“30 year ago this was normal.”
Ha! 30 years ago this August I went out with the young lady who became my wife. She lived in Flatbush. We went out, on our first date, to Bernstein’s. (I didn’t live in NY, and that was the only place I knew.) It was a Monday night, so the place was empty. Afterwards we went over to South Street Seaport and sat and talked until some early hour of the morning. We were married the following June, and still B”H married 29+ years.
The moral of the story: there’s nothing wrong with going to a restaurant on the first date.