The booming business of public breakups

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

From Lane Denbro's vantage point in the open kitchen of the trendy restaurant where he worked, it was hard to tell which was causing the couple more pain: the spicy food… or the unfolding break-up.

"They were ordering all of the spicy dishes on the menu, and so I just remember thinking that it must add so much intensity to what is already an intense conversation about whether or not we're going to break up," Denbro tells me.

Denbro, then a line cook working the wok and the fry...