White Castle gets romantic for Valentine's Day

FOX 32 NEWS - There's nothing that says Valentine's Day quite like sliders.

Once upon a time, in a castle not so far away, people flocked in search of fine dining on Valentine's Day. That establishment was White Castle.

"We're having table side service. We've been doing this for about the last 25 years. It's kind of like fast food meets fine dining," said Manny Thakkar, General Manager at White Castle on Addison and Kedzie. 

A Valentine's Day tradition since 1991, White Castle becomes reservation only on the holiday of love and friendship.

"We're booked and people have been calling," Thakkar added. "We actually had to turn people away because we had so many reservations for this night."

Kim Kirincic and company said it was tough to get in at Addison and Kedzie when they called 2 weeks ago.

"They only had 4 o'clock available so we decided to pick the kids up from school and head over here," Kirincic said.

The kids came ready for the sliders, just like 9-year-old Spencer Yasak.

"I'm going to get a bacon slider with cheese and I'm going to get as much as I can until I pass out," he said.

From 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., White Castle doles out the red table cloths and floral centerpieces for the lovebirds and the families alike.

The experience is the same, whether it's your first Valentine's Day ever, like Anthony Jr. or your 27th for Marvin Zissman and Diane Biknis.

This has become a tradition for them.

"It was the first one we went to when a couple showed up," Zissman said. "He was in a tuxedo and she was in an evening gown and after that we figured it had to be the best place to go on Valentine's Day  and we've been doing it every year."

In order to get reservations for peak dinner times, some people had to set their tables aside as early as January 2nd.

Many of the customers we spoke to said they enjoy sitting down for a nice dinner, but not having to pay a huge bill at the end of the meal.