Bryan Emil Braswell knew his favorite crab curry dish could get a little messy. So he came prepared on his first date with Caroline Octavia White in October 2020 at Sigiri, a Sri Lankan restaurant in the East Village of Manhattan.
He pulled out two toothbrush kits after he ordered the dish for them.
“She laughed when I gave it to her,” Mr. Braswell said. (In the end, he used the toothbrush and floss; she did not.)
In September, Ms. White had swiped right on Hinge, intrigued by a photo of him standing in front of a painting. She figured, like her, he could be an artist. Or, at the very least, interested in art.
“We had these side hustles,” said Ms. White, a ceramist. She was thrilled when he turned out to be a painter.
She runs Grayson White Ceramics in a studio in her parents’ converted garage in Montclair, N.J., making earthy tableware — mainly mugs and bowls — as well as her signature black ink splattered white stoneware.
Ms. White, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from Wesleyan and received an M.B.A. from Simmons School of Management in Boston, is also a vice president of communications at Wells Fargo, the financial services company.
