PAUL SCHRAG: FINDING PASSION WITH WARM PIE ON VINYL >>>

These days it’s more appropriate to take your beloved to Olive Garden for some ravioli than it is to spend the evening in a cold, empty diner reading Pablo Neruda, eating warm pie and drinking coffee. There was a time when romance happened in dark corners, between people who were so in love they didn’t care where they were. These days, folks are more likely to spend Valentine’s Day feeling guilty that they couldn’t get a table at El Gaucho than being simply in love, somewhere senseless.

In the spirit of visceral romance, I suggest dining at the Southern Kitchen Restaurant on Valentine’s Day in hopes that you will spend the day feeling in love and being present â€" instead of waiting in the lobbies of places that aren’t nearly as impressive as a solid kiss or a good conversation.  

Southern Kitchen isn’t new, but it doesn’t get its due as a romance spot. If you’re going there anyway, leave work early, change into something comfortable and warm, and go to the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory at Wright Park. It’s open only until 4:30 p.m., so get there by 4:15. This time of year you’ll walk into a sea of cinerarias, hyacinths, cyclamen, tulips, orchids, clivias and azaleas in so many gorgeous colors that you’ll forget where you are.

Then head to Southern Kitchen, which is just up the street. The menu is dripping with soul food favorites â€" from fried okra to Cajun catfish. There is something amazing about walking through a flimsy screen door and seating yourself at a nondescript, laminate-top table while the owner Gloria Martin wipes the counter and talks to customers. I highly recommend the fried frickin’ chicken. It will haunt you with its sublime blend of smokin’ spices and downright nasty crisp outer layer. Not skin but outer layer. You can choose three sides from real mashed taters, homemade mac ‘n’ cheese, collard greens, black-eyed peas, red beans and rice, buttered corn, cornbread dressing, fried okra and candied yams, which have the perfect hint of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

If you can still breathe, split some of their award-winning peach cobbler.

[Southern Kitchen Restaurant, 1716 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.627.4282]

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Since King Solomon’s Reef in Olympia is out of action due to a fire, where else should one spend Valentine’s Day that off the beaten path?