What Gals Really Want for Valentine's Day: Luxury Chocolates

Mast Brothers

This time of year always presents a dilemma for straight boys and gay girls: how to celebrate Valentine's Day -- the only holiday focused on carnal love and desire --
with your significant other?

Taking her out to dinner is traditional, but in NYC it's also expensive and nonproductive: The hottest restaurants are featuring pricey prix fixes, which often represent shorter menus with fewer choices, and punishing markups. What's more, these packed places often possess deafening noise levels, making romantic conversation impossible.

La Maison du Chocolat

So, why am I addressing this just to straight boys and gay girls? Because, if it is indeed true that 90 percent of all chocoholics are female, then chocolate might just be your best way to your favorite girl's heart on Valentine's Day.

I'm not talking about Hershey's, Cadbury, Lindt, or even Godiva (yuck!), either. I'm talking about high-end chocolates. Chocolates that make an extravagant statement. Chocolates better than anything you've ever tasted before.

Here are five of the city's best chocolatiers, places where the smoothness and richness of the product outdoes all others. Some are made in Belgium and Switzerland, some right here in Gotham.

Imagine gifting one of these, then sitting down in the quietude of your apartment to watch an episode of Downton Abbey. That's Valentine's Day perfection! But be careful, like high-end sushi, once you've tasted the superlative product, you can never go back to the salad-bar stuff again.