VIRGINIA BEACH (WAVY) — Valentine’s Day, like most other things this past year, looked a little different on Sunday. Social distancing and indoor dining regulations made date night a little difficult.
Because of COVID, some saw more business, while some other lost business.
“Christmas lasts a whole month, mothers are more forgiving, they’ll take a little before and a little after, but sweethearts want it today,” said owner Charlene Wesseler.
And that’s why business at Fairfield Flowers in Virginia Beach was blooming Sunday.
“I just checked my numbers … 20 percent up,” Wesseler said.
She said Valentine’s Day is always busy for them, but she believes COVID has something to do with it.
“I think that it’s because they can’t go to dinner, they’re afraid to go to dinner or they can’t go visit or they can’t bring them to the movie, there are so many things that are pushed to the back burner right now because of the virus that I think they really like the flowers, they love the roses and it’s a good gift,” she said.
But while they’ve been wrapping and trimming flowers, just next door at the Vino Italian Bistro they’ve had to turn guests away
“We definitely miss out bar guests and seeing all the empty tables because of socially distanced we can’t seat them, it’s definitely a little disappointing for sure,” said manager Megan Hanrahan
The local Italian restaurant in Kempsville opened last year right after Valentine’s Day and right before the pandemic.
“We are definitely probably not doing as good as we could be,” she said.
Instead of a packed bar and a long wait list, every other table is sectioned off.
Unfortunately, with the capacity we’ve had to turn a lot of people away, and I feel like it was like that for a lot of people, which is why we have so much to-go business,” she said.