About the daters ...

Your type ...

Andrew: Skinny and short, tattoos are great, a little kinky.

Andrea: I like dark hair, slightly muscular build, tattoos and piercings. Guys that maybe used to be really into punk rock but have grown out of it and now wear a button-down shirt.

Your idea of funny ...

Andrew: Vulgar, offensive, weird, cynical, subversive. (Think the movie
“In the Loop” or the shows “Party Down” and “Wonder Showzen.”) But I love the shows “Community” and “Parks and Recreation,” too, which are none of the above, so it’s all good.

Andrea: Dry, sarcastic humor. Stephen Colbert or “Arrested Development.”

Worst date ever ...

Andrew: Dinner at Busboys and Poets.
I got kind of drunk and went on a rant about my hatred of the elderly (I don’t actually hate them that much), and when I was done, she revealed that her favorite person, the absolute light of her life, was her dear old grandmother. Pretty awkward.

Andrea: A blind date where the guy was significantly shorter than me. Every topic I brought up, he informed me he “didn’t do that.” Even basic things like riding the Metro and going out at night. I knew we couldn’t stand each other within five minutes, but we were already seated at a restaurant, and there was no escape.

Deal-breakers ...

Andrew: Overweight, conservative/libertarian, serious about their religion.

Andrea: Voted for Bush. Extremely religious. Inactive. Describes themselves as “clean-cut and laid-back.”

About the date ...

7:30 p.m., Levante’s, Dupont Circle

Andrea: I was pretty nervous. I know a lot of Andrews in D.C. and was worried I might already know him; luckily, I’d never met him. I got there a little earlier. I had just ordered wine when he showed up.

Andrew:I wasn’t really nervous. The main thing was that I didn’t know what to wear. I don’t really go out to dinner to nice restaurants much, so I don’t have dressy clothes. So, I just wore what I always wear — jeans and a plaid shirt with dressier shoes. And I was so glad that she dressed to be comfortable, too. We agreed that we aren’t super into getting all dressed up.

Andrea: He was definitely my type. He was taller than me, looked to be in decent shape and had an attractive smile. From reading other Date Labs, it seems that everyone gets so dressed up, and I really don’t have dressy dresses or clothes for dates; that’s not my style. He just looked comfortable, like me. And he had tattoos, which we both like.

Andrew: She was really cute, pretty [and] had on stylish glasses. I was pleased. She’s someone I definitely would have talked to in a bar. In fact, it’s kind of funny that we haven’t already talked to one another in a bar, because we frequent the same types of places. She works in a bar I used to go all the time before I moved away from that neighborhood, so I’m surprised I never saw her.

Andrea: Both of us had changed jobs since we applied [to Date Lab], and now both of us work in the service industry. So, we had fun talking about how crazy that can be. It was a really weird coincidence since neither of us had put that on our questionnaires.

Andrew: We started out talking about the whole Date Lab scene and all the little things the [online] commenters pick apart and get riled up about. I am excited to see how I am going to get ripped apart in the comments.