If it ain't broke

Just... just... how?

How is a "broke" recent college grad prepared to go on $50-a-person dinner dates? Doubly bizarre if the Young Person in question intends to pay for self and date alike.

How could the NYT food critic - someone charged with knowing more than the average person about dining out in NYC - say that no "date" restaurant in this price range exists?* I get that not everyone considers Thai food off a tray in Chelsea Market hot-date material (the food is hot...), but the sub-$50-a-person options are endless. (That, or I'm naive about restaurant alcohol consumption of non-grad-students, and this $50 is meant to include pre- and post-dinner drinks, along with at least one bottle of wine with the meal.) A good place to start would be Celeste uptown and Bianca downtown - basically the same Italian restaurant, where unless your date orders three different pasta entrees (not a bad idea if you order the ravioli with sage and butter sauce - delicious but the portion's tiny!), you're in the clear.

*Preempting the obvious: Sifton may have been trying to make a cutesy remark about how sometimes drinks are a better idea than dinner for a date, not to say that literally no such restaurant exists. But the remark - "With the budget you are presenting" - suggests he really does think it's not worth the bother of eating in a restaurant where the total bill for two is under $100. Which is something between aloof and absurd.