First Date

At long last, there was a plan for the aforementioned date.  After going back and forth via text without a ever making a plan, he finally suggested we meet around 9 at a restaurant downtown.  I agreed, slightly annoyed, since I could have much better planned my day (outfit) around a later meeting time, but figured it wasn't the worst thing in the world.  I may be uptight at times, but wouldn't hold it against the guy.

I realized immediately that it the lack of plan and last-minute decisions were not an excuse to play games-- he is just completely free-spirited and relaxed.  It didn't seem to phase him that I showed up 30 minutes latte (traffic, I swear), whereas that would have driven me crazy.

He picked a really cute restaurant called Esperanto, on 9th and Avenue C.  I've never been as far east as C, and it was surprisingly quaint and very quiet.  The restaurant was on a corner and had two blocks of outdoor seating, so we grabbed a table right by one of the windows-- from there, we could faintly hear the Latin music that was playing from the live band inside.

photo courtesy of NubiaMag

The food was Brazilian-inspired; to start, we split potato and cod croquettes and roasted mussels.  The mussels were wonderfully crispy and garlicky-- perfect with a squeeze of lime on top.  The croquettes were to salty for my taste, and they tasted more like salty fried hush puppies.  Something I would definitely skip next time... though I can see their appeal after a few drinks.  As an entree, I had seared tuna, topped with a roasted pepper and avocado salsa.  Overall it was good, the flavors didn't pop, but the fish was cooked perfectly.  And the caipirinhas were amazing.  We then went for a drink next door to this tiny cocktail lounge called Louis 649 which was really cool-- dark lighting, old jazz music, and great cocktails.

He was certainly very different than anyone I've been out with before.  He was interesting, interested, considerate, very into New York, optimistic, artsy, free-spirited...if nothing else, it was a bit of a reality check.  Not only are there so many different types of (single!) people on this island, I could learn a lot from each of them.  I'm not sure if there will be a second date, but if nothing else, I could probably relax a little... it'll take a while, but maybe not making a plan three days in advance isn't the worst thing someone can do.  Though I'll keep hoping for it.