Lots of Romantics, Few Tables for Them

Pity the poor, procrastinating fool, scrambling to make a dinner reservation for Valentine’s Day. Here’s a news flash, pal: Better consider a romantic, candlelit dinner at home instead.

Late-planning Romeos trying to finalize their Valentine’s Day dates are finding popular restaurants packed, from Orange County to Los Angeles and Riverside.

The reason: this lovers’ day falls on Saturday. It’s a three-day holiday weekend. And, in Los Angeles, the National Basketball Assn. All-Star game is in town.

“We’ve been booked for close to three weeks, and we’re booked for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said Loesje Sandoval, hostess at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, where customers can sit on the patio overlooking the surf and sand. “We could reseat this restaurant at least three times if we wanted to. People get angry because they realize that they can’t get in -- and not only here, but most restaurants.”

Sandoval said she politely turned down one gentleman caller, informing him he was a little behind the curve.

“He said he didn’t even have a date three weeks ago!” she said.

Some entrepreneurs figured out there’s a buck to be made. The auction website EBay has a handful of dinner reservations listed for restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, Texas.

One unlucky sap had secured a dinner reservation for two at the trendy Luques restaurant on Melrose Avenue, where a special Valentine’s Day meal is $75 per person -- only to lose his date.

He listed this note on EBay: “I had planned to take my girlfriend to propose to her but we are no longer together, so I thought I would post this on EBay just to cheer me up a little.”

On Thursday, the bidding for his 10 p.m. reservation stood at $9.99.

The man, a 28-year-old from Burbank who would prefer to be known only by his first name -- Zareh -- for obvious reasons, said he’s not sure exactly how he’ll spend Saturday night. Maybe hang out with friends. Or he’ll use a reservation he has at a second restaurant. And he still has the engagement ring.

“Things didn’t work out the way it was planned,” Zareh said.

“Let’s just say it’s been postponed, not canceled.”

One enterprising Austin resident took her cue from a local radio station, where the morning DJs give away reservations to callers with the biggest Valentine’s Day sob stories and excuses.

So far, Stacy Hayslip, 21, has pocketed about $25 by selling two of the four dinner reservations she made with the intent of auctioning them on the Internet.

“I made the reservations around Jan. 20 just kind of as an experiment to see what people would do,” Hayslip said. “It was more fun to see what people will pay for their lack of preparation than [making] money.”

Social experiment aside, it makes for good radio, said J.B. Hager of “J.B. and Sandy in the Morning” on KAMX-FM in Austin, the inspiration behind Hayslip’s first stab at the auction.

The radio duo has been doling out Valentine’s Day dinner reservations for the last five years or so, with desperate men -- and women trying to make sure they get a decent dinner -- bombarding the DJs with calls and e-mails.

“It’s bigger than giving away cash and concert tickets,” Hager said.

“People go crazy over it. There’s nothing they can do. Until [Hayslip] came along, you couldn’t buy your way out of it.”

That doesn’t keep people from trying.

At Napa Rose, the upscale restaurant at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim, about 50 callers a day are clamoring for reservations even though it sold out a month ago.

Guests have offered hostesses an extra $100. One desperate man -- the general manager of another local restaurant -- even offered the host a dinner for two at his restaurant, said Napa Rose General Manager Michael A. Jordan.

At the oh-so-trendy Dolce in Los Angeles, manager Marshall Crane said he was even turning away NBA stars and other celebrities.

Some luminaries are so desperate, they’ve taken to sending money or gifts such as clothing and shoes with the hopes of getting in. None of it’s working.

“We hate to say no to everybody, but if we don’t have tables, we don’t have tables,” Crane said.

Reservation takers at Mission Inn in Riverside said they’re fielding a whopping 500 calls a day from desperate romantics. And at the Cannery in Newport Beach, the waiting list is at 127 -- and climbing.

“One man called and said, ‘My wife told me to call a month ago and I forgot,’ ” said hostess Nancy Starr. “He knew he was in trouble.... People still want to be put on the list in hopes that we’ll be having cancellations.”

But 127 of them? She laughs, but before she can answer, her phone rings again.