Joey, a 35-year-old musician, brought a whole new meaning to double date when he had two friends join him and Nicki during dinner at National Underground, the Lower East Side bar and grill he owns with his brother, singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. While he was impressed by the 25-year-old digital strategist’s outgoing nature, and she didn’t mind talking to his buddies at the bar, there was no room for romance in this friendly foursome.
He said:
When I first saw Nicki, I recognized her immediately. She looked just the same as she did in her picture — very cute. I have a thing for redheads, so I really liked her hair and her freckles.
Nicki was really outgoing right off the bat. She was able to talk to everyone in the bar, which made conversation easy. In fact, since I just got back from touring in Europe — opening for my brother Gavin’s band — and I hadn’t been to the bar in a while, a lot of friends came by to say hi. Nicki was really great about talking with them, even if they did take away from our one-on-one conversation.
After dinner, I took Nicki for a ride on my motorcycle, and she screamed like a little girl! It was hilarious, and we had a really great time. The date ended very casually at the end of our ride. I had a blast and thought Nicki was fun and extremely nice, but I think we connected most on a friend level.
She said:
When I first met Joey, he seemed laid back and I liked his rocker style. We started chatting and I realized that we didn’t have much in common, but as the night (and drinks) progressed, we did manage to share some good conversation.
However, we didn’t get to talk too much, since Joey spent most of the night taking care of tasks for the bar and mingling. It was good that his friends came because I had someone to talk to when Joey wasn’t there. That’s right — Joey’s friends accompanied us throughout the whole night! While he was off doing whatever with whom- ever, his two older friends Jimmy and Kenny kept me company. Usually, I love walking into a bar and meeting a bunch of people. But on this night I was expecting a date, and Joey did not meet those expectations.
I wouldn’t go on a date with Joey again, but if I ran into him, I would share a drink in the hopes that Jimmy and Kenny would soon turn up.