According to DatingAdvice.com, more than 49 million people single people have tried online dating at least once.
So many people are going into a date never having met their date in person before.
And that can end up being a disaster since more than half of people lie on their dating profiles.
A date with someone you don’t know well can be very uncomfortable.
There are lots of ways you can exit the situation without creating an awkward scene if you’re on a date, whether it’s an online date or someone you met in person, and the chemistry isn’t working.
You can find tips on how to escape from an awful date here. However, there are some situations where one can feel threatened or that it’s unsafe for them to end their date.
That’s why some restaurants and bars are helping their patrons, particularly female patrons, to safely exit a date they don’t feel safe in.
The Iberian Rooster in St. Petersburg, Florida tells patrons they can order an “Angel shot.”
“Is your Tinder or Plenty of Fish date not who they said they were on their profile? Do you feel unsafe, or even just a bit weird?” a sign in the women’s bathroom reads.
“We’re here to help. Just go to the bar and order an ‘Angel shot.'”
The goes on to explain that there are three ways you can order it.
Asking for it neat means that a bartender will escort you to your car. Asking for the shot with ice means that a bartender will call you an Uber or Lyft. Asking for it with lime means that they will call the police.
“We’ll handle things discreetly, and without a lot of fuss (we’ve been there, and we want you to know that you’re in good hand.”
The framed sign has been hanging in the Portuguese fusion eatery since the day it opened.
“The goal for this place was to be a safe place where people can go on a romantic date,” owner Russell Andrade told the Tampa Bay Times. “We don’t want someone else to ruin a good a time.”
Andrade said he and his staff got the idea for the sign after seeing a similar one from a bar in East England that went viral on social media.
They just call their angel shots “Angela shots.”
About 50 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. have involved alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, Time reports. Approximately 50 percent of all sexual assaults are committed by men who have been drinking.
Out of all of the women in the United States of America, at least 25 percent of them have been sexually assaulted.
The figures are about the same in the U.K.
That’s why police departments and municipalities like the London borough of Merton are supporting tactics, like asking for an “Angela shot,” to help prevent sexual violence and abuse.
“If you look at police data, it tends to suggest that sexual violence happens in the early hours after Friday and Saturday night, and alcohol is very often involved,” Hayley Child, the sexual violence and abuse strategy coordinator for Lincolnshire County Council, told TIME. “Because of that, I wanted to work with bars and pubs, and find something that would be easy for them to implement.”
She said that she got the idea for the initiative after going on blind dates when she was younger.
“When I was single and would meet people off dating sites I would always bring a friend with me, who’d sit in the corner of the pub and read a newspaper and I would do the same for her,” she said. “This got me thinking – what about people who don’t have a friend willing to do that, or don’t want to bring a friend with them on a date? How can we keep those people safe?”
She says the shot is named for her childhood friend Angela Crompton, a mother of three, who died after being bludgeoned with a hammer by her husband of three months.
“Angela’s story really stayed with me, and when it came to thinking of a code word her name was perfect,” Child said. “In this way she is saving other women from violence.”
Not all restaurants and bars are familiar with “Angel shots.” It only works if bars tell their staff about it and train them to respond.
Glamour offers a few good tips on how to get out of a date you feel unsafe in or don’t feel comfortable abruptly leaving.
You can go to the bathroom and ask a staff member or even a patron for help in escorting you out, calling you a cab, or calling the police.
You can also text a friend for help and have someone call or come to meet you.
Try the Bad Date Rescue app.
It will send you a fake phone call to give you an excuse to leave. You can find more tips on how to stay safe on a date here.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
