Valentines Day celebrated through food and flowers

by Michael Mattison
Valentines Day can be celebrated in many ways but the two most popular at taking your sweetheart out for a meal or getting the special someone something from the florist.
It was a great Valentines Day for Hahn’s Dining and Lounge as about 400 were served for the special occasion.
Owner Tracy Hahn said it was all hands on deck as far as staffing was concerned to keep everything going smoothly. “We have a couple of days working up to it where we are cooking the beef and slicing. We are doing appetizers and desserts. We think big and just go from there,” she said.
She said the Sunday buffets have been down since COVID with the best being about 200 so the crowd was quite large.
“Everybody enjoys it,” she said. “They come in and say ‘Thank you for doing this.’ They are glad they can come in, sit and visit.” She said they had about 100 in the first 45 minutes. It was steady until there were other big rushes at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. The last people served came in just before 8 p.m.
She said they once tried the buffet on Saturday when Valentines Day fell in the middle of the week and that didn’t work well. “You better be doing it on Valentines Day.”
She said they didn’t open on Tuesday until the buffet. “You can’t be cooking orders while you are trying to fill the ovens and doing everything.
“This was good. We had 500 for New Years. Everything went well.”
Charlie Collins said he had a good Valentines Day.
“It used to be all-or-nothing for Valentines Day,” he said. “This year people started on the 10th because of the weekend.” He said the last orders he put out were on Saturday.
“Sometimes people put off celebrating that day with it falling near the middle of the week. We try and be real flexible.”
Collins said he sold quite a bit of mixed arrangement in different colors with reds and pinks being the most popular colors. Roses were also a big seller falling just shy of the mixed arrangements.
Uncle Charlies Flowers II covers Winthrop, to New Ulm, Fairfax, Hutchinson, Glencoe, Winsted, Waconia and Belle Plaine.
Collins said he looks at the past few years to try and plan out what to order. “It’s hard. On Valentines Day it’s usually the day so you have one day to try and figure out what you need.”
He has suppliers from California, Ecuador, Columbia and Holland with a few from local suppliers.
“This year we were able to get some extra help and never ran out of anything and our cooler had arrangements in the cooler until the 15th for people to take.
“Thank you to the people that came in and shopped local.