Love was in the air over in Udny on Valentines night with Eat on the Green showcasing their very own take on the hit TV show ‘First Dates’.
The Facebook campaign to find the participants was launched at the popular ladies’ day event on February 4, it invited people to nominate themselves or singleton friends for a night of 5 star dining with the hope of finding some romance.
The Eat on the Green team received an absolutely overwhelming response – almost 100 emails – all that left was to choose who would make the cut. After close inspection of the potential candidates, Craig donned his Cupid’s bow and selected 3 couples as the lucky ones who would dine in the hope of finding love.
Valentines night came and the romantic ambience surrounded the restaurant, awaiting the arrival of the potential lovers; two people, one table, anything could happen.
First to arrive was Angie Shearer, 32, a teacher from Huntly. As she was taken through to the bar to enjoy a glass of a fizz to calm the nerves, her ‘date’ James Olley, 28, a personal trainer from Aberdeen arrived. After the date Angie said, “I was nervous to start but James was really nice and we managed to yap away throughout the meal – the food was amazing! We have swapped numbers so we’ll see what happens”.
Next couple to be matched were Neil Thomson, 29, Engineer from Aberdeen and Suzanne Duncan, 28 from Huntly. Speaking about nominating himself Neil said “I always wanted to come to ‘Eat on the Green’ but have never had the chance to come until now so I thought ‘why not?’".
When asked about his date Neil said, “I really enjoyed the night, Suzanne was absolutely lovely”. Their chat seemed to be flowing throughout the night and a few ‘selfies’ were spotted being taken in the bar afterwards…could romance be in the cards?
Lastly, after hearing her on the radio about her plight at being a singleton on Valentines Day, Craig invited Lauren from Northsound 1’s breakfast show along to the restaurant to experience her very own first date. Her fellow breakfast show presenters, Jeff and Pete, along with a helping hand from North-east public selected her date for the evening, Daniel. They kicked off the night with a bottle of wine and the chat flowed throughout the four course meal.
Afterwards, in the spirit of the TV show, they were both taken separately to the members only Champagne Lounge overlooking the intimate garden area at the back of the restaurant and were asked to give their verdict on how the night had went; with the most important questions being asked, “will you be seeing each other again?”. With nervous laughter, Daniel confidently said that they would keep in touch and see where things go.
Speaking about the event owner, Craig Wilson, said that “we were absolutely amazed with the level of entries we received, it has most definitely given us food for thought and we will maybe look at doing some networking or date nights later in the year”.
Who knows, maybe Eat on the Green will be welcoming one of these couples back for their first anniversary meal next February!