London Dating Event – Meat & Greet at the Joint

The great thing about being single in London, is that there are always new opportunities to meet other singles.

In my experience of dating events (and that’s a fair bit these days!) , the key to arranging a good singles event is one which attracts men.  Us ladies, we’re open to most event ideas, but men are the hardest customers in the dating world.  If you can create a singles event which men actually want to go to, you’re likely to be onto a good thing.  And so I was particularly interested to hear about a new dating event, based around two things all the guys I know love – Meat and Booze!

The Joint is a laid back fast food joint in the heart of Marylebone.  With decor more akin to Shoreditch, and food straight from the States, the atmosphere was chilled and welcoming, and the restaurant had organised a decent space at the back for the event.

First stop – a free cocktail to encourage conversation around the bar.  It did the trick, and everyone mingled easily.  There were around 40 singles, with equal numbers of men and women.  Though rather amusingly, a couple of couples had turned up, not realising it was a dating event, and thinking it was just a pop up food evening!  Which proved rather funny later on, when we switched tables and mingled with other people.

After two rounds of cocktails, we took out seats around five different tables, guided by stickers handed out by staff.  We had either been labelled STICKY or SPICY, and were instructed to sit at a corresponding table, men one on side of the table, women on the other.

Neat wax paper bags of wings, ribs, corn and onion rings were passed around, with both BBQ and spicy options for the meat.  Whilst I would never normally choose either wings or ribs off a menu, I was amazed by how good it all tasted, and the shared nature of the starters made it easy to get chatting to the other singles.

We ordered burgers and wraps from the menu, choosing between pulled pork and chicken, and BBQ and Asian flavours, and then switched seats according to another set of labels – WINGS or RIBS.  The ‘Wings’ were instructed to fly off to the next table, where we tucked into our main course.  Meanwhile staff came round with shots of Tequila, and then after dinner we played games – first throwing onion rings up and down the tables, and then passing corn on the cob up and down the tables, without using our hands.

The ice-breakers were a bit cringe, and possibly a bit late in the evening, but enough booze had been flowing that people took them in good spirit, and enjoyed the competition.

 

I left at 11, to head back to the Rugby Boy (not gonna lie, it’s pretty weird going to a singles event as a non-single journo!).  But I left everyone in good spirits.  So was meat and alcohol the way to single men’s hearts? In short … yes!  It was a fun event, a good turn out, and a really decent crowd for a singles event.  The team could have moved us on a bit more, as the lay-out of the tables made it hard to chat to any more than 2 guys each time we sat down, and we only moved once, and it should have been marketed better as a singles event (I did feel sorry for the couples who turned up and were made to split up and get hit on by singletons!).  But overall, it was well-run, and a good location.   Not the meat market I expected! 😉

Miss Twenty-Nine xxx