Back in 2008 I went to Red Robin with my friend Mike. I dubbed the evening the “Man Date”. A PR firm for Red Robin contacted me last month and asked me if I wanted to go back out again on another “Man Date”. I was asked to go in and try out the new Prime Chophouse Burger and document the good time we would have. They didn’t tell me to write only good but I just knew that I would have fun. I love Red Robin ever since I found one in Vancouver back in 2006. When one appeared in my own back yard I was psyched!

Tonight I caught up with my friend Mike and we headed up to Red Robin. We were seated immediately and our waitress, Dawn, was really nice. She talked and joked with us. She recommended a new feature on the menu, the Jumpstarters. This is a new feature because it is a half size of two different appetizers so you can try a couple of tasty things. We actually ended up trying three things because I ordered the Jalapeno coins and Mike ordered the Onion Rings. Dawn must have been hungry because she suggested the Thick Cut Tater chips and brought those instead of the Jalapeno coins. We got that fixed right up though. We washed down those apps with a couple of Absolutely Absolut Freckled Lemonades. So tasty.

It was time to order our dinners. I went with the Prime Chophouse Burger. I’d been dreaming of and drooling over this burger ever since I was asked to come to Red Robin. The burger is “it’s the quintessential “man-burger” featuring a fresh, never frozen, fire-grilled burger patty served on an onion bun with made-from-scratch Country Dijon spread and layered with fresh horseradish-sautéed mushrooms, gourmet steak sauce, melted Provolone cheese and piled high with hand-battered crispy onion straws.” And let me tell you it was every bit as delicious as it sounded.

I also asked Dawn to bring over some mayo and some pickles. I made my famous Fry Sauce by combining chopped pickles with may and ketchup as well as a dash or two of the Red Robin Seasoning. Mike loves that part ever since I introduced him to it back in 2008. The fry sauce goes great with the delicious bottomless steak fries.

We were stuffed but we couldn’t pass up sharing an order of the cheesecake bites. These are fried pieces of cheesecake that you dip into strawberry and chocolate. They were very rich and delicious. I liked the chocolate sauce more because it was thick and stuck to the cheesecake bite however the strawberry one was thin and didn’t really stick to the cheesecake bite.

After our meal Dawn told us all about a new program that Red Robin is doing. It is a rewards card and there are a ton of ways to get rewards like free burgers and appetizers. And during your birthday month a free burger is put on your card. I’m pretty sure that we have gone to Red Robin for our birthdays (Allison, Eva, Mine) each year since Red Robin opened at Patriot Place. Uncle Mike joins up most of the time too.

During our meal we were taking a bunch of photos and tweeting at the same time. It was so much fun. I even showed Mike how to Tweet and one of my tweets was even retweeted by the Official Red Robin Twitter account (@RedRobinBurgers). that was very cool.

When we were completely done we stopped and took the photo-a-day photo above using my XShot. After we took the shot we talked to a few of the servers and they were very excited about the XShot. I gave them a little demonstration and we headed to Showcase Cinemas for the movie Hall Pass.

I was excited to see Hall Pass. Ellis Paul had a bunch of songs in the movie. Mostly musical interludes between scenes but I was able to pick them out. The movie is by the Farrelly Brothers and so it was so very funny. The movie revolves around two guys Fred and Rick who are settled into being married men but still think back to being the two hot studs of their college days. Their wives, sick of their tired antics of gawking at every woman who walks by give the guys “Hall Passes”. One week off of marriage to get it out of their system. While it is a completely silly premise it turns out to be a fun movie with some heart.

It was also cool that some of the movie was based in Falmouth, including the summer baseball league (although they were just called Falmouth not the Falmouth Commodores). We even saw a few flyover shots of Falmouth Heights Beach. There were shots of Surf Drive beach and Nobska Lighthouse. It was funny to see the movie cut together where one character is driving along surf Drive beach heading to Falmouth and it is totally light out, the next minute she is driving towards Nobska Lighthouse and it is dark. thing is there is no way that the character could drive that way and have day turn to night that quickly. Something that no one who has ever been to Falmouth and Woods Hole would ever know.

I may have laughed louder than most because I’m pretty much in that exact demographic of the movies main characters. There was some gross out humor including one particularly gross but hilarious moment. It is definitely worth a watch, maybe as a movie rental at some point but is one of the funnier movies I’ve seen in a while. Mike enjoyed it as well.

What is a Man Date?

“Some people have asked about what a Man Date is all about. Well, I did a little research and found a New York Times article about it. Here is the definition from that article.

Simply defined a man date is two heterosexual men socializing without the crutch of business or sports. It is two guys meeting for the kind of outing a straight man might reasonably arrange with a woman. Dining together across a table without the aid of a television is a man date; eating at a bar is not. Taking a walk in the park together is a man date; going for a jog is not. Attending the movie “Friday Night Lights” is a man date, but going to see the Jets play is definitely not.

And here is the rule of thumb on movies on a man date: When attending a movie together – preferably with explosions or heavy special effects, never a romantic comedy – guys prefer to put a nice big seat between each other. (This only sounds like an episode of “Seinfeld.”)…“

We had a great night and lots of fun. A Perfect Man Date. Well, Red Robin was so generous to me to go and visit their establishment and they would like BenSpark.com readers to go on Man Dates of their own. A contest is coming very soon for some Red Robin Gift Cards.

Disclosure: I was sent two $15 gift cards to go on my “Man Date” and try the Prime Chophouse Burger. the opinions of the night are 100% mine.