Could you run a restaurant with your sweetheart, like these Cape Cod couples?

The small-business, locally-owned shop scene has always been a staple of Cape Cod restaurants, from fine dining to summer treats.

Dozens of couples run restaurants up and down the peninsula, working side-by-side at their businesses and at home.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we reached out to a couple of those couples to, well, hear their love stories, from how they met to how they run a business with their beloved.

Hear from Jen Villa and Blane Toedt, who own The West End in Hyannis; and Michael and Libby Martir, co-owners of The Doghouse and One Stop Market & Deli, both in Dennis Port.

Jen Villa and Blane Toedt, co-owners of The West End in Hyannis

The West End, a 233-seat restaurant next to the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, is a popular spot for fine dining and special events, including weddings and engagements. During COVID-19, the couple built an outside patio and a sunroom used almost exclusively now for parties.

How they met: At Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee, where he was food and beverages director and she was coming in to organize Cape Cod’s first Dancing with the Docs fundraiser. “I was thinking ‘Who is this, coming into my house (Willowbend) with all this stuff,” Toedt recalled of their first meeting.

But one thing led to another: By 2018 they were a couple and she had hired him from Willowbend to help run The West End. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, they threw themselves an outside rehearsal dinner at their restaurant and married outside at a friend’s garden.

“We always say at The West End, we love love,” Villa said of the 100-plus-year-old restaurant that was The Paddock for years.

How they work together: “We share the leadership role, like a mom and dad in a family,” Villa said referring to their three dozen staffers. She works full time at Love Live Local, the Hyannis nonprofit she co-founded and spends most evenings making sure things go smoothly in The West End’s dining rooms.

Handling tensions: “We can’t really afford to have disagreements,” Toedt said.

Villa added, “There’s not a lot of time for conflict. We’re very communicative. We talk things out.”

No reservation needed: In addition to eating a light bite with the staff before service starts, Villa and Toedt will often retire to their favorite spot — table 50 — to share a meal, with wine or a cocktail. Often the managers on duty will join them for a debrief of the day.

"It helps that we really like each other and spending time together," Villa said.

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Michael and Libby Martir, co-owners of The Doghouse and One Stop Market & Deli, both in Dennis Port

How they met: “We met a long time ago,” Libby said, stretching out the word ‘long’ as she teases her husband. "Michael was the kitchen manager at the James Beard House and I was a pastry chef from Charleston, South Carolina, working with Chef Frank Lee at Slightly North of Broad.”

Michael added, “There is a picture of us plating up dinner that night. I asked what kind of plates she wanted. She was curt and short. And I said ‘Oh, I think I like you.’”

They went out in New York City and talked all night that first date. His next job at Bon Appetit took him to many cities and he sent her a bouquet from each new place.

How they work together: He handles the kitchen and she handles the dining room and counters at The Doghouse and One Stop, diagonally across the street.

“We balance each other,” Libby said.

Michael adds, “I always say where she sees a unicorn, I see a rhinoceros."

Raising a family: Married 26 years with two sons now in their 20s, the couple’s advice is to be patient, leave work at work and steal any time you can for family. Libby recalled bringing the children to the Wequassett Resort to see Michael when he couldn’t get home and for holiday meals.

“It would have been very frustrating,” she said, “if I didn’t know the business and what went into it.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Meet two couples who run, with love, restaurants on Cape Cod