Flower shops, restaurants full on Valentine’s Day

IT was a frenetic day for Cebu City’s flower shops and restaurants as people celebrated Valentine’s Day.

Pages Holdings, Inc. chairman Bunny Pages who owns eleven restaurants including Moon Café and Lantaw native restaurants said all their branches were fully booked for Valentine’s dinner.

“Reservations in all our restaurants are in high demand especially as our prices remain the same. It’s going to be super full tonight,” Pages said in an interview yesterday.

Another chain of restaurants, the Laguna Group, had the same experience.

Raki Urbina, the group’s corporate chef, said reservations they received were mostly from families.

“Valentine’s Day is always the busiest day for us. Most of what we cater are families and not so much with couples. This has been the trend for the last three years,” said Urbina.

Jason Hyatt, owner of the Abaca Group, said their guests were mostly couples having intimate dates while Chika-an Cebu president and chairman John Dytian said they served mostly big groups like families or groups of friends.

“This could be because of the serving sizes we offer. We have bigger serving size of our dishes which is perfect for sharing with friends and families,” said Dytian.

Golden Cowrie managers Kenneth and Kristine Kokseng also said their restaurants were full of families going out on dinner dates for Valentine’s, proof that nowadays, Valentine’s Day is no longer just for couples but also for the whole family to enjoy.

It was busiest for flower shops, which were deluged with orders and deliveries around the city.

“I should say Cebuanos are among the most loving people in the world because they really spend for flowers to give to their loved ones on Valentine’s day,” said Marivic Padin of Simple Wishes flower shop along Don Gil Garcia Street in Cebu City.

Padin said that since Valentine’s Day is a peak day for them, they stocked up on more flowers especially red roses, a favorite of customers.

“The bouquets cost P1,000 to as much as P4,200 for the imported flowers and they are willing to spend on the best for their loved ones,” she said.

Another flower shop, Sweet Lilies, had to set up a separate area for their display of ready-made  bouquets for  walk-in clients who prefer to just “grab and go.”