LA's retail power couples pair work with love

Years together: 10
Occupation: Owners at A+R

Time Out: What’s the best part about working together?
RA: We don’t get to travel as much now as we did back in the early days, because we have so many more responsibilities now, but that was great. I think just getting excited about stuff together.
AG: I think it’s still exciting to buy new things. I think that thrill that I used to have doing a mail order for some t-shirt when I was 12 years old, getting the package and opening—you still get that thrill even if it’s a big piece of furniture. And we get to see each other a lot.

Time Out: Describe your ideal date night.
RA: I think what we did last night—last night we had a date night. We drop Nina [their daughter] off early and we go back to the house, and then we go out to eat.
AG: We 'dot dot dot' and then we go out to eat. The important thing is the 'dot dot dot' before the eating and after the dropping off. You have to get the timing right because if you eat first, then forget it.

Time Out: What (if anything) do you typically do for Valentine’s Day?
AG: Well, we do our Valentine’s card.
RA: We are always too exhausted during the holidays to do our holiday dinner and to send out Christmas cards. When Nina was born we did a Valentine’s card, which also served as an announcement card. We did a portrait with Ramona Rosales, who also photographs a lot of our stuff here [in the store]. It’s a family portrait but there’s always a concept behind it. We always try to do something heart-related.

Time Out: What’s one thing about love that you want to teach your daughter?
RA: It’s a little cliché, I guess, but—that love is unconditional.
AG: I would like to teach Nina that love is timeless so that when I’m gone that love will still be there, even when I’m not there.
RA: I do also think of that cliché, ‘blood is thicker than water.’ I’ve never been a proponent of [it] but I have even stronger feelings about it now. I think that love is beyond blood—it transcends blood ties.

Years together: 6
Occupation: Owners at Broome Street General Store

Time Out: How did you meet?
Sophie Esteban: We met at a barbeque in Silver Lake and we were both getting set up with other people. He was getting set up with my friend and so I didn't really have an impression of him. He knows—I thought he was kind of an asshole.
Peter Graham: My impression of her was the most dynamic personality that I'd seen. I was stuck to her, like, 'who is this person?'
SE: Oh, now I feel bad.

Time Out: Were your first impressions accurate?
PG: 100 percent.
SE: (laughing) 100 percent.

Time Out: What happened after the first time you met?
PG: From that day on we pretty much have spent everyday together.
SE: We actually tried to impose days and times to not see each other.
PG: Thinking like this is unhealthy. We don't want to burn out. Let's respect this process or something like that. Yeah, we tried to do that and it didn't work, with the exception of a few out-of-town solo trips.

Time Out: What's the best part about working together?
PE: That we get to be together. We're best friends.
SE: When you're an entrepreneur we can never turn it off, we're always, always working. To be able to do it with your lover and your best friends, it's the best thing. It also could be the worst thing, too, because we can't turn it off.
PE: That's the hard part: turning it off for the sake of our kids and for our own sanity.
SE: And for the sake of our own marriage, too, because neither of us is a perfect husband or wife and neither of us is a perfect business partner. When you have two really big relationships like that, both with each other, if you mess up with the business or with the marriage, everything is so intertwined.

Time Out: What are your plans for Valentine's Day this year?
SE: Valentine's Day is a big day for us because we're in retail. Everybody always waits until the last minute. I really have fun helping people on Valentine's Day. 
PG: All of the holidays, but Valentine's Day is the best one. We have a lot of couples that come every morning together, and the days leading up to or the day of Valentine's Day, both will come in separately.
SE: It's like a secret registry situation, like, 'tell my wife I want this,' or 'tell my husband I want this...'
PG: I keep notes!
SE: Valentine's Day is much more high-stakes than Christmas. There is something on the line for Valentine's Day! It's like, 'am I going to get laid tonight or not?' It's hysterical. That's why Valentine's Day is one of my favorites, because you see the guys coming in here and it's like, this is the make-it-or-break-it.

Time Out: When did you get married?
SE: We did the Hollywood thing, so we had a baby first. We got married in 2013.
PG: We eloped in Provence and we did a second [wedding] for our friends and family in LA about 6-8 months after.
SE: I never wanted to get married, I should say.

Time Out: What changed?
SE: Peter really wanted to, and he really asked. I think that was a big part of it. At a certain point, when you have a family with somebody, it becomes not just about this is what I want and I have political or moral beliefs, it's like I'm giving myself to this person because we have a family together. There was something also really significant to me about all of us having the same name. I know that that's maybe old fashioned, but... that's what changed.

Years together: 4.5
Occupation: Owners at Clark & Madison

Time Out: What was your first impression of each other?
Dina Epstein: I was pissed because [my friends] were trying to hook me up with Frosti, who was hanging out with this other girl, so I was like 'what the hell?' So, my first impression was skewed. But then, he took off his shirt and I was like 'hmm...impression changed!'
Frosti Zernow: (jokingly) I thought her sister was hot.
DE: Yeah, well, we’re identical twins.

Time Out: What do you want for Valentine’s Day this year?
FZ: Time with the woman I love! I think almost all my presents to Dina are a night at a hotel or a spa or a bed and breakfast.
DE: For my birthday we went to the Ace Hotel and it was really nice because we did a staycation and our production studio is downtown. We had breakfast in bed, I walked to production and he was on his laptop working, and it was amazing. I would love a staycation for Valentine’s Day!

Time Out: Do you want a staycation, too?
FZ: I want what she wants.
DE: Good answer!

Time Out: What is the sexiest gift you have ever given to each other?
FZ: I gave her a topless photo of myself.
DE: For Valentine’s Day last year! He said, 'I’m giving you three things for Valentine’s Day: I’m giving you something sweet, something sexy...' and I can’t remember the other thing. The something sexy was a picture of him posing with this shirt off and I immediately took the picture and framed it, because if he was going to do something ridiculous like that he has to look at it every day. And then he did a striptease for me. It was really funny.
FZ: One time she got new lingerie and I felt like it was for me. That’s the kind of gift that I want to get on Valentine’s Day!
DE: One of the sweetest things that he’s ever gotten me is that he sent me a list of reasons why he loves me, when we were in a long distance relationship. He would text me in the morning like '#95 how you always sleep in the morning.'
FZ: And I put them all in a box when I proposed. I wrote them out by hand and put them in a box with the ring.