Not from the heart: Local bars throwing anti-Valentine's Day parties

Two downtown Cape Girardeau businesses are celebrating singles Tuesday with tongue-in-cheek parties for the darker side of Valentine's Day.

Harold "Key-V" Williams, manager of Ragsdales Pub, said he got the idea for an anti-Valentine's Day party from a bartender at The Bar, which is hosting a Valentine's Day party the same night.

"Valentine's Day is great; people can go out, celebrate, show how much they love each other. But at the same token, there are people in love who don't want to do that and single people who don't want to see that," Williams said.

Williams said Ragsdales will be having drink specials that night, as well as other special events.

"No cover charge, and starting at 9 p.m., we're gonna start playing cheesy breakup music, singles music: Think the first half of 'The Wedding Singer,'" he said.

Staff will give black roses to women who attend, and a shredder will be on hand in case anyone wants to dispose of reminders of an ex.

A champagne toast will be held at midnight "to celebrate making it through Valentine's Day," Williams said.

The Facebook tagline for the event reads, "Happy unimaginative, consumerist-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance day."

But Williams said he isn't all about being down with Valentine's Day celebrations. In fact, he has plans with his wife before the party.

"I'll do the Valentine's mooshy-gooshy, then do the anti-day," he said.

The event is about keeping a sense of humor, and he'd love to see people "just get together and celebrate a day that everyone else has put something on that can be sometimes commercialized, unimaginative. We'll have a good time that night!"

Jeff Mungle, co-owner of the Coin-Op Cantina, said while they have talked about doing an anti-Valentine's party in the past, this is the first year they've held one.

Since Valentine's Day falls on a weekday, Mungle said he didn't think it was likely Coin-Op Cantina would be very busy that night anyway.

"Then [co-owner] Latt Browne said something about Singles Awareness Day, and I'll get behind that more than anti-Valentine's Day," he said.

The celebration will feature a Skee-Ball tournament, a special draft on tap, cake and cookies.

"I was going to have them put 'SAD' on the cookies for Singles Awareness Day, but we'll see," Mungle said.

Mungle said he wants people to have a good time, and he said he is excited to see how the party goes. He assumes most of the regulars will be in anyway, regardless of relationship status.

"I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. It's very corporate, marketing-heavy," he said. "It makes sense, but this is how we want to celebrate."

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address: 132 N. Main St., Cape Girardeau

46 N. Main St., Cape Girardeau