Best/Worst Date ideas and experiences

[Taylor Caby]

With the "big day" approaching let's get a discussion of some of your best and worst experiences or ideas. This seems like a good time for some of the sophisticated guys to give us youngins some tips from the top.

tc

[AMT]

honestly, the best and most successful dates ive ever had were good movies in the basement. ship dark room/blanket/love seat combo

[adsman]

I invite them to my home where I cook them a splendid meal. Saves the hassle of trying to get them to "come upstairs" at the end of the night as they're already there.

Of course, you have to be able to cook.

[NLSoldier]

worst experience was probably having free passes to a special screening of some movie, and going to the wrong theater, and then finally going to the right theater only to find out the screening was cancelled.

one of the better ones ive done involved cooking for her and both getting all dressed up for it and then i think we went somewhere afterwards, the only problem was the setting kinda sucked bc it was in my college apartment/dorm thing.

[Alobar]

My tip for the youngins is that thought/effort >>>>>>>>> cost.

many men think the awesomeness of the date or gift is proportional to the amount of money spent on it. When the truth is if youve got a quality chick, the more thought/effort you put into it the more it means to her. Sometimes that means spending lots of money, but most of the time it doesnt. The hard part is that it means you actually have to pay attention to her and the things she says, and just cant wait till the last minute and throw something together by spending $$$ on it

Ive made girls cry on presents and dates because it was so wonderful (their words) and spent less than $10 doing it.

[citanul]

Taylor,

Chicago happens to have some amazingly great restaurants for V-Day options:

A great, fairly budget conscious option to start off with would be Cafe Spiaggia. Sharing the same kitchen as Spiaggia, the cafe serves amazing Italian food, and the best tiramisu I've had in North America.

To go higher-end, my first suggestion would probably be Spiaggia. Spiaggia features a higher-end dining room, larger menu, larger wine list, and I believe jackets are required. The views from the main dining room windows are also absolutely amazing.

For something different than Italian food, you should consider Tizi Melloul. A Moroccan restaurant with one of the best interiors of any restaurant in the city, the food is sexy.

If you're not looking to go downtown, Bistro Campagne serves great, bistro-style French food, in Lincoln Square. It's cozy and gives off the "small restaurant" feel. Honestly though, I like this place better when it's warm outside and they open their outdoor seating. Great beer selection here too.

Sola, on the northside, serves some really fun, again, sexy, food, but is possibly too loud for a good V-Day date. If you don't mind your restaurants bustling, this isn't a bad option at all.

If you're downtown for dinner and want to continue the evening, Pops for Champagne recently moved to a downtown location, and is a fun Jazz and Champagne bar.

A great, and little known secret of downtown dining is Tru's dessert-only option, which allows you to skip out on the 12 course dinner, and jump in on their menu for just the 5 course or so dessert by award winning dessert chef Gail Gand. (My gf's comment: "Oh, that's hot.") Not that going to Tru for a meal would be a bad thing, but the full menu at Tru will definitely leave you too full to do anything but nap after dinner.

Depending on how modern your food tastes and your ability to get reservations, alinea is clearly one of the star restaurants of chicago, and the whole feel of dining there is amazing.

Downtown, I'm also a pretty big fan of NoMI, but only if you can get a seat by the window.

Of course, depending on you and your date's tastes, one of the more frequent V-Day go-tos has become sushi. Heat, Sushi Wabi, and tons of others do high-end sushi very well, in a variety of atmospheres and locations.

In terms of non-dining, I find that non-roses work better than roses, and if you go early in the day to a good florist, you don't have to suffer through making a bouquet out of picked over remnants. Chicago is also a great chocolate city, with ethel'ses every 2 blocks and whatnot. While Godiva is certainly nice, I'd do something like Vosge, Ethel's, etc, I think are just nicer.

Of course a higher-work, lower-cost option is to prepare dinner at home. The reason this option can work, even for a novice cook, is that women love seared fish, and seared fish is insanely easy to prepare.

Anyway, hope that helps, and that you don't steal my reservations!

c

Oh, my worst Valentine's Day experiences have definitely centered around going places that suck: Bistro 110, Cheesecake Factory. Yuck. Also going out with a girl you're not really in to or isn't really in to you sucks too. I find that super-huge restaurants or venues of any type really just don't fly for me on Valentine's day. The smaller the place the more intimate of a feel to the whole date, I think.

[fish2plus2]

i think most people try too hard on the first date. they try to do something special/unique/amazing and then pretend to be the ideal lover.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

I like the amazingly similar back to back advice from Alobar and Citanul [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[aba20]

Best place I have taken dates is the comedy and magic club in Los Angeles. Jay Leno is there every Sunday night, so you show up like 2 hours early and can sit in the front row. Date starts with a nice dinner while watching old silent films and then leno comes on and does his routine and makes fun of everyone sitting in the front row. Also very inexpensive, if I remeber correctly drinks, dinner, and the show for two was just a bit over $100.

[gamblore99]

best date,
prepared a really nice meal at my house. I put in a ton of effort on everything, not just the meal. She really appreciated it and was a quality girl. It was our first date, and I think KaneKungfu may be right. I think she saw me as perfect and then was kind of disappointed when I wasn't.