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Between work, school, and sports schedules, playdates for little ones, and running a household, it’s easy to fall into a routine and not take time away as a couple. Mom and Golden local Arezou Zarafshan was all too familiar with this juggling act. “Between coordinating sitter schedules and feeling like we needed a backup plan, it was often more hassle than it was worth, so date nights, little by little, became a thing of the past for us,” Zarafshan says.
But she knew date nights were beneficial for her marriage. And research agrees. According to a 2023 study by the Wheatly Institute and the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, couples who go on frequent date nights are happier than those who don’t and are about 14 percent less likely to consider divorce.
The challenge of finding a reliable sitter stuck with Zarafshan, who in 2021 founded Call Emmy, a startup offering on-demand services like childcare and house cleaning. The company, which began with serving Golden, expanded nationwide in 2023. “The intention was to help parents make parenting easier because if it does become easier, then we can be fuller parents,” she says.
In 2025, Zarafshan noticed online reviews for the company frequently mentioned that the startup made date night possible for parents. “I started seeing how people really appreciate having a trusted source, a trusted sitter for their date night. And then at the same time, I started doing some research on date nights, and saw that it’s so good for marriages,” she says. Zarafshan put the two together to launch a new service that simplifies the way parents schedule date nights, from dinner reservations to securing childcare.
Zarafshan connected with restaurant reservation platform OpenTable over the summer, but the company told her she had to partner with a specific restaurant for Call Emmy to be listed on the site. That’s when Jacqueline and Frank Bonanno, the owners of six Denver eateries (Vesper Lounge, Salita, Dumplin’, and heavy hitters Luca, Mizuna, and Osteria Marco), joined the conversation.
“Within about 10 minutes [of talking to Zarafshan], we decided to support this,” says Jacqueline, who has two sons. “It just makes sense.… I’m all about making it easy when you want to go out for dinner, and in this case, it’s a vetted, insured, professional babysitter. I think it takes some of the pressure off of dining out, especially when your kids are little.”
In November, Call Emmy launched a program called Date Night Made Easy through a partnership with OpenTable and Bonanno Concepts.
Here’s how the service works: After booking a reservation through OpenTable at one of four Bonanno Concepts—Mizuna, Luca, Osteria Marco, or Dumplin’—diners receive a text message with a link to Call Emmy’s OpenTable page, asking if they need childcare to go with the booking. If they do, they’re invited to click through to book a sitter with Call Emmy (same-day options are available with as few as four hours’ notice).
The Call Emmy page allows parents to view available sitters in their area, as well as bios. They can request to connect with a babysitter that matches their needs or add up to three sitters to a short list to compare side by side. (The website also has information about Call Emmy, how its babysitters are vetted, reviews from other users, and a tool for parents to calculate how much they will pay for a sitter.)
Once a sitter is selected, parents fill out a form telling Call Emmy what they need, including the date of the dinner reservation, what time they’d like the babysitter to arrive, how long they need the sitter, and the number of children they will watch. Once complete, the booking is requested and typically confirmed within an hour.
Childcare pricing on the platform is transparent, too, so parents can budget their night out. It costs $32 an hour for up to two kids or $38 an hour for three to four children. Paying the sitter is done through Call Emmy, which takes a 30 percent cut and gives the remaining 70 percent to the babysitter.
Parents are vouching for the easy-to-use service, too. Carly Swan, mom to two three-year-old girls, has used Call Emmy for babysitting services six times since the date-night program launched. She says booking was “mindless” and “as simple as booking any reservation.” (And she vouched for the food too, recommending Osteria Marco’s burrata, short rib, and pesto campanelle.)
Not only did Swan and her husband get to try a restaurant that’s been on their list (Osteria Marco), but when they returned home, their girls were asleep, the house was clean, and the dishes were done, Swan says. “It was so great,” she says recalling the date night and booking experience. “We had a really good time. We could relax and have adult conversation, which we never do. It was an all-around 10-out-of-10 experience.”
While Zarafshan and Bonanno wish a streamlined service like this was available when their children were younger, they’re glad to help other parents more easily find time together. Their date-night service with OpenTable is a pilot program, but Zarafshan hopes to launch the offering nationwide in June.
The service has been so well-received, Zarafshan says, that Call Emmy is hoping to expand beyond OpenTable to other hospitality companies, venues, and sports teams, including Denver Summit FC.
