Valentine's Day can be a tough time if you're single. Everyone is posting their cringeworthy 'boy done good' photos and it's impossible to get a reservation at a restaurant. However, there are opportunities to be had, as one guy demonstrated this year.
Stephen Bosner, a brave Maryland LAD, decided to use people's sympathy for his solitude to his advantage and managed to get some free steak out of it. Sounds like a win to me. Well, sort of.
If you're still confused, he basically booked himself a table for two on Valentine's Day, pretended to be stood up by his non-existent date, then blagged himself a free feed out of it at an Outback Steakhouse restaurant.
What makes this an even more ballsy move is that he live tweeted the whole affair from start to finish.
His first tweet set the stall out. Bosner wondered: "If I went to Outback Steakhouse by myself tonight and asked for a table for 2, then got progressively sadder as the night went on alone, do you think they'd give me my steak for free?"
The gauntlet was thrown down.
He then shared a picture of himself at the restaurant, adding: "In case you were wondering whether I'm taking this seriously...y'all. I wore a suit jacket."
After arrival at the restaurant, he was told there was a wait. That represented an opportunity to sow the seeds of the plan.
He responded: "Oh that's okay, this works perfectly - she said she was running a bit late anyway."
Bosner furthered the ruse by ordering his 'date' a glass of Chardonnay. Clever bastard.
He then proceeded to sit on his own and eat his way through two loaves of bread. He didn't fill up, mind. There was free steak in the offing.
As the evening wore on, he needed to order before the kitchen closed. Dramatically chugging his date's wine so that the server could see, he ordered his steak.
The point of no return had been reached.
To sell the whole project, he then recorded a fake voicemail to his date - who he had arranged a name, Katherine, and a backstory for - checking that nothing bad had happened to her.
He explained: "Katherine is a consultant at Deloitte. She lives in Arlington, that's why I chose this spot. We met at the grocery store. We both went for the same bag of shredded cheese. She seemed so excited for our Valentine's Day date."
Eventually, after more than a little bit of weeping (no, really) and some further antics, a couple paid for his steak! Was it really worth it? Who knows? Did he get a free meal out of it? Eventually.
Bosner added: "UPDATE: a couple at the bar paid for my meal for me.
"This mission?
"SUCCESSFUL."
Successful is a bit of a strong word for it. Sure, he got his free steak, but at what cost?
Anyway, so as not to be simply a prick who cheated some impressionable couple out of their cash, he then donated $50 (roughly the price of a meal in that restaurant) to charity.
Inevitably - given that the whole thing was published on Twitter - word eventually filtered back to Outback Steakhouse. Amazingly, they took it well and offered him another free meal!
The restaurant tweeted: "How about you bring in a real date and the meal's on us? The love connection is up to you though. Send us a DM so we can make it happen."
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The real quest begins now. He's got to find an actual date.
Topics: Food, Funny, Interesting, Food And Drink, US News
