Who needs St. Lucia? Following their whirlwind courtship (and controversial romance) on season 18 of The Bachelor, Juan Pablo Galavis and Nikki Ferrell opted for a more low-key date night at Budare Bistro in Miami, Fla., on Tuesday, March 11 — their first “real” one-on-one date, as Ferrell called it.
The 26-year-old pediatric nurse and the 32-year-old Venezuelan former soccer pro arrived at the restaurant after 10 p.m. and “kept to themselves,” a source tells Us Weekly. While there, the eyewitness says, they feasted on pepito (meat with sauces, cheese, and potato sticks), tequenos (bread sticks filled with cheese and fried in oil), and cachapas (thick pancakes made with sweet corn and served with white cheese).
“He looked like he was having a great time with his girlfriend,” the onlooker tells Us. “They seemed happy together. He’s a nice guy.”
Ferrell — who reunited with Galavis in public for the first time on Monday’s After the Final Rose special — documented the meal via Instagram. “On our first REAL one on one date!” she captioned a photo of their food. “So good.”
The couple have been posting pretty frequently on social media since the Bachelor finale on March 10, mostly in defense of their relationship. Though Galavis chose Ferrell in the final episode, he said he wasn’t ready to propose. And according to her, he has yet to say he loves her — though she’s said it to him multiple times.
Galavis, for his part, said on After the Final Rose that the two just want to live their lives privately, a sentiment he reiterated via Twitter on March 12. “LOVE how @Nikki_Ferrell and I made UP tweets that we WANT to say and we LAUGH at them cause we DON’T write them because we are PRIVATE,” he wrote. “Jaja.”
