Date Lab

A bar-hopping social butterfly craves a male version of herself. But will he prove too flighty?

7 p.m. | Rasika | Penn Quarter

Ishu: I got there 20 minutes early, ordered a drink and started texting my friends, "This is nerve-racking!" and, "Why did I come so early?" He got there on time. I'm typically not attracted to Indian men. My type is the all-American blond guy -- the ex-frat boy type. But I saw him and thought, "He's cute."

Ram: I'm half-Filipino, and most of the girls I've dated have been Filipino. I have Indian girls as friends, and most of them are a little snobby, maybe a little cocky, so it crossed my mind that she could be that way.

Ishu: The first thing he did was hand me a gift. He had just gotten back from Estonia, so he brought me a little candle, which was very sweet. I was nervous, so the first thing I said was, "So what do you do?" which is such a typical D.C. question. I don't think he wanted to talk about work.

Ram: She definitely had her game face on. I kind of felt like she was trying to interview me. But I sensed that she had a big personality that she was holding back.

Ishu: We ordered appetizers and two entrees, which we split.

Ram: Mostly we drank rounds of red wine. We were like, "Keep 'em coming." She didn't ask me anything personal. I didn't ask her. I just got out of a six-year relationship and didn't want to talk about it. That's a dating no-no, to talk about the ex-girlfriend. [Plus,] I'm not looking for a soul mate. Right now, I just want to party and have fun. Why spoil it by taking things so seriously?

Ishu: We talked about growing up in the D.C. area, traveling, his family, my family -- just random stuff. We were having a good conversation, but I still wasn't 100 percent sure whether he liked me or not. So I asked him if he wanted to go somewhere else. We walked to [the Irish pub] Fadó. I was a lot more comfortable with him [there].

Ram: She did open up more. She told me how she was considered a rebel in her family. I started blabbing about what a bad student I was in college. How I graduated with a 2.3 GPA! We were starting to slur some words there after a while.

Ishu: We had three more beers -- each. After [a bit], I saw that everyone at the bar was starting to leave. I looked at my clock and it was 12:30.

Ram: We hugged and exchanged e-mail addresses. I'd give the date a 4. I give 5's to the dates where you wake up the next morning and say, "You want breakfast in bed?" But 4 is a lot of fun. I think we'll hang out again -- but it's really more based on our schedules.

Ishu: I never give out perfect scores. Nothing's perfect, right? [But] I'd like to go on another date with him. I'd give the date a 4. It was definitely the best blind date I've been on.

Interviews by Jill Hudson Neal

>>UPDATE: So far, Ishu says, no contact. As for Ram, he just moved his last things out of his ex's.

>>DATE LAB IS LOOKING FOR HOMEPROUD HANDYMEN -- and othersingles willing to get set up.