Wednesday is the new Friday

My partner and I have this long standing tradition where we never eat out on a Friday night if we can help it. Restaurants are too busy which don’t just mean waiting for a table but also the staff is all stressed out and putting out 75% quality because they’re just trying to survive the absolute hell that is Friday night service. So my partner and I simply decided let’s just make Wednesday the new Friday and we do it like this:

Each week, one of us picks a restaurant but doesn’t tell or consult the other partner about it until you arrive at the restaurant. There is no veto power, just simply trust in the system that it will not do you wrong. All that you are told is the dress code which is simply a scale of 1-3 pants.

3 pants - fancy possibly very fancy spot

2 pants - casual dressy

1 pants - sweats or pjs if you wish

It’s worked out really well for us but more than that it’s gotten us to try a bunch of new restaurants we wouldn’t have if we were allowed to collaboratively make a decision. We already collaborate on tons of decisions it’s ok to have unilateral decisions sometimes as long as it’s an equitable system (which it is!). I think we only had one “dud” in the three or so years we’ve been doing this and if anything we both have a story to laugh about. It doesn’t have to be every week though we enjoy it so much we’ve just about kept it weekly. Honestly I don't love surprises but this is one that I gladly look forward to both as surpriser and surprisee.