While much is out of your control and best left up to fate, where you meet your date IRL is something you can control — and it’s super important. In our opinion, singles planning dates should avoid these situations at all costs.
The Hotspot
Not only are you likely to bump into someone you know at your city’s latest hotspot, which can be awkward AF on a first date, you’ll be preoccupied with the décor, menu and the crowd — instead of your date.
Stand-Up Comedy
Aside the fact that stand-up is something people either love or hate, how horrible would it be if your date gets targeted by the comedian? There are just too many variables, it’s too risky.
A Busy Brunch Spot on a Saturday
Most popular brunch spots are busy, loud, and complete with an inevitable lineup of hangry, hungover people. Once inside, you can look forward to pretending to hear half of what the other person is saying, and feeling rushed thanks to the server’s desire for a constant turnover of tables. Plus, if you see anyone you know, they will assume the two of you spent the night together.
Their Place
A suggestion of their place on a first date screams that they’re too lazy to put any effort into venturing out of their home (let alone their neighbourhood), or that they’re too cheap to drop a few dollars at an actual establishment. Of course, it also means that he or she is probably more interested in what’s in your pants as opposed to what’s in your mind.
A Movie
Even if the two of you bonded over your mutual love of romantic sci-fi films within moments of matching on Bumble, catching a movie on a first date is pretty much pointless. The whole idea of a first date is getting to know one another, which requires speaking – not staring at a screen in silence for two hours.
Cheap Drinks Nights at a Bar
If you’re going to opt for drinks, it’s far classier to kiss goodnight after three cocktails and good conversation than to get ripped and loose-lipped. Opting for $2 drink night at a dive bar sets the stage that you’ll need all the booze you can consume to get through the first date banter, or that you’ll both get so wasted that you won’t remember whether or not you had anything in common.
A Wedding
While there’s nothing particularly amazing about being the 9th wheel at a table full of couples at a wedding, there’s nothing potentially more disastrous than a bride and groom as a backdrop on a first date. All kinds of awkwardness can arise when you mix meeting the family prematurely, answering questions about your own status and a free-flowing bar.
A Cheap Chain Coffee Spot
If you’re going to go on a coffee date, choose a cool, quaint café and not Tim Hortons. You don’t have to be a seasoned coffee connoisseur, but opting for something so generic doesn’t exactly set the bar high in terms of your standards in the relationship. Not that we don’t love a solid double-double, but do you really want to tell your kids that your first date was at Tim Hortons?
A Long Drive
As romantic as the idea of a sweet little Sunday drive far from the city confines sounds in theory, it can also have the makings of one of the most awkward situations of your life if you find yourselves with nothing in common, nothing to talk about and with many kilometres to go before you reach your front door again. Let’s also not forget that countless horror movies take a tragic twist once the killer has the unsuspecting victim trapped in a car (hey, it’s a possibility).
If you avoid these places, you’re off to a positive start. As for the conversation, chemistry and compatibility, we can’t help you there.
Find more on first dates here:
Eight Tips for a Successful First Date
24 Thoughts on a First Date that Probably Means it’s Going Nowhere
11 of the Most Common First Date Traps