Do You Have A Reservation?

Anyone can go out for a fancy Valentine's Day dinner.  Last night Tony and I said "I Love You" with fast food at White Castle.

White Castle is a Midwest chain that's known for its small, square hamburgers called sliders.  Sliders are steam grilled on top of a bed of onions.  The buns are also steamed, and the finished sandwich is topped with one small pickle slice, but no condiments (although they're available, if you want to add them).

The restaurant has been doing their special Valentine's Dinner for several years, and it's extremely popular.  Tony called for a reservation three weeks ahead of time, but the two White Castles closest to us were already completely booked.  The one we ended up going to only had openings at 5:30 or 7:30. We chose the earlier slot, and I met Tony after I got off work.

When we walked in, I noticed they'd done their best to give the room some ambiance.  The windows sported curtains of red and white streamers, and the lights in the suspended ceiling had been covered.  The tables had plastic tablecloths, and each table held a bowl containng a battery-operated votive light surrounded by Valentine candy.

After we were led to our table, a waitress came by to take our drink order and give us menus.  We chose the "Sweetheart Special"...hamburgers, fries (we added cheese), and drinks.  Since this was a fast food restaurant, it only took a few minutes to get our food.  The waitress brought it out on a tray, along with packets of ketchup and horseradish mustard.  We admired the food for a few seconds, then dug in.  When we were done there wasn't any food left, but the meal wasn't over yet--we also got dessert, a chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick.

A half-hour after we arrived, our meal was over.  We paid our bill at the table, then stood in front of a Valentine's backdrop and had a digital photo taken.  We'll be able to retrieve it on the company's Website; it will be a nice memento of our Valentine's adventure.