Swapping some chit chat in emails before you want to have a meet and greet coffee date in a public place makes serious sense to me.
However; where/when did it get to be fashionable to ask for every kind of
Vetting from credit history, to psychological testing, to a comprehensive autobiography on everyone in your family right down to the dog.
Is a casual date that big a deal other places?
I get how some of that stuff comes into play when a REAL life in person relationship starts development but a date?

Can we go for a date?