Caleb works in property management, has lived in the area all his life, and is looking “for someone to hang out with, in a romantic sense.” We set him up with Jackie Gitlin, 26, a teacher at a private school in Alexandria.

Pre-date, Caleb said, “I did a lot of freaking out. I’d never done a blind date before.” But he selected what he believes was a “super snazzy” outfit: a new, brown and black turtleneck sweater with a snowflake pattern that sort of looks like X’s and O’s (subtle but encouraging re: romance) and black jeans “that almost look like slacks.” He also “threw on Sauvage by Dior and made sure my hair was nice and styled.”

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The day of the date, Jackie was nervous, too. Having grown up near Damascus, Md., it did not escape her that “my mother reads this!”

Jackie had turned to Date Lab because she is “really tired of dating apps.” “It’s a lot of effort for very little outcome,” she told me. “Talking to seven people at once with very shallow small talk — it’s a lot.” Her last serious relationship ended 2½ years (and two more exes) ago: After a year together, “he totally ghosted.”

Pre-date, she changed her outfit “three or four times” in search of the perfect “cute, but still warm” look for a 35-degree night. She ended up with black leggings, boots, a pencil skirt, a floral top and a black sweater.

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Caleb arrived at Vintage 78, a Persian/Iranian restaurant near Dupont Circle, half an hour early, so he could have a Maker’s Mark and Coke before his date showed up and “let the courage juice do its work.”

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When Jackie walked in, she spotted Caleb at the bar right away and realized he was so tall she could’ve worn heels. Caleb watched as she “walked in, all smiles” and was immensely relieved by getting past the how-do-we-greet-each-other hurdle (they hugged). “I thought she was really cute,” he said.

They stayed at the bar and talked for so long that a waiter had to flag them down to tell them their table was ready. They realized that they had grown up near each other and that they had a shared passion: “We’re both cinephiles,” Caleb said.

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“He said ‘Jurassic Park’ is his absolute number one favorite movie, and I thought, okay, if this person can appreciate ‘Jurassic Park,’ we can hang,” she said later. “My favorite is ‘Casablanca,’ which he’d never seen. All my favorites were movies he hadn’t seen but were on his list.”

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Caleb said as soon as they started talking about films, “that’s where I felt a connection because I don’t really have many people I can talk to about movies [on that] deeper level: the production, the development of film.” A commercial for Sam Mendes’s new picture “1917” came on a TV at the bar, he recalled, and Jackie mentioned that she was going to take her students on a field trip to see it. “And I was like, you’re such a cool teacher to take your kids to a movie!”

Jackie appreciated that Caleb thought “really critically about the kind of media he consumes and had a sense of humor about it, too.” The conversation, she went on, “felt very natural. Things would just pop up and topics could change wildly, but it didn’t feel awkward, and it didn’t feel like we were forcing anything.”

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Over dinner — grilled grape leaves as an appetizer, fesenjoon (a lamb meatball) for her and qaymeh (lamb stew) for him — their discussion touched on films, books, history, travel and YouTube. “There was a lot of laughing,” Caleb said, and his one concern is “that I didn’t talk enough. I don’t know if she’ll feel the same way.” Jackie, for her part, worried that perhaps she “rambled” a bit.

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Jackie said later: “If I can’t have a conversation with someone, I cannot find them attractive. So I looked at my watch and we had been talking for a solid two hours and I didn’t even notice any time passed — this could be a thing!”

They exchanged numbers, hugged good night and texted each other when they got home. “Yes, I would like to ask her out again,” Caleb said, though he wasn’t sure if it was too soon to do so. (It is not! If you want to ask someone out, do it right now. Climate change could kill us all tomorrow; tell people you like them today!)

As for Jackie: “It was really fun and I’d absolutely see him again.”

Rate the date

Caleb: 5 [out of 5].

Jackie: 4.

Update

They’ve been texting, but no concrete plans … yet.