He reeled her in with rigatoni.
Meet Cutes NYC posts videos of couples on the streets of New York sharing the sweet stories of how they first met, and the trio behind the popular social media account recalled the boldest come-on they heard — a man who fed cold pasta to a woman he’d never met.
On his three-hour drive to East Hampton, Lance picked up from his favorite restaurant, Cafe Baci in Westbury, LI, and brought it to Serafina in East Hampton, his “local watering hole.”
While he was chowing down, he laid eyes on “super cute” Haley.
She thought he was “super hot.”
“And what I decided to do was ask her if she wanted to taste my pasta . . . and I actually force-fed it to her,” Lance said in the clip.
The Post spoke to the three New York natives behind Meet Cutes NYC, Victor Lee, Aaron Feinberg and Jeremy Bernstein, who launched the platform @meetcutesnyc in February 2023.
It now has 2.5 million followers on Instagram and 1.3 million on TikTok.
To find the love stories, they walk the streets of NYC, and Bernstein, the designated questioner, stops unsuspecting pairs by saying, “Excuse me, are you two a couple? Would you mind telling us the story of how you met?”
The Meet Cutes trio, who recently partnered with Pedigree to feature stories of how New Yorkers met their dogs, estimate they’ve done 4,000 interviews, and recalled some of the most memorable:
Craziest
Jay met Gail on the dancefloor at a wedding — when he was doing CPR on his father, who had just died from a heart attack.
“I was at her sister’s wedding and my father dropped dead on the dance floor,” Jay explained in the interview.
“When I first saw him, he was huddled on the floor next to his father, ” Gail continued.
The guys recalled their shock upon hearing the story.
“That was insane,” said Feinberg, 29, an Upper West Side native who lives in Williamsburg.
“We, at first, honestly thought, ‘Are they just pulling our leg?’” Bernstein, 30, also an Upper West Side native who lives in Williamsburg, recalled.
Sexiest
Sebastian and Denise were purposefully locked in a bathroom in a bar in Ecuador by their friends who thought they’d be a perfect match.
When asked how long they were trapped in the stall together, Sebastian said “Maybe a half an hour.”
“Long for a bathroom,” added Denise.
“That one was a good one. Their friends made sure that they had time to talk to each other,” said Lee, 29, a native of Port Washington, NY who lives in NoMad.
“And they’ve been together ever since, which is pretty crazy.”
Most New York
The guys said the most quintessential Big Apple love story they heard involved a Prospect Park, Brooklyn delicatessen owner Swey and his customer, Kenesha.
“And you just see this couple and you’re like, ‘This is New York,’” said Feinberg.
When they were first asked how they met, Kenesha said, “We live in the same neighborhood,” to which Swey replied, “She’s lying.”
He proceeded to tell the story of their first encounter at his deli, 2000 Gourmet on Lincoln Road.
“The truth is she pulled up to my deli,” he said.
“He makes fire sliders, just so you know,” she continued.
Most holy
Some singles experience divine intervention on their journey to find a mate — and the men said they’ve encountered a “good amount” of faithful people who fell in love because of church.
They said one story that stands out is that of Ashley, a social worker, who became smitten while watching Josh play the organ at church.
“My sister in Christ, she invited me to the church cause she wanted me to have my eye on him and he was on that organ … and something about that music,” Ashley gushed in the clip.
“I actually really like that video,” said Lee. “She just fell in love in that moment of him playing the organ.”
Most presidential
The Meet Cutes team even got President Biden to dish on how he met his First Lady, Jill.
The boys were shocked to receive a note, which they thought was fake, from the White House through their website’s contact page.
“It was probably two days after we actually set up our website, so we were like, ‘No way someone from the White House is submitting a form,’” said Lee.
“And then we LinkedIn searched it, and she was the director of digital at the White House,” added Feinberg.
In the clip, which got over 23 million views, the Commander in Chief reveals, “I was set up on a blind date by my younger brother … He said, ‘I go to school with this woman, you’ll love her. She’s beautiful and she doesn’t like politics.’”
Most viewed
Christina and Flavio of Brazil were both working at CitiBank when they first saw each other in an office elevator — and their interview tugged at viewers’ heartstrings.
“Tell him why you liked me,” Christina told her husband in the interview. “The smile,” Flavio replied, laughing.
“I think that video got just over 100 million views on Instagram,” said Lee. “And it was one of those videos where we didn’t think it was going to do that well.”
The guys said its popularity could be credited to the couple themselves, since their story of meeting at work isn’t unique.
“I think if the audience can feel the love between the couple,” Feinberg said. “It just adds that sort of undefinable characteristic between two people.”
The post Cold pasta, CPR, church: Meet Cutes NYC finds craziest, sexiest and holiest ways couples met appeared first on New York Post.
