She was excited about being set up because, she explained, “when people are doing it themselves they tend to be too critical and not entirely honest with themselves about what they want or who is a good match for them.”

Enter Jeff Martin: a 24-year-old reporter who is also sick of the app life and wants a date that’s not “based on swiping right or left.” Jeff says that he doesn’t “live on social media” and complains that when he goes out with someone who is two years younger than he is, “I’m on the date with them and their phone.” He is looking for a gal who’s funny and intelligent. “I dated a girl in college who I had to explain what the Senate was — that was bad.”

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One more thing: Jeff covers the Pentagon — so perhaps he’s not someone Samantha would be drawn to on paper, but she did want to have someone else match her, right?

We sent the pair to the Smith, a lively American brasserie in Penn Quarter. Jeff’s first impression: “‘Wow, she’s really cute! Very beautiful. On a blind date you never know, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s here to go on a date with me?! Holy crap!’ ”

Samantha was “nervous all day” because “it’s scary not being able to Google someone.” But upon meeting Jeff, she said she “was immediately able to relax and breathe a sigh of relief.”

Over appetizers of spicy meatballs and crab tots and drinks — a Manhattan for him and a mescal cocktail for her — Jeff said they had “an intense discussion [about] what song was best from the ‘Mamma Mia!’ movies.”

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Samantha said, “After seeing ‘Mamma Mia! 2,’ I had a religious experience,” and she was pleasantly surprised that Jeff was into it. “I think it’s cool that he is into things that are a little campy. I appreciate that he doesn’t take himself too seriously.”

As they shared mains of mussels and ricotta gnocchi, Samantha grilled him on his life as a reporter and wanted to know all about how to cultivate a source. “I love to psychoanalyze people,” she told me.

Jeff was happy to oblige by “peeling back the curtain” and divulging a few “trade secrets.” He told me he joked with her, “It’s not like we meet our sources in a deserted Metro station and push them in front of the tracks.”

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As they had more cocktails and moved on to dessert, Jeff said, they talked easily about their families, travels and the places they love to go to in Washington. Samantha said they frequent the same bars, are both close to their families and had similar views on life. “Personality-wise we got along well,” she told me.

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Samantha said they also talked about how apps are “the gamification of dating” and how they both hated them. “It feels like a performance,” she noted. But she didn’t feel that way on her date with Jeff: “I felt like this date was a shared ad­ven­ture … something to bond over.”

Jeff appreciated that she was “very mature.” “It was the first time in a while that I’ve been out with someone more than six months older than me,” he said. “She didn’t look like she was 27. She looks like she’s my age!” (I reminded him that three years isn’t much of an age difference, but maybe my 40-something eyesight can’t detect the difference between 24 and 27.)

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At 9:30, dinner was wrapping up. Jeff told me that he felt the date had more of a “friend” vibe but wasn’t sure, so he decided to “get out of the fishbowl” of the Date Lab experience and asked if she’d like to have a drink nearby at Rocket Bar. “I was hesitant, but he was persuasive,” Samantha said.

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They drank a round of beer, chatted about their mutual love of sports, and about 10:30 they called it quits. Jeff said that when he asked for her number, she asked him to put his number in her phone and said she would text him. They hugged and went their separate ways.

Later that evening he got a text that said she would love to hang out again, but “ ‘in the spirit of friendship.’ This wasn’t a blowoff. This was very genuine,” he told me.

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In the end, Samantha said, it is hard for her “to bond with someone in a deeper way if politics is a central part of their life.” She wonders if D.C. is the right place for her to meet her match, but she certainly hopes so “because I just bought a place and I’m going to be here a while.”

Rate the date

Jeff: 4.5 [out of 5]. “There wasn’t a spark, but we definitely had a good time.”

Samantha: 4. “I had a great night. I just don’t see it progressing romantically.”

Update