“I heard a great saying from a restaurateur just a few days ago,” said Steve Chucri, president and CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association. “He was saying that ‘People don’t dine anymore, they eat. They go to a restaurant and eat, they don’t dine.’ And I think for Valentine’s Day, that’s a perfect example of how to dine. You know, celebrate one another and celebrate great cuisine.”
The special occasion of Valentine’s Day — and the special atmosphere restaurants try to curate with it — drives diners to Valley restaurants in droves. The holiday to celebrate love is the second-busiest day for restaurants, Chucri said, only behind Mother’s Day.
Nearly one-third of Americans are planning an evening out this Valentine’s Day, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation. That translates to nearly a million and a half Maricopa County residents heading out to eat on Feb. 14, based off of 2022 population estimates from the U.S. Census.
