Blind dates and starting a trend

What’s a new girl in town to do but go on a blind date with another new(ish) girl?              

Saturday night I had my first “girls night” at a wine bar called Press Club, just steps from my apartment.  I was there to meet a lovely girl named Lawrie, who I had never met in person before.  Apparently Lawrie and I both attended the wedding of our mutual friend Lindsay about a year-and-a-half ago in Orlando, but we didn’t meet.  Lindsay kindly linked us up via Facebook after we both moved here, and several weeks later we finally made a date to get together.

What I’ve found when moving to a brand new city is you have to put yourself out there.  Friends don’t just come to you; get to know you and all of a sudden you have a great big group of trustworthy people around that “get you.”  It takes work to meet people, learn about them and create a relationship.  So you just have to enjoy the ride of getting to know new people.

I definitely enjoyed meeting Lawrie and the other girl, Sarah, who accompanied her.  It certainly didn’t feel like we were starting from scratch, since we know some of the same people, are the same age, and have both just gone through a cross-country transition from Florida to California.

We talked about getting together again — perhaps on a double date with our male counterparts — and maybe even venturing outside the City some time.

It may have been a blind date, but it didn’t have even a hint of awkward.

It was a two date kind of Saturday night for me.  I followed my wine date up with a late dinner with Dave after he made it home from the Warriors game.  Continuing on our quest to visit all 3,500 restaurants in San Francisco, we tried out Urban Tavern in the Union Square neighborhood, which is a restaurant connected to the Hilton.  It was a trendy setting, and we chose to sit in the lounge on the bench seating with low tables.  It’s always a safe choice to sit near the bar when dining late, because you can sit back on the pillows, watch the TV and get a bit more comfortable than at the table seating in the dining area.

We’ve had so many different and amazing meals thus far in the City, but I can honestly say this was my favorite.  I tried two new things at this restaurant: albarino wine (which is a blend of whites) and venison tartare (sorry vegetarians).  Both are items I’d order again.  I can’t quite explain the venison tartare, but it was delicious.  We also had shrimp cocktail (my favorite appetizer), an interesting salad and a 14-layer molten chocolate cake.

After the cake arrived at our table and we were digging in, our waitress came back over and said several other tables saw us eating it and then ordered it themselves.

Love to start a food trend in a trendy food establishment!