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It's nice to share

The just-for-two portions popping up in restaurants maximize flavor as well as intimacy.

The "Broken Hearts" sundae at Franklin Fountain dates to 1910.
The "Broken Hearts" sundae at Franklin Fountain dates to 1910.Read more

I usually have an aversion to going out for Valentine's Day. If the crowds alone don't squash the romance, the typically overpriced prefab special menus and harried service will.

"In the biz, we call it 'Amateur Night,' " one chef conceded.

So why not celebrate alt-Valentine's, dinner out on a night other than V-day, by indulging in a growing menu trend already built for an intimate evening of fork-à-fork: the sharing-sized portion.

Consider it a zaftig reply to the small-plate movement of the last few years. Or consider it a culinary treat for chefs like David Katz, the owner of Mémé, who believe that larger-sized cuts of meat offer the cook more possibilities for infusing flavor than the usual tiny fillet.

Katz certainly makes his case in the "for two" portion of his bistro menu. He transforms a whole chicken into a platter of near poultry perfection, poaching the breasts sous-vide with foie gras and herbs, roasting the legs in duck fat, and distilling the carcasses down to an aromatic brown jus kissed with Madeira. With roasted shiitake caps and a crock of onion grits on the side, it's a hearty meal for two at $38. His $40 pork chop, meanwhile, a three-inch slab of heirloom Kurobuta pig slow-roasted on the bones beneath a crust of fennel and mustard seeds, is one of the most memorable chops in town.

Sharing is nothing new to lovers of raw shellfish; an entire evening can be spent roaming the icy tiers of a multilevel seafood plateau. It's even better, though, during the daily happy hour (5 to 7 p.m.) in the sexy bar at XIX atop the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue.

The cocktails are half price and the 19th-floor views are particularly inspiring at pink sunset with one of the city's best raw bars in full-shuck mode. Settle into one of the plush leather seats beside the fireplace for a $20 platter of assorted seafood (raw oysters and clams, curried Tasmanian crab salad, mussels, shrimp, and a giant poached diver scallop), or gild it with a dozen different oysters ($28) ranging from local stars like Cape May Salts to less frequently seen Lucky Limes from Prince Edward Island or sweet Potters Moons from Rhode Island.

Few foods benefit as much from being cooked whole as a head-to-tail fish with its juice-giving bones intact. And few foods are quite as romantic. No wonder the whole two-pound branzino cooked inside a salt crust with truffle sauce and charred brussels sprouts is the most popular date entree at Vetri. Of course, it costs $72. And reservations for Valentine's Saturday at Vetri are long gone anyhow.

A far more accessible (and affordable) destination would be Roberto Cafe, the cozy yellow and unpretentious little trattoria in Graduate Hospital where brothers Roberto and Fernando Vincenti have made a specialty of whole fish. On a recent night, it seemed that virtually every table had ordered a branzino or Dover sole for two.

At about 11/2 pounds a fish for $34, they aren't for a huge meal for big eaters (the sides of roasted potatoes and zucchini could also be more exciting). But add a shared pasta to start, a tiramisu to finish, and you'll be content. The fish itself is as moist and flavorful as any in the city, the delicate fillets basted at the last moment with a marinade of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Merely watching the brothers effortlessly debone a fish tableside is entertainment - a ritual honed at Radicchio, La Veranda, and a host of other classic local Italians. But Roberto contends the skill is a birthright for those who grew up as they did in the southern Italian shore town of Gallipoli.

"We come from the sea," he says, "so we know the fish before we catch it. We swim with it. We know its every bone."

Ah, romance.

But then, for some folks, dinner seduction is all about a hunk of juicy beef. You can choose from both worlds at Ansill, where chef David Ansill is offering a special crab-stuffed flounder for two ($35) and a 24-ounce rib steak ($50) for sharing, both Friday and Valentine's Saturday. They might sound suspiciously conventional for the adventurous Ansill, but they offer proof of his recent claims that he is easing up on his famed obsession with offal. (Too bad - imagine "his and hers" organ meats!)

There is little question, though, what the carnivorous lovebirds crave at Butcher & Singer, the new retro steak house remake of Striped Bass. The dry-aged porterhouse for two, 32 ounces of T-bone and sublimely tender broiler-charred beef, is already one of the most decadent splurges in a town crazed with chop-house fever. When it tastes this good, no sacred steer is safe.

Of course, what would a romantic meal be without dessert? There are, of course, plenty of the usual, predictable chocolate solutions here - mousses, molten cakes, truffles, cocoas and souffles galore. But if you really want to surprise your date, head to the Franklin Fountain in Old City, the wonderfully retro antique soda fountain where brothers Ryan and Eric Berley offer the best excuse to eat ice cream in the dead of winter.

Chief among these are the "hot milkshakes" - flaming s'mores of homemade marshmallows laid atop fudge-drizzled grahams over malted shakes or warm peach-praline pie crumbled into butter pecan ice cream that are essentially inverted a la modes.

But perhaps no sundae says Cupid quite like the "Broken Hearts," a decidedly simple but classic 1910 recipe from the Dispenser's Formulary, an antique soda-fountain manual. A Victorian-style heart-shaped bowl brings two scoops of house-made vanilla bean ice cream with a mountain of whipped cream, Nabisco cookies, and two kinds of strawberry, lightly crushed and whole, that symbolize new love triumphing over the broken heart.

At the very least, it gives a good new reason to go out and share a dish - even on Valentine's eve.