Valentine's Day In Metro Detroit: 8 Romantic Date Ideas

Valentine’s Day comes but once a year - which is exactly the right amount of times, if you struggle to come up with good ideas for the big night as is. We’ve got you covered for Valentine’s Day 2018. Check out our fun list of places to go, things to do, and even a few ideas about where to get a dozen roses or two for that special person in your life.

1) The Katherine McGregor Dessert Parlor at The Whitney

The Katherine McGregor Dessert Parlor, a pretty and intimate space inside the 1900-mansion-turned-restaurant, The Whitney, offers a wide selection of sweet endings to perfect nights. The Whitney’s dessert-only space gives you a night out, a luxurious dessert, and a beautiful setting for less than half the cost of dinner at the Whitney. If you want to follow National coneys with a trip to the dessert parlor, you can cover two great Detroit places for a romantic, offbeat night. When you get to the dessert parlor, you’ll find “Cakes, Tortes, Pies, Frosty Treats and Flaming Desserts,” according to the website. There’s bananas foster ($11), a rich concoction of ripe bananas, rum, and brown sugar set on fire table side and served with vanilla ice cream. If you’d like something a little less sweet, there’s the Flaming Mixed Berries “Van Gogh” ($14), described as “Absinthe soaked sponge cake, Absinthe flamed.” There are also cakes, pies and ice cream - and blood orange sorbet.

2) Cliff Bell's

Comfort and style meet at Cliff Bell’s. This venue ticks all the boxes: Drinks, Dinner, Entertainment - there’s live music nightly in one of Detroit’s premiere jazz destinations, and the interior brings to mind 1930s romance. There’s a full dinner menu, offering very indulgent items like lobster risotto ($42), Wagyu strip steak ($56) and Colorado lamb chops ($45). Cliff Bell’s is offering a Valentine’s Day special. Their Valentine's Day Dinner Package includes a 4-Course dinner and an evening of live jazz music for $75 a person (tax and gratuity not included). Reservations are available at (313) 961-2543, and you can find more information at Cliff Bell's website. The music that night will be by The Meg Brennan Quartet, featuring singer Hadassah Greensky.

3) Ice Skating at Campus Martius

The Rink at Campus Martius Park is downtown’s favorite (temporary) outdoor skating rink. Scene to the city’s annual tree lighting, the rink is open to skaters from mid-November through the beginning of March, making it a perfect place for a romantic skate on Feb. 14. Wednesday, the rink is open form 11 a.m. til 9 p.m. Admission is $8 (kids and seniors get in for $7).

4) Baker’s Keyboard Lounge

Billing itself as “the world’s oldest jazz club,” Baker’s offers live music and soul food in the heart of the city. Dinners here are classic: Fried chicken ($13), ribs ($16) and catfish ($14) are typical offerings. Some of the musicians who have played the club include Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughn, Cab Calloway, Woody Herman and Nat "King" Cole, so you can soak in some history, hear some great music and have a delicious meal that won’t break the bank.

5) Cafe Muse, Royal Oak

Lists of Metro Detroit’s favorite romantic restaurants always seem to include Cafe Muse. Since 2006, this intimate restaurant has served comfort food with an elegant twist - it’s comforting, but never gets too comfortable. There are the famous grilled cheese sandwiches, three cheese, three cheese with short rib and three cheese with bacon. There’s a short rib entree, risotto and shrimp, too, but the grilled cheese(s) may be the most romantic menu item. Described by the Detroit Free Press as “almost sensual,” the blend of fontina, fresh mozzarella and havarti is generally considered the best grilled cheese in Metro Detroit.

6) An Evening With Patti Smith, The Detroit Institute of the Arts

The DIA houses romance, from renaissance lovers to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. On Valentine’s Day, famed musician, photographer and author Patti Smith will read from her new book “Devotion,” described by the museum as a fiction story followed by essays exploring the creation of that fiction, including a voyage through the “South of France to Camus’s house,” and to “the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weil’s grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modiano’s novels.” This event takes place at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 14. Tickets include a copy of the book and are $20 (online or in person) at the DIA, 5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit.

7) Couples Massage

Spa in the Woods (21023 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe Woods) is offering a $200 couples massage experience in their brand new couples massage room. Your experience includes a massage with that special someone in your life, complete with aromatherapy, candles and a fireplace. All massages at Spa in the Woods include a 20-minute infrared sauna experience and an aromatherapy steam shower, too.

8) Cafe Cortina

Recently named Michigan’s most romantic restaurant by Delish, Farmington Hills’ Cafe Cortina is taking the title seriously, offering a full week of romantic dining leading up to Feb. 14. Set in a former apple orchard, this 40-year-old restaurant offers a sophisticated take on classic Italian dishes. Dishes like Orate al cartoccio (whole mediterranean sea bass in parchment paper, fresh herbs, fish fumé) and roasted quails (marinated and roasted farm-raised quails, blood orange wine reduction, wild mushroom risotto) sound like poetry all on their own. Cafe Cortina is at 30715 W. Ten Mile, Farmington Hills.

Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash.