EPICDATE#1 – The Restaurant

Toast

There are dates, and then there are EPICDATES. The distinction was created while the Theatre Producer was in America. Dates are dates, Epicdates are above and beyond the call of duty. I said when she returned I would like to take her on EPICDATE#1, she agreed.

(Normal dates can happen between EPICDATES).

There was a lot of planning, focus groups (no really, I asked a mutual friends), diagrams and brainstorming sessions.

The eventual plan was simple, I’d meet her at the airport when she got off the plane and then I’d take her to a restaurant. That doesn’t sound very epic right? Well the latter bit of it.

I had a plan.

Some friends had just opened a new restaurant in London. I’d been going to their other places for years and I was owed a favour.

So I went in and chatted to them and they said they could give me super-dooper treatment. A reserved table, champagne on arrival and a tasting menu of food paired with the perfect wine to go with each dish.

That sounded quite epic so we went with that.

I hadn’t told the Theatre Producer what we were doing, but I had let her know of the required dress code and given a couple of clues to add to the fun. I said that smelling was involved and that it was something that couldn’t happen until recently. I also gave a vague location.

Annoyingly she worked out where we were going. Now I do find intelligence very attractive but this sort of fiendish detective work had caught me slightly off-guard. Future EPICDATES wouldn’t involve any clues.

I pretended she hadn’t worked it out (It’s amazing how much deception is required in romance) and met her at a nearby location. We said hellos and went into the restaurant.

The date

The moment we appeared through the door we were ushered over to our table and given a glass of champagne and sat down. The Theatre Producer was showing the right mix of surprise and excitement.

The owner came over. I introduced him to the Theatre Producer and he suggested a tasting menu of dishes which he would select wines for. We went with that.

Dishes started arriving. Each one would have a perfectly chosen wine to go with it. As in perfectly chosen. The wine would be explained with tasting notes so we had impressive things to say while trying it

‘Oh yes this one is very structured’

‘You can really taste the wine-yness of this one. By the red tone colour you can tell this is a red wine.”

‘The lack of tannins compliments the duck perfectly’

Guess which one was my phrase.

The evening rushed by, we ate potted duck, perfectly cooked steaks, salty greens, beautiful cheeses and everything was matched with the perfect drink and attentive service.

We talked about all sorts of things, exchanged stories and caught up, by the end of the meal we were holding hands across the table.

Some time later, and rather sozzled we finished off the meal with a glass of Tawny Port and stumbled off into the night.

Post restaurant

We ended back at my house, on the flimsiest of pretexts. This was unexpected so I had to make the Theatre Producer wait in the kitchen while I furiously cleared up some mess.

I didn’t do a terribly good job, but I don’t think she was really noticing. There was quite a lot of kissing going on. She kept falling over in her ridiculous heels, so I picked her up and carried her upstairs.

* fade to black *

The next day we woke up and I made us coffee. Even though it was decaf it was poncy decaf and the Theatre Producer approved. I fed her chocolate buttons for breakfast in bed and then made us both scrambled eggs.

With great regret we went to work. It had been an epic first date*

Marriage Percentage: 55% – This feels a bit low actually but I’m trying to remain level-headed over this.

*if it was the first date or not is a source of debate and mild ribbing.

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