First Rate First Dates Anyone?

It’s almost Friday night and as an extra bonus, spring is in the air, and that means summer romance is just around the corner.  If you’re lucky enough to land that first date, don’t you want to be able ensure there’s going to be a second date? And how many times have you had to use up all of your “best material” on the first date?  Plus, there are only so many times you can pretend to be telling fascinating anecdotes about yourself while being drowned out by the sound of your date’s ear drums rupturing due to loud techno pop in a nightclub.  If only you had something interesting to do on your dates, you wouldn’t have to have all of those interesting things to say! So, why not look at some more original ideas for first dates?  Here are some possibilities we uncovered from some of the successful singles we surveyed for your initial rendezvous.

Museums and Galleries
“One of the best first dates I have been on was at museum of textiles,” recalled Bitsy of Baltimore.  “We immediately had a topic of conversation when I admired a beaded dress with Marabou feathers while walking into the opening display of Parisian costumes from the Follies Bergère. Naturally, this led to some enlightening information about my date, albeit indirectly, without having to explicitly discuss our boring childhoods in stifling suburbia.  Ultimately, it didn’t really work out.  Except for us being able to share clothes.  That was definitely worth the price of admission.”

Eclectic Dining
Having dinner at a popular, but kind of offbeat restaurant can help you jump-start a relationship.  Avoid the common first date places and opt for something more trendy that the local hipster weekly newspaper has reviewed lately.  In our neck of the woods, that could be a place like  “House of Kabob-Barker,” an Iranian/Korean fusion house of fine cuisine. A restaurant like that is great because you can seem like a real “foodie” when you talk about how the chef managed to somehow discover that lamb and Labrador could mingle flavors together successfully by being enhanced with just a tinge of black cardamom.

Handcraft a Get Together
It’s always fun to do something active, but why not try something creative on a first date for a change?  Maybe take your new mate to one of those paint your own pottery places with a kitschy name?  One we like is  "Dressed to Kiln."  It’s fun and imaginative and you really don’t have to talk hardly at all, which can take some of the heat off.  Just don’t send any obvious distress signals to your date by like stenciling how many hours you have left on your biological clock in the glaze on your mug to commemorate the occasion.

Tagging Along
Why not head out to a flea market or tag sale now that we can stroll leisurely in warmer temperatures?  You can learn so much about your date’s tastes and preferences if you witness that they seem ready to bitch-slap some kid who belongs more at the Special Olympics than at the fairgrounds in lieu of outbidding him on a PeeWee Herman doll.

We hope you’ll consider one of these ideas for your next first date.  Oh, and please do let us know how it rates!