Two Jewish mothers played matchmaker at Sweetgreen and got their kids to fall in love
When Jillian Hershman and her parents popped into Sweetgreen, a fast casual salad chain, in New York City to grab a bite to eat after a long day of shopping, she knew she’d have a great meal — but she never expected to leave with a date.
For Aaron Marcus, though, as soon as he saw Jillian walk into the restaurant he was determined not to “let her leave without talking to her.” And thanks to his Jewish mother’s matchmaking, he was able to do just that.
While Jillian went to the counter to order, her mom saved the family a table. And instead of playing Words With Friends on her phone, she instead talked with Mrs. Marcus about vinaigrette. The conversation quickly shifted away from Guacamole Greens and onto dating. “My mom said ‘Is that your daughter, is she single?’ She said, ‘This is my single Jewish son,’” Aaron remembers.
When Jillian got back to the table to eat, her mom kept elbowing her and winking at her new friend. “I was mortified, refused to look in his direction,” she says of avoiding Aaron’s gaze.
Despite the lack of eye contact, Aaron made a move anyway. “I introduced myself to Jillian, who still didn’t really look at me, and then got her phone number.” He adds, “Thanks, Mom. Who knew you’d be the best wing woman?”
After parting ways, Aaron basically spent the entire rest of the afternoon attempting to craft the perfect text message to ask Jillian out. Instead, he kept things straight and just asked when she was free that week and they went on their first date a few days later. “A Friday seemed a little bit aggressive for a first date but I just went with my gut and decided to do it,” Jillian says.
They went on their second date two days later, and in Aaron’s view, “That was it, we were dating” from then on. But Jillian didn’t see it that way, because he waited two and a half months to actually ask her to be his girlfriend. “I didn’t know we still had to do that. I was planning on just proposing soon, but I guess I had to ask her to be my girlfriend first.”
Cut to three years later, and Aaron got to the proposal part. “He brought me to this really awesome restaurant upstate with a farm,” she says. “We were walking around the farm before dinner, and he dropped down to one knee and propped to me. It was a really nice surprise.”
They got married last October, and you better believe that they still eat at Sweetgreen all the time. And while the saying goes “Alcohol: because no great story ever started with someone eating a salad,” Jillian and Aaron prove that’s far from the truth.
Want more love? Read about how the WWE’s Nattie and T.J. met as kids and have been going strong — literally — ever since. Also check out how Macklemore helped 2 superfans come together and find true love.
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