"April 3, 2005 -- MEET Market moved into the show-biz circle last week, when our eligible bachelor was none other than 19-year-old Carmine Gotti Agnello, he of “Growing Up Gotti” reality-TV fame.
After we had narrowed down the selections from the many (over 130) entries we received, Carmine ended up choosing Gina, a lovely 20- year-old Long Islander who is studying sports broadcasting. When she’s not at school, she works full-time at a tanning salon. Busy girl!
We sent Carmine and Gina to a stylish Italian restaurant, Vento, in the Meatpacking District. Head chef Michael White gave our lucky couple a guided tour of the kitchen and a cooking lesson before they sat down for a romantic dinner for two.
Originally, the date had been scheduled for last weekend, but Carmine called us a few hours before he was due to show up at the restaurant to say he couldn’t make it because he was on vacation in the Bahamas.
Well, no lady likes to be let down at short notice — but how did Gina get along with Carmine when we finally hooked the couple up? Read on to find out.
She said:
A car picked me up from Long Island and I got to the restaurant at about 7:20 p.m. I thought that would give Carmine plenty of time to get there, but he actually didn’t get there until after 8 p.m. That was annoying. I don’t like to wait for people, and it definitely wasn’t a good first impression — especially given that he had canceled the first date a few days before.
It was a bad way to start the date.
I think Carmine is sexy and funny on the show, but I also had the impression he was quite quiet. But when he finally arrived — and once we started talking — he was not quiet as I thought he was. Within two minutes, we started talking about a whole bunch of stuff, everything from the Yankees to cars.
I didn’t even bring up the show, “Growing Up Gotti.” It just didn’t fit with the other topics we were already discussing. I wasn’t really interested in it, and I didn’t want to seem all star-struck. I’m not really like that.
My view was, “He is just a person, like everyone else.” I guess that helped. Maybe he expected me to be, like, “Oh my God!” but I wasn’t. I treated him like a normal person. I really had no expectations whatsoever. I was curious to learn about what kind of guy he was behind the cameras.
I didn’t really ask him about his family, either.
We chatted about stuff, like what we like to do on the weekends, and it seemed that we like to do the same kind of stuff; just hang out with our friends and do whatever is going on. We talked about our cars and I told him I was a sports major. He said he had never met a girl who was majoring in sports, and he thought that was pretty cool.
The conversation was easy, because Carmine is a nice guy. He’s laid back, chill and funny as well, and we have a lot of similar interests. We are both into the same music, hip-hop, and he had some funny stories to tell as well. I discovered that Carmine is just a regular 19-year-old guy who likes to hang out with his friends, joke around and laugh.
We also talked about which Yankees we like the best — Carmine is a big fan of A-Rod, and I like him, too.
The date was great and I had a lot of fun; the food was good, the service was very nice and I thought Carmine was a great guy. We definitely had a good time — but he didn’t give me his number at the end.
Rating:♥♥♥
He said:
I was late because I had something to do for school. When I first walked into Vento and saw Gina, I thought she was going to be very shy.
In fact, she turned out to be just the opposite — not boring at all. She was very talkative, and lots of fun to have dinner with.
Since the show has been on air, I do get quite a lot of girls saying hello to me. They just come over whenever I go out, which I guess is nothing to complain about.
I usually go for smart, attractive girls with a good personality. I don’t really have a type. I like all kinds of types of girls — blondes, brunettes. Gina definitely looked really nice. She was very well-dressed and very attractive.
The chef showed us around the kitchen, and he showed us how he was making the macaroni with spinach in it. That was cool to see. I really like Italian food a lot, so I thought that was interesting. But it was really hot in the kitchen!
We sat down to eat dinner, and I felt like I was with any of my other friends. Gina was talkative, not shy at all, and the conversation was good. We chatted about the Yankees,cars, sports and clubs.
We talked a lot about how we were excited for opening day. I have been a Yankees fan all my life,and I go to games at least a couple of times a month. I first got interested in baseball through my grandfather. It’s unusual to find girl who likes sports and knows so much about them, so that gave us something to talk about.
We were able to relax over dinner and the whole date went really well. It just wasn’t awkward at all. I had never been on a blind date before; I just never came across the opportunity before. It wasn’t bad at all. Would I do it again, well, who knows?
After just one date, though, it was hard to tell if there was any kind of attraction. But I definitely had a lot of fun.
Rating: ♥♥♥"
