For me, it depends. I'd be really uncomfortable with a fancy gift or even flowers on the first date. But something to do with an inside joke, I would enjoy.

For example, I had been talking to a man for a couple weeks before we decided to meet up for dinner. We had talked about the game Chutes and Ladders and were each bragging about how we were good at it. So on our date, he brought me a little travel version of the game. We played it while we waited for our dinner to arrive. He even brought a prize for the winner (me), which was a small box of chocolates. I thought that was incredibly thoughtful. We had such a great time on that date!