On one of the biggest nights of the year for restaurants, a select few are saying no to the “corporatization” of romance and the singling out of single people.
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Fait La Force is not going to win Valentine’s Day. For one thing, it’s a brewery, which, at the risk of overgeneralization, does not signal romance. Its Nashville taproom is open and industrial, has no candles or prix-fixe menu, and the food — sandwiches from a local shop — is notoriously difficult to eat in an alluring manner.
“We’re not the upscale fancy date night, like go-out-for-a-nice-dinner spot,” said Parker Loudermilk, the brewery’s co-owner and founder. “But we’re also not low-frills enough to be ironically fancy.” The brewery is not so casual that it can tap into the market for winking Valentine’s Day jokes (read: tableside service at White Castle).
All of the above presented a problem — or an opportunity: “Tired of Cupid’s mushy antics?,” the flyer for the bar’s Feb. 14 festivities reads. “Join us for Anti-Valentine’s Day, a.k.a. Emo Night.” The event mostly hinges on a playlist featuring My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and Good Charlotte, to name a few. The bar will also serve margaritas with chamoy dripping down the side, and call them Bleeding Hearts.
“We were thinking, an anti-Valentine’s Day party kind of makes light of what could be a heavy day for people,” said Shanley Deignan, the brewery’s marketing director.
Nobody gets to opt out of Valentine’s Day completely. To celebrate is to acknowledge it; to emphatically not celebrate is also to acknowledge it. To take a casual approach to the day requires willfully ignoring that the whole world has been temporarily blanketed in red and pink stuffed bears.
Perhaps more than any other business, restaurants tend to lean into the holiday. But even though it’s among the busiest nights of the year, it ignores a significant portion of the population.
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