DINING BEAT : ROMANCING TO THE NINES.Byline: Larry Lipson Every year around this time, there's at least one hotel that claims to have the ultimate romantic Valentine's Day experience ready and waiting for a goodly good·ly adj. good·li·er, good·li·est 1. Of pleasing appearance; comely. 2. Quite large; considerable: a goodly sum. sum of your hard-earned money. This year, that sum is appropriately $9,999 and the hotel is the Sutton Place in Newport Beach. Because the big day falls on Sunday, it's now a ``Valentine's Weekend.'' When you arrive there, you'll be personally greeted and ``whisked to a master suite stocked with Dom Perignon champagne, Godiva chocolates and 99 long-stemmed roses.'' Then you take a limo ride to John Wayne Airport John Wayne Airport (IATA: SNA, ICAO: KSNA, FAA LID: SNA) is located at 18601 Airport Way, Santa Ana, CA 92707. Other nearby cities include Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and Irvine. for a jaunt on a private jet around Catalina, watching the sunset as you sip champagne. When you return for dinner, there will be a violinist to serenade serenade [Ital. sera=evening], term used to designate several types of musical composition. Opera and song literature yield numerous examples of the serenade sung or played by a lover at night beneath his beloved's window; outstanding is you while you dine on Beluga caviar Noun 1. beluga caviar - roe of beluga sturgeon usually from Russia; highly valued Acipenser huso, beluga, hausen, white sturgeon - valuable source of caviar and isinglass; found in Black and Caspian seas and Maine lobster along with first-growth Bordeaux wines. You'll be seated in a private wine cellar decorated with exotic flowers. Afterward, in your suite you'll find a bed strewn strew tr.v. strewed, strewn or strewed, strew·ing, strews 1. To spread here and there; scatter: strewing flowers down the aisle. 2. with rose petals and more champagne for a nightcap night·cap n. 1. A usually alcoholic drink taken just before bedtime. 2. Sports & Games The last event in a day's competition, especially the final game in a baseball double-header. 3. . Next morning, there's breakfast in bed, and later, an opportunity to renew your vows in the hotel's gazebo gazebo Lookout in the form of a turret, cupola (small, lanternlike dome), or garden house set on a height to give an extensive view. Few late-18th- and 19th-century rustic gazebos survive, but 17th-century turrets built up in an angle of the garden wall are not uncommon. with two rings from Tiffany's. Then comes Sunday brunch at the hotel's Accents restaurant, after which another limo ride awaits, this time to a local photography studio to sit for a portrait, followed by a $1,000 shopping spree at Newport's Fashion Island. Dubbed the ``Everything You Ever Wished For'' weekend package, 10 percent of its cost will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Reservations: (800) 243-4141. Sky's not the limit? More down to earth are Valentine dinners at Trader Vic's ($55), at the Coconut Club (with dancing $150), and at Griff's (buffet $45, same at lunch) at Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton Hotel, 9876 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Details and reservations: (310) 285-1358 for the Coconut Club, (310) 285-1268 for Griff's, (310) 276-6345 for Trader Vic's. Back on terra firma ... Of course, if you're really limited in spending, there are those heart-shaped pizzas ($7 to $11.95) from Sisley, 24201 W. Valencia Blvd., Valencia, (805) 287-4444; or 15300 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 905-8444. |
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