3 Fun Restaurants to Take a Date in Provo

If there's one place in the world that should have a multitude of great date spots it's Provo, we all know that. Funny thing is there are a multitude of great date spots that go unnoticed, unloved. "Fun date ideas" is the most Googled phrase. All the while we sit in the same old restaurants—day after day. Do you like this girl? Do you want this guy to think you have good taste? Then it's time we learn to date better, Provo. And by date better I mean eat better, always.

Now I want you to find your eternal companion as asap as possible. So here's a list of fun date spots that are more interesting than Zupas:

El Gallo Giro

This is always my go to. El Gallo is a great little Mexican restaurant on University. Inside is very cantina chic and it smells AMAZING. But the best part is the patio with the garden lights. Girls love garden lights, it reminds them of weddings. 

Suggestions: Order something you can eat with a fork. Tacos or nachos are messy and when you eat with your hands you have to really invest into each bite. Stick with something like sopes or enchiladas. Get the horchata but, if the conversation seems good, don't drink too much until after you're done eating. That way the conversation can keep going after you're done without it being weird. Oh and if you order the guacamole they come to your table and make it! Super cute and HELLOOOOO guacamole. 

Hruska's Kolaches

If you take a date here they will be impressed. Everything's good, it's beautiful and the food tastes like heaven. Here's the catch: they're open from 6:30 until whenever they sell out around noon. So the time of this date sits somewhere between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. 

So here's your options: 

1. Meet for breakfast. I actually did this here, it was v chill and no pressure. We both had to go somewhere kind of early that morning so we planned to meet there for about a half hour, great idea.
2. Take a hike. Go on a fun morning hike but stop by Hruska's before and grab some kolaches to-go.
3. Morning date chill. If by chance you find a girl who is going to be up and ready to date that early in the morning without complaining a little—A) wow—and take advantage of it. Go eat first (always eat first) then explore the stores next door! There's like 3 pawn shops, morning girl will love those pawn shops.

La Dolce Vita

The best part about La Dolce Vita for a date is that it's quiet. It's usually not very busy and it's a great place for conversation. So if you're not sure how the vibes will be, maybe steer clear. There's not a lot of distractions to disrupt silent pauses. However, this is a great second date spot. First dates should be quick, painless. If you're going to keep her longer than an hour she should be fed accordingly. First dates test vibes. If you already know the vibe situation, feel free to skip to step 2. Second dates, are for longer conversation. If she lets you in again, there's a possibility she's interested but she's still testing the waters. Take her here to really see if things are good. If you really click, this is a fast track to date #3 that actually means something. (Pure Kayla doctrine, I'm usually right but I'm not so prideful that I will deny the possibility of exceptions.) But order soup not salad, the soup is better and eating salad looks weird when you're talking.

Hopefully these will get you to at least date three, where you should be fine on your own. Just call me Hitch and I accept checks.

Good luck,

Kayla

Hruska’s Kolaches

A couple weeks ago I ran into a bunch of haggard looking people wearing shirts with giant pears on them. My foodie senses started tingling and I had a hunch I should know what these tired, pear people were about. Turns out they work at a cute little Czech bakery on Center Street in Provo called Hruska’s Kolaches! They had just finished Kolache Fest 2015—you don’t know what that is right now but in a minute you’ll think a Kolache Fest sounds like the best thing to EVER HAPPEN ON THE PLANET.

Hruska (take a short breath in and say ruh-sh-kuh) means pear in Czech. The Hruska family opened Hruska’s to enlighten Provo on the topic of kolaches. Kolaches (cuh-la-cheese) are Czech pastries that some speculate may actually be the manna that God sent to the Israelites in the wilderness.

I’ve honestly been dying to try these. But because of my schedule (sleep schedule) and their hours (6:30 a.m. to sell out) I’ve been dying for a while now. However, a few days after I ran into the pear people, a friend told me I really need to try this bakery on Center and I took it as a sign and woke up early on a Saturday.

First off, it’s the cutest. And people LOVE it. It was hard to get a picture of the front without people walking in.

Everything is made fresh in-house everyday. They have both savory and more traditional open-faced sweet kolaches. There is a wide variety of kolaches including, but not limited to: blueberry, orange roll, cream cheese, strawberry, bacon and sausage, cilantro chicken, and I heard a rumor the brisket in their BBQ brisket kolache is braised in the oven for twelve hours before being lovingly buried in buttery dough and baked into BBQ perfection.

I ordered the bacon, egg, and jalepeño kolache and an orange roll. Served warm, in a brown paper bag so it’s adorable and adds to the whole ambiance. Don’t those kind of look like what you would imagine a Smurf would eat? It’s just tiny and perfect and nice.

Orange roll kolache experience: Imagine me looking at you sternly, my fingers are pressed together like ducks and near my face. This is the softest thing I’ve ever ate in my whole life. I do not understand how they made it so soft and dreamy. I don’t. I am unable to comprehend the softness of this pastry. Then on top of that—literally—there’s the cream cheese and orange goodness. So, yeah. I liked it. 

Bacon, egg, jalepeño kolache experience: This bread—if you can even call it that—is buttery and chewy and crusty and everything that it should be. I was highly impressed with the balance of egg to bacon to jalepeño as well. With jalepeño, often you find people either didn’t take a big enough risk or got a little carried away. But this had just enough to bring the tones of the jalepeño into the egg and bring a little spice to my life. 

Plus, I got to break it open like it was a gift and this was my sight.

It’s so pretty. I’m going tomorrow. 

Kayla