Whether it’s for a romantic date, a special occasion (like your anniversary), or for the holiday season, eating at a restaurant is always a treat. However, one of the main problems about going to a restaurant is that during the holidays or during pleasant nights, most places will be packed. And then you have to drive all the way out, pay for the meal, and finish it in a hurry. You don’t have to make it or do the dishes, however, which is a small luxury.
Aldo’s is the go-to Bergen County restaurant for the festive season and for special occasions, but the current pandemic has given us some perspective on the many reasons people may not want to go out. So the next time you want to celebrate, do it at home instead! You can make the occasion special and have a real fine-dining experience with our guide below.
Getting started: Knowing what you want
Having a clear picture of what you want is important, so you can work towards that goal. If you get fine dining and a homey dinner mixed up, for instance, you’ll get nowhere. So decide what sort of celebration it should be, whether it’s appropriate for the event at hand, and whether the participants will enjoy it. If the event is your 5-year-old child’s birthday, for instance, a party with friends might be better than a fancy restaurant experience.
Our guide is geared towards creating a fine dining restaurant experience for dates, anniversaries and other special occasions.
Step 1: Decide the menu
Your restaurant du maison needs a menu. So come up with one! Decide the items you’re going to make – the appetizer, the courses, the dessert, and coffee. You can pick a theme, like American or Italian cuisine, and stick to it throughout the menu. It makes things that extra bit fancier.
Step 2: Buy all necessary supplies
You’ll need lots of supplies if you want to turn your home into a restaurant – ingredients, flowers, candles, decorations, and possibly linens and china as well! Get everything you’ll need, bearing in mind the fact that your dining room needs to look and feel like a Bergen County restaurant. If you find some good silk handkerchiefs, grab them. Also get some long-stemmed flowers! You’ll find out why in a minute.
Step 3: Prepare the food ahead of time
While eating freshly made food is wonderful, that doesn’t mean you need to do everything at the last minute. Prepare everything beforehand – chopping, peeling, dicing and boiling. Some items may need to stay on the stove or in the oven for a while, and you don’t want to worry about that while you’re putting on your eyeliner (we all know what’ll happen then). So prepare what you can ahead of time, leaving just a couple things for the last moment.
Step 4: Clean the space
You don’t need balloons and ribbons hanging from the walls or a fancy chandelier dangling from over the table, but what you do need is a tidy room. If there’s any mess or clutter that might detract from the experience, take care of it. Remember to work smarter, not harder – don’t spend an hour on your knees, mopping, if you can hide a stain with a convenient carpet. You’ve got a lot to do, and not a whole lot of time!
Step 5: Break out the silverware and the nice linens
Pick out your favorite table linens (those fancy new ones you just bought, perhaps?) and break out the nicest silverware you have. You’ll need cutlery, wineglasses, china, all the trimmings. Set the table with them. Your dining table’s going to look like it’s straight out of a Bergen County restaurant. You want to make the dinner a feast not just for your stomach, but for all senses – the eyes, nose, ears, mouth and skin.
Step 6: Consider lighting and scents
Lighting plays an important part in how a space looks, so consider adapting the lighting to your requirements. If it’s to be a seductive date, dim them and use some nice, scented candles. Diners enjoy food more in soft or dim lighting according to studies, so try and keep the lights dim.
While scented candles are ideal, you can get away with using some air freshener in a pinch, especially if the room smells unideal. Just don’t overdo it – restaurants don’t smell like air freshener for a reason. It’s unappetizing!
Step 7: Create a special playlist
The best restaurants, malls and other public places use music to their advantage. Music can make you feel a certain way; it can make you react a certain way. It can make you more or less responsive. So choose some good, slow music for a romantic date and create a playlist on your phone. Set up speakers so you hear the music nicely.
Step 8: Print out your menu
A posh restaurant needs a printed, laminated menu. Print out some, using nice fonts and borders to give it some style. Choose a color scheme that works with your theme – don’t go with traditional black-on-white, for instance, try something like royal blue, gold on navy, or even a textured background. You could try writing the menu, if you know calligraphy.
Step 9: Put some flowers in a vase
It’s always best if you have a garden, because you can run out and grab things that are just perfect – like a branch of maple, or a red twig dogwood. However, if you don’t, those flowers you bought earlier will come in handy. Pick out a pretty vase, fill it with water, add some florist’s preservative to it, and arrange it to the best of your abilities. It should look somewhat symmetrical, but other than that you can do what you’d like with it!
Step 10: Put out place cards
From The Daily Meal: “Using place cards is just one of the biggest wedding trends through the decades. They lend an air of elegance to dinner at home. Write or print off names of guests, even if it’s just two of you, and attach them to napkins, shells, pinecones, wine corks or anything else you can think of to add an element of whimsy to your dinner.”
Step 11: Start a fire
You’ll want a nice log fire going to set the scene. It’ll make your dining room feel warm and cozy, which is perfect for a winter day. If you have a fireplace near the dining room, get some use out of it by piling in some of the real stuff (no paper logs!) and lighting a fire. If you don’t have a fireplace you could consider playing a video of one on your computer, but in our opinion it isn’t the same.
Step 12: Dress the part
From Kitchen Magazine: “Just because you’re in the warm confines of your home doesn’t mean you can’t get a little dressy for the occasion. Just wear what you would wear as if you were going out. When you and your guests look the part, your ‘home restaurant’ will feel the part.”
Make sure your partner dresses nice too! No athleisure allowed at the table. Ask them to put on a nice suit for your Bergen County restaurant date. Dress code: formal.
Step 13: No phones allowed!
Phones distract from the experience, and you can’t have that during a fancy meal. Whether it’s for checking messages, taking work calls or for Instagramming your food, cell phones should be strictly off-limits during the dinner. State the rule beforehand and put your cellphones on silent in the next room, so you aren’t struck by an urge to go take a look at it.
Step 14: Get a breadbasket
For many restaurant goers, the breadbasket is the best part of the dining experience. If you’re good at this stuff, you could try making your own. However, for most people, premade rolls or bread are the way to go. Know your limits and stick by them if you want to avoid disaster. Pick out a pretty basket to put the bread in.
Step 15: Start the meal
Now it’s finally time! Invite your partner in, start the meal, bringing out course after course. Enjoy the meal together, take your time, appreciate the wine, the light, the fire, and have a good time all round! It isn’t every day you can have such an experience.
Step 16: Don’t worry!
If something goes wrong – one of the speakers doesn’t work, the meal’s a little late getting ready, or your favorite dress doesn’t fit – relax. It’s okay to want perfection, but expecting it is a different story. Things go wrong all the time – tell yourself this fact, and embrace it. If something goes awry, just adapt to the circumstances and roll with it.
Come dine at the best Bergen County restaurant
Aldo’s is the finest Italian restaurant in New Jersey. Come dine at our Bergen County outlet, where we’ll spoil you with good food and even better wine. All our food is fresh, and made with love by our talented staff. Once you dine at our restaurant, you’ll find yourself coming back for more!