Two longtime married couples share their very Seattle love stories

This is Seattle Dating Scene, featuring readers’ thoughts and stories about what it’s like to date in Seattle. For our next feature, follow this prompt: Trying to settle an argument with your significant other? Need some guidance on where to have a socially distanced date or need any other advice? Send in your questions to be answered by our columnist Marina Resto, who runs the lively @Dating_in_Seattle Instagram account.

By Thursday, Nov. 19, please email your questions to dating@seattletimes.com or submit them via Instagram direct message to @dating_in_seattle, and they may be answered by Marina in a future edition of The Mix.

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Happy Anniversary, Tell Us Your Story

We asked readers to submit stories about how they met their significant others. Here are some of your success stories! Answers have been edited for spelling and clarity.

Amy and Brendan

“It was the summer of 1986. I was 20 years old, in college and had just gotten a job in Pike Place Market at a French patisserie called Au Gavroche. I was in training and learning how to make espresso drinks.

The garage-style glass door in the front of the shop was always halfway lifted before the Market opened for business, to accommodate fellow workers who came by for their daily caffeine hit.

On my first day of training I was with a co-worker named Mary. Mary seemed to know a good deal of these Market characters, including one particular fishmonger. So when my future husband, who was outfitted in the standard fishmonger attire of knee-high rubber boots and an orange apron, dipped under the half-lifted glass door and was greeted by a sisterly hello from Mary, I knew he was someone I wanted to serve an espresso to!

I was very nervous as he approached the counter and boldly stepped around to the side to place his order with me. Later, he admitted he was checking me out behind the counter in my white jeans! After making light conversation, I managed to make him a mocha and he managed to get my phone number! Later, I asked my co-worker Mary how well she knew this guy, and my future sister-in-law replied, ‘Quite well, he’s my brother!’

Our first date was at a local sushi bar called Takata on the Pike Street Hill Climb. This seemed like a risky place to take a girl on a first date, since I had never eaten sushi before! When we arrived, my date bellied up to the sushi bar and impressed me by ordering our sushi dinner with the sushi master all in Japanese!

I jokingly tell him today that he was lucky I ended up taking a liking to raw fish! Also, I had grown up fishing with a family of Norwegian fishermen, so fortunately I was OK with the smell of fish, which permeated the cloth seats of his 1975 Volvo 240 DL.

We dated for three years, including a long-distance relationship while Brendan studied Japanese and taught English in Tokyo. We corresponded through daily aerogrammes and periodic phone calls from the green pay phones in Japan that always ended abruptly when the coins ran out!

Then, in February 1989, he proposed to me over brunch and mimosas at Maximilien, in Pike Place Market, with a ring I had my eye on, which quite fittingly also came from a shop in the Market called Ace Jewelry and Loan!”

— Amy

Carolyn and Brad

“My husband Brad and I were introduced by our mutual friend Emily 13 years ago, and were married 10 years ago on Aug. 14.

Emily and Brad were classmates at City University of Seattle’s Masters in Teaching graduate program, and Emily and I were neighbors and friends for many years on First Hill. When Emily asked Brad if he wanted to date me, he replied, tongue-in-cheek, ‘Well, I am unemployed (he had quit his job to go to school full time) and I live with my mother (his mother had recently been moved to Washington by his sister due to the progression of her multiple sclerosis and was staying with Brad), so I’m not sure that I’m a catch.’ Emily replied, ‘Carolyn won’t care about those things,’ and she was right.

Emily proceeded to introduce us via emails, and then Brad and I chatted on the phone once or twice before we finally had the chance to meet in person.

For our first date, Brad met me outside my apartment. I still remember the look of terror in his eyes when we started the date, but this quickly disappeared once we got to The Lemongrass on 12th Avenue and ordered a bottle of wine. Unfortunately for Brad, the evening’s weather turned unseasonably stormy, so his first date idea of taking a walk on Alki Beach after dinner was not to be. We decided to go get a drink at Gordon Biersch in Pacific Place and then see the movie ‘Sicko’ in the theater (there). After the movie, Brad drove me back to my apartment building where we sat in his truck in the alley until 3 a.m. just talking. We hugged good night, and then, as they say, the rest is history.”

— Carolyn

Here’s the monthly “Seattle Dating Scene” lineup:

• First week: “Dating Question of the Month” — Readers respond to a dating-related question we’ve posed.
• Second week: “Happy Anniversary, Tell Us Your Story” — Have an anniversary coming up this month? In under 500 words, tell us how you met your significant other, and send in your story with a photo.
• Third week: “Best Date/Worst Date” — In under 250 words, tell us an anecdote from the best or worst date you’ve been on.
• Fourth week: “Ask Marina” — Marina Resto, who runs the lively @Dating_in_Seattle Instagram account, answers reader questions about dating — or finds a special guest to answer the ones she can’t!