owner and West Coast bureau chief of Nation’s Restaurant News. “This is a natural marketing opportunity.”

And this year, conveniently, the holiday falls on a Monday.

“If you know you can leverage the publicity over two or three days, you’re more likely to spend the advertising dollars,” chef Wilhelm said.

Another factor this year is an unusual craving for closeness after the past months’ wildfires, earthquake and aftershocks.

“There’s a tremendous amount of interest now in the family,” said Steven L. Schandler, a professor of psychology at Chapman University in Orange. “You realize, when you see material things go, that all you have left is the family.” And Valentine’s Day is, after all, the national occasion to show how much you care.

Lovers and others have been making their dining arrangements far in advance this year. The tables have been booked for almost three weeks at Pascal, a French restaurant in Newport Beach, owner Pascal Olhats said. He expects two seatings of 80 people each for lobster bisque and chateaubriand.

To reserve a table, diners were required to stop by and pay for the prix fixe dinner in advance.

“This is our busiest day, and I can say it’s the craziest too,” Olhats said. “People call all day (on Valentine’s Day), and we have to keep saying ‘no.’ ”

Still, he conceded, it’s nice to be asked.

Spiga Trattoria in Costa Mesa took reservations for Valentine’s Day during a charity benefit on Feb. 8. The benefit, for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Young Professionals Against Cancer, included a mock dating game along the lines of the TV show “Studs.” Table tents and a six-foot red heart detailed the upcoming Valentine’s Day menu.

“People are still willing to spend a buck,” said Frank Groff, whose Long Beach public relations firm organized the event. “But they want to know what they’re getting, that it’s going to be worth it.”

Emporio Armani Express has advertised its Valentine’s menu in front of the restaurant, which is in the South Coast Plaza shopping center. The restaurant is serving an assortment of miniature Italian pastries, chocolate creams and liqueurs for dessert.

Much like a lover, the restaurant wants to let its diners know that it is not taking them for granted, spokeswoman Jane Summer said. “We’re in the business of catering to people’s needs, desires and wants.”

Dining Probabilities

Valentine’s Day ranks among the five most popular occasions for eating out. The occasions that survey respondents picked most often when asked which ones they celebrated in the past year by going out to dinner:

Own Mother’s Father’s Valentine’s Birthday Day Day Day Easter TOTAL 47% 39% 24% 22% 16% SEX Male 42% 39% 25% 24% 18% Female 52% 40% 24% 21% 14% AGE 18-24 50% 42% 32% 29% 20% 25-34 48% 36% 26% 27% 12% 35-49 50% 43% 22% 23% 17% 50-64 40% 34% 20% 17% 15% 65 and older 47% 42% 21% 12% 20% REGION East 46% 35% 20% 20% 12% Midwest 50% 33% 23% 20% 16% South 44% 46% 28% 23% 19% West 49% 44% 26% 26% 16%

Source: National Restaurant Assn.

Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times