Date Night During A Pandemic

Sugar Factory Orlando

Dating your spouse is so important in a marriage. Too often, we forget to still date our spouse and just go through our normal day to day things. Robert and I are insanely guilty of that! I can’t remember the last time we had a dinner out just the two of us. It was probably sometime before Giovanni was born and he’ll be 4 in April. We always say that we wanted to go out to dinner just the two of us but, never follow through. Until this past week! Of course, we were cautious doing a date during a pandemic because safety is absolutely a number one priority. We masked up, washed our hands and headed out to have a night to our selves.

Sugar Factory in Orlando reached out to me to come to their restaurant and sample a few things from the menu and I took it as the PERFECT opportunity to make it a date night. Our 4 year wedding anniversary was coming up and we didn’t really have any plans. It was like everything fell into place regarding it.

Sugar Factory is located on International Drive in the heart of Orlando. It’s also right in ICON Park which has so many fun things to do like The Wheel and a Sea Life Aquarium. We have been to ICON Park before so we knew exactly where we were going. We also knew their policies regarding masks and felt insanely safe walking through ICON Park to get to Sugar Factory. You are required to wear one and everyone definitely complies with this.

The atmosphere when you walk into Sugar Factory is so fun and you just know you’re in for a good time with some good food. We were met with a huge bowl of candy and seated right away. We knew from seeing it all over social media that they were insanely famous for their drinks so we knew that we had to try a couple for sure. I got the Miami Tropical Punch while Robert got The Watermelon Patch. Both were equally delicious and we definitely did not finish them because holy fish fishbowl size!! Their milkshakes are also super famous as some cup with whole cupcakes on top or huge pieces of cheesecake on top. Robert and I told each other that we would definitely go back and try their milkshakes.

Next up was some food and of course, we wanted one of everything. We tried their sampler platter which was some of their signature appetizers like chicken tenders, Mac & cheese balls, wings, and onion rings. All delicious! We then tried their rainbow sliders which were mini cheeseburgers with crunchy onions, special sauce and pickles. They were almost too pretty to eat!! For our main course, we had the waffle cheeseburger with fries and the chicken & waffles. Again, delicious! There was not a single piece of food that we had that wasn’t out of this world and cooked to perfection. Robert was in absolute heaven when it came to the waffle cheeseburger and said, and I quote, “this is everything that a man could ever want on a burger.” I think it’s safe to say, it was his favorite thing the entire night. We also got to try their Alfredo pasta which again, was just beyond delicious.

Now for dessert! When you order the signature sundae, you get the option to choose a song for it to come out. Robert chose it and he chose Level Up by Ciara. The wait staff comes out with the sundae which has a fountain candle in the middle and the song you chose is playing while they all gather around and clap until the candle runs out. The entire restaurant is able to join in on the fun by dancing and singing along. It makes it a really fun time for not only your party but also the other guests. The sundae is a sweet tooth lovers dream full of cookies & cream ice cream, chocolate syrup, Oreo cookies, whipped cream and huge chocolate chip cookie in the middle. After dinner, we walked around ICON Park for a little bit before heading home to our babies.

Our date night was not only full of fun and good food but, also the opportunity to really engage in a conversation together and spend some much needed quality time. We never felt like we weren’t following safety protocols as everyone wore a mask coming in and all staff had on gloves and a mask. We were seated 6 feet apart from other parties and watched as tables/seats were all properly sanitized before any party sat down.

We certainly left Sugar Factory in love with the restaurant and ready to take our kids back for some dessert one night! But, we also left knowing that date night needed to happen more often for us. It was nice to spend that quality time together as just Robert and Kim, husband and wife, rather than mom & dad. We didn’t have to say “hey don’t do that” or “please sit down” a million times which gave us the chance to have meaningful conversations and to talk about the future of our marriage, future with our children, and what goals we wanna accomplish both short and long term.

I highly recommend going out on a date night with your spouse or significant other every week if you can and if you cant then shoot for at least once a month. It’s important to make the time for your partner! Don’t be afraid to do it during a pandemic also because restaurants are all taking the necessary precautious to keep you safe while still making it a fun time for you both. And if you are still super leery regarding eating out, then order some take out in and eat at home! What do you do with your children? Well, hopefully you can take them to a grandparents house or a friends house who you trust that can watch them for a few hours while you eat dinner at home. If that isn’t an option, you can always wait for the kids to go to bed and do a dessert night at home where you share a bowl of ice cream and just give yourselves that time to talk about maybe things you just don’t get the chance to talk about when you’re going through day to day activities. There’s always a way!