A lot of times when I'm opening a girl, I don't ask her things about herself that sound like pickup lines... instead I'll ask her a very ordinary question that's relevant to whatever the current context is...

Supermarket: "Do you know where they moved the coffee to?"

Bar: "Does this place close at 2 or 3am"?

Pet groomer or a dog-walk park (pointing to her dog) "Is that breed pretty chill or easily excitable?"

It doesn't sound at first like I'm trying to pick her up. And of course, the challenge is to keep the conversation going.

First, does anyone else here do this? (any comments on whether it's good or bad technique?)

Second, what is this actually called? Is it "straight-talk"? (do a search here in asktrp on Powertalk vs Babytalk vs Gametalk, etc etc)