It’s date night and we’re at home!

#amyshereforthis

Low lighting gives the room a cozy feel, with added warmth from the candles lit on the table. Smells waft from the kitchen as music plays over the sound of food being plated. Two glasses raise, but before they can clink together in a toast they are interrupted by a sound.

In the distance, a child who has misplaced their water bottle begins to shout.

It’s date night and we’re at home!

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At-home dates have been something my husband and I have been doing regularly for several years. With no babysitter required, we’d often put our kids to bed a little early and order takeout or cook together as a way to spend intentional time together without having to coordinate schedules too much or even leave the house.

Now, in a COVID winter when we aren’t comfortable with indoor dining and patios aren’t as enticing as they were on 70 degree-weather days, date nights at home have become even more of a regular practice for us.

So what are you to do if you want to be intentional about connecting with your spouse/significant other, but are home-bound? Luckily for you, there are lots of ways to make an evening at home special and St. Louis is full of local establishments that can help out with that!

To make it even easier for you, I’m going to share a few ways that Joel and I incorporate at-home dates into our life by breaking my recommendations into a few categories.

Here we go!

Order in

So what are you to do if you want to be intentional about connection while home-bound? The good news for you is that there are lots of ways to make an evening at home special in St. Louis!

Maybe takeout doesn’t sound that special to you, but if you set up your space to make it feel special and organize your evening well, ordering is wonderful! When we order takeout for a date night, we feed our kids an easy dinner and put them to bed a bit early. Usually we’ll decide on our order ahead of time and if there is an online ordering option, Joel will place the order and select a pickup or delivery time for right after our kids go to sleep. If it’s not too cold, we might sit on the front porch with a blanket or on the patio around the firepit.

If the restaurant has to-go cocktails on the menu, we’ll add one or two to our order and pour them into glasses at home. If not, we make our own drinks or grab some local beer or wine to pair with the meal.

We love 58hundred and often order from there on special occasions or celebrations. City Park Grill is across the street from our house and is a favorite for more laidback dates at home. To celebrate Christmas together, Joel and I got a sampler platter from Mayo Ketchup that was delicious and so much food. Other favorites include Salt + Smoke, Pie Guy, and The Vine.

Pro-tip: If you know you’re going to want dessert, grab some earlier in the day from a local bakery like La Patisserie Choquette, Whisk, or Pint Size Bakery and save it for after dinner!

Another great option is to have a breakfast date at home! If you have kids, turn on a show for them on the opposite side of the house and order in! We love breakfast treats from The London Tea Room and Southwest Diner, and I’ve been dying to try Songbird.

There aren’t many perks to the pandemic, but one is that restaurants have learned to streamline and improve their takeout game, making the options for delivery and curbside pickup plentiful. There are so many wonderful places in STL that you can’t really go wrong!

So get out there (and by get out there, what I mean is stay home) and get to dating!

Cook together

Last year for Valentine’s Day, Joel and I got a cookbook from the library that I had seen recommended online. We chose several recipes that sounded good to us and made a delicious, multi-course dinner. It was so fun!

We like to use date nights or special occasions as an excuse to buy some foods that don’t normally fall into our grocery budget like steak, fun cocktails, or really good cheese. Sometimes it’s fun to go with a theme and cook based on that. Several months ago, we made potstickers together for a date night and had cocktails to pair with them.

Maybe you could have a cooking competition or try to bake your way through a cookbook or show like the Great British Bake-Off.

Dinner and a movie

Another fun way to share a date night at home can be to rent a movie or a comedy special we’ve been wanting to watch together. Over Christmas, Joel and I rented and streamed a recorded concert by one of our favorite bands. For dinner that night we put together a big charcuterie board, Christmas mules, and dressed up to watch the concert in the living room. Lots of musicians are recording and live streaming shows as a way to perform while live music is still on hold.

Game night

If you're looking for a way to connect, a super cost-effective way to do this can be to have a game night together!

We love the board game Tiny Towns, Carcassonne, Scrabble, and the card game Monopoly Deal. At Christmas a few years back, my mom got us one of those ping pong nets that clips on your dining room table and that makes an appearance for a few weeks every year or so. Along those lines, we hung a dart board in our kitchen last winter and had many dart tournaments while dinner was cooking or after our kids went to bed. Playing games is a great way to incorporate fun, enjoy each other, and do something a little different.

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We all know it’s been a weird year and Valentine’s Day will look different than it has in years past, but don’t let that stop you from prioritizing connection and fun in your relationship. So get out there (and by get out there, what I mean is stay home) and get to dating! I’d love to hear what you come up with!