A stellar lineup of local musicians made more than one San Franciscan shed a tear this past Valentine's Day.  The Bold Italic teamed up with Uber to host Romance on Demand featuring one dozen Whole Trade roses from Whole Foods, a gift bag filled with treats from Bay Area vendors (including letterpress printshop Western Editions), and, most exciting of all, a soulful serenade by the likes of Pebbles Cottenwood featuring Meryl Press with Marc Capelle, Hot Augustus and the Heartlights featuring Jamin Barton with Doug Hilsinger, soulful crooner Quinn DeVeaux, Billy and Dolly, Keith Slogan featuring Robert Spector, and Uke Hammer featuring Alfred Swanson. 

(Photo courtesy of Frederique Dame)

Each group set off from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., accepting incoming requests for serenades all across the city. There were office-wide serenades at Kiva ...

 and romantic rooftop picnics ...

Overheard during the serenades: one colleague claimed, "Your boyfriend is making all of our partners look really bad right now." And one musical group made the request, "Can we do this forever?" 

Regardless of whether you're a hopeless romantic, it's hard to deny the fun in surprising people with gifts and sweet tunes. 

Uber's mission is about much more than Valentine's Day serenades, though. If for some reason you've been living under a rock for the past few years, Uber is your on-demand private driver. You can request a ride at any time using its iPhone and Android apps or from uber.com. 

Thanks to our friends at Uber, new users from The Bold Italic will receive $20 off their first ride. To receive the discount, all you have to do is enter the BoldItalicSF promo code into your app or online at uber.com prior to taking a ride.