The Fresh Market turns at-home dining into night out for Valentine’s Day

The Fresh Market is enabling consumers to go out to a Valentine’s Day dinner at home.

The Greensboro, N.C.-based natural and organic grocer unveiled a Valentine’s holiday menu of prepared meals along with ready-to-cook specialty entrees, charcuterie pairings and bakery sweets to make their celebrations easier.

Heading the list of options is “Valentines’ Day Meal for Two” menu, which is available for online ordering and pickup and includes everything needed for a “five-star, beautiful feast,” The Fresh Market said. Customers choose two of three entrees (premium choice chateaubriand-cut filet mignon, ultimate lump crab cakes and 7-oz. Chilean sea bass) and get one each of mascarpone whipped potatoes with rosemary, asparagus with diced red peppers and sea salt butter (steamer bag), and hand-dipped chocolate strawberries and macaron hearts (in a reusable bag).

In addition, The Fresh Market wine experts also provide pairing recommendations, and when customers pick up their dinner, they will receive a rose as a personal thank you, the retailer said.

Ready-made Valentine's Day dinner options include filet mignon, crab cakes and Chilean sea bass with a pair of side dishes and chocolate-dipped strawberries and macaroons.

Those preferring to prepare and serve themselves can pick from a heart-shaped Maryland crab cakes that are seasoned and ready to cook, or a hand-cut and butterflied ribeye steak — aged a minimum of 14 days for maximum tenderness — that’s crafted into the shape of a heart by expert butchers.

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For appetizers, The Fresh Market is offering specialty cheese and fruit selections that it said are “guaranteed to impress that special someone” on Valentine’s Day. Choices include Wensleydale raspberry rhubarb (similar to cheesecake, with creamy pink cheese, raspberry chunks and swirls of rhubarb jam), Wish Farms Pink-A-Boo Pineberries (with strawberry flavor and hints of pineapple), Take & Bake Brie (creamy brie covered in raspberry preserves and wrapped in a ready-to-bake, buttery puff pastry) and a made-in-store Valentine’s Day Cheese Tray for two (with creamy brie, walnuts, aged prosciutto and fresh strawberries).

The Valentine’s dessert menu from The Fresh Market features hand-dipped chocolate strawberries made in-store (with dark, white or marbled chocolate and dipped in nonpareils, special sprinkles and/or edible glitter), fresh fruit tarts (coated with chocolate and filled with house-made pastry cream), cheesecake (with a choice of chocolate truffle cheesecake or gourmet cheesecake topped with strawberries), imported French macarons (flavors include rose lychee, blueberry, vanilla and raspberry) and pull-apart cake (a sharable dessert made with frosted cupcakes, available in chocolate, red velvet and vanilla and topped with a Belgian chocolate heart and festive sprinkles).

Related:The Fresh Market serves up fine dining for dinner

The retailer calls its PassionRoses at The Fresh Market 'the most stunning, longest-lasting roses available.'

The Fresh Market noted that it’s also a destination for the traditional Valentine’s Day gift, flowers. The grocer describes its PassionRoses at The Fresh Market as “the most stunning, longest-lasting roses available,” which are responsibly grown on farms in the mountains of Columbia and Ecuador and Rainforest Alliance- and Florverde-certified. The Fresh Market said it has a 10-year relationship with these growers because of their commitment to quality, as well as environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Also for the Valentine’s holiday, and as part of its “Friendliest Curbside Experience in America” program, The Fresh Market personal shoppers on Feb. 14 will present each curbside pickup customer with a free rose as a gift. Customers can place their curbside orders through the online store or on The Fresh Market mobile app. Overall, The Fresh Market operates 159 stores in 22 states.

Though dining out is expected to rebound for Valentine’s Day this year, the pandemic still has many consumers opting for food at home. In 2022, 29% of 1,175 people surveyed by consumer data specialist Numerator plan to cook at home for Valentine’s Day, compared with 35% in 2021 and 25% in 2020. Twenty-three percent aim to order food for takeout or delivery, about the same as the 26% who did so in 2021 and well above the 14% chose takeout/delivery in 2020. Numerator found that 36% plan to go out for food and drinks for Valentine’s Day this year, more than doubling the 17% who went out for the holiday in 2021 and the 45% who did so in 2020, when the occasion came about a month before COVID-19 was declared a national emergency in the United States.

“Both cooking at home and ordering takeout food were the only two celebration plans to gain popularity during the pandemic, growing 10-plus points from 2020 to 2021,” Chicago-based Numerator observed. “In 2022, both showed only slight decreases, indicating that these behaviors may be lasting.”