The Night Romance Stole the Show at Valley Restaurant

Romeo and Juliet? Not really. But it was an Italian restaurant. And there was this balcony with a young woman on it--with her true love down below, swearing his devotion for her.

What more could you ask for on a Saturday night in the Valley?

*

His name was Ken, not Romeo. You couldn’t miss him in the parking lot at Miceli’s restaurant the other night. He was the one desperately looking for the parking lot attendant.

Seems his sport utility vehicle was backed up against a wall, and he couldn’t open the hatch to get his guitar out.

Finding no attendant, he crawled over the back seat and got the instrument. He blushed when I asked if he was a performer at Miceli’s.

“No,” he said. “I’m going to serenade my girl.”

“By any chance are you gonna propose?” someone else ventured.

Yes, said Ken. He produced a small blue velvet case, opening it to reveal a glittering diamond ring inside.

Having a camera handy, I asked Ken to hold up the case in the darkened lot.

“It’s hard to see,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” Ken said. “It’s kinda small.”

No, it’s just the lighting, I told him. The ring was fine.

Naturally, one couldn’t just leave things at that. How would he pop the question? How would she react?

We followed Ken into the restaurant--my wife and I, and the couple we were dining with that night.

Jennifer--that’s Juliet--was up on the balcony the restaurant reserves for just these kinds of occasions. Ken weaved his way through the tables to the piano, where he managed to get the pianist to surrender the microphone.

Jennifer looked enchanted as Ken sang “Whenever You Come Around” to her. Phrases like “face of an angel” and “pretty eyes that shine” wafted through the mozzarella and garlic.

We weren’t the only ones watching. The whole restaurant was transfixed.

Who was this romantic guy with the guitar? Who was this stunning lady in the blue dress?

*

Ken Thomas, 30, works as an electrician at a company in Long Beach. Jennifer Truesdell, 26, is an accountant’s assistant.

Ken, who has three children from a previous marriage, said he wasn’t looking for matrimony. But then in 1997, he met Jennifer at Shore Line Church in Huntington Beach. He was impressed--especially when he met her son, Steven, now 10.

“When I saw what a terrific job she had done raising her son, I knew this was the girl for me,” Ken said.

One thing led to another, until there they were at Miceli’s.

After finishing his song, Ken dashed up the wrought-iron spiral staircase to where Jennifer was seated. Dropping to one knee, microphone still in hand, he told her he loved her.

Out came the blue velvet box and down came the tears as Jennifer finally figured out what was happening.

Ken slipped the ring on her finger. Jennifer brushed back a tear or two and they hugged.

She never finished her linguine with shrimp.

“I was just thinking just how wonderful he is,” she said.

Later, the couple told how Ken had shown up at Jennifer’s house earlier that evening and handed her a bag with a new blue dress.

“I told her, ‘You have 20 minutes to get dressed,’ ” Ken said.

“I was shocked,” Jennifer said. She had been expecting to attend a bridal shower show with Ken’s sister.

“It was all a scam. He lied to me,” she said with a laugh.

During the hourlong drive from Orange County to the restaurant, Ken refused to reveal the night’s agenda.

“I had an inkling that he might propose,” Jennifer said, “but I had no idea there was going to be a show.”

Show is right. After Ken slipped the ring on Jennifer’s finger, the restaurant went crazy.

“I just get misty-eyed and mushy at things like this,” said a teary-eyed Linda Rivlin of Porter Ranch. “Scenes like this only happen in the movies.”

Or at Miceli’s.

“We have had at least 150 couples propose up there since the restaurant opened in 1980,” said Miceli’s manager Kevin Montagna.

The restaurant calls the little balcony arrangement their “Valentine table.” Ken thought it would be the perfect place to launch an engagement.

“It cost me $110 to have the table for two hours,” he said. “But that includes wine, unlimited appetizers, entree and gratuity.”

And memories that should last a lifetime. Wonder if Las Vegas has tables with that good a return?