Duo evenings: two companions who already know each other

Why it works better with a pair who know each other

Two strangers at a table make an evening that everybody has to work at. Two women who have already spent evenings together make an evening that runs itself, and the difference is obvious within about ten minutes. Etta keeps a short list of pairs who actually get on and she will steer you towards one of them rather than simply confirming two names that happen to be free.

If you have read two profiles and want those two, say so. She will tell you straight whether the combination works or whether one small change would make the night considerably better.

Pairs that go out together

Molly and Tina both work the town centre, both walk everywhere, and between them they know every room in Slough Central worth sitting in. Jasmin and Lucy are the Eton pair, four minutes from everything, and an evening with them involves the bridge at some point whether you planned it or not.

Michelle and Rosa share the Datchet Green and can take a night from the river to a pub with a fire and back without anybody getting into a car. In Windsor, Luna will build the whole evening around a curtain time and argue about the second act on the way back up Thames Street, while Bianka sees to it that dinner happens before it.

Where a duo actually fits

Anywhere with a table for three and a room that is not silent. Windsor and Eton are the obvious choices because nothing needs a car. The Slough hotels work well for a duo that begins downstairs and stays downstairs for a while. Country house dining rooms out towards Burnham take a three hour duo comfortably and will not blink at the booking.

What does not work is an hour. Two arrivals, two coats and two conversations starting at once need more room than sixty minutes gives them, so Etta will push you to three.

How the evening is arranged

One message with both names, the night, the length and the hotel. Etta confirms with each of them separately, then sends a single reply covering both: who is coming, at what time, for how long and at what figure each. They travel separately and usually arrive within a few minutes of one another. Each fee is handed to the companion it belongs to, in person, as the evening begins.

Three hours with two companions

Both arrive within a few minutes of the agreed time, often having met at the station first. The first half hour is a drink and the brief comedy of three people deciding who sits where. Dinner takes the middle of the evening, and the pair carry the conversation between them so that you never feel you are interviewing anybody. The last hour is the walk back or a final drink in the hotel bar, and at the end of the booking each of them leaves the way she came, on her own route and in her own time.

If one of the pair cannot come

It happens now and then, usually because of a train or something at home. Etta tells you as soon as she knows and offers a replacement who already knows the companion who is still coming. If you would rather not, the evening can go ahead with one companion on the ordinary ladder, or move to another night with both. Nothing is owed for the companion who could not make it.

Choosing two names

Read two profiles properly rather than picking two photographs, because a duo lives or dies on temperament. A quiet pair and a talkative pair make entirely different nights and both are good. who is on marks who is away, and Etta will say plainly if the two you want are not in the same week.