When is a bad date not terribly bad — just not good enough for a second date? We found out when Jenna and Russell, both 23, met at Brick Lane Curry House on the Upper East Side. Since they are both vegetarians, the restaurant provided plenty of food they could agree on — but find out why the duo soon realized they wanted to take their meals to go rather than stay there with each other.
He said:
When I first met Jenna, I knew she wasn’t going to be a good match. But I thought, we are already here, so let’s give it a shot.
Brick Lane was nice. The food was yummy, the service friendly and polite. I particularly enjoyed the lasuni gobi, which looked and tasted like a take on sesame chicken, except with cauliflower florets.
There was nothing in particular I didn’t like about Jenna — we just weren’t well-suited for each other.
Our compatibility was pretty much zero, but Jenna wasn’t awful or crazy. I’d compare the feeling to meeting a nice person on the grocery line and chatting them up — except we were inside a booth at an Indian restaurant, and we shared samosas. We split the leftovers and said goodbye at the subway.
She said:
I’d given some thought to what I was wearing, so when I noticed he wore a coat with holes in it over a Cookie Monster hoodie, points were negated. I guess I just prefer my dudes a little more put-together.
Once we moved to the table, we loosened up a bit. Russell doesn’t drink, but I wanted to try Brick Lane’s recommended tamarind margarita. It was good, but I felt off since I was the only one drinking. He also kept bringing up his exes, which was weird for a first date, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t see it going anywhere, anyway.
At the end of the night, we split the food to take home and came to the consensus that we are both nice people, just not compatible. We left the restaurant, walked to the subway together and parted ways.