I am trying to get some ideas on what to do. May be going out with a new girl here soon and I am fresh out of ideas. I thought maybe some past doper experiences would help out. Thank you ahead of time.
For a first date, I personally would skip “romantic,” as getting way ahead of yourself, and go for fun – like bowling or miniature golf. I personally would be much more comfortable with something like that on a first date.
I was living in London and I really fancied this Irish fella. Let’s call him C. I didn’t want to spook him by asking him out on a full on “date.” So my friend sets it up that her SO (who was friends with C) invites him over to her flat in Camden for a meal cooked by us girls. He comes over with flowers for my friend and I, wine and a CD, then proceeds to help us make the tempura. A man who knows his way around a kitchen is tres sexy IMO. After dinner, my friend and her SO decide to play Cupid and bugger off into the night leaving C and me alone.
He cracks open the bottle of wine, puts the Aida CD on and insists I have a sit down and a drink while he does the washing up. After he’s finished he suggests that we take our wine outside into the back garden. It’s so small that the only place we can sit is on the ground, under the rotary dryer. I tell him I’m a little bit tired so he tells me to lean against him. As I do so, he starts to run his fingers through my hair and begins to recite love poems in Irish as I look at the sky through the lines of the whirlygig.
So, as to the OP, you can’t really plan a romantic first date. They just kinda happen. Do something mellow where the two of you can be yourselves. Then, when you are comfortable with each other you can plan the candlelit evenings.
I second the idea that a first date shouldn’t necessarily be uber romantic.
That said, the most romantic date I’ve ever had was with Ardred. Our first Valentine’s day, we had only been dating a few weeks. We worked together that morning and parted ways after work to get cleaned up and I was to meet him at his apartment. (He was going to cook me dinner but spent his grocery shopping time consoling me after a bad day at work.)
I went home and he came by while I was in the shower and left a rose under my windshield wiper. That was the sweetest thing ANYONE has ever done. I drove to his place and he left a card on the first flight of stairs and a box of candy on the second flight. At this point, I didn’t even need dinner! 
We didn’t have reservations so we went to a restaurant and sat for the two and a half hour wait just talking and drinking. Dinner was delicious and so was ‘dessert’.
I love him. 
Okay now that I see your point about it being the first date. Let me revise my op, now I am looking for ideas in the future.