Valentine’s Day is an exciting time for people to express their affection for that special someone and in a highly regulated pandemic.
Everyone knows the limited capacity, so a lot of people get ahead of the game. And the ones who don’t are going to be in trouble. However, his luck changed after St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page announced county restaurants could increase their capacity from 25 to 50 percent. Many restaurants opened tables at the last minute, including Cafe Napoli. https://fcac.instructure.com/eportfolios/10584/Watch_Tom_and_Jerry_... Rogers scored a prime-time reservation for the Saturday before Valentine’s Day with days to spare. We were not successful in getting reservations initially, so this helped. Honestly, it was a relief,” he said. It’s the larger restaurants, like Cannoli’s in Florissant, that will benefit more from the increased capacity. The north St. https://www.geogebra.org/m/q3ndtkqy . Louis County Italian cuisine staple is now able to open its banquet room to seat more customers while still maintaining the required six feet between tables. Owner Abby Freesmeier called it a huge win for her business. She will be able to seat an additional 30 customers each night. https://www.geogebra.org/m/qnng2mmm Besides the fact that we’re able to accommodate more people, our staff is able to take more tables and make more money,” she said. While reservations are still in high demand this year, date nights are a reminder that Valentine’s Day isn’t necessarily an overly commercial holiday. I think everyone appreciates things more, said Freesmeier. “Everyone’s more happy and thankful. They’re just appreciative to be out of their house. When there’s been so many nights over and over with COVID, going out is amazing,” said Rogers. “Over the past couple of months, you’re looking for any reason to celebrate. If the pandemic wasn’t enough of an obstacle for small businesses, the bitter cold is complicating things even more; yet business is blooming for florists in Topeka as they continue to fulfill orders for Valentine’s Day on Sunday. Valentine’s Day is an exciting time for people to express their affection for that special someone. It’s a day Lori McNorton, owner of Blooms on Boswell in Central Topeka, is no stranger to. We’ve had a great year,” https://www.geogebra.org/m/wn2bmvwy Lori said.

“I was kind of worries, with it being on Sunday, but…it’s been a good year. With it being on a Sunday, it seems like it’s almost been like a four-day holiday because we really started Thursday,” Lori said. Along with those many orders came the challenges in facing the frigid cold weather outside to deliver the flowers to someone’s valentine. You just adapt and overcome the obstacles that are presented, said Tom McNorton, Lori’s husband who oversees the store’s deliveries. “We’ve got a great delivery team. It makes it a lot easier when you can group it and then just make a big circle,” Tom said. https://www.geogebra.org/m/xtnmjncm “Pretty soon you’re coming right back here and loading up and going again. You have to take all the precautions to make sure that they’re wrapped correctly, we don’t leave them out in the car very long so we take a few shorter routes, don’t take as many all at one time, we come back so that everything’s nice and fresh. Despite the weather hurdle, taking those extra steps is worth it to the people in the floral business in making sure their flowers make it on time to that special someone. With the challenges comes great rewards because some people were not expecting flowers at all today or yesterday. So, brighten their day on a cold winter day.