Single in Sydney: Sarah goes on a date with a Cosmopolitan Bachelor of the Year finalist

SINGLE in Sydney’s Sarah Swain lands a dinner date with a Cosmo Bachelor of the Year finalist who called her on the phone to arrange the date (tick) but took our vego single to a chicken joint (oops).

Cosmo Bachelor contestant Julian Cincotta, who managed to stand up properly for our date

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JOURNALIST Sarah Swain has been single for longer than she cares to remember. So to bring hope to others she’s sharing her no-holds-barred adventures every week.

My date with a Cosmo bachelor

I wondered whether I should tell him I was veggie before or after we arrived at the chicken restaurant.

Luckily, as my eyes glanced over the menu, I was relieved to find they also served deep fried tofu (and that’s the first time anybody’s said that).

I was on a date. But not a normal date. A date with a Cosmo Bachelor of the Year finalist.

You see the magazine has taken over the deeply departed Cleo’s annual manhunt with 16 of the top 30 this year selected on Tinder.

It’s also “the year of the great Aussie bloke” with the finalists this year less poser and more plumber. Or teacher. Except for the topless waiter (really).

The Cosmo Bachelors have been revealed!

And the PR had invited me to go on a date with one of them (not that I couldn’t have pulled one myself, y’know).

My colleague Ali and I had great fun perusing the catalogue of the Sydney ones, to come up with a shortlist of who I fancied.

“He looks like he’s swallowed a tennis ball,” she said pointing at one I suggested.

“Hmm, it’s a bit Joey Tribbiani?” she screwed her nose up after reading about another’s profile.

“He’s got big ears ...” she said of another.

“What about ...?” “No! He spends too much time working out in the gym.”

Gee I thought I was fussy — and she’s married.

Finally, I picked three we both approved of.

And I heard back that my date would be Julian Cincotta, a chef.

While I’m not particularly into tattoos I’d thought he looked cute and, what with him part-owning a couple of restaurants, clearly didn’t sit around watching Netflix all day.

He told me to meet him at the Wild Rover, that hip Irish Bar in Surry Hills signalled only by a peeling green door.

Not a police line-up but the Cosmopolitan Bachelor voting page

Now, with him being pretty much a pretty finalist in a pretty bloke’s beauty contest (somebody he knows at the magazine entered him) and me being a dating columnist, I wasn’t sure how we’d get on.

But he was actually a refreshing change.

Julian Cincotta. Don’t you just want to roll his trouser legs down?

He educated me on amazing Sydney restaurants (I rarely eat out — one, I have nobody to go with, and two, I already have one mortgage and can’t afford another) and told me about his trips to work in Europe and the States.

I told him about my job, how I ended up in Sydney and answered the question everybody is dying to ask — what happens to this column when I meet somebody (answer: I’ll either keep writing it and change the name to Attached in Australia, or I’ll hang up my pen and float away on a rainbow cloud of happiness.)

And, while Julian had not only called me on the ‘phone, to arrange our date (I know!), he told me he doesn’t do online dating either, preferring to meet girls when he’s out.

There was just one problem, and it wasn’t the fried chicken on the menu at his achingly hip Surry Hills restaurant, Butter, where we went after the bar. (The tofu was great and I’m actually craving more of the corn on the cob).

Because it’s December.

I’ve been on a good couple of dozen dates this year.

Julian and some of his competition.

I’ve also been speed dating (twice), to four roaming dinner parties, one rodeo, three boat party cruises, to the races, to the theatre (multiple times) to press events (loads), nights out (most weekends), Halloween parties, dating talks and the Fifties Fair in search of a man — as well as a good time.

That’s on top of getting up at 6am during the week for work, plus working as a slave to Prince Harry (the cat).

And I’m more knackered than Mariah Carey’s bra.

I’m so tired I fell asleep at the cinema on the weekend watching Fantastic Beasts.

Julian Cincotta, who has clearly had one too many.

So, when Julian, who’s slightly younger than me, said: “You can sleep when you’re dead,’ when I asked him about his late hours, coupled with his “we’ll see where the night takes us” remark when we’d arranged the date, I was thinking, “The only place I want the night to take me is to bed and not in that way.”

So, after the tofu, and a couple more ‘natural’ Champagnes (lovely) I ordered an uber home.

It’s no way to treat a Cosmo Bachelor, really, is it?

And, the next morning, I felt bad. Especially when my colleague Robbie asked, “Get any action?

I replied: “No, my mum’s staying with me. And anyway ...”

“YOU TOLD HIM YOUR MUM WAS WAITING FOR YOU AT HOME?! Talk about cutting him down,” he replied.

Another colleague said sarcastically: “I’m going home to sleep — but not with you.”

Oh no.

Am I putting my doona before dating?

Do I need to ask for some stamina in my Christmas stocking?

Or should I just give up now and move out of the way for the younger models?

Vote (for Julian!) at cosmopolitan.com.au/votebachelor until 5pm on Jan 5.

The winner will be announced at the Cosmo/Tinder Bachelor Party on February 1.

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