San Francisco Entrepreneur Completes 'Bachelorette' Tokyo Dinner Date Contest; Has Plans For Other Finalists
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A San Francisco entrepreneur who secured a highly-coveted reservation to an exclusive restaurant in Japan has pulled off her much-publicized online 'Bachelorette'-style contest to find a dinner date - and now has additional plans for those applicants who didn't make the cut.
Stephanie Robesky had a reservation for two at Denmark-based Noma Restaurant's temporary locale at Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The restaurant is a four-time winner of "Best Restaurant in the World' by Restaurant Magazine.
On her NerdGirl blog, she offered to treat an eligible bachelor to the Noma dinner to celebrate her 39th birthday, as long as they paid their own flight to Tokyo and separate lodging.
The contest generated much publicity. According to Robesky, hundreds of men applied to be her dinner date - and she had coffee with a handful of finalists before settling on her man.
Robesky told CBS News she and her date (who prefers to remain out of the public eye) toasted her birthday at Noma Tokyo on Wednesday, an experience she called unbelievable and romantic.
"I felt like I was going to the prom. I was joking with the date that I felt like I should go get him a boutonniere," Robesky told CBS News. "At some times I was thinking my companion was out-shining the food. I was dazzled by everything."
Robesky said her date paid extra to change his flight so that the two could travel back to San Francisco together. "I think there's going to be a second date, and maybe a third date, and maybe more than that," Robesky said.
Robesky also plans to be in touch with some of the bachelors who were not chosen for her adventure, at the urging of some of her friends. "All of my single girlfriends have been hitting me up and have been saying, 'What are you doing with this list? This is a gold mine!' and so a friend of mine and I are going to go through the list and email some of the guys, invite them and some single ladies, of a like mind, to a dinner party and just see what a happens," Robesky said.
