Blind Date: Whitney, Kevin and a magnum-sized bottle of wine at Foxcroft

The Blind Date series is proudly presented by Ruth’s Chris Steak House, the official sponsors of date night. 

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How does it work? Charlotteans fill out this 37-question Agenda Blind Date Survey about their make-or-breaks, their ideal types and their ideal dates. Then the Agenda plays matchmaker by sending couples out on blind dates. Below are the results.

Welcome to the Agenda’s Blind Date series.

This is the next installment of the multi-part series in which I match single Charlotteans of all ages. You can read about all of the dates here.

Applicants sent me a few details on things like their views on politics, religion and marriage and trusted me to send them on a true blind date.

Those selected don’t know anything about their date except the essentials – name, age and one thing that I thought would make them a good match. They don’t even get to see a picture.

After sifting through close to 1,000 applicants, I set aside several pairs and, based on their survey answers, set up a date I thought they’d enjoy.

Next up, Whitney, a 26-year-old in the non-profit world, and Kevin, a 25-year-old financial analyst.

I chose them because they enjoy watching the same Netflix shows, love the same things about Charlotte and like the same kind of traits in a date, and sent them on a food tour of Dilworth.

Here’s how it went.

How do you feel about the dating scene in Charlotte? And if you’re in it, how are you meeting people?

Whitney: I travel a lot for work, so for me, it can be really hard to be in town and keep things consistent. But I’m also from here, so it’s hard to find anyone that doesn’t know anyone I know. There’s always some sort of connection, like they know my cousin, or went to school with my best friend.

A lot of times, it’s organic. Friends of friends or at a concert or a Christmas party or something like that. I’m definitely on Bumble, but I maybe open the app once a month. I do not have a good relationship with my phone. I’m super bad at texting and things like that – I actually have to have my read receipts on so my friends know I’ve read it and I’m just not responding.

I feel like there are so many guys I see walking about outside at lunch, and they all look professional and cute and then something happens to them on the weekends. They, like, disappear. There’s no one cute, ever, out at the bars. I don’t know where they go, but that’s how I feel. I think Charlotte has potential, but maybe I’m just hanging out at the wrong places.

Kevin: I wouldn’t say I’m dating a ton. I’ve lived here right about a year now, and I probably haven’t jumped in to the dating scene as much as I would have liked. But I’m kind of feeling everything out. I’m dating a little, not a ton. I meet people organically but also use Bumble a little bit.

The dating scene is relatively comparable to Atlanta. There are a lot of young professionals, a lot of people under the age of 30. It’s good.

How did you feel leading up to the date? Were you ever nervous or hesitant, or was there ever a moment you had second thoughts about letting a total stranger send you on a date with another total stranger?

Whitney: I wasn’t really nervous because I was so excited to get it done and over, because it took a month to get here, plus I knew it would be a tour with multiple people. It wouldn’t be just, like, one-on-one for three hours. It was nice because even though everyone was in their own groups, we still had to talk at a table and walk together.

[After an e-mail snafu] My friends did try to stalk him before our date, but they couldn’t find anything – that made me nervous. It was like, what kind of person doesn’t have social media? Turns out, he just uses different names on the platforms.

When he said that he’d be wearing khakis and a button down, I thought that was so funny, because did he realize that he was describing every other guy in Charlotte? I stood outside for a while, knowing that what I was wearing was more visible, before deciding to go inside to the bar, where he already was, drinking. I was like, “Oh, this will be fun!”

Kevin: I was nervous, which I feel is only natural, you know, there was going to be this interview after the date, and I’d never been on a blind date before, so there were definitely going to be some nerve around that. But overall, not too nervous. I, you know, hoped it’d go well, and it went well.

What was your first impression?

Whitney: Once I saw him and he’d already had a beer and looked comfortable and immediately stood up and gave me a hug, I wasn’t any sort of nervous or worried anymore. It was a very good first impression.

He was so nice. I really like guys with manners, and he asked me to sit down and asked if I wanted anything to drink. He really seemed put together and cute.

Kevin: I thought she was cute and seemed super smart. She was funny. The second stop on the tour was a vegan restaurant, and we both kind of connected over some jokes about us not being vegans to any degree.

Did you guys get along? Was there chemistry?

Whitney: Because the chefs talked so much – like, at Fern, the chef talked the entire time we were eating – it was hard to get some one-on-one time with Kevin, but it was fun.

We definitely had chemistry, and we were on the same page with a lot of opinions about the different places and we were goofing off a lot. Like at the olive oil place (Pour), we went around choosing weird oils and balsamics to try, which was really funny, like a key lime balsamic and butter olive oil, just weird things. That was fun, and we were able to joke around and relax a bit without having to be with a group. When we were texting later, we included those jokes.

We talked about everything. I’m actually better at talking about myself than I am asking questions, but even my best friend, when I told her about it afterward, was like, “Oh my God, you know so much stuff about him!” So we were really able to connect on a really different level than I’ve had to in the past.

I don’t know if it was because it was a blind date and we felt obligated to talk about things like where we were from and our families or if it was just kind of natural for us. But I really like that were able to talk about that stuff, and I got a really good sense of him being really out there and a go-getter. He really wants his life to be, you know, moving forward. He’s ambitious.

And it was cute – I can tell he really loves his brother and really looks up to him. I could tell his values were really in line with mine, and we talked about that a lot.

Kevin: Definitely. We definitely had a good time and had the same perspective on the different restaurants and whatnot.

At each stop, the chef would come out and kind of do his little spiel, but then leave us alone, so we got to know each other then and while we were walking. She was very easy to talk to, I think we were kind of able to joke around with each other and we were relaxed around each other, so I would say there was.

Did you go out afterward, or go ahead and call it a night?

Whitney: We went back to Foxcroft. At the tasting, they’d given us a little thing of rosé, told them that we were there earlier and asked for a bottle of it. They told us that the regular bottle didn’t meet Foxcroft’s corking fee, but their magnum-sized bottle does. I was like, “Oh, for two people?” but Kevin immediately jumped in and was like, “Let’s do it! It’s just the two of us.” It was funny. He was totally up for the challenge and competitive, and I was like, “Okay, I’m in.” That was one of the funniest parts of the date, and I love that sort of attitude.

We hung out there for a while, definitely took our time drinking the bottle – we did finish it, but I think he took, like, twenty different pee breaks, so we joked about that.

I had friends in town asking if I wanted to meet up with them, and he was like, “Oh, is this your contingency plan if anything went wrong?” But they had just texted me, and I showed him my texts to show that it wasn’t my backup plan. And in that text, he could see me tell them, “He’s cute!” He called me on it, and I was just like, “Oh, God.”

We ended up going to Queen Park Social to meet up with some of my friends and we played each other in basketball. I would have won in the third game, but we only had $2 for each of us, so we could only play two games. But we’re talking about a rematch soon.

We ended up staying even later than 11.

Kevin: When we ended back up at Foxcroft, where we started, we decided to split a bottle of the rosé that they’d given us to try earlier in the tour. They have the regular-sized bottle, but they talked us into sharing the magnum-sized bottle, as they called it.

We went out afterwards. She had some friends at Queen Park Social, so we went out there, met up with them. It was actually my first time out there, and I’ve been wanting to go. We were there for maybe an hour and a half or so before we called an Uber and headed back to my place, where we hung out for a little bit, and then she called an Uber back to her place.

How did you leave it?

Whitney: We watched the eclipse together. Shortest second date in history. We actually have our third planned, and are going to meet up before we both go out of town this weekend, and we’ve texted here and there.

Kevin: We exchanged numbers, and have kind of texted frequently since then. I actually didn’t have eclipse glasses, but she said she had a pair, so we met up in the park next to my office building on Monday, and I was able to use those to watch the eclipse. It was good.

We’re planning to grab drinks tomorrow after work.

What rating would you give the date? Let’s do it on a one to five scale.

Whitney: I think us on the date, I’d give it a five.

Kevin: I’d give it a five. I enjoyed the date, I enjoyed spending time with Whitney a lot.

Update: Though Whitney and Kevin did hang out a few times after their third date, they eventually stopped seeing each other.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.