Please, no love on the menu

It sounds like one of those nightmares you might have had. You know
the one, where you suddenly find yourself with no clothes on, in a
public place with everyone staring at you. A couple of years ago,
David Thorneycroft was managing a restaurant in Liverpool's city
centre when Valentine's night came around. "A woman was going to
propose to her boyfriend and she had arranged everything in advance
with us, " he says. This wasn't going to be a subtle bended knee
approach - she was planning to jump out of a giant cake, wearing
nothing but lingerie. "She had made sure there was somewhere to
hide the cake, we had discussed the layout of the restaurant and
made sure we sat him with his back to where she was going to come
from."

During the meal, she went off to get changed - or rather, undressed
- and Thorneycroft and a waiter wheeled the huge (fake) cake out to
his table. In front of 120 diners, to the tune of "their song", she
burst out of it as confetti flew everywhere, and asked him to marry
her. "He didn't say a word, " recalls Thorneycroft. "There was not
a speck of emotion on his face. He just got up and walked out. She
was standing there, in her underwear, in this giant cake with
confetti all around her. It was just awful. For a few seconds,
nobody knew what to do." They got her out of the room so she could
get dressed. "The atmosphere in the restaurant was quite subdued
after that, " says Thorneycroft. "You should only propose somewhere
so public if you're 100% positive the person is going to say yes, "
he says, adding, "though she was sure he'd say yes."

Valentine's night is the busiest shift of the year for restaurants
and some people clearly love the attention of a very public
proposal in front of a packed restaurant, says Josie Stead, manager
of the Gallery restaurant at Sketch in London. Others, she says,
"do it quietly and privately at their table." Either way, she is
always surprised at how people go about it. "One man came in during
the day and gave us the ring to look after until he brought his
partner in that night. Later, we found out it was worth £80, 000.
Thankfully nothing happened to it but it was very trusting of him.
We have also been asked to put rings in desserts or glasses of
champagne. That always makes me nervous."

James Robson, managing director of Mews of Mayfair, has witnessed
several marriage proposals that have gone wrong over the years,
including one when a City banker wanted to put a large diamond in
his girlfriend's glass of champagne, before he asked her to marry
him. "The maitre d' and I warned him this wasn't a very good idea,
but he was determined, " says Robson. "Unfortunately, the woman had
already had a few cocktails and she didn't notice the diamond in
her glass and swallowed it. The man went bright red, grabbed his
girlfriend, and made a swift exit, knocking over the table as he
went. He didn't even pay his bill." He adds, "I don't know if they
ever retrieved the diamond."

The restaurant at Stoke Park country club in Buckinghamshire is
another popular spot for proposals. The executive chef Chris
Wheeler remembers one heart-stopping (in a bad way) episode a
couple of years ago. A man had given his girlfriend two dozen red
roses and she had asked the restaurant to put them in the fridge to
keep them fresh while they had dinner. "We had other flowers in the
fridge to give out to customers as part of our Valentine's night
package, " says Wheeler. The doorman mistook the woman's flowers
for the restaurant's flowers he was supposed to be giving out, and
gave a rose to 24 other couples as they were leaving. "When we
realised, we wrapped up some more flowers really nicely, apologised
profusely and gave them to the woman, " says Wheeler. The man went
"ballistic." "He had hooped a diamond ring on one of the roses and
we had given it away to another customer." They had to phone
everyone who had been given a rose and, luckily, one of them
brought the ring back. While the proposal had gone horribly wrong,
there is a happy ending. "The couple had their wedding here and
they're regular customers, " says Wheeler.

Most of the marriage proposals at the OXO restaurant in London have
been successful - one man had a huge banner unfurled from the top
of the building on the opposite side of the river Thames reading
'Will you marry me?' - but it's the ones which weren't which lodge
in the mind for longer, says the brasserie manager Sian Cox. On one
Valentine's night, a woman turned down a proposal and her boyfriend
stormed out; another man in the restaurant, whose girlfriend had
suddenly left him too, went to sit with her to commiserate. Which
made things awkward when her boyfriend returned 10 minutes later to
apologise.

"We often get people asking for 'Will you marry me?' to be written
in chocolate on dessert plates, " says Cox. "One woman who received
one panicked and ran off to the loo. On her way she stopped a
waiter and asked us to send her boyfriend one back reading 'Not a
hope in hell'." Remarkably accommodating, the restaurant agreed to
do it, though they said it might be better - and safer for the poor
waiter, perhaps - if she delivered it herself. "Luckily, he thought
it was very funny, " says Cox. "She just said she wasn't ready to
get married. I think they stayed together."

译文：

听起来就像是那种恶梦，你可能也做过。你突然发现你自己赤裸裸的在一个公共场合，所有人都盯着你看，你懂的。几年前，熊大卫管理利物浦城中心的一家餐馆，当时刚好到了情人节。“一个女人要向她男朋友求婚，她提前把什么都跟我们安排好了，”他说。这不是一个单膝着地的低调求婚，她打算从一个巨大的蛋糕中跳出来，什么都不穿，只穿内衣。”她找了地方藏蛋糕，我们一起讨论了餐馆的布局，确保她男朋友背对着她会出来的地方。“

吃饭时，她跑去换衣服，更确切的说，去脱衣服。然后熊大卫和一个服务员把巨大的（假）蛋糕推到他桌前。在120位餐馆客人面前，伴随着属于他们的音乐，她从蛋糕里面钻出来，五彩纸屑飞的到处都是，请他和她结婚。“他什么都没说，”熊恩可回忆道，“他脸上一点儿表情都没有。他站起来，走了出去。然后她站在那儿，只穿了内衣，站在那个巨大的蛋糕里面，四周都是彩纸屑。太可怕了。有几秒钟，大家都不知道该怎么办。“
他们把她从房间里面带出来让她穿上衣服。“之后餐馆的气氛很压抑，”熊大卫说，“你应该有百分百把握那个人会答应，你才在这么公众的场合求婚。”他加了句，“不过她当时应该以为他会答应的。”

伦敦市斯凯奇区的一家画廊餐厅的经理史乔希说，情人节晚上是一年之中最忙的时段，有些人很明显喜欢在一家满座餐厅面前当众求婚，那种被关注的感觉。”其他人，“她说，”私下在他们自己桌前安静的求婚。“不管哪种，她总是对人们做的方式感觉很惊讶。”一个男人白天来了请我们照看一枚戒指，等他当晚把他女朋友带来。之后我们发现这枚戒指价值八万英镑。幸好没出事。他很信任我们。我们还被要求过把戒指放在甜点或香槟酒杯里面。每次都让我很紧张。”

美景区的小巷餐馆总经理罗詹姆这些年就见证过好几次不成功的求婚。其中一次，一位花旗银行家想把一枚大钻戒放到他女朋友的香槟杯里，然后向她求婚。“我和领班都警告他说这不是一个好主意，但他已经下定决心了，”罗詹姆说，“不幸的是，那位女士已经喝了几杯鸡尾酒，她也没注意到杯子里面的戒指，就直接吞了下去。那位先生脸一下子变红了，抓着他女朋友就冲出去了，一路碰翻桌子。他甚至都没结账。”他加了句，“我不知道他们有没有取回那枚钻戒。”

贝克汉郡史多公园乡村俱乐部的那家餐馆也是一个经常见证求婚的地方。大厨克里斯记得几年前一次让人（吓得）心脏暂停的插曲。一位男士给他女朋友送了二十四朵玫瑰，她请餐馆在他们就餐时帮忙放到冰箱里保鲜。“我们在冰箱里还放有其他的花，是情人节之夜套餐的礼物，送给就餐顾客的，”克里斯说，“门童把那位女士的花和他要送出去的餐馆的花搞混了，直接把玫瑰给了24对离开的顾客。”当我们发现的时候，赶快包了更多的花，包得很漂亮，给那位女士一再道歉”，克里斯说。那位男士大发雷霆。“他把一枚钻戒套在其中一朵玫瑰花上了，而我们把这朵花送给别的顾客了。”他们不得不给所有收到花的客人打电话，幸运的是，其中一位客人把戒指送回来了。尽管这次求婚状况百出，但结局还是很好的。“那对客人还在这里举行了婚礼，他们现在还是常客“，克里斯说。

酒馆经理寇塞恩说，在伦敦OXO餐馆的大部分求婚都成功了。有位男士在泰晤士河对岸一栋建筑顶上展开了一面巨大的横幅，上面写着，嫁给我吧？但也有求婚不成功，令人影响更深刻。一次情人节夜晚，一位女士拒绝了求婚，她男朋友气冲冲的走了。餐馆的另一位男士的女朋友刚好也突然离开了他，坐了过来安慰她。尴尬的是，那位女士的男朋友十分钟后又回来道歉了。

“经常有人请我们用巧克力在甜点盘子上写‘嫁给我好吗’，寇塞恩说，”一位女士收到了这样一份甜点，吓到了，跑去洗手间。在她去洗手间的路上，她问一位服务员可不可以给她男朋友回一个甜点写‘老娘不干‘。餐馆很乐于助人答应了，但他们说最好，应该说对那位可怜的服务员来说更安全，由她自己把那份甜点端上桌。“幸好他觉得很搞笑，”寇塞恩说，“她说她只是还没有准备好结婚。我想他们还是在一起的。”