I guess it’s always good to start with the classics when going through date locations, after all they’re probably classics for a reason! So let’s start with the timeless dinner date.
Personally I love dinner dates: if you pick the right spot they’re warm, cosy, last just the right amount of time, and if you’re very lucky you might not have to pay the bill. Oh and they involve lovely lovely food, duh!
Firstly DO NOT worry about eating in front of someone! If you envision a future with this person, and I assume you do since you’re going on a date and not just fucking, you will have to eat with them and often. Obviously you want to keep your gob shut while eating, never talk with your mouth full, and avoid anything that is liable to stain your top, but Jesus H Christ you shouldn’t be doing that in public anyway! This isn’t primary school!
Back to the point… I can imagine nothing worse than going somewhere posh and quiet with someone who I hardly knew. Not because I fear smart restaurants, in fact if a man took me to Claridges I’d throw a fit of joy, but because it would be such a difficult place to get to know someone. How could we bond while I worried what side plate to use, and whether I sit straight enough? There’s no way I could offer to pay the bill and so I would feel indebted to the other person which would really set the date up badly in my eyes. FYI: anyone who’s only in dating for the free dinners and bad sex doesn’t deserve the treat, so don’t bother.
I believe the key to an amazing dinner date is keeping it casual. Near my house is the perfect diner with big snuggly leather booths to hunker down in which serves delish milkshakes and macaroni cheese, and is utterly unpretentious. Most Sundays you can find my best friend and I in there surrounded by newspapers and ketchup stained napkins chatting and dancing to the 70s classics blaring from the radio, so when it comes to picking a date location I almost always choose it, which is kind of embarrassing to admit! Ok so it’s not the classiest joint and if my date chooses a burger it’s pretty funny watching them try to eat it with gravitas, but I feel so comfy and happy there it doesn’t matter, and as long as he doesn’t splat ketchup in my face he can gnaw away for as long as he pleases.
When you make dinner a grand affair on which your budding relationship does or dies you are only setting yourself up for failure. Take a chill pill and discover the magic of dragging your beau down to your favourite coffee place, diner, burger joint (but not Maccy D’s that’s a step too far!), or pancake house, and sharing cherry pie while moving ever closer across a leatherette booth. Only rotate your locations because otherwise the waitresses start winking at you, and that can get really awkward really quick. Not that I know that from experience… obviously!
Photo of Patrician Grill Restaurant by Paul Gorbould, photo of The New Piccadilly by Bowbrick.
2 Comments
You see, I can never imagine going on a dinner date, unless I happened to know the person quite well. I’ve got increasingly awkward about eating in front of people and less able to co-ordinate the munching with the chatting. Also, I once went to GBK and saw two people on a first date who were trying to battle with giant burgers…it didn’t go too well for them…
Oh god I have to say burgers on a first date are SO HARD. You have to open your trap to insane levels, and then there’s ketchup drippage, all sorts of terrors.
I think food you can pick at, like nachos, or chips, or idk, crudites?? are always good because then there’s gaps for you to chitty chat. Then again nachos aren’t exactly a seductive foodstuff, but they are damned tasty. What a dilemma…