Valentine's Dinner Odds in Blizzard Season

So Pouillon, who lobbied for years for the Agriculture Department "certified organic" food labeling, and who counts the Obamas, Clintons, and Rumsfelds among her patrons, has been in frequent contact with restaurant co-owner Thomas Damato in Washington.

"We expected to do box office business on this 'love weekend,' " Damato tells me. "We're usually closed on Sunday, but since it's Valentine's Day we'll be open. And because of the snow we'll extend hours by opening earlier. We can have three seatings for parties of two, so it's a real bonus for us." Or at least, it was before this latest storm moved east. Now it's unclear whether public transit will be able to bring kitchen staff, valet parkers and patrons to the Dupont Circle institution. "I think the storm is going to impact the city."

Meanwhile In Manhattan, Danny Meyer, owner of the eight-restaurant Union Square Hospitality Group, takes a more optimistic view. "Valentine's Day provides a little bit of an insurance policy. No one wants to tell their spouse, 'We're going to cancel our reservation tonight because it's snowing.'" On the other hand, those who actually booked a choice table weeks ago, but cannot safely get to their favorite spots, will be doing a huge favor for what Meyer calls "neighborhood Lotharios who procrastinate. If you like to do things spontaneously, and it's snowing, you can walk into a great restaurant at the last minute and get a table, where you otherwise would have had to make a reservation weeks ago."

"Destination DC" tourism officials are hoping that Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the teeny-tiny, octogenarian TV sex therapist, will give the capital city a boost during a Friday satellite hookup with radio stations seeking a few pre-Valentine soundbites. At a press conference here last month, Dr. Ruth was sworn in as Washington's endearingly bogus "Secretary of the Department of Love and Relationships," and, in return, enthusiastically hyped Washington's 28-day tourism "stimulus package" to lure romantic big spenders to town during dreary February.

Organizers said then that the Date Nights DC campaign was inspired by Barack and Michelle Obama's vaunted dinners a deux and hand-holding. Westheimer, who barely grazed the biceps of statues of the First Couple on loan from a nearby wax museum at that event, had several hints for visiting and local singles: Troll the National Gallery of Art (it's free), and "stand in front of a Degas or anything a little bit sexually arousing. Look at the person next to you. First see if they have a wedding band on." That line brought down the house, but she quickly added, "ask if they are available."

There is just one drawback to relying on Dr. Ruth during Friday's satellite hookup, concedes Rebecca Pawlowski, the Destination DC communications director. "We expect she will mention DC during her radio interviews in New York, if the weather holds up."