We sent two Melburnians on a date to CBD pizza and cocktail bar Trinket to see if sparks flew
IDEAL DATE
Michelle: If I could go on a date with somebody doing something like city tours, seeing the hidden laneways of Melbourne and learning new things while having a conversation with someone, that would be great.
Eliza: Last night was actually pretty good, somewhere you could sit and have a good conversation with some whimsy and adventure thrown in.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Michelle: Really good. We all came out front, and she was quite reserved. My big thing, being a radio show host [Michelle hosts a show on JoyFM called Trans POV], is to ask things you don’t generally ask on a first date. Things like pet peeves, not like ‘what do you do for work?
Eliza: She was very talkative, lots of personality. Very warm and friendly. Very tall.
CHEMISTRY
Michelle: I think I kinda felt it. She was playing with her hair a bit, tapping her leg. She gave me her number when she left. We both haven’t been dating anyone in a while, so it’s hard to pick up on those cues.
Eliza: It wasn’t sparks flying, but I felt like we had a lot to talk about and a lot of common interests and a lot of similar opinions on things, so the conversation flowed really well.
AWKWARD MOMENT
Michelle: The start was a bit awkward. She was talking about going away to the UK and Ireland. She said, ‘I want to go there and move there and live there’, and I was like, ‘oh OK, that’s pretty much the end of this potential relationship’. I’m a parent of two kids, nine and 13. Immediately she was like, ‘I don’t like kids’ and I was like, ‘fuck, this is going horribly!’ But then we went downstairs and I looked at my watch and it was 8.30, then I looked at it and it was 11.50. The conversation got a lot deeper and better.
Eliza: There were a couple of moments where we’d finished talking about a topic and then there was a beat, and then we found something else to talk about. We were both very good at finding things to talk about.
AFTERWARD
Michelle: She gave me her number. She goes, ‘I guess we should exchange numbers,’ she walked to the train and I walked to my car.
Eliza: We stayed at the venue until they told us that they were serving last drinks. We spent the first half having a couple of drinks upstairs, then went down to the cute little basement bar. We realised it was 11.30, so we went our separate ways after that. We did exchange digits and might chat another time.
SECOND DATE?
Michelle: I’d like to give it a go. She’s going off to the UK for a while and she doesn’t know if Melbourne is her forever home. But I found her mentally stimulating and physically attractive. There seemed like a few barriers there, but I’d be open to it.
Eliza: I don’t think a date, but I think friendship. She’s a lovely person, but I don’t think it’s a second date.
THE VERDICT
Michelle: ♥♥♥♥ Great night, great venue. It was nice to have more of a traditional date. Life directions could be a barrier or challenge, but apart from that I could see it being good to catch up regularly
Eliza: ♥♥♥ It was a really lovely night. It was a new experience, it was an enjoyable conversation.
THE DATE SPOT - Trinket
Michelle: Completely blown away. The drinks were amazing. Their tasting platter was delicious, and we had pizza, which was really nice. I loved the secret door, I loved the vibe. The staff were really fantastic. As a trans woman, having staff come over and say, ‘hey ladies, how are we doing tonight?’ – that means a lot that they are educated in that way and so open and friendly.
Eliza: You step into the wardrobe [and down into the secret basement bar], It was amazing. It was cute and the decor was adorable, the music downstairs was old-school prohibition era jazz standards, and it was so cute. The drinks were amazing. The Espresso Martinis were our favourite, we had two of them each. We had a pizza and a sharing plate, and both of them were quite tasty. The drinks were definitely the best part.
Find more great places to go for a first date in Melbourne.
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Trinket, 87 Flinders Ln, Melbourne 3000. 03 9810 0044. Trinket does bottomless pizza and cocktails every Saturday and Sunday from 12.30-2.30pm. Opening hours: Mon-Thu noon-late; Fri-Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-11pm.