Dayanna slid into Dan’s DMs—but she was looking for a job, not a date. In a kind of modern-day meet-cute, she got the job and two weeks later, a boyfriend. Eight months after that, the couple was married.
“It was really fast. We just vibed immediately,” says Dan Campeas, 34. He had opened Stuffed Grassfed Burgers in Montclair in 2014, but it wasn’t until Dayanna “Day” Ordonez, 24, came on board in 2021 that his culinary future became clear. The couple closed Stuffed Burgers and opened Dan & Day’s Burgers and Shakes in Upper Montclair in early 2024.
“She brought her own little touch—she looked at the business like it was her own,” he said, sitting in the window at their restaurant on a recent chilly morning.
“I liked working there and I liked him,” adds Day, smiling at her partner—in business and in life.
The love story of Dan and Day is just one example of culinary connections forged over hot stoves, spreadsheets and dirty dishes. Somehow, romance and restaurants are a potent mix, and not just for customers on dates. In many business settings, work and pleasure don’t mix—but in the case of these restaurant couples, romance is an asset, not a liability.
Lauren and Jonathan Kavourakis are the chefs and co-owners of the Italian restaurants Fanny’s and Ladyfingers Bakery + Bar in the Brookdale section of Bloomfield. They met while working at the now-shuttered New York hotspot Stanton Social, helmed by celebrity chef Chris Santos. Lauren, 31, says Jonathan, 41, had a “kindergarten crush” on her when she first started, calling her “pastry girl” and picking on her. But they were attracted to each other and started dating about a year after they met. They are now married with three kids (3, 2 and 3 months) and live in Roseland.
Korn and Chayanne Wongsarochana, 44, own Pru Thai in Clinton, Pennington and, as of October, Lambertville. Their journey to romance happened a little differently. They were friends in New York City, both working jobs unrelated to food. They met through friends and were just that for some time—friends.
They moved to New Jersey and opened Pru Thai in Clinton together, even living together for some time—again, as friends. Several years passed before they became a couple.
“We just continued being with each other all the time. Business partners, thinking, developing,” explains Korn, 52. “Eventually it was, ‘Hey, you know what, we go everywhere together, we hang out with each other, we drink together, we talk about things—are we a match?’”
They decided to give it a shot. “We moved into the same bedroom!” Korn says, laughing. It’s been 20 years since Pru opened in Clinton, and the couple has an 11-year-old daughter.
These couples say making business decisions with life partners is actually beneficial for the workplace. Whether it’s due to increased openness or the inability to fire your husband or wife, what’s best for the business often prevails.
“We both push each other to be our best. I’m not going to tell her something’s good when it’s not, and she’s not going to, either,” explains Jonathan. “No sugar coating anything—getting honest opinions no matter what. And it goes both ways. That’s why we can work together.”
Of course, if you’re in love, there’s nothing better than spending additional time together. “A lot of people ask, ‘How do you work with your significant other?’ We wouldn’t want it any other way,” Day says.
Chayanne (aka Gip) says working closely with a loved one brings pleasure that a platonic partnership could never come close to. “We solve problems together, we do everything together—stress together, tears together,” she says. “Sweet and bitter, everything all at once.”
Korn agrees. “We’re like chopsticks,” he says. “You can’t use a chopstick with just one.”
The couples from both Dan & Day’s and Fanny’s/Ladyfingers kept their romances secret—at least at the beginning.
Dan and Day say that, while they would often “catch eyes” and flirt at work, they tried to keep the relationship under wraps in the early days. But once, as she was scratching his back in the kitchen, they were caught.
“No one knew, and Gonzalo, my first employee at Stuffed, comes up behind us and says, ‘Sorry to interrupt! I need lettuce,’” Dan explains, chuckling.
Lauren and Jonathan were dating for about a year and a half before anyone knew.
“I lived two blocks away [from the restaurant], and we’d run out at 4 pm before work started to hang out, Jonathan says, laughing. “Nobody had any idea!”
Lauren adds that, while they knew how to “separate our professional lives and personal lives” back then, now that they’re business owners with a family, the two are intertwined.
Of course, food is what brings people together, so it’s at the center of restaurant romances, too.
“I feel my love for you right here and here,” Dan says to Day, pointing first to his stomach, then to his heart.
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